November 4, 2013

"the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those who bring thank offerings to the house of the LORD, saying, "Give thanks to the LORD Almighty, for the LORD is good; his love endures forever." For I will restore the fortunes of the land as they were before,' says the LORD." Jeremiah 33:11

Thankful people are happy people. There is no debating that.

But, the question is, "Are they happy because they are thankful or are they thankful because they are happy?"

Jeremiah gives us some insights into what it takes to become a thankful person.

First, be thankful for the goodness of God!

You have a choice. You can focus on the badness and unfairness of life, OR you can focus your life on the goodness of God. It is up to you. If you want to be sad and miserable all the time you can decry how unfair life is - because it is! Choose that disposition and your happy days will be few and far between.

However, if you are committed to the goodness of God you can ALWAYS be thankful because God is ALWAYS good! Thankful people understand that God is always better than the badness of life. God is bigger than the badness of life. In fact, God has promised to even make the badness of life into goodness!

Thankful people are focused on the goodness of God! They are always thankful because they understand that God is always good.

Secondly, thankful people are focused on the love of God.

Like the goodness of God, His love is a constant. Therefore, when you choose to be thankful for His love you can always be thankful! His love that sustained you through the unfairness and difficulties of yesterday will also sustain you through today - and tomorrow! Thank God! When Jeremiah wrote these truisms thousands of years ago, God's love was a constant. Now, centuries later, it is still true! And, centuries from now IT WILL STILL BE TRUE. How can you not be thankful for THAT!

Will you do this for God and for yourself today? Will you thank Him for His goodness and His love. Thank Him that these blessed characteristics are rooted in His eternal character! Will you make today the first day of a commitment to live in thankfulness for His goodness and His love?

You will be thankful you made that decision!

November 3, 2013

"Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." I Corinthians 15:55-58

We are extolling the virtues of thankfulness and examining its nature.

From this great portion of Scripture I want to make two points:

Thankfulness is God-centered and grace-conscious. Those are both very good things!

"Thanks be to God......"

Obviously, you have to be thankful TO someone FOR something. True thanks should flow from you to God. If you believe that God is the Giver of all good things then all thanks is due Him.

You can be thankful to God for Who He is, a perfect, powerful and passionate Forever Heavenly Father. He knows you better than you know yourself and still He loves better than you love yourself. If you need Someone like that in your life, be thankful. If you need to be loved like that, be thankful.

"He gives us the victory through Jesus Christ our Lord."

Be thankful for the gift of God which is His Son, Jesus Christ, Who came to be our Savior. God offers to us His best when we were at our worst. God, essentially said, "I'll give you My Son in exchange for your sins." If you can use a deal like that, be thankful.

Also, you can be thankful for the grace of God. This is the attitude within the heart of God that motivated Him to offer us redemption, righteousness and resurrection from the dead through His Son, Jesus. Grace is defined as "God's undeserved favor toward us." If grace is important to you, be thankful. If you prefer to have God offer you His mercy in place of His justice, be thankful.

Although thankfulness is a 24/365 proposition, in this season of Thanksgiving I encourage you to be especially thankful to God for His grace and all that His grace means for you in this life and in the life to come.

In view of all that is ours in God and through grace is saying, "Thanks!" enough? It is a good place to begin.

November 2, 2013

"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy." II Timothy 3:1-2

Wow! These few verses say a lot about the attitude of gratitude and what causes people to be thankful - or not thankful.

First, it tells us that the day will come when thankfulness will be a rare commodity. What was once a common courtesy will someday become hard to find.

That begs the question, "Why?"

People will be lovers of self. How does that blunt thankfulness? People who are self-centered tend to believe that they deserve what they get, so when they get something good they feel it was owed to them and when they don't they feel cheated. It is hard to satisfy them.

People will be lovers of money. What's wrong with that? Loving money often leads to greed. Greedy people seldom experience feelings of gratitude. Greed and gratitude rarely occupy the same space.

When selfishness and greed rule your life, you are not a very pleasant person - "boastful, proud, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy." May I add - unhappy, unfulfilled and miserable?

Thankful people, by implication, are not self-centered, not greedy, humble, obedient, grateful and holy.

So, are such people thankful because they possess these characteristics or do they have these characteristics because they are thankful? The answer is, "Yes!"

Make life about Him and not about you and He will develop within you an attitude of gratitude.

November 1, 2013

"...give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I Thessalonians 5:18

One of the earliest lessons we learn as children is to say, "Please" and "Thank You". It is a simple concept, really.

Of course, we are taught to express our thanks whenever we are given something that is nice, or helpful, or valuable, or generous.

However, in this verse, the Apostle Paul instructs us to "give thanks in ALL circumstances". Say, what? Be thankful in "ALL circumstance"? Are you kidding me? How do I do that? Some circumstances are painful and hard and unwelcomed. Am I supposed to be thankful when stuff like that happens? Why is that?

Read the rest of the verse, "for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

Oh.

Here is the deal. We don't have to be thankful for difficult things that happen to us. Am I to be thankful that I lose a job, or my health, or a loved one? I don't think so! But, what we can be thankful for is that God is in control of our circumstances and He has promised that "all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose" and "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it."

So, what we can be thankful for is that when troubles come it means that God is at work! Our pain is working for our gain because that is how God works, Who He is and what He does! Thank Him that even what works against us in life works for us because His Kingdom is coming and His will is being done - in us!

October 31, 2013

"Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."  Matthew 28:16-20

If you were arrested for impersonating a disciple, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

We have been examining the evidence that identifies a true disciple. These eleven passed the test. One other, Judas Iscariot was masquerading as a disciple but was unmasked by his betrayal of Jesus.

Several years ago I was watching some of the Iowa-Indiana football game. The camera was doing a wide scan of the fans in the bleachers, with the game being played on Halloween, many fans were dressed in various costumes. There were ghouls and ghosts and cartoon characters and political figures and animals - all the normal cast of characters as the camera moved across the rows. But then there was one who stood out from the crowd and caused the camera to reverse and come back for a double-take. What costume caused such a response? Someone had dressed up like Jesus! And it was a good costume! He looked the part!

But it takes more than dressing up like Jesus to be like Jesus. This fellow was proof that you can look like Jesus and be a fake because Jesus would never be an Iowa Hawkeye fan.

You can't pretend to be a disciple. You can't just look the part or play the part and pass yourself off as a disciple. Discipleship doesn't happen from the outside in.

Just ask Judas.

True disciples are transformed by saving faith in Jesus. They live in a faith relationship with Jesus and walk by faith. They deny themselves and take up the cross of sacrifice and obedience. They live lives that show the real power and grace of God.

There is no tricking Jesus about discipleship. He has seen the real ones and is not fooled by fake disguises. He doesn't look on the outward appearance but gets to the heart of the matter.

Tricking Him is no treat.

October 30, 2013

"So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him." II Peter 3:14

There are three great qualities that mark those who are prepared for eternity. Peter mentions them here:

The morality - "spotless"

Those who want to spend a happy ever after in Heaven make sure they are living spotless lives. Spotless means that there are no unconfessed sins in their lives. They understand the truth of John's statement in I John 1:7 - "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

It is possible to live a spotless life by walking in the truth and living in obedience. By walking in truth and obedience you will avoid many sins and the moment you do sin the Holy Spirit will convict you of your sin and you can repent of it. When you repent the blood of Christ cleanses the spot from your life.

The motives - "blameless"

Blameless means that your motives are pure and you do not commit intentional, willful sins. Your hearts desire is to please and honor God. You are entirely committed to pleasing God. When you do sin it is because of a momentary flare up of your selfish will or a moment of weakness of the flesh.

People who are hoping for Heaven have surrendered their will to God and consecrated themselves to serving Him. They walk in the Spirit and do their best to overcome the flesh.

The mentality - "peaceful"

Heaven bound people know that they are spotless and blameless because they have peace in their spirit. God has given them a spirit of power and of love and a sound mind. He has sent their hearts in perfect peace because they have fixed their mind on Him.

They have no fear of the judgment and they have fellowship with God and know that all is well. Also, because they love God they are committed to living in fellowship with their brothers.

Heaven bound people live godly lives in the here and now. They live spotless, blameless and peaceful lives.

How are you measuring up?

October 29, 2013

"Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels." Luke 9:26

Discipleship is managing your life so that you are bold in your faith and unashamed of Christ.

Here is a recent example:

ADDIS ABABA, ETHIOPIA (BosNewsLife) -- A human rights group has expressed concern about reports of wide spread persecution of Christians in rural Ethiopia where at least one evangelist has been killed "for refusing" to abandon his Christian faith, BosNewsLife monitored Thursday, September 22.Voice Of the Martyrs Canada (VOMC), which has close contacts in the region, said it has learned that 34-year old Estifanos Abate, an evangelist of the Assemblies of God church in the town of Jijiga "was shot and killed July 19 for refusing to deny his faith in Christ."In a statement to BosNewsLife News Center, VOMC said news of the killing had been slow to emerge as "communication is difficult and reports of their courage often take several weeks to reach the outside world."

The incident allegedly happened when the evangelist was traveling from Degahabour to Jijiga in eastern Ethiopia where his passenger bus was stopped by Islamic militants. "The militants boarded the bus, demanding to know the religion of each traveler. Of the 45 passengers, five were Orthodox and four were evangelical Christians. The gunmen ordered these nine [Christians] to be separated from the Muslim passengers," VOMC claimed, citing sources in the area.

"The Christians were then ordered to repeat the Islamic creed and to bow three times toward Mecca. Everyone but Estifanos complied with the order and was allowed back on the bus. The gunmen threatened Estifanos, who calmly began to tell his attackers about Jesus, while his fellow travelers begged him to save his life by obeying their demands," VOMC said."The Muslim leader then ordered the bus to continue on its way, without Estifanos. As the bus pulled away, Estifanos was executed," VOMC added. It quoted eyewitnesses as saying that "his body was left on the side of the road for most of the day, presumably as a warning to others."

So, Brad, are you saying that dying for Christ is discipleship?

No, I am not saying that. Dying FOR Christ is martyrdom.

Discipleship is dying TO Christ! Once you die TO Christ you will be empowered to live FOR Him - and if necessary - die for Him. Discipleship is what enabled this dear brother the strength and courage to LIVE for Jesus and to submit to DYING for Him. Discipleship is denying yourself daily - putting Him first - and carrying your cross for Him daily - dying to His will.

Have you done that today?