Finding the One Priority of Life According to Jesus

If anything marks our culture today, it would have to be the fact that we are all busy. Everywhere you go people are rushing around in a hurry. The irony of the age we live in, is that it was predicted that the age of computers would give us more leisure time. That was a lie. Our technology has somehow made us slaves to clocks that never seem to allot us enough time. I’m retired, yet I, too, often feel like I just don’t have enough time to get done the things I need to get done.

I committed myself several years ago to giving a real effort to make God my priority when I wake up in the morning. Though I try to be a man who “prays without ceasing”, I still struggle with the distractions inherent in life. If I give God the first minutes of my day, at least He got some of me. Though I don’t force myself into a legalistic ritual in which I punish myself on the days I miss my morning time with God, I make it a priority to do so most mornings. This morning’s study time was a lesson from Jesus on just how important it is to make Him the priority. It is found in Luke 10:38-42.

In the story, we find Martha busy preparing to serve Jesus, having invited Him into her home. Luke describes her as “distracted with all her preparations.” Meanwhile, her sister Mary, is “seated at the Lord’s feet listening to His word.”

We’ve all been there. While we are doing all the work, our co-worker is playing on their smartphone. While we are carrying in the bags of groceries, our spouse is watching the game or a soap opera on TV. Even in the church we get frustrated with the lack of people helping in the various ministries. It’s long been a church saying that 10% of the people do 90% of the work. Yea Martha, we get it.

Martha has had enough so she goes right to Jesus about this lack of help. Listen to her rebuke of Jesus from Luke 10:40 “…and she came up to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me."”

But the response she gets is not the one she expected.

Luke 10:41-42
But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things: but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her."

This is not an excuse to not serve in the church. Nor is it an excuse to not hold a job or help those in need. This is a lesson on priority.

You see the most important aspect of the Christian life is worship. It is what we will do in Heaven. We simply must take the time each day to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to His Word. When we do that, we will know how to serve Him. We will know what His will is for our lives. We will understand how to serve Him without these angry, frustrated feelings that we see in Martha. We will learn that making more money is not the most important task in life. We will learn that we do not have to constantly be doing something. We will clear our minds so that we are praying without ceasing.

But more importantly, we will know Jesus. And as we grow closer to him, we will worship Him more and more. Then every command in the scriptures, every instruction from Jesus and the inspired words of the Bible will become our desires and not a burden to enjoying life, as some seem to make them.

Its important to serve God. But not at the expense of sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to His Word. Are you a Martha? Or are you a Mary? Jesus said Mary did the only necessary thing, which is to listen to Him.

Listen to Him.

The Simple Message of Mercy

Mercy. It is a powerful word to the Christian, for it is because of God’s mercy that a poor, wretched sinner, like me, can have a relationship with Almighty God.

Ephesians 2:4-5
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.

We have been saved by grace because God has mercy upon us. What response does this great news require of us in return? Jesus spoke about what He wants from us in Matthew 9:13 instructing us to “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Because God extended mercy to us, we are to extend mercy to others. The question then is this, do we know what mercy is?

The simple answer is to look up the word mercy in the dictionary. The first definition I find when I searched online is a good one. It says that mercy is “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.” In other words, it is giving them something they do not deserve, while holding back the punishment they do. This is what God has done for us by sending Jesus to die on the cross so that we can, not only be forgiven, but are also given His righteousness. This is called imputation in theological terms. It means that though we are still sinners in our thoughts and behaviors, we are cloaked in the robe of Jesus’ righteousness. When God looks upon those He has saved, He sees them just as He sees Jesus, without sin, pure and holy. This means that when a Christian dies, He will enter the presence of God. It means a Christian can come into His presence anytime through prayer. This is why we add “In Jesus’ name” to our prayers.

In terms of practical Christian living we are to also show mercy to those who are not deserving of our love. This includes every and all types of offenders. Drug addicts, prostitutes, adulterers, and even child molesters are to be shown mercy by the Christian.

Does this mean we simply overlook their offenses? No. The Bible is clear that government is put into place to yield the sword against those who perpetuate violence and crime against us. So, yes, we let justice be served within the parameters of our society. It means we protect the innocent. It means we defend life.

But it never authorizes personal hatred towards even the vilest of society. Jesus said we love our enemies. We are called to pray for them. They are a part of the world in which we are sent to preach the Gospel to. We cannot show them the love of Christ if our minds are set on anger and bitterness. This will require a heart of mercy and the only way to have that heart is through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Let us learn what mercy is and let us show the same mercy to all people as God has shown to us. Before our new birth we were enemies of God. Without His grace given, expressed through mercy, we would all be cast into the eternal darkness of hell.

I leave you with the words of the Apostle Paul from His great letter to the Romans. May we all learn what mercy is and make it real in our lives.

Romans 11:30-32
For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy.  For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.

Go now and learn what this means.

 

What We Do When We Find Ourselves Doubting Jesus

Since faith is the way we please God and the only way to salvation, we Christians don’t like to express that we sometimes have doubts. Of course, God knows our thoughts before we think them, so we are not fooling Him. Trying to fool others is just prideful and trying to fool ourselves? Well, that is just silly. But there is a wonderful story in the Bible that shows us that doubt is sometimes going to pop up.

We find this story in Luke 7;18-23 and in Matthew 11:2-6.

In the story, we find John, stuck in a prison for simply being obedient to the call he was given by God. Listen to John’s question of doubt.

Luke 7:18-19
The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

John, the one who baptized Jesus and then personally saw the heavens open, the Spirit of God come down from them, and rest upon Jesus. John, the one who was filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb, and the same John who once said this about Jesus, John 1:29, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” This John expressed doubt later in his life.

Doubt isn’t something we should hold on to, for it will take away your joy if left unfettered. So, what do we do with doubt? The answer is simple. We do as John did and take it to Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. We pray when we doubt. Then we open His Word to hear the truth about the questions we have. Then we believe God. We believe the Word. The Word is Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)

Listen to the wonderful words of the psalmist who instructs us in how to fight doubt.

Psalm 1:1-3
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

God spoke to Joshua and instructed him how not to doubt that he could lead the nation Israel.

Joshua 1:7-8
Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go.  This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.

The Book of the law must depart from our mouths. We must follow the straight path it lays out. We need to be always thinking about its truth so that we may follow how God has instructed us to live.

Peter said this in 2 Peter 1:3, “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence.”

The knowledge of Him comes through the Word of God. It is the place we must go to remove all doubt.

Would You Listen To a Sermon If Jesus Preached?

What if you were driving down the road and saw on a church’s sign that Jesus was preaching that next Sunday? Right there in that little church that you have passed by so many times, Jesus was going to take the pulpit and preach a sermon. The real Jesus, in the form of a man, but the actual Son of God, who was there when the earth was formed and now sits at the right hand of God the Father.

I guarantee that church would be packed and there would be news vans from all over, parked outside, ready to broadcast that sermon. Believers and unbelievers alike, would show up in droves.

Not only would people show up, they would listen attentively. It would be an amazing day.

As a Christian, would you listen? Would you believe Him? Would you do what He said? If you answer yes to those questions, then buckle your seat belts, because I have news for you.

Jesus did show up and preached a sermon to the crowds and we have the recorded words of what He had to say. We do not need Him to come back to our churches, He has already spoken. The truth is that He gave us a sermon and we are to listen to it attentively. We are to believe Him. We are to do the things He said. And what He said is radical. But Jesus said things in His sermon that needs to change our lives and turn us upside down in how we react to people.

Open your Bibles up and read Matthew, chapter 5 through chapter 8, verse 1. Then read Luke 6, 17-49 for the shorter version. This morning I want to share fourteen things Jesus preached that we, as Christians, are to do if we want to be His disciples. Prepare yourselves; it is radical stuff and goes against everything our natural being wants to be.

1.      Love your enemies

2.      Do good to those who hate you

3.      Bless those who curse you

4.      Pray for those who abuse you

5.      Don’t strike back when struck

6.      Don’t worry about what they take from you, give them even more than they take

7.      Give to all who ask or beg

8.      Don’t want back anything taken from you

9.      Do unto others as you wish to be done to

10.  Lend without expectation of repayment

11.  Be merciful, even as God is merciful

12.  Don’t judge

13.  Don’t condemn

14.  Give

 

Yes, we can go down that list and qualify a few things, such as the command not to judge. We have an obligation to use discernment and to call out sin, but in general that type of judgement is not what Jesus is talking about. Read the whole Bible and ask the Holy Spirit to teach you all things and He will.

But there is no doubt Jesus is preaching to us and He is telling us that we are never to react to the unjust acts of the evil world’s people as non-Christians do.

I suggest we study this sermon everyday of our lives and make it the goal of our process to be more like Jesus. Jesus had the authority to command this behavior from us. Listen to how the crowd reacted.

Matthew 7:28-29, 8:1
 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law. When he came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him.

Large crowds followed Him, but the truth is if you read the rest of His story, most of those people ended up leaving Him. They were not true disciples because they did not want to obey the words Jesus spoke.

How about you and me? Will we obey this sermon? Or are we just following Him because His words amaze us and though He speaks with authority as God, we have no intentions of making this type of sacrificial living. We like the whole heaven idea, just not the idea of really living as Christ calls us to. But the truth is, true disciples follow their teacher and they obey. Unless we come to that end, we will not be where we hope to be.

Be blessed. I leave you with the Word of God who has spoken.

Matthew 17:5
 He {Peter} was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Why We Never See Jesus Laugh In The Bible (Part 1)

I love to laugh. Most of us do. In the midst of this life we live, in which many times sorrow and hardship are our bedfellows, laughter is like medicine to our souls. Most of us are familiar with the oft-quoted maxim that says, “Laughter is the best medicine.” Even science and psychologists have come to accept this as a true saying. But did you know that the Bible never records a single moment in which Jesus laughed.

Yes, it’s true, there is not one single reference to any time that Jesus laughed. Now, I am not saying that I don’t believe He never did. Having taken on humanity in His incarnation, Jesus possessed all the same emotions we do, though He never sinned in His expression of them, as we do. But the Bible does not record a single instance in which Jesus laughed. Why not?

The answer to that question is very important in our understanding of who God is. God has revealed Himself to us in scripture and it is the only trustworthy source by which we can come to know and understand Him. We do find that God laughs in the Old Testament. But when God laughs, it appears it is in a derisive way and directed at those foolish enough to plot against Him.

Psalm 2:1-4
Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.”  He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.

Psalm 37:12-13
The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.

Do a word search on laughter in the Bible sometime. It is interesting to see what the Bible has to say about laughter.

Returning now to the thought of Jesus and why we don’t have stories of Him laughing, I think it is important to us to get a good grip on the purpose for Jesus coming to us as a man. Though the answer to this question is a study within itself, I think 1 Timothy 1:15 gives us a simple and concise answer. There we read that “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” And the truth of that mission reveals to us the extreme serious nature of sin as it relates to our most holy God. The holiness of God demands that He not tolerate sin in His Kingdom. (The idea that God cannot be in the presence of sin is the wrong way to describe it since Jesus was fully God and yet was constantly surrounded by sinners sinning.) But the truth is that God’s holiness and His just nature results in righteous indignation that will result in His wrath being poured out in the final judgment against sin. Again, much more to the story than this, but simply put, we are sinners in need of a savior to be restored in fellowship with God. This is why Jesus came.

So, who is this man Jesus, who the Bible never speaks of as having laughed. The Prophet Isaiah gives us a picture of Jesus in Isaiah 53:2-3 saying that “he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.  He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

If you have more than one child, you know that people are born with certain dispositions. You might have one born with a natural inclination towards being happy all the time and maybe your next baby just seems to be more serious. As they grow, distinct personality traits come forth and they become who they are. Jesus is described by the Prophet Isaiah as a man of sorrows. Isaiah goes on to say that He was acquainted with grief and even tells us that He was no beauty that we should desire Him. This does not sound like the picture of Jesus our grandmother had up in her living room. Quite honestly, it doesn’t sound like the Jesus we hear about in church. But to the Christian, it is an imperative that we understand why the Holy Spirit inspired the writers of scripture to describe Him in this way.

Though Jesus came doing miracles and healings to many, the main purpose He came for was to go to the cross. He came to suffer and die. He came to become sin for us, so that we could be redeemed from our own slavery to sin. He came to face the wrath of God so that you and I wouldn’t have to. What He came to do was going to be the most horrible experience anyone might ever imagine. What He came purposed to do is no laughing matter.

This morning I was studying the passage in Mark 14:32-41. I believe that in this short story of the night of His arrest, we can find many truths that will help us understand better, who Jesus is and why He came. Part two of this writing will look into this night that occurs in the Garden of Gethsemane.

I leave you with a thought to ponder about this great passage of scripture. Gethsemane means “olive press.” Olive presses are the tools that extract the oil from the olives by crushing them. That’s how we get Olive Oil. Take time today to read the Gospel accounts of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and meditate on He would be pressed and crushed in the coming hours after praying in the garden.

Until next time, God bless you.

Do You Love God or Do You Hate Him?

There is a lot of hatred for God today. Some of it is disguised by tolerance and acceptance of what He calls sin. Many people think that it is just unloving to speak of sin and call the, now culturally acceptable behaviors, violations of God's commands. People think that Jesus came and loved us and died for us, so we could go to heaven and live forever in some blissful self-existence. Many think it doesn’t matter if we curse, or we live in sexual sin of any kind, or even if we simply violate civil laws that we don’t like.

That type of attitude is a deception of the devil and will result in an eternal destination that the Bible is very candid about. God has spoken clearly in His Word about how we are to behave.

Deuteronomy 7:9-11
Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,  and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face.  You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

Old Testament, you cry out. Once again, Satan has duped you, if that’s what you think. Here is what Jesus had to say about the Law.

Matthew 5:17-20
 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.  Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.  For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

We must understand the truth of the scriptures and take hold of the facts. No one is saved by the law, that is scriptural truth. But that does not have anything to do with the truth that loving God means we love His law and we seek to be Holy, just as He is.

Listen to this story from Mark 12:28-34
And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?”  Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.  And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’  The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”  And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.  And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”  And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

I don’t care what man-made methods of interpretation you have been taught, the main principle of Bible interpretation is that scripture interprets scripture. This means to understand God’s Word you must read it in the context of the entire Bible, not three verses above and three below.

If you want to love God listen to how Jesus said this must be done.

John 14:15
"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

We need to wake up. Our hearts need to be turned towards God and that means what He says, goes. Jesus said we must deny ourselves. Yet, we are a nation of self-indulgence. Read your Bible from cover to cover. It’s the only way to escape the deception Satan is reaping upon God’s people. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to live in us and that empowers us to not only understand God’s Word, but also to employ it in our lives.

Loving God’s means loving His commandments. The opposite of love is hate. Here is what love for God is.

1 John 5:2
By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.

Pride and Humility - Which One Defines Us?

This morning my Bible lesson is a story that always amazes us. Mark 9:33-37 is the story in which Jesus catches the disciples in a pride filled moment. Take a look.

Mark 9:33-35
And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?”  But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.  And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

I love this story. I find it humorous that when Jesus asks them what they have been discussing they just ignore Him and refuse to answer. It’s funny because the man asking the question already knows the answer, He’s God and they know it. The parallel verse from Luke 9:47 explains that “Jesus, knowing the reasoning of their hearts, took a child and put him by his side.” The response of Jesus is classic. He just sits down and gets to the point of revealing their prideful hearts.

We read these stories and wonder how the disciples could be so dense. Jesus is the epitome of humility and they have been under His teaching for a good while and yet they are arguing over which one of them is the greatest.

But who are we to criticize? Many of us have been following Christ a very long time. I have. Yet pride continues to plague us as well. Jesus doesn’t need to know the reasoning of our hearts, He could simply open our Facebook pages where we fill the internet with stories about us. We post this dreadful thing called the selfie and what could possibly defy the concept of humility more? I do it. Just yesterday I put up a post that seemed to be humorous but at its core was my deep-seated desire for approval of others. The world of psychology has convinced us that our problems are rooted in a lack of self-esteem but that is simply not true. We are filled with self-esteem and a desire for more, just as the disciples were. And its destroying this culture. We are the me, me, me culture.

The Bible is replete with instruction against pride. Humility is the hallmark of the true Christian life, yet it is a rare trait amongst even Christians today. This morning we need to go back to the Bible and be reminded of what it says about pride.

Pride defiles us. Look at the other things pride is lumped together with. Be careful judging the sins of others; we aren’t really any better.

Mark 7:20-23
And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him.  For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness.  All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Pride disgraces us.

Proverbs 11:2
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

 

Pride stirs up strife.

Proverbs 28:25
He who is of a proud heart stirs up strife, But he who trusts in the LORD will be prospered.

 Pride will bring judgment.

Proverbs 16:5
Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD; Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.

Pride is an abomination to the Lord. That ought to scare the pride right out of us and it ought to break our hearts.

God does not want us to be prideful in any way of any thing we do. In truth, we didn’t even do it; He did.

Isaiah 66:2
"For My hand made all these things, Thus all these things came into being," declares the LORD. "But to this one I will look, To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

God has made clear what He expects of us.

Micah 6:8
He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

Jesus warned us.

Luke 14:11
"For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

Paul exhorted us.

Philippians 2:3
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves.

James instructed us.

James 4:10
Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Jesus set the example as Paul explained.

Philippians 2:5-8
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,  but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. There is that word again; obedient. Humility is not an option for the Christian and if we made it real in our lives we would change the world.

I am guilty. How about you?

The writer of Hebrews speaks to our hearts and I close with that reading. We all need to regroup and refocus. This is a good place to start for none of us are where we ought to be.

Hebrews 12:1-4
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.  In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.