October 6, 2018

"For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness" II Peter 1:5-6

My little dog can jump up on my bed even though it is about three times his height! And cats are able to jump from the floor to the top of the fridge though it towers above the cat's height.

Either one of those would be equivalent to you or I leaping up into a three or four story window. I really can't see that happening!

Perhaps that explains why ladders and stairs were invented for us humans. We can scale heights 10 or twelve inches at a time.

In the same way, I have never known anyone who could jump from becoming a new believer in Christ to becoming a fully mature spiritual giant in one big faith leap. Spiritual growth and maturity happens one faith step at a time.

Peter traces those steps for us in II Peter 1:5-7. We have been studying those steps recently but we have not yet tied each of those individual steps into a staircase to maturity. There is a significance to the order of these virtues.

Of course, it all begins with faith for faith initiates the personal relationship with God through Christ.

On the foundation of that faith relationship is to be added "Goodness". Goodness is the moral courage to apply your faith to daily challenges of living. As James declares in his epistle, "Faith without works is dead".

To moral courage is to be added Knowledge. Knowledge is the wisdom and insight that grows out of your relationship with Christ. Knowledge is knowing what pleases God and combined with Goodness, helps you to do what honors Him.

The third step on the way to spiritual maturity is Self-Control. Self-Control means "getting a grip" on your life. You must discipline the fleshly passions and desires so that the faith virtues can be unleashed through you.

Next is Perseverance, the ability to be steadfast in the face of sore trials. In fact, the original word "hupomone" means to endure difficulties in such a way as to turn it for good. Perseverance believes I Corinthians 10:13 and lives according to it - "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. 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 endure it."

A fifth step to be added is "Godliness" or sincere worship of God that is evidenced by a godly witness.Godliness is the culmination of "faith, goodness, knowledge, self-control and perseverance" being active in your life. "Godliness" must be shown in your attitudes as well as in your actions.

Puppies can leap and cats can REALLY leap but Christians can't. But that doesn't mean we cannot make it the top in our spiritual maturity. It does mean that we must make steady progress step-by-step in our walk of faith.

How are you doing?

 Are you making steady progress? 

Which step do you think you are on?

Worshiping Through Doubts

"When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted." Matthew 28:17

Now, why did they put that last phrase in there? Isn't that curious? I understand that Matthew would want us to know that the eleven remaining disciples worshiped the Risen Jesus - but did we need to know about the doubters?

How could you doubt Jesus when He is right there; risen, alive, and triumphant?

This serves as one more proof of the authenticity of the Bible. Had it been written by men who were trying to deceive they would not have included those three words "but some doubted".

So, what should we make of that statement?

Personally, I take encouragement from it! Here's why:

First, it tells me that these "some who doubted" (and we don't know how many of them there were) worshiped through their doubts. Even though they were unresolved in their faith, they didn't let it keep them from falling at the feet of the Resurrected Jesus.

Haven't you come to church some time when you were struggling with a doubt? What better place to be when you are unresolved in your faith?

Second, it tells me that God can use spiritually unresolved people to change the world! This same group of eleven became the foundation for the Church of Jesus Christ. So, not only did they worship through their doubts but the served through their doubts.

How many times have you stepped out into some new endeavor for the Lord and you weren't sure what the result would be. It was scary and uncomfortable for you but you leaned on His strength and worked through your doubts! I'm sure you have done that. I know I have!

Third, it doesn't say whether the doubts they had were toward Jesus or about themselves. For every doubt I have had about Him, I have had a thousand toward myself. In fact, when God began to lay the calling for ministry upon my heart, I resisted for four years primarily because I had serious doubts about my ability to measure up to that calling. I believed God could do it I just didn't think I could. Fortunately, a good friend assured me that when He calls He enables.

Why are those three words included in this significant portion of Scripture? I think it is because God want us to know that it is okay to have doubts as long as we worship through them and work through them. God is greater than our doubts!

If you are struggling with some doubts today - bring them to the feet of Jesus!

October 4, 2018

".....teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you....." Matthew 28:20

Like many young boys, I once harbored a vision of becoming a major league baseball player. There was one problem with that vision, I wasn't talented enough to play at that level. I probably didn't have the physical talent to play college ball either - but I did - for four years. And I played a lot. So, I got closer to my dream than my physical abilities warranted.

How was I able to reach a higher level of competition than I probably deserved? Why was I able to compete with more physically gifted athletes and hold my own? 

Was I lucky?

Not at all! I earned every inning that I got to play. I worked very hard, trained and practiced by the hours.

When I started playing baseball at the Little League level I was fortunate to have had a coach who was a major league scout and had played some minor league professional ball. Because he knew the game and had played it well, he was able to teach me the fundamentals of baseball. Because he had been what I was hoping to be, I trusted him and I did everything he taught me to do in the fundamentally correct way he showed me to do it.

I enjoyed a college baseball career for one reason - I played the game exactly the way Dean Ford taught me to play it. Everything that I did was fundamentally correct. And because of that, I performed at a college level with limited physical talent. My college success was fundamentally sound because I did everything exactly as he had told me to do it.

How do we teach someone to obey?

Jesus taught us to obey by being personally obedient to The Father. He modeled it. He demonstrated it to the very point of His death on a cross.

These disciples were very average men who became pivotal players in the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ by being obedient to Jesus. They did "everything He commanded them". Therefore, they became much more effective than they should have been because they did life and ministry just like Jesus told them.

They learned obedience by obeying what God told them to do. And they achieved more with their lives than they would have without obeying Jesus. Living and serving as Jesus had showed them to do it allowed them to change the world.

It wasn't so much that they changed the world but it was the power of Jesus working through their obedience.

So, how do we get others to become obedient followers of Jesus? What do we have to "do" to teach them to obey? Simple! Obey!

God's vision for evangelizing the world included our obedience allowing His power and grace to flow through us!

Embrace the fundamentals of obedient service and play at a much higher level than you ever envisioned!

God Is Not Willing That Any Should Perish...

"And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'" Luke 16:26

The context of Luke 16, like all Scripture teaching is key to understanding. In this chapter Jesus is talking to His disciples about the importance of relationships over riches. Riches mean little if they don't result in rich relationships with God and those you love and live with.

There are those who argue that a "loving God would never send anyone to hell".

At least those people believe in hell. Not everyone does.

The truth is that God never has sent a human being to hell nor will He ever do so. Hell was created for the Devil and his legion of fallen angels. However, those who refuse to receive God's provision for salvation by accepting His Son, Jesus, will have no way of avoiding hell.

Peter tells us clearly that "God is not willing that any should perish but all come to repentance".

John wrote that "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life."

Any person who winds up in hell will do so against the will of a loving God. But as C. S. Lewis once said, "Every person must decide if they will have faith in God and say, "Thy will be done." Any person who refuses to surrender to God's will and trust Him for salvation will come to the end of his days and at his last breath hear Jesus to him, "You did not want my will to be done so your will be done".

So, if God honors that man's will to refuse salvation through Christ and that refusal causes him to miss heaven, whose fault is it for ending up in hell? Surely it is not Christ's fault."

When you distill it down, life is about relationships. 

Jesus commanded you to "love God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all you mind." and then He added, "Love your neighbor as yourself."

Should you refuse to obey God in our relationships and live selfishly, when you come to end of your days, your eternity will be spent separated from God and completely alone. Hell is a horrible place of fire, and torment and darkness and pure evil. But the worst part of Hell is the fact that you will be cut off from all relationships. You will find yourself completely alone - eternally separated from God and isolated from other people forever! If you don't cherish the sacred and special relationships in life you will lose them for eternity! Love the God who created you, the Jesus Who died for you and the people God gave you to share life with.

October 2, 2018

"For this very reason make every effort to add to your faith goodness, to goodness, knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control, PERSEVERANCE" II Peter 1:5-6

Perseverance means enduring until God turns my pain into gain!

To do that you need:

THE ATTITUDE OF PERSEVERANCE - It's About His Purpose - Not Your Pain

THE AWARENESS OF PERSEVERANCE - It's About His Power - Not Your Pain

AND, today:

THE ACTION OF PERSEVERANCE – It’s About His Promises – Not Your Pain

Act on HIS promises - do the next right thing - the next OBEDIENCE – the next SURRENDER – the next SACRIFICE!

JESUS believed in God's promises and it helped  him endure the suffering.

“……for the joy set before Him endured the cross…..” – HE DID THE NEXT RIGHT THING!

Job trusted the nature of God and did the next right thing!

“Though he slay me yet will I trust Him!”  - HE DID THE NEXT RIGHT THING!

Paul remained focused on the promises of God and faithfully continued doing the next right thing.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” II Cor. 4:16-18

PAUL KEPT DOING THE RIGHT THING IN SPITE OF HIS PAIN.

FIX YOUR EYES ON JESUS…………”

HE DOESN'T JUST MAKE THE PROMISE - HE IS THE PROMISE!

Bob Leland is a man who really encouraged me several years ago. You may have seen him on television. He has a healthy dose of enthusiasm for life. You may remember, he ran the New York marathon in 98 hours, 47 minutes, and 17 seconds. That’s not bad for someone who has no legs. Bob went to Vietnam as a strapping 6 foot, 200 pounder. He returned weighing only 87 pounds and was two and a half feet shorter. He had every reason to give up. Instead, his testimony is, “I felt blessed, and I am just happy being alive.”

Bob rejected the artificial legs the doctors wanted to give him by saying, “They are too slow; they slow me down. I have a lot of things to catch up on and a lot of places to go.” This man, on his hands, went from California to the Vietnam Memorial, a distance of 7,784 miles. He was steadfast. He didn’t let his problems keep him back. He had determined he was going to enjoy life in spite of the afflictions in his physical body.     THAT’S PERSEVERANCE!

THE ATTITUDE OF PERSEVERANCE – I WILL TRUST GOD’S PURPOSE IN MY PAIN

THE AWARENESS OF PERSEVERANCE – I WILL TRUST GOD’S POWER IN MY PAIN

THE ACTION OF PERSEVERANCE – I WILL ACT ON GOD’S PROMISES IN MY PAIN

October 1, 2018

"For this very reason make every effort to add to your faith goodness, to goodness, knowledge, to knowledge, self-control, to self-control PERSEVERANCE" II Peters 1:5-6

Three helpful keys to perseverance:

The Attitude of Perseverance - It's About His Purpose, Not Your Pain

The Awareness of Perseverance - It's About His Power, Not Your Pain

The Action of Perseverance - It's About His Promise, Not Your Pain

In the last post we took a look at the attitude of perseverance. Today we focus on the awareness of perseverance - it's about his power - not your pain.

There once was an oyster whose story I tell,
Who found that sand had got under his shell;
Just one little grain, but it gave him much pain,
For oysters have feelings although they’re so plain.
Now, did he berate the working of Fate
Which had led him to such a deplorable state?
Did he curse out the Government, call for an election?
No; as he lay on the shelf, he said to himself,
"If I cannot remove it, I’ll try to improve it."
So the years rolled by as the years always do,
And he came to his ultimate destiny -- stew.
And this small grain of sand which had bothered him so,
Was a beautiful pearl, all richly aglow.  Now this tale has a moral -- for isn’t it grand
What an oyster can do with a morsel of sand;
What couldn’t we do if we’d only begin
With all of the things that get under our skin.

Oysters are built to turn pain into pearls – it’s what they do!

SO ARE YOU! GOD HAS GIVEN YOU “EVERYTHING YOU NEED” FOR GODLINESS!

Do you believe that?

Jesus believed it when He was climbing Calvary's hill.

Job believed it when he had lost everything and was scraping puss from his boils.

Paul discovered that God's power was made perfect in his weakness.

Each of them knew about God's power before their pain, and held onto it in the midst of  their pain, but they REALLY came to know it when it helped them endure their suffering!

Will you trust His power to help you  endure your pain?      

September 30, 2018

"For this reason make every effort to add to your faith goodness, to goodness, knowledge, to knowledge; self-control and to self-control, perseverance"  II Peter 1:5-6

The greatest example of perseverance EVER was Jesus! His horrific suffering inflicted Him with unimaginable pain and shame. But somehow, He was able to endure it and redeem us from the penalty of our sins. What can we learn from Him about perseverance?

I think the first thing we can learn from His suffering is:

The attitude of perseverance:

When I think of perseverance I think of David Livingstone, the pioneer missionary to Africa, who walked over 29,000 miles. His wife died early in their ministry and he faced stiff opposition from his Scottish brethren. He ministered half blind. His kind of perseverance spurs me on. As I run, I remember the words in his diary: "Send me anywhere, only go with me. Lay any burden on me, only sustain me. Sever me from any tie but the tie that binds me to Your service and to Your heart.

The attitude of perseverance is essentially this - "life is not about me"! For the Christ follower life is about Him not you or not me! That means EVERYTHING is about Him! My success is about Him. My ambition must be toward Him. My strengths will be surrendered to Him, so will my weaknesses. My joys will come from Him and my suffering will be shared with Him and endured for Him.

I have been privileged to preach and teach in the David Livingstone Memorial Presbyterian Church in Livingstone, Zambia. What a thrill that was! But there would not be a Livingstone or a Livingstone Memorial Church except for the perseverance of Dr. David Livingstone. In the true spirit of the word "hupomone" - "enduring hardship in a way that turns hardship into victory".

 Like Jesus, David Livingstone modeled the attitude of perseverance - "my hardship is not about me, I will not allow it to be about me! I will endure it for the glory of God and use it to strengthen my faith."

Are you struggling to endure your suffering?

Will you remember that your suffering is not about you?

Will you invite Him into your pain and give you His endurance?