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I Am Your Portion

Is fairness everyone getting an equal portion or what he or she needs?  Was it fair that Uzzah died trying to steady the ark (1 Chronicles 13-15) or should the priests have stepped up to do what was only their job?

I. Numbers 18:20-23.  God made the Levites priests and said that He would be their portion and inheritance in this life, and so as they served Him–which included carrying the ark of the Lord, He would care for them.  A treasured possession the whole nation were priests (Exodus 19:5-6, Lamentations 3:21-26), and thus in the New Testament so are Christians (1 Peter 2:4-5).  Thus, God is our portion too.

II. Joshua 21:41-42.  God scattered his priests of the Old Testament and New Testament (Acts 8:1-4) so they could capture souls and keep others connected to Him.  So, seeking and saving the lost (Luke 19:10) is our work (1 Corinthians 15:58).  When we bury the talent with which we were entrusted (Matthew 25:24-29), then the Uzzahs around us touch the ark we should be carrying and die.

III. Jonah 4:9-11.  When we don’t invest what God has entrusted us with to yield interest for Him, He tells us that even what we do have He’ll take away.  Many times we justify not investing because we’ve judged others as unworthy of salvation.  That’s what Jonah did.  Rather, we must help others (Galatians 6:1-2) out of sincere love for them (1 John 4:20).  Then we can run our race with perseverance (Hebrews 12:1).

We’ve been entrusted with the gospel message.  How many Uzzahs are steadying arks on carts around us while we remain silent?  Is the Lord your portion?

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And the Lord Added

Any bride beginning a new marriage would have trouble if she only spent 1-3 hours with her husband, spoke to him only when she needed something, made excuses to not study him, and never wanted to spend time with his family.  Yet, that’s often how we treat our relationship with our Bridegroom, Christ (Acts 2:42-47).

I. Ephesians 5:21-24.  Our work in our relationship with Christ is to devote ourselves to Him.  One of the words used to describe how we are to work in 1 Corinthians 15:58 is ‘steadfast,’ which is the way that the KJV translates how early Christians approached their new relationship with their Bridegroom.  Other translations use ‘devoted,’ which Paul and James say is to wholeheartedly submit to our Husband (James 4:7-10).

II. Ephesians 5:25-27.  There’s mutual benefit when both work in a relationship.  Jesus sanctifies His bride, the church, so that it can glorify Him.  He died for us to give us life, so we set our hearts and minds on things above (Colossians 3:1-4).  When someone’s hobby, such as fishing or cars, is his life, it’s obvious.  Christ is our life now, and so this ought to be obvious in what is important to us and how we live.  This was obvious with the early Christians.

III. Ephesians 5:28-30.  Faithfulness and steadfast love being the foundation of God’s character (Psalm 89:14), He never changes in our relationship with Him (2 Timothy 2:11-13).  He equips us out of love with what we need, but our job is to grow in Him (Ephesians 4:15-16).  In the ‘Great Commission of Matthew 28:18-20, we can see the dating phase that with our Bridegroom’s authority, we are to make disciples.  The wedding occurs as they are baptized and the Lord adds them to His bride, the church.

Then, the marriage begins as we work to keep them as disciples with Jesus’ help.  Any relationship takes much work to maintain.  How are you growing in yours?

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Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

In this greatest of stories, a righteous God redeems sinful man.  In its beginning, man is pitted against God, other men, and himself because of sin and faces an eternity separated from his Creator in hell.  But in the suspense-filled climax, when it looks like Satan has won by putting our Savior on the cross and in the tomb, Jesus rises from the dead, so that we may too!  What a resolution!  It’s no wonder that “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today” is one of our most beloved hymns:

Christ, the Lord, is ris’n today, Hallelujah! Sons of men and angels say, Hallelujah! Raise your joys and triumphs high, Hallelujah! Sing, ye heav’ns; thou earth, reply, Hallelujah!

I. John 19:38-30.  As the second stanza states, love’s redeeming work was certainly done (1 John 4:9-10). Never having to face death again, it no longer had mastery over Jesus (Romans 6:9) and so not us either as we are ransomed from our futile ways (1 Peter 1:17-18):

Love’s redeeming work is done, Hallelujah! Fought the fight, the battle won, Hallelujah! Lo! Our sun’s eclipse is o’er, Hallelujah! Lo! He sets in blood no more, Hallelujah!

II. Matthew 27:63-66.  Concern from the Jewish leaders that Jesus’ followers would steal the body and claim that He had risen from the dead prompted them to lie when Pilate eliminated all explanations for the empty tomb except that Jesus had actually risen (Romans 3:21-26):

Vain the stone, the watch, the seal, Hallelujah! Christ hath burst the gates of hell, Hallelujah! Death in vain forbids His rise, Hallelujah! Christ hath opened paradise, Hallelujah!

III. Luke 24:5-7.  The angel proclaims this fact as well.  We should not look for the living among the dead anymore for Jesus is risen and will never again die (Revelation 1:17-18).  Because He overcame death, so can we.  Death can have no hold on us ever again (1 Corinthians 15:54-57):

Lives again our glorious King, Hallelujah! Where, O death, is now thy sting? Hallelujah! Once He died our souls to save, Hallelujah! Where’s thy vict’ry, boasting grave? Hallelujah!

And that is indeed good news! Having obeyed the gospel, are you living as if Jesus is risen or still in the tomb?

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Should Not Trouble

We want the community to obey the gospel and come into the church, but we don’t want the church to compromise truth and become the culture.  U.S. church attendance has fallen from over 70% around WWII to less than 47% today.  This means that the aging baby boomers (ages 60s through early 80s), who have lived through very challenging societal changes in their decades of life, are the ones filling our pews.  How can the church today hope to grow?

I. Acts 11:19-21.  Antioch saw changes in the church.  Exclusively Jewish in its traditions and knowledge until God opened the door to the gentiles, Jesus’ church was suddenly overwhelmed with believers who had obeyed the gospel but came from a denominational (pagan) and unchurched backgrounds.  Today’s faithful don’t fear opening our buildings to our communities without reason.  During the turbulent ’60s, divisive ’80s, and combative 2000s, the culture deviated from truth while the church held fast but became unrecognizable to each generation.  Sadly, a church that no longer looks like the community it is in soon dies.

II. Acts 15:6-20.  Leaders in Jerusalem told the Antioch church to extend the same grace to those from the outside coming in as God had already given to those who had been in the church.  It was God’s church, not theirs, and He was restoring His fallen tent.  Giving grace means WORK for us as we convert the fallen away, the denominationalists, and the unchurched, who are all products of the current culture we live in.  The easier ways of growth closed off to us, the church must return to the method that worked when it last looked like its communities.

III.  John 15:16-18.  While doing the difficult work of going into our communities and making disciples, we “should not trouble” those escaping the corruption of the world by keeping them from returning to it.  We can extend grace and love as Jesus loves without compromising truth.  If we do this, His church will be forever changed, yes, but it will thrive into the future.

 

 

 

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I Want to Be a Worker

From the shade with a cold drink in one hand and a fan in the other, many who were once workers for the Lord now watch the dwindling few still sweating in the harvest field.  We come up with a variety of excuses as to why we’re on our extended break: we’re too … old, tired, busy, or sore!  Or, the work is too difficult or dangerous … people just aren’t receptive enough anymore to the gospel … or the world doesn’t allow us to reach out like we did years ago.

I. Luke 10:1.  To be  a worker for the Lord, you must want to love and trust His holy Word, just as the song says:

I want to be a worker for the Lord; I want to love and trust His holy word; I want to sing and pray, and be busy ev’ry day, In the vineyard of the Lord.

Just before Jesus sends out 72 disciples ahead of Him, He tells several that following Him requires diligent and often difficult hard work (Luke 9:57-62).  The well-known servant to the poor, Mother Teresa, died at 87 still working with her last strength.  can we argue that love and trust for Jesus’ Word isn’t connected to faithful action (James 1:22) when His Word tells us that if we love Him, we will obey His commands (John 14:15)?  Are we not told to serve one another through love (Galatians 5:13)?  And to love and forgive one another as Jesus did (John 15:13; Colossians 3:13)?

II. Luke 10:2-3a.  To be a worker for the Lord, you must want to lead the erring in the way, again as the song says:

I want to be a worker every day; I want to lead the erring in the way That leads to heav’n above, where all is peace and love, In the kingdom of the Lord.

Because we’ve used Luke 10:2 to promote the need for evangelism but disconnected it from our personal responsibility, we pray often that God will send workers to His harvest field.  If He hasn’t and the attendance in our assemblies shrinks, we shrug because God is in charge of the increase after all (1 Corinthians 3:6).  Peering into the brightness at the shady edge of the harvest field, we lament how few are laboring in the hot sun to fill the Master’s barn with sheaves.  Yet, just as the 72 were sent, so are we (Matthew 28:18-20) and also to our erring, fellow workers (Galatians 6:1-2; Matthew 18:15-17).

III. Luke 10:3.  To be a worker for the Lord, you must want to trust in Jesus’ power to save, as the song tells us:

I want to be a worker strong and brave; I want to trust in Jesus’ pow’r to save; All who will truly come shall find a happy home, In the kingdom of the Lord.

He sent them out like lambs among wolves!  Why would Jesus do that? It’s because we partaking in our own adventure is that important to Him.  God is wild at heart and wants those made in His image to step out of our comfort zones to do the work He’s prepared for us.  Out of fear we make excuses and justify why we can’t do that work, placing our limitations on the God for whom nothing is impossible.  But, obedience is required from faith (Romans 1:4-5; James 2:14-17), and God, who promises to be with us, lets us wield His divine power to demolish strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3-5).

Wanting to be a worker for the Lord begins with obedience to the gospel.  You’ve got to don our work clothes (Galatians 3:26-27) and then head out into the field.  If the song has changed for you, a longtime resident of the shade, to “I want to sit in pews for the Lord …” then perhaps it’s time to step out onto the soil and become a worker once more.  Do you want to be a worker for the Lord?

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Work Out Your Own Salvation

After the wedding is over, who does the work in the marriage relationship?  The answer is both … if the marriage is to be successful.  So it must be when we enter into a relationship with Christ.  The Bridegroom has conquered sin and death by the cross and the tomb, but believers meet Him at the altar by obeying the gospel.  In baptism the wedding is over, how now can the marriage work?

I.  Galatians 3:26-29.  When we enter that covenant, we become “heirs according to the promise.”  No longer separated by our sins from God, we become children of God, “provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:16-17).  Some of that suffering comes from choosing to walk according to Scripture instead of in the way of the religious world around us.  It’s a very narrow path to navigate (Matthew 7:13-14).  Stray a little too much towards ritual and our faith becomes a Checklist Christianity; a little too much towards relationship and it becomes Cultural Christianity.  Rather, true worshipers will worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).

II.  Philippians 2:12-16.  For our part, we must work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.  And it is hard work indeed.  Maintaining any good relationship is.  We must not grumble or argue to not wreck our influence for the gospel of Christ.  There is a process of partaking in the divine nature and escaping the corruption of the world.  We must add various virtues one to another in increasing measure and practice them with diligence to not fall and find a rich welcome in the Kingdom of God (1 Peter 1:3-11). Only you can strengthen or destroy your own relationship in Christ.

III.  Hebrews 10:38-39.  For His part, God promises to work in you, to work and to will for His pleasure.  So, as you are working out your own salvation, He is molding and shaping you into His Son’s image.  So, faithful living requires many moment-to-moment decisions to walk as Christ did (1 John 2:6).  We can no longer live for ourselves but rather make it our aim to please Him (2 Corinthians 5:9).  As two become one in marriage, we are, as members of Christ’s bride, united with our Bridegroom in death and so also life (Galatians 2:20 and Romans 6:5).  Therefore, we do not shrink back but live by faith

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For Ezra had Set His Heart

Is a person just blessed to be selected from the world by God for great things … or does God use a person for great things because he selects God over the world?
I.  The answer to this question is so important in the ‘hand-out’ culture that we live in. If God just randomly chooses a person for great things, then that gives us an excuse not to do great things for Him because “He hasn’t selected me.” This would mean that God’s sovereignty is really favoritism (Ephesians 6:9) at its worst and lets us shrink back into His spiritual welfare system waiting for our next scrap.
But God has always been about our individual responsibility. He did the work of salvation through His Son on the cross, yes, but we are to believe, obey, love, forgive, serve, and go–among other acts of obedience. These are actions that require us to stand up from our spiritual couches, brush the crumbs off our laps, and roll up our sleeves.
II.  God raised up Ezra to be a priest to lead His people returning from exile in the way of the Lord. Was Ezra just in the right place at the right time to get chosen haphazardly? Ezra 7:9-10 says, “… the good hand of his God was on him. For Ezra had set his heart TO STUDY the Law of the Lord, and TO DO it and TO TEACH his statues and rules in Israel.”  What have you set your heart to DO for Him?
III.  Sounds like Ezra was no spiritual slacker. What about us? Ephesians 2:10 tell us, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” Each and every day good works for each of us have been prepared in this day that the Lord has made.  Are you walking in them?  Are you diligent in your search to know what they are?
And so neither is God a spiritual slacker as He plans for us.  If God could raise up an Ezra who would make good choices at the right time to be used by God to do great things for His Kingdom, then what has He planned for you to DO today? Rather than dwell on opportunities missed, might you be rolling up your sleeves and be willing to DO all that He has planned for you to Do tomorrow?
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Help Me Flee the Noise

Help me flee the noise to hear your voice,
O Speaker of all wisdom — let suffice
A quiet time and place, with open Book,
When I might find my food, both meat and milk.

The world is starving, and with it I shall starve
Without a Word to go on — how can I live
Unnourished by your bread? Lord, break for me
The simple meal of power without delay.

And bread of work! Amid the busy tasks
Of daily life — your will the follower seeks
To do, to lead the lonely into your presence,
To show yourself benevolent, good, and friendly.

How can I lead another to where I am not?
Secure me in Christ, where you my sins forgot —
And from this place of strength and love may I
Bring many more to grace in full supply.

For thoughts on life, faith, and meaning, follow the author on his personal website. And please share this prayer, if you found it helpful.

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Greater Things Than These

Usually a death bed promise works the other way.  The one who will continue on promises to do something after the loved one is gone.  As further proof of the resurrection, Jesus, while still alive but soon to die on the cross, makes a promise to His church that through Him (alive again and interceding for us at the Father’s side) we will do greater things than He did while on the earth.

I.  John 14:12-14.  There’s no doubt that Jesus did great things in His three-year earthly ministry.  After all, He was God in the flesh.  But the King of Kings showed Himself to be the servant of servants with great compassion: touching the leper, raising the widow’s only son from death, multiplying food to feed the hungry masses following Him, casting out demons from a man long bound.  And while He did these things, He spoke of how we would become parts of His body (Matthew 16:18), bought with His blood (Acts 20:28) and disciplined to share in His holiness (Hebrews 12:7-11).  Why?  So that we might serve as He did (Galatians 5:13).

II.  Romans 12:4-8.  Belief in Him is essential for the various body parts to work together to do great works (John 10:37-38).  We are to walk by faith (2 Corinthians 5:7) and walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:6).  Not awkward like the participants in a three-legged race, we are to move together as one body, seeing ourselves as parts of the body contributing to its working and connected to the Head (Colossians 2:19).  Whatever your function, you are essential to Christ’s body serving properly.

III.  John 13:12-17.  We stand in awe of what the Amish can accomplish in just one day by working together … and without power tools.  But Jesus promises the body that we will do even greater things than what He did while in his body.  We certainly see His enemies powerless from the start (Acts 4:14-16) to thwart a unified body.  Even their efforts to smash the hornet’s nest in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1-4) backfired as the scattered disciples preached the gospel wherever they went.  So, as an individual body part, how are you serving in your personal ministry?  And, as a member of Christ’s body, how are you working together with others to serve and function as one body?

Jesus built His church with His own blood so that Christians around the world could serve together in local bodies and together be the body of Christ with Him as its Head.  It starts with you.  How are you serving as Christ did?

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He Went About Doing Good

When someone says ‘good enough,’ he’s referring to a minimum standard he hopes he has met.  Many around us often express that they hope the good they have done will be ‘good enough’ to get them into heaven–as if God is weighing deeds with some great cosmic scale.

In addition to believing that God has a minimum standard for entrance into heaven, another problem with this view is that it eliminates Jesus and His work on the cross and in the tomb entirely from the solution for sin.

I.  Acts 10:1-48.  If there was such a cosmic scale, Cornelius had tipped it heavily towards the good.  He had good deeds as well as having a good character … but God said that all that was not ‘good enough’ and sent Peter to preach the gospel to him.  It was after Cornelius obeyed the gospel that he had salvation.

II.  Hebrews 5:7-9.  Once God had taken on flesh in the person of Jesus and went about doing good works as Peter described Him to Cornelius (Acts 10:38), wasn’t that ‘good enough’ to get Him into heaven?  After all, Jesus was sinless (2 Corinthians 5:21).  No, He needed to learn obedience from what He suffered and with loud tears cry out to God who was able to save Him.

III.  Ephesians 2:8-9.  Having been saved through Jesus’ obedience, we must not think that we can ever be ‘good enough’ to somehow work our way to heaven.  Rather, we, who are in Christ, do good works out of obedience to the One who saved us through His obedience.  We walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:1-6).

We must examine why we do good things.  Are we doing them to earn our way to heaven (working) or are we doing them as acts of obedience (walking)?  ‘Good enough’ is never ‘good enough’ with God.  He holds us to the maximum standard that His Son has met, so that in Him we can meet it too.  This is why the gospel truly is good news!