Had a good lunch, first time I
have barbecued this year – usually two or three times a week by now, but haven’t
been up to it.
Anyway, Barbecued sirloin steaks
from Ken, three kinds of cukes, tomatoes and peppers from the garden, home grown
lunch today.
Hot, it will hit 100 again,
although the rest of the week is ‘supposed’ to be in the high 80’s so that will
be a bit of relief.
Teresa and Ian will be coming
home this week, we pick them up on Wednesday.
Wanda will be happy, Blaze and the cats will be ecstatic!!
2 Timothy 1:13-14 Hold fast the form
of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in
Christ Jesus.
14 That good thing which
was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in
us.
It would be much easier for us
‘common’ Christians if these verses applied only to our Pastors, Teachers and
other Church leaders. However, they do
not.
We know that the leadership of a
country can be the downfall of that country.
Decisions made can impact every person in the country in one way or
another. There are numerous examples in
the Bible where the Kings and Temple leaders turned away from God and as a
result the country was devastated.
Enemies took the citizens into
captivity and made them slaves.
Thousands upon thousands were killed – because the leaders led their
people into false teachings and false gods.
But, most of the citizens followed them and participated in the
debauchery knowing better.
And those that remained true to
God, also suffered.
While there are certain
scriptures throughout the Bible that address an individual, whether his need or
a command, they are few. God wants us to
be quite aware that we too are responsible to keep that which the Holy Spirit
has commanded of us. Even in the face of
society’s false presumptions.
And, yes, we may very well
suffer for it, and as the country fails we will fall with it – even though we
have maintained our relationship with God and testified as to the nature and the
promise of the one true God.
The world hates to be confronted
with the truths of the Bible. Oh, there
are certain verses – often misquoted and definitely taken out of context – they
use to tear down the beliefs of Christians.
They shoot them against us as if they were silver bullets, instead of
duds; without context the verses are worthless.
Even in the face of great danger
we are expected, by God, to be true to Him and His Word. We are expected to share the Gospel with
others, working with the Holy Spirit to help them find God’s Grace. We do that not by tricking them, but by
speaking the truth, in love.
When we go out trying to lead
people to Christ out of anger or pity for their misconduct and sin, we lose
sight of the fact that they are lost souls needing Christ. That Christ loves them and wants them to come
to Him – and He wants us to see them as HE sees them.
The Bible is rich with stories
of His Glory, of His Power. We have
dozens of examples at our finger tips of His desire to bring sinners to
Him.
I have to admit there are times
I would like to shake those that are causing thousands and millions of our
citizens to go down the wrong road.
These people are proud of their sinful behavior and want to share that
pride with others. The more they can
convert to their ideas, the more they feel they have defeated God, His Word and
His people.
The more God’s people stand for
Him, the harder satan is going to work against us. Those that stand out as leaders are going to
be targets for those that hate God’s Word.
Those leaders are not just the
appointed ones, they are all of us who choose to witness to others, who choose
to listen to the council of Paul and share the unvarnished truth of God’s
Word.
Too many of us, today, are
glossing over what God wants in favor of attempting to bring people to Him – and
then finding that they don’t understand who Jesus is and what a Christian’s
responsibility is to Him.
It is easy to say, Jesus loves
you. It is harder to proclaim all that
entails.
The world tries to tell us that
if we want to ‘worship your God’ do so in the church, only. Through the years far too many have done that
on their own and have set precedence for that command.
Too many people are Sunday only
Christians and don’t let Christ’s teachings impede their everyday life. They believe their spiritual life inside
those walls, and their secular life in their work and relationships are
separate.
They are not, of course, they
are intertwined and when we try to keep them apart we fail.
It is up to us to not only tell
the world about Jesus and all His Salvation represents, but to live a life of a
Christians so that others can see our behavior is different from the
world’s.
The light that is within us can
draw other people to find out why we have that light. It is then up to us to rightly present the
Gospel of Christ. We don’t unload
everything on them, but we make it clear that while Christ paid the price for
our Salvation, we may have to pay a price to serve Him.
I can remember when a young
person came into our congregation. He
was a drunk, smoked like a chimney and used foul language. He accepted Christ, but still did things a
Christian knows not to do.
It took time, but the Holy
Spirit made him realized that he had a responsibility to give up many of his
habits. If he had been chastised by the
members of the church for all his behavior, he may have been lost, but they
lovingly encouraged him and treated him as a brother in Christ.
They showed the love of Christ
and gave him good advice as he struggled with his behavior.
We are not perfect – God wants
us to be perfect as Christ was perfect, but He also knows that we too struggle
with temptations and even past sins that try to overtake us.
But the best way out of those
doldrums is read His Word, see how He has encouraged and directed others and
then follow their example.
The Apostles and other writers
of the Bible did not minimize God in order that converts were to be gained, they
spoke bluntly - there was no ambiguity in what they preached. There were times people tried to pollute
God’s Word with things it does not say, but Paul and others warned of this false
teaching, called it what it is and then were forthright in preaching
Christ. They spoke the truth of God’s
Word unvarnished by deception or watering down God’s expectations of
righteousness.
And thousands of people came to
Christ in those early days, including thousands of Jews.
We need to be as confident as
Christ, Paul, Peter and others were in our delivery of God’s Word. We need to refrain from trying to ‘dress’ it
up to make it more palatable to the world and teach salvation not
appeasement.
The Holy Spirit will guide us in
all of our contacts, if we will just let Him.
He will direct us and give us insights into the best way to reach an
individual that needs Him and He wants us to be the messenger.
He will use our personality, our
abilities, but more importantly our heart to share the gospel of Christ.
We need to prepare ourselves, by
reading God’s Word and by thoughtful prayer – daily – that when that time comes
we will recognize it and follow His leading.
There will be times we falter –
I have done it and still too often do it – but we cannot let that stop us from
striving to follow His leading.
It isn’t just the Preacher who
must maintain and honest interpretation of God’s Word, it is also up to every
individual Christian.
Later, Art :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment