Lord God, we thank you for life today.
Among us, edify your church.
May praise be true, and hearts sincere.
We bow before you in trembling fear.
May ours be no superficial search.
Amen, amen! In Christ we pray.
They’ll Know We are Christians …
Loud is the world in its various forms and cluttered is our landscape with signs and advertising. It’s so hard to escape the bombardment–and still we fill our quiet time with TV in our homes and the radio in our cars. Yet God tells us, “In returning and rest (or repentance) you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength …” Isaiah 30:15. Must we compete with the world to reach out with the gospel? And how do we be IN the world without being OF the world? They hymn, “They’ll Know We are Christians” helps us to know:
I. Ephesians 4:1-6. They’ll know we are Christians by our warfare. As the first stanza goes:
We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, We are one in the Spirit, we are one in the Lord, And we pray that our unity may one day be restored
Unity in Christ is a big factor in being to wage war not as the world does but with divine power to demolish strongholds and take thoughts captive for Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). When Elijah was struggling after Jezebel threatened his life, God restored him with hot food and quiet rest, told him he was not alone, and reminded him that He was found not in the ways the world defined power but in “thin silence” (1 Kings 19:9-13).
II. 1 John 1:5–2:6. They’ll know we are Christians by our walk. The second stanza continues:
We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand, We will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand, And together we’ll spread the news that God is in our land
First, we must walk with God in the light because His very nature is light. Then, we find Jesus’ blood washing us clean as we walk in fellowship with others who are also walking in the light. This means walking in obedience to truly know God and walking as Jesus did as an imitation of Him. Only then are we in a position to teach the gospel as it comes from the same compassion for the lost that Jesus had (Matthew 9:35-38).
III. Luke 18:35-43. They’ll know we are Christians by our worship. The final stanza declares:
All praise to the Father, from whom all things come, And all praise to Christ Jesus, His only Son, And all praise to the Spirit who makes us one
After a blind beggar, who had faith to be made well, was healed by Jesus, he “followed him, glorifying God.” The passage concludes with the people who saw this giving praise to God as well. We must give praise continually to God (Psalm 99:1-9). When we live our lives as a living sacrifice, others see our spiritual act of worship (Romans 12:1-2) and give God praise and glory too. This subtle advertising is the best billboard for the gospel.
The song concludes by telling us that it is by our love–even for those hardest to love–that the world will know that we are followers of Christ … just as Jesus told us (John 13:34-35, Matthew 5:43-48, 1 John 3:11-24):
And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, Yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.
Do they know that you’re a Christian?
The Storm
He said to them, “I am a Hebrew, and I worship the Lord, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land.” Jonah 1.9.
Behind the storm hides your hand,
O sovereign God o’er sky and land,
The waves toss high, the winds blow hard,
For man the depths have no regard —
But you, O Lord, you look to save,
And snatch the soul from Satan’s grave.
Above the storm in heaven you reign,
O God, invisible, present in pain,
From you to Tarsis’ shores we flee,
When with your mercy we disagree.
But you, the God of second chance,
Are God of heaven’s wide expanse.
Within the storm the pagans tremble,
In ignorant worship they assemble,
But you, O God, would have them know
To whom all praise and thanks we owe.
Then cast us over — make this storm cease,
So wills and souls may be at peace.
The Father is Seeking Such People
The Japanese art of kintsugi or ‘golden repair’ mends broken pottery with gold, silver, or platinum, and in the end, makes the piece worth more than it originally did. While all we see are the ways in which we have been broken by sin, God, who loves us unconditionally, sees our great value to Him. We are to return that love in kind through true worship.
I. Romans 8:28-39. The body is loved by the Bridegroom. Academically, we don’t doubt His love for us (Romans 5:6-8), we claim. We just doubt our worth. But, many know that a parent’s love for a child doesn’t make the value of that child go up or down depending on the child’s behavior. So, God loves us greatly and assigns us infinite value–so much that He gave us His Son.
II. John 4:23-26. The Bridegroom is seeking true worshipers. When two single people are attracted to one another, they seek each other with a desperation, hoping that he or she is the one to marry. So, even though God loves all He has made, He is seeking ‘true worshipers,’ those who will be part of His bride, the church, and will love Him back (in spirit and truth). That manifests itself in repentance (Luke 15:4-21) as He mends us back together in kintsugi-like fashion to make us more valuable to Him than we were before.
III. Revelation 19:7-9. The bride makes herself ready, her fine linen the righteous acts of the saints. This is the true worship she engages in–that which is in spirit and truth. So many today have the zeal for God without right doctrine. They are like blindfolded dart players, rarely hitting the target. Like the five virgins who had forgotten to buy oil for their lamps, they eagerly await the Bridegroom in vain (Matthew 25:1-13). We must return His seeking of us with true worship that combines both.
Any relationship is two-sided. We deceive ourselves if we believe God will seek us if we aren’t seeking Him in return. We must return His love with true worship.
We desire to do your will completely
Eternal God,
Give us endurance until the end,
Integrity of heart and hands,
Courage in the face of opposition,
Honor when our names are reviled,
Strength in the hour of temptation,
Love when others reject us,
Holiness in the midst of an immoral world. Continue reading “We desire to do your will completely”
Let Jesus Be
Let Jesus be my light and joy,
Yes, this, O God, is what I want —
Surrender wild and worried mind,
Messiah’s peace and power rule.
Let Jesus be my greater work,
O Father, in me be glorified —
That I and all eternally share
Your life among the worshiping saints.
Lord of the Sabbath
“Then Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath’” Luke 6:5. Do we exist to obey laws or do laws exist to benefit us? One of the Ten Commandments for the Israelites was to keep the Sabbath. Nibbling on a few heads of grain to satisfy hunger was allowed by the Law, but the Pharisees saw that being done on the seventh day, in a very technical sense, as doing work and called Jesus out on it. Jesus used the feeding of David’s men with the consecrated bread when they were fleeing Saul as an example from the past and then an illustration in the present to get to the very heart of the issue: “which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?” God didn’t create laws, then, just for something for us to obey; they are to help us as individuals or as a collective to draw closer to Him. As a society, we create laws that we deem are necessary to benefit society. A police officer could ticket a man for driving the speed limit if the conditions are icy and he is a danger to others or himself. It is only in grasping this concept that we can draw deeper into our relationship with the Lord of the Sabbath when we are under grace and truth. Do you?
I. Luke 6:1-11. Was what Jesus’ followers were doing ‘unlawful’? Technically, yes, but that was a strictly by the letter of the Law. They were doing work on the Sabbath. By the example of David eating the consecrated bread (1 Samuel 21:4-6), however, Jesus pointed out that obedience to God’s commands are also in spirit. The Law exists to serve man rather than man existing to serve the Law.
II. Romans 2:25-29. Though written to Jews who were trusting in their circumcision to save them, the same could be said to Christians who only trust in an outward checklist of hearing, belief, repentance, confession, and baptism to enter heaven one day. An inward circumcision of our hearts, a living out of a submissive obedience, is also necessary. This is why God, not ourselves, is the Judge when someone dies. We can know if the person ever outwardly obeyed in baptism to receive the promise of eternal life, but only God can judge how that person lived out his obedience in daily living.
III. 1 John 2:3-6. We must live in Jesus by grace and truth (John 1:17). This does not, however, give us a license to sin (Galatians 5:13) or go to the opposite extreme by making Christianity a list of dos and don’ts (Colossians 2:20-23). Rather, our daily walk must be as Jesus walked, being a true worshipper, worshipping in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).
Though God and Lord of the Sabbath, Jesus while in flesh had to submit in every way just as we do. He set us an example by showing us that true obedience to God is in both spirit and truth.
Meetings that reach mind, emotions and will
Lord, make this a blessed day for edifying the saints. Put in our hearts to serve you and to seek out every opportunity for doing good. Make us see the good that can be done by being present with the family of faith.
Help us all to ask what we can do to serve and encourage one another. Put a needy brother or sister in our path.
Help us to use our time today in preparation for making our meeting informative, inspiring, and motivating. May our meetings in this way reach the mind, the emotions, and the will.
God Sees Our Hearts
Hebrews 4:12-13 (NIV)
“For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”
God sees our hearts. I have heard that phrase uttered to discount deliberate deviation from God’s Word. But most often it is used as an excuse to not try to do His will.
Some people cannot walk into a house without straightening a picture they see crooked on the wall. The homeowner doesn’t shrug and say it was the thought that counted or mutter that he had a level but was too lazy to use it. God sees in what ways our lives are crooked and doesn’t accept our fumbled excuses. Rather, He tells us to “be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” Matthew 5:48.
But there’s grace, we cry out! Sure there is, but we cannot be like the Roman Christians who thought they could keep on sinning so that grace might increase (Romans 6:1). His grace, freely given and possible through the death of God’s Son on the cross, cannot be our excuse to sin.
True worshipers, Jesus tells us, worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). This means that our Christianity cannot just become a checklist and be pleasing to God. Neither, though, can it be just whatever feels good and right. Emotion and experience, in our assemblies or our personal lives, do more to please ourselves than they do God.
In my toolbox I have a plumb line that my dad gave me when I left home. In a world of transits and laser levels, we’ve forgotten how our grandfathers used to build things square. God had the prophet Amos tell His people of the Old Testament before the Assyrians swept through that He was going to set a plumb line among them and spare them no longer. They had the Law to tell them how to live to please Him. “God sees our hearts” was not good enough.
And so we have the plumb line of the Word of God that judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. We may deceive ourselves with our motives and excuses, but nothing is hidden from God. To Him, our heart is laid bare. He knows if we are true worshipers, worshipping Him in spirit and in truth.
We must correct our lives in accordance with the plumb line of His Word because it is true, what we say—God sees our hearts.
[This article will also appear in the next issue of Christ For Today, David Tarbet editor.]
Praise for Word and Rescue
Father of lights, Eternal Lord,
We praise you, Sovereign God, for Word
And Rescue, heavenly thought and act,
For total truth and gospel fact,
For precious promises, all fulfilled,
For power of your command which stilled
The winds and water, and human heart;
For love—from which no force can part
The faithful; for glad humility
That brought us hope from a living tree.