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Teaching Them

The Christian Walk has been described as one beggar showing another beggar where to find food.  This illustrates wonderfully how one of our primary missions on this earth is to instruct others in the way of salvation.

I. Matthew 28:18-20.  Animals know how to live by instinct, but human beings need to be taught (Genesis 3:5-22).  God has given us the Bible to instruct us in the way of salvation (2 Timothy 3:16-17) and displayed His power in creation to know that He is God (Romans 1:18-22).  So, it is no wonder that Jesus seeks and saves the lost (Luke 19:10) today by equipping us to make disciples through teaching others the gospel.

II. Ephesians 4:11-16.  But, the teaching does not stop there.  After making disciples, we are to teach them to obey all of Jesus’ commands.  To do that, Jesus established His church (Matthew 16:18) as a center of learning, where the lost can hear the gospel, yes, but where the church, speaking the truth in love, can build itself up in love.  Our teaching should not be confined within the walls of buildings, however, but the church, attaining unity and maturity in Jesus, should go forth and teach.

III. John 13:13-34.  We glimpse Jesus’ great love that motivated Him to live a number of years in the flesh to instruct us in the way of salvation before going to the cross for us in love.  In Matthew 23:37, He laments that Jerusalem persisted in sin while so many prophets had come to teach the city and the nation throughout the centuries.  That same love is our motivation as we take up Jesus’ mission to teach others by word and by deed, by our very lives, the way back to God.

By learning do we now understand our world, and so God, in His infinite wisdom, taught us who He is and how to return to Him.  Then, having come to know Him, we are, in turn, told to teach others.

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What we think we know

Father, what we think we know we’ve no idea and what we ought to know we show little interest. Bring us out of ignorance and into your light!

We fool ourselves into thinking we’re strong, and where true strength lies we consider weakness. Break us that we may be remade into the iron of Spirit.

The wealth of the world is our frenzied pursuit, while true and lasting riches lie untapped. Strip us of trust in possessions and money, that we might receive the treasures of Christ.

We’ve tried it all in our pursuit of happiness, except the everlasting joy that comes from life with you. Let all our earthly joys wilt like yesterday’s flowers, in order to catch a vision of heavenly blessing.

The world of experiences is where we think we’re really living, but eternal life holds no thrill for us. Make us die to this world, that we might live for you.

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Bible.11: You Search the Scriptures

Can you imagine a husband checking off a marriage list at the end of the day that included items like told her I loved her, kissed her, bought flowers, warmed her car ….  The very nature of a relationship defies a checklist.  It is intimate, deep, and abiding.  And, while you can gain knowledge about your spouse, it is the application of that knowledge in your marriage that makes it a good relationship.

So it is with God.  Knowledge of His Word is not the end but only the means to an end.  It is what we are doing with that knowledge that makes all the difference.

I. John 5:36-40.  Knowing the Bible isn’t the same as knowing God.  This is what Jesus tried to get the Jews who were seeking to kill Him to understand.  He does not refute that their Bible study was diligent.  Nor does He dispute that in the Scriptures can they find the way to eternal life.  Their struggle was in application.  They refused to obey to know God (1 John 2:3-6), live them out, and recognize that they testified about Him.

II. Matthew 7:21-23.  Bible study is the means to an abiding relationship with God.  Since Adam and Eve ate the fruit and became like God, knowing good and evil (Genesis 3:6-22), we have had to perceive the world through knowledge.  Animals have instincts; we must be taught.  This has many downfalls, but the biggest one is believing that if we are doing for God, then He knows us.  In our attitudes towards worship, attendance, serving, prayer, and His Word, are we “doing His will”?

III. Hebrews 4:12-13.  One of the reasons they, and we, refuse to come to Jesus to have eternal life is because we don’t like the double-edge on the Sword of the Spirit that cuts back on us as we try to wield this knowledge on others.  Neither do we like our deeds exposed by the light (John 3:19-21), so we keep from applying knowledge of God’s Word from becoming obedience.  We do not commit to an abiding relationship with God and so live in a state of quasi-light and quasi-darkness.

Many books have been written about how to have a better marriage, and these are people’s best guesses at situations that vary from spouse to spouse.  But, only one Book has been written by God Himself that helps us have an abiding relationship with Him.  Do you study it to love Him more?

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In the midst of confusion

Father, in the midst of confusion, bring us clarity.

When doubt appears, give us faith.

When ignorance rears its head, bring knowledge to bear.

With temptation, show us our escape.

When emotions flare, let peace descend upon us.

At the first sign of social pressure, let love for Christ prevail.

Worries would dog us daily, so let our prayers deliver them up to you.

Feelings of failure threaten to drag us down, but show us the fruit of spiritual labor.

When we feel weak, show us the power of your Holy Spirit.

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Rethink Your Religion

Recently my wife and I attended a high school musical to support some of her students involved.  We asked a teacher selling tickets how it was, and her answer was “It’s so good, it’ll make you rethink your religion.”  This drastic measure is similar to the southern expression, “It’s so good, it’ll make you slap your Mama.”  Here, the food someone is eating is so delicious that the eater will be forced to strike his mother because her homemade cooking doesn’t compare.  While it was not intended to be a personal slight against our faith, ‘religion,’ in the first expression, is recognized as something intensely meaningful to people.  And so, to describe how good she considered the show, she said the experience would make us reconsider our core values–even the gospel that brings salvation!

I. Colossians 2:6-23.  The postmodern world we live in doesn’t believe in God and so has severed itself from Him and His Word as a standard for our lives.  It desperately seeks meaning and purpose and so grabs onto emotion and experience to futilely try to quench that need.  Sadly, many churches believe they must infuse their worship with the “hollow and deceptive philosophy” of the world as they have missed the deep and sufficient meaning and purpose in the gospel of Christ.

II. Acts 9:1-22.  There is a time to ‘rethink our religion.’  Saul, who became Paul, encountered such a time on the road to Damascus as he was “breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples.”  When he realized he was persecuting Jesus who not only gives eternal life but a second chance on life, he was baptized and became a powerful preacher in the early church, who was willing to be persecuted for Jesus instead (Philippians 3:10-11).

III. Acts 18:24-28.  Complacency or misdirected zeal is another reason to ‘rethink our religion.’  There was no doubt that Apollos was a bold preacher already, but his knowledge was insufficient.  After Priscilla and Aquilla took him aside and “explained to him the way of God more adequately,” God used him to debate and prove from the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.  A similar story happens with those still called “disciples” that Paul encountered that didn’t know about the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7).

Although the acting and musicianship of my wife’s students were superb, we didn’t much care for the worldly message of the musical.  The good and enjoyable experience was not enough for us to ‘rethink our religion,’ and we left sad for the wonderful packaging wrapped around ungodly themes but still holding onto our core values of the gospel of Christ.  What else could compare to it?

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Fulfilled in Your Hearing

“Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.  The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, ‘Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” Luke 4:20-21.  For centuries, God’s chosen people had been expecting a Savior, God Himself.  In one of those passages, Isaiah had written over 700 years before that the Messiah would fulfill certain requirements: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”  After returning to Galilee after His baptism and temptation in the power of the Spirit, news spread about Him and He taught in the area’s synagogues.  It was in His hometown of Nazareth, however, where everyone knew Him as ‘Joseph’s son,’ that He chose to declare Himself, through the fulfillment of Isaiah 61, to be the Christ and God Himself!  No wonder those who remembered Jesus lugging tools for His earthly father were furious and wanted to drive Him off a cliff.  Who do you understand Jesus to be?

As all were praising Jesus at the beginning of His ministry, He went back to His hometown.

I.  Luke 4:14-22.  A hometown boy was gaining noteriety, and so the synagogue in Nazareth must have been packed when Jesus was handed the scroll of Isaiah and read a prophecy of the coming Messiah that they had all heard numerous times before.  Then, he did the unthinkable; He assigned those words uttered seven centuries before to Himself and let them sink in to the local crowd.

II.  Luke 4:23-30.  It was blasphemy if not true, the fulfillment of all that the Jews had been waiting for if it was.  But, rather than letting the neighbors from His childhood wrestle with this, Jesus confronted them with the truth–that accepting Him as the prophesied Christ meant that God would open the gospel to all people.  This was something the crowd gathered to hear the old stories wasn’t ready for.

III.  Luke 8:5-15.  How about us?  Many of us gather in Jesus’ hometown every Sunday morning out of habit or because we’re hoping to be entertained.  We can’t wait to hear what He’s been up to lately and some of the old stories that are comfortable.  But, He confronts us there on a personal level, challenging our understanding of who He is.  Will we accept that or try to drive Him over a cliff?

Sometimes it is those who have known Him the longest who need re-assess our view of Jesus.  If He truly is the Christ, how does that change us?

 

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Let Me Not Be Deceived

Dear God, let me not be deceived,
I want to know the freedom of truth,
I want to do your will—fully,
Let me not fear the knowledge of Christ.

Read John 7.17 and this VOTD.

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Protect our house this day from evil

Heavenly Father, protect our house this day from evil. Let us walk in your presence. May your hands bless our home, our marriage, our coming and going, our rising and our rest.

Help us to serve the brethren well and strengthen, and perhaps even save, relationships with you, with each other, with those outside of Christ.

Focus my mind on your goodness, on acting with knowledge, on being patient and grateful.

Strengthen me to take the steps forward that I need to take today. Help me consider the present, leaving in your hands the cares of the future.

Thank you for health, for work, for opportunity, for faith, for family, for life’s necessities, for eternity’s door in Jesus Christ my Savior.

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What God does not want you to know

  1. God doesn’t want you to know the hurt and pain of sin.

  2. God doesn’t want you to know the loneliness of selfishness.

  3. God doesn’t want you to know the suffering of eternity.