July 1, 2013

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Matthew 6:33

Christ-followers belong to a righteous kingdom. Therefore, righteousness is a requirement for citizenship and it is the code of conduct.

We have established righteousness results from a relationship with the Righteous King through faith in Jesus Christ. One of the major impediments to having a righteous relationship with God is your unwillingness to surrender your rights. It is your nature to want to do God's will in your way. You want it both ways and you can't have it! There can only be one way that is right and it is not yours.

To be in His kingdom you must surrender to the King and to have His righteousness you must give up your rights.

Are you letting your rights get in the way of His righteousness?

Another obstacle to righteous living is the need to survive. That is the context of this statement by Jesus. He has been teaching about God as a Father who is willing and able to provide for His children:

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!“No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them."  Matthew 6:19-32

Is protecting yourself or providing for yourself more important to you than honoring God? Would you deny Him to preserve your own life?

Even a man aS great as Simon Peter chose survival over righteousness when he felt his life was being threatened.

What would you have done?

I hear Jesus saying in verse 33 is this, "I don't have to survive but I do have to be righteous."

Some three years after Jesus issued this challenge in His Sermon on the Mount, He found Himself faced with that very decision as He wrestled in prayer in Gethsemane. He sweat drops of blood but chose to be righteous if it killed Him.

Many of our brothers and sisters around the world face that pressure every day because they live in repressive totalitarian atheistic countries. And thousands of them have chosen righteousness over survival only to be imprisoned or executed. They were true to His kingdom and His righteousness and true to His promise, He gave then everything they needed!

Do you love righteousness more than you own life?

June 30, 2013

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people" Proverbs 14:34

 

We have spent the week considering this Proverb about the power of righteousness. With the turn of events and the rapid decline of our culture it is easy to be overcome and feel helpless.

 

You don't have to! Let me remind you of the power of righteousness! Righteousness exalts! Solomon understood that and so did our Founders. The Founding Fathers were so sure of it that they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor.

Let me share three reasons why righteousness is powerful:

Righteousness is powerful because it is a relationship.

Righteousness is being made right with God through a faith relationship with Jesus Christ. Righteousness is making a total surrender to God's unconditional love.

The thing that often keeps one from finding righteousness is an unwillingness to give up his rights. Jesus said if anyone would come after Him he must "deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Him". Putting self and selfish desires ahead of the will of God is the essence of sin.

Until being right with God is more important that having your rioowghts, you will not find righteousness.

Righteousness is powerful because it demands responsibility.

This verse implies that actions have consequences. It says, "Righteousness EXALTS, sin CONDEMNS."  "Exalt" means to "lift" or to "elevate" that sounds like a good consequence! And, it says, "Sin" means to "miss the mark" or "fall short of the glory of God." That sounds like a negative consequence to me!

When you understand you will be rewarded when you do righteously and you will also suffer when you choose to sin.

Human nature is wired for self-destruction and left unchecked or undisciplined it will bring you down. A wise man will put himself under discipline and be accountable so he can resist the temptations of life.

It takes power, supernatural power, to live righteously!

Righteousness is powerful because it has a reward.

The reward of righteousness is MORE righteousness! The reward of righteousness is Jesus!

Psalms says when you "delight yourself in the Lord, He gives you the desires of your heart!"

Solomon, writing in the Proverbs, declares that he believes in the power of righteous living. Do you?

Will you?

Will you enter into an intimate spirirtual relationship with Christ by faith?

Will you discipline yourself under the laws of God so you can live righteously?

Will you sacrifice all for the great rewards righteousness brings?






 

June 29, 2013

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."

This short verse tells us a lot about two radically different ways of living.

Righteousness is right standing with God. It is a result of being in a faith relationship with God. That relationship is made possible through the righteousness of Christ Who made righteousness available to us by taking the penalty for our unrighteousness on the Cross. Righteousness is unconditional surrender to God's unconditional love.

 

Righteousness exalts because it elevates us above the power of sin and enables us to live in the right way. Righteousness exalts because it allows us to live in God's presence. Righteousness exalts because it lifts us above the shame of sin's condemnation and brings God's peace. Righteousness exalts God because it demonstrates His way is right!

 

The word used for "righteous" conveys the idea of justice. The word used for "sin" has the notion of vice or corruption.

 

So, righteousness exalts justice and elevates the nation while sin brings corruption that destroys a nation.

 

Which nation would you rather live in?

 

Righteousness exalts because in order to become righteous you have to confess sinfulness and repent of sin. That promotes justice and attacks corruption. Righteousness can lift up what sin has torn down.

Can you see the clear difference between righteousness and sin - aka - unrighteousness?

Can you see the clear difference between the results of righteousness and corruption?

Can you see why righteous people make better citizens than corrupt and sinful people?

Can you see that righteous people are not only better people, they're better patriots?!

 

 

 

 

 

June 28, 2013

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." Proverbs 14:34

 

What is righteousness?

 

We established that righteousness is what God says it is!

 

But in addition, righteousness is Who God is!

 

Righteousness is not a code or a creed or concepts, righteousness is a PERSON!

 

The Founders understood that and it was their understanding of righteousness that formed the foundation for this great experiment that became the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth, the United States of America!

 

You could very properly rephrase this verse, "God exalts a nation, but ignoring God is a reproach to any people."

 

Our Founders understood that since God was the Righteous Creator, He was the right One to bestow rights on citizens of a nation. And since a Righteous Creator is the source of our individual rights then doesn't it follow that those rights would be preserved by righteous living?

 

"How do I live righteously?" you ask.

 

Righteousness is the result of living in a faith relationship with the Righteous God from Whom the rights originate.

 

So, again you could accurately say, "Right relationship with a Righteous God exalts a nation, but evil is a reproach to any people."

 

Righteous people make the best citizens of whichever nation they belong to. Their righteousness exalts or elevates that nation because it unleashed the presence, the principles and the power of God into that land.

 

Do you know the righteousness of God?

 

Are you living in a faith relationship with Him?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 27, 2013

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people." Proverbs 14:34

 

If righteousness elevates a nation, the question becomes, "What is right and who should decide what is right (or wrong)?"

 

Have you ever wondered who decides what is right (or wrong)?

 

Is it the White House that makes that decision?

 

Is it the Congress that decides what's right?

 

Is it the Supreme Court who decides what's right?

Could it be the prevailing public opinion that makes that decision?

How can a nation be exalted by righteousness unless there is a clear understanding and agreement of what is right?

 

You can't have a card game or a ballgame unless everyone agrees on what rules will guide the game.

 

When the Founding Fathers faced this big question in the formative days of our nation, the rules were being made by a powerful, arrogant, and greedy King of England. Most of the Colonists felt that intolerable to the point of rebellion and revolution.

 

In their inspired wisdom, the Founders agreed that the rules by which this new nation would be governed should be the ones given by the God Who created the planet. They phrased it like this: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

 

Doesn't it make sense that the One Who created the race should also create the rules by which that race should live? Shouldn't the One Who has never been wrong and never been less than perfect be the One who makes the rules for His creation to live under?

 

Obviously, the Founding Fathers felt strongly that God, as Creator and as eventual Judge, should be held as the Sovereign Law-Giver and Judge of mankind.

 

Sounds right to me!

 

What do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 26, 2013

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people." Proverbs 14:34

The really big inspired idea that made the founding of America like no other nation that has ever existed is this: Individual human rights are given by God and those rights are protected from the government by a Constitution and a Bill of Rights.

 

What a bold experiment!

 

Our Founders clearly knew that what they were doing was Divinely inspired and understood that the rights would be safely only if they were protected by righteous leaders.

 

I share a few of their quotes:

 

"Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens." - Daniel Webster

 

“With a firm reliance on the protection of Almighty God, I shall forwith commence the duties of the high trust to which you have called me.” - James Monroe

 

“It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.” - Patrick Henry

 

 “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever.” - Thomas Jefferson

 

"Let it be impressed on your mind that God commands you to choose for rulers just men who will rule in the fear of God [Exodus 18:21]. . . . If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted . . . If our government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws." - Noah Webster

 

So, these great wise Founders understood that not only was God the source of our rights, but He was also our Source and our Standard for the righteousness necessary to protect the freedom provided by those rights.

 

The ancient wisdom of Solomon, "Righteousness exalts a nation" has been proven true these centuries later by the greatness to which American rose when righteous leaders honored the God-given rights that made them free people.

 

More recently it has also been proven by corrupt and greedy leaders who oppress individual rights because they have no sense of righteousness.

 

If you think individual righteousness doesn't matter, watch what happens to your presonal rights over the next few years!

 

Make sure you get it right!

 

 

 

 

June 25, 2013

"Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people." Proverbs 14:34

Would you rather have a nation that is exalted or a nation that is condemned?

 

That sounds like one of those obvious questions the guys asks those precocious kids on those popular A. T. & T. commercials.

 

Personally, I'll take a nation that is exalted by the righteousness of it's people.

 

My guess is that you would, too! And we would be in good company! Consider the quotes of some of our exalted Founding Fathers:

 

“It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.” - George Washington

 

“It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor.” - George Washington

 

“Oh, eternal and everlasting God, direct my thoughts, words and work. Wash away my sins in the immaculate blood of the Lamb and purge my heart by Thy Holy Spirit. Daily, frame me more and more in the likeness of Thy son, Jesus Christ, that living in Thy fear, and dying in Thy favor, I may in thy appointed time obtain the resurrection of the justified unto eternal life. Bless, O Lord, the whole race of mankind and let the world be filled with the knowledge of Thee and Thy son, Jesus Christ.” - George Washington, Prayer

"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and Morality are indispensable supports….Let it simply be asked, Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.”

- George Washington, Farewell Address 1796

 

These are but a few selected quotes among scores of others recorded from the lips and the writings of our First President and Hero of the Revolutionary War.

 

After reading those quotes let me ask you, "I your opinion, George Washington exalt American or condemn it?"

 

If you said that George Washington exalted our nation you would have the evidence of history on your side!

 

More importantly you would have the truth of Scripture on your side as well!

 

So, the question becomes, if you know that righteousness exalts a nation is your life exalting or condemning America?