Worth Repeating - May 21, 2017

Joel 2: 13 Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

The outward expressions of sorrow must spring from within.*

Many of us have experienced such great sorrow for our sins that we have demonstrated it in dramatic ways. Tearing our clothes, loud weeping, and even self-mutilation are examples of outward signs of being sorry for our sins. Without some external sign of repentance, who would know that you have repented? But acting like we’re sorry can be – well . . . just an act. God knows your heart and you can’t fool him by putting on a good show.

But did you realize that your repentance can cause God to repent? According to Joel, if God’s people returned to him, he would relent from his plans for them. This should cause us to repent, not out of fear of his judgment, but because of God’s compassion and willingness to relent. And do it soon because “slow to anger” does not equal “never to anger.” There is an expiration date on his patience.

Focusing on the wonderful sacrificial death of Christ just naturally causes us to examine our own hearts, our sinfulness, our unworthiness, and our need for deeper commitment to the One who died for us.*

Worth Repeating - May 20, 2017

Ephesians 4: 15 Speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the head. 

If we lack love, we misuse truth.*

If we, as Christians, love truth, then why is it so hard for us to speak the truth in love? Indeed, dangers and temptations abound for those who dare. Here are a few: 

• We may be tempted to use this verse as an excuse to say things that, while they may be considered constructive, are not necessary to salvation – and not our place to say. Truth should not be used as a weapon. 
• There is the danger of hurting someone’s feelings. But how loving is it “to allow a person to go to hell to avoid hurting his feelings”?* We may avoid offending someone but to be less than truthful offends our Savior.* 
• There is the danger that we might be rejected. We take it as a personal affront when someone rejects our message. That’s a pretty self-centered attitude. It’s not about me. It’s not about you. Our job is to deliver the message. “Truth is truth, whether or not it is well received. If we speak the truth in love to those who need to hear it, we can leave the details – and the response of the hearer – in God’s hands.”* 

In our quest for spiritual maturity, we hear the truth on a regular basis: daily Bible reading; weekly sermons and lessons. But Paul says that speaking the truth in love also leads to growth. As we learn how and when to apply this spiritual practice, we will experience the fulfillment of that promise.

You don’t always have to chop with the sword of truth. You can point with it, too.*

Worth Repeating - May 19, 2017

Acts 18: 6 But when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

Until told otherwise, I will serve courageously in the place I am.*

No more Mr. Nice Guy! Paul had devoted himself to “testifying to the Jews” (Acts 18: 5) but he’s over it.  In kingdom work, as in poker, you have to “know when to hold ‘em and know when to fold ‘em; know when to walk away and know when to run.”*

Paul doesn’t just walk away. He demonstrates his attitude by shaking out his clothes in protest. Some gestures are self-explanatory and almost universally understood. We don’t know where they originated but they are eloquent. In the case of this particular gesture, three of the four gospel writers quote Jesus as saying that if you aren’t welcome, shake the dust off your feet and move on. Paul obviously knew Jesus’ words – nor was this the first time he had ever had to resort to this behavior.  (See Acts 13: 51.)

Along with this dramatic object lesson, Paul tells them, “Your blood be on your own heads.” This is not a curse but a statement of fact: their fate was in their own hands. (Paul was probably quoting from Ezekiel 33: 4.) Paul didn’t stop caring but their rejection of the gospel was deliberate and he had done all that he could for these people. His ministry was Spirit-led, not emotion-driven.

How much time has been wasted on lost causes? As Christians, we hate to admit that someone is hopeless. And maybe we shouldn’t. But what we ought to consider is that we can’t be all things to all people. When you hit a wall in your witness to a person, perhaps you should move on and let someone else move in. Ask yourself, “Have I done all that I can?” If you have done all that you can do, you are done! Shake the dust off your feet and let God send in the next shift!

We spend so much time considering what we can do, we rarely stop to consider what God can do.*

Worth Repeating - May 18, 2017

Deuteronomy 4: 2, 6 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God. . . . Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations.

Underlying every sacred commandment is the purpose of God to achieve the utmost happiness and benefit for the obedient child of God.*

The leaders of the Jewish religion in Jesus’ day were notorious for making “many laws out of a few” but Jesus came along and made a “few laws out of many.”* Jesus points out an example of this in Mark 7: 9–11. Often the adding to/taking away was done with the sole intent of making it more difficult to be obedient. In Revelation 22: 18, we read that there is a curse attached to adding to or taking away from the prophecies recorded in that book. 

God’s law, like God himself, is unchanging and reliable. There is no need to fluff it up or smooth it out in order to make it more palatable (or more difficult). Throughout Deuteronomy chapter four, God enumerates the blessings that obedience to the law would bring to his people. But a secondary benefit was that in keeping the law, the Israelites set an example to the nations around them. Among the other nations, they did not enjoy a reputation for their wealth, their military power, or their artistic achievement, but they were respected for their relationship to God.* 

While none of us has reached a level of spiritual maturity which allows us to understand everything, God reveals what we need to know when we need to know it – if and when we are walking in obedience. And walking in obedience has that secondary benefit of speaking to the world about our God.

“Obedience is the only proof of love." We might add that it is likewise the only proof of faith.*

Worth Repeating - May 17, 2017

Habakkuk 1: 11 “Then they sweep past like the wind and go on – guilty men, whose own strength is their god.”

When you can’t trace God’s hand, trust his heart.*

Habakkuk’s prophecy applies to a specific time and place and people. The Chaldeans had conquered Judah and God was preparing to use wicked Babylon to teach the Chaldeans who’s boss. And Habakkuk is not happy about it. The Babylonians were not much of an improvement over the Chaldeans. What was God thinking??

Our vision is limited to the things that are past and to the events of right now. We see wicked people becoming powerful – in business, in politics, even in religion – and we all but bow down to their gods ourselves. We think nothing can stop them. Not that we think that God couldn’t; we just don’t see him doing anything about it. The truth is, we can’t see what God is arranging and we have no clue who or what he will use to accomplish victory over evil. While God may seem to be “strangely silent and inactive,”* he hears and answers our prayers – just not in the way we think he will.

Today, we see many examples of guilty men whose strength is their god. We don’t have to be prophets like Habakkuk to predict that our society is doomed if God doesn’t intervene. America is not God’s chosen nation but the Church is his Bride and he is orchestrating our rescue. We don’t know what form our deliverance will take but we need to be faithful even when he uses “strange instruments to correct His people.”*

When we realize that the universe is moving toward God’s intended end, and that in history’s great culmination all of His good purposes will be fully realized, we are strengthened to live for Jesus now.*

Worth Repeating - May 16, 2017

Isaiah 40: 13, 14 Who has instructed the mind of the Lord, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?

How silly we must appear to God.*

God doesn’t need our advice. We don’t know anything that he doesn’t know. What fools we are to think that we know what’s best for our lives – or for someone else’s life. All we really know is what we want. We get a picture in our minds of what we want the future to look like and we proceed to direct God in how to accomplish it. 

To our credit, it’s not always lack of faith in God’s power and abilities that causes us to pursue our own paths. But it has to be some weakness on our part that leads us to start making arrangements without God’s blessing. We take the old saying so seriously: “God helps those who help themselves.” Really?  Perhaps we should coin a new saying: “God helps those who trust him enough to wait.”

While we are caught up in our earthly problems, God is more concerned with solving the heavenly ones.  The fact is, we don’t ask too much – we ask too little! We ask God to resolve the temporary while he is busy resolving the eternal. We ask for immediate favor but God orchestrates eternal solutions.*

If God must choose between your earthly satisfaction and your heavenly salvation, which do you hope he chooses?*

Worth Repeating - May 15, 2017

Psalm 1: 1, 2 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.

One indication of a person being mature is that he is not unduly influenced by his environment.*

The word “blessed” as it is used here could be paraphrased as, “how rewarding is the life of.” Instead of making a “to-do” list for how to lead a happy, rewarding life, the Psalmist gives us a “to-don’t” list. 

• Item 1 - Don’t follow advice from wicked people. We often need to seek and listen to good advice but how do we know we’ve been given good advice? 
• Item 2 - Don’t allow yourself to be associated with sinners. This does not mean that you must avoid sinners; it means that your lifestyle should stand apart from theirs. 
• Item 3 – Don’t become “one of them.” If we have considered the counsel of the wicked and if we have allowed ourselves to be counted among them in the name of tolerance, we have begun to “stand in the way” or to “establish residence” with them. 

Our “to-don’t” list is also a check-list for a downward spiral into a life apart from God. 

The Psalmist follows his “to-don’t” list with a two-item “to-do” list: 

• Item 1 - Delight in the law of the Lord. 
• Item 2 - Meditate on his law day and night.

Remember the question posed in Item 1 of the “to-don’t” list: “How do we know we’ve been given good advice?” If you live by the “to-do” list - seeking counsel from others who delight in the law and meditating on it - it becomes a simple matter of asking God for the discernment to make wise decisions. Then we can rely on the Holy Spirit to speak to us through God’s Word.

Jesus preferred to be alone with the true God rather than in a crowd with the wrong people.*