Author: Thomas E Meyer Jr

Matthew 25:31-46 Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Sheep and the Goats

³¹ “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels^[a] with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. ³² All the nations^[b] will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, just as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on His right and the goats on the left. ³⁴ Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

³⁵ For I was hungry
and you gave Me something to eat;
I was thirsty
and you gave Me something to drink;
I was a stranger and you took Me in;
³⁶ I was naked and you clothed Me;
I was sick and you took care of Me;
I was in prison and you visited Me.’

³⁷ “Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? ³⁸ When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or without clothes and clothe You? ³⁹ When did we see You sick, or in prison, and visit You?’

⁴⁰ “And the King will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’ ⁴¹ Then He will also say to those on the left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels!

⁴² For I was hungry
and you gave Me nothing to eat;
I was thirsty
and you gave Me nothing to drink;
⁴³ I was a stranger
and you didn’t take Me in;
I was naked
and you didn’t clothe Me,
sick and in prison
and you didn’t take care of Me.’

⁴⁴ “Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or without clothes, or sick, or in prison, and not help You?’

⁴⁵ “Then He will answer them, ‘I assure you: Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for Me either.’

⁴⁶ “And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Here, the Gospel of Matthew talks about the judgement day.

The final judgement is the end of human history and the beginning of the eternal state.

There will come a time that the Messiah will gather all the people in the world and separate each of them from who will be rewarded in heaven and who will be tormented in hell.

While living here on earth we should do our best to fulfil our mission to God and that is to be a good and loving brother or sister to our fellowmen.

As God’s children, He expects us to help everyone around us, especially the poor ones, because in our Lord’s eyes we may be rich or poor, but we are all equal.

Our Lord also expects us to be humble and generous to everyone without any one single exception, even to those people who do and did bad things to us.

Matthew 5:43-48 New Living Translation

Teaching about Love for Enemies

⁴³ “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’^[a] and hate your enemy. ⁴⁴ But I say, love your enemies!^[b] Pray for those who persecute you! ⁴⁵  In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. ⁴⁶ If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. ⁴⁷ If you are kind only to your friends,^[c] how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. ⁴⁸ But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Despite our more natural desires and lesser more baser instincts, we should be patient, understanding, and learn mercy, how to forgive those kind of people.

In the end all people will die and we should put in mind that what we are doing here on earth we should do it not just because we want to enter heaven, but too because we are willing to do that for the vainer people around us and for God.

Living and Breathing Our Jesus, Our Most Authentic Friend

John 15:11-16 GOD’S WORD Translation

¹¹ I have told you this so that you will be as joyful as I am, and your joy will be complete. ¹² Love each other as I have loved you. This is what I’m commanding you to do. ¹³ The greatest love you can show is to give your life for your friends. ¹⁴ You are my friends if you obey my commandments. ¹⁵ I don’t call you servants anymore, because a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. But I’ve called you friends because I’ve made known to you everything that I’ve heard from my Father. ¹⁶ You didn’t choose me, but I chose you. I have appointed you to go, to produce fruit that will last, and to ask the Father in my name to give you whatever you ask for.

Folk and pop singers often write songs about alienation because it produces such raw emotions.

Paul Simon captured it very well when he sang of building impenetrable walls in his life and becoming a “rock” and his becoming an “island,” rejecting love and laughter because “friendship causes pain.”

But the hardest truth that all of us know deep down is that friendship is vitally important for each and every one of us.

From our conception, God Almighty has hard wired us to care for one another.

We long for relationships: to be known, to be loved.

We know that even one genuine friend makes us truly rich in this world.

Deep down in our souls, We don’t want to be known as either rocks or islands.

Yet while we may well have true friends who are genuinely, authentically loyal, sensitive, honest, we can only find the ultimate authentic friendship in Jesus.

He alone is the friend who “is the same yesterday today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8) and this is where we are covenanted by God to lead, guide, direct our enemies.

His brand of friendship extends far beyond the bounds of human friendship; He knew how to be a true friend even to tax collectors and sinners and even those who would come to profess his undying, unrelenting love, and then look him directly in his eye betray his friendship (Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:34, John 21:15-17).

One of the reasons that some find friendship so difficult is because it demands extraordinary vulnerability, openness to another person we don’t want to know.

But Jesus is never in a bad mood, never betrays, never forsakes, never lets us down, never treats us capriciously – died for us all while we were still enemies.

Romans 5:7-10 Holman Christian Standard Bible

⁷ For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. ⁸ But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! ⁹ Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. ¹⁰ For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life!

And He wants to be friends with us—with you and me and with our enemies!

As we come to Him in faith, the one through whom all things were created delights to call everyone, no exceptions, His friend – Let that sink in a little.

Every friendship requires effort, and friendship with Jesus is no different!

That’s why Jesus tells us, “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

When we all come to receive Jesus as a friend, we also accept Him as our King.

Perhaps you have found human relationships to be hurtful or fleeting.

Perhaps you are surrounded with friends, perhaps you can’t count a single one.

Perhaps everyone arrayed against you is believed to be your worst enemy.

In any case, here is the most wonderful friend: the enemy of sin, who is never our enemy, the one who 100% knows us completely and loves us all the same.

With Him we can have the kind of friend: “sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24).

Desperate for Community – Building Bridges to the Kingdom

Scripture refers to “the kingdom of God” frequently, but many people are unclear as to its meaning.

Let’s look at the past, present, and future reality of this concept.

The first thing we must realize is the heavenly kingdom refers to everything under Christ’s control.

At the moment of salvation, we are transferred from the reign of darkness to the bright authority of Jesus Christ.

And we are eternally secure in Him.

As today’s verses from Matthew 25:31-46 explain, Jesus’ kingdom and reign have been planned since the foundation of the world.

From the beginning, God has been preparing all mankind for what is to come.

One way was by using prophets to foretell how He would redeem humanity and sovereignly rule over heaven and earth.

Once Jesus came and gave His life, He established the “present” kingdom.

This isn’t a geographical locale; it’s a term describing the heart, where God’s Holy Spirit indwells believers to lead, guide, direct, counsel, empower, inspire.

But there is also a very real future aspect of the kingdom, which we can each anticipate with excitement.

You are probably familiar with the words “Thy kingdom come” from the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2 kjv).

This speaks of the new heaven and new earth, where we will enjoy freedom from pain and sin.

There, we will continuously worship Jesus with gladness and joy for all eternity.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21 Holman Christian Standard Bible

The Ministry of Reconciliation

¹⁶ From now on, then, we do not know^[a] anyone in a purely human way.^[b] Even if we have known^[c] Christ in a purely human way,^[d] yet now we no longer know ^[e] Him in this way. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away, and look, new things^[f] have come. ¹⁸ Everything is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed the message of reconciliation to us. ²⁰ Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, certain that God is appealing through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.” ²¹ He made the One who did not know sin to be sin^[g] for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

As God’s kingdom ambassadors, ambassadors of reconciliation, we who are His children and we have the responsibility and privilege of sharing the good news:

Through Jesus’ birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection, and ascension, all who confess, trust in Him are forgiven of sin, assured of eternal life with God.

Whom can we tell about this amazing responsibility of Building Community?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

God our Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we praise and glorify Your Most Holy Name. We thank You for all the blessings You give each of us everyday. Despite the problems we are all experiencing You still make a way to give us the strength and lead us to the right path. Help us to gain the gift of zeal in order to serve You well and also our fellow brothers and sisters. We ask for Your guidance in what we do everyday, may You help us to know what is right from wrong and also help us to understand always the people around us. May You also help us to overcome darkness, learn how to forgive the people who sinned against us and do good always at all times. Amen.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/

Hebrews 10:19-25 Amplified Bible

A New and Living Way

¹⁹ Therefore, ^[a]believers, since we have confidence and full freedom to enter the Holy Place [the place where God dwells] by [means of] the blood of Jesus, ²⁰ by this new and living way which He initiated and opened for us through the veil [as in the Holy of Holies], that is, through His flesh, ²¹ and since we have a great and wonderful Priest [Who rules] over the house of God, ²² let us approach [God] with a true and  sincere heart in unqualified assurance of faith, having had our hearts sprinkled  clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. ²³ Let us seize and hold tightly the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is reliable and trustworthy and faithful [to His word]; ²⁴ and let us consider [thoughtfully] how we may encourage one another to love and to do good deeds,  ²⁵ not forsaking our meeting together [as believers for worship and instruction], as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more [faithfully] as you see the day [of Christ’s return] approaching.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

For the vast number of God’s people living under the old covenant, access to God was only by way of the high priest.

Only he was able to physically draw near to God with any sense of intimacy—and this only once a year, on the Day of Atonement!

It was therefore dramatic and revolutionary for the writer of Hebrews to exhort his readers to “draw near” to God as they prayed.

What happened to cause such a seismic change in the way people are able to approach God?

The answer is, in short, Calvary.

When “Jesus cried out … with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit … the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom” (Matthew 27:50-51).

Under the old covenant, this curtain had highly restricted access to the presence of God—now, because of Jesus, because of Calvary, the barrier was obliterated.

By these radical shifts, now it was exceedingly possible for men, women, on the basis of Christ’s atoning death, to make their way directly into God’s presence.

Now they could be in truest community, draw near to the God who is majestic in His holiness and in whose presence no sinner could gather, live—until Calvary.

How should we respond to the writer’s invitation?

First, we ought to draw near with confidence.

The writer of Hebrews prefaces his exhortation by saying, “Since we have confidence…” (Hebrews 10:19).

Whereas previously our approach to God could only ever have been cowering, tentative, timid and fearful to the extreme, now we’re able to come confidently in faith, in hope, love, and great joy, on the basis of “the blood of Jesus” (v 19).

Second, we ought to draw near, gather together, with gratitude to the extreme.

We should recognize the awesome wonder of being able to come together, to gather together as one community, the church, into His presence directly.

We are not to draw near haphazardly or flippantly, for it took the life and death of the Son of God to open “the new and living way” to God (Hebrews 10:20).

We are therefore to approach Him in humble worship, reverent thankfulness.

Whereas the Old Testament way, as Franz Delitzsch puts it, “was simply a lifeless pavement trodden by the high priest, and by him alone,” the way that we now gather together in community as His Church, as we all walk together as His church, is indeed new and living – as Christ is in full community with God.

Thanks be to God that we now draw near in community with God and the Holy Spirit, through Jesus, fully, max assured that we are accepted by our Maker.

Why Is Christian Community So Important in the Bible?

“Community” generally means people who are gathered together in a particular place — a neighborhood or town — who have common background, interests, or cause. A more elevated meaning involves mutual love and care. 

The concept of community reaches back to the beginning of time, and was taught in the early church as a foundational principle.

It is still important, even though many people have stopped attending church in local communities.

The Bible has much to say about community in both testaments, especially through the words and examples of Jesus, Paul, Peter, the Apostles and others.

What Does the Bible Say about Community?

The writer of Ecclesiastes suggested that people are designed to live in community.

“Two are better than one,” Solomon said, and “A cord of three strands is not quickly broken” (Ecclesiastes 4:9-12).

Community brings friendship and support for times of adversity (Proverbs 17:17; 27:9).

Jesus expanded the scope of community, telling His disciples to begin their testimony and outreach in their own back yard (Jerusalem), and then reach out beyond their city to their country and surrounding countries (Judea and Samaria), and then into all the world (Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:19-20).

As Christ-followers expand their outreach, other people will, hopefully, see the power of community at work. 

By modern definitions, “Christian community” can be: a denomination, network of churches, or organizations; a group of people following a specific Christian leader; or Christians who fellowship together based on shared beliefs.

When many hear the words, however, they think specifically of the local church.

The Greek word ekklesia, commonly translated “church,” is a called-out assembly or gathering.

It includes both the universal body of Christ and local groups of believers in specific churches (1 Corinthians 12:27; 1 Thessalonians 2:14; 2 Thessalonians 1:1).

In the early church, small community groups of believers met in house churches.

Even today, a local church may decide to add small groups or life groups to meet regularly in homes for Bible study, fellowship and service.

To function properly, small groups or life groups should function as extensions of the larger church body for greater connection and growth.

They are not meant to replace Sunday worship services, or remove the group from the authority and oversight of church leaders.

Is Community Important in the Old Testament?

Biblically, community began with Adam and God, and eventually included Eve.

They “walked” and talked together in perfect communion in the Garden of Eden until sin destroyed that perfection (Genesis 3:8).

In shame, the first couple hid from God. Adam and Eve’s perfect communion broke down, all relationships in community thereafter would be marred by sin.

The couple became parents, and cities were established from subsequent family groups.

The first city was built by Cain in the land of Nod (Genesis 4:16-17).

A famous city in the Old Testament, referenced repeatedly in stories from Abraham to David and beyond, was the Jewish community in Hebron.

Two infamous cities, where the believing community broke down, were Sodom and Gomorrah. 

The Israelites received rules for right behavior — for relating to God and to one another in community — in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3-17) and in other teachings (Leviticus 19:5-18).

Yet because of the Jews’ stubbornness, disobedience, men of God prophesied their captivity and future exile to the Persian city of Babylon, where living in community was more difficult. But God commanded them to settle down in community there (Jeremiah 29:4-7). 

After seventy years, many Jews migrated to major cities in the eastern Mediterranean world and lived in communities there, but 42,360 returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls and city and restart temple worship (Nehemiah 1:1; 2:3-20; Ezra 1:5; 3:1-13).

An estimated 80,000 Jews remained, by choice, in Babylon.

Sometime later, these Jews in Persia faced a death sentence (detailed in the book of Esther); yet their community united and triumphed over their enemies.

What Did Jesus Say about Community?

The Greek word koinonia is often translated with words like “fellowship,” “partnership,” and “communion.”

It can refer to the marriage relationship, people involved in an outreach, neighborhoods — basically, people who have a giving-receiving connection, and local churches. 

Jesus taught about being a good neighbor in the well-known parable of the “Good Samaritan” (Luke 10:25-37).

The Samaritan man ministered to an attacked and injured man, left on the roadside to die.

The good-hearted Samaritan took the man to an innkeeper, saying he would pay for the man’s care.

Although the purpose of Jesus in telling the parable was to illustrate mercy to a self-righteous Pharisee, He also pictured community in action, reaching out to a neighbor in distress.

Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another,” He said (John 13:35).

Love is meant to be the hallmark of Christian community.

Jesus modeled living in community by submitting to authorities, showing compassion, and ministering to needs.

His attitudes and actions affected both the local Jewish community and those outside His religious circle.

He told His followers to let their light shine before people so they will acknowledge the believers’ good works and glorify God.

Paul echoed this exhortation in Philippians 2:15.

Jesus also told His followers to be like salt in their communities and beyond, becoming a purifying, life-preserving, flavoring influence. 

How Did the Early Church Focus on Community?

In Acts 2:43-47, it’s clear the early church had a sense of responsibility in community after the Day of Pentecost.

They showed mutual love and concern, close fellowship, and even shared their belongings.

And their neighbors took notice! 

The Apostle Paul taught much about living together in Christian love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8), and standing for what is right in community.

Both Peter and Paul urged believers to build “the spiritual temple” in Christ in community living (1 Peter 2:5; Ephesians 2:20-22).

Paul, Peter, James, and John gave examples of what community looks like, citing humility, gentleness, kindness, love and compassion, cheerfulness, purity, patience, tolerance, unity, peace, wholesome conversations, building others up, forgiveness, prayerfulness, serving others or bearing their burdens.

Christ-followers were exhorted to do good to all people, but especially to those who belong to the family of believers” (Galatians 6:10).

Why Is Community So Important for Believers Today?

In today’s culture, with flagrant evil and massive corruption, Christians need to band together for courage and encouragement.

This can happen outside the church and in parachurch ministries, but primarily, Christians are strengthened to face the world as they consistently rub shoulders with other believers in the church.

Yet a survey that was reported by the Christian Post on January 8, 2023, noted that roughly a third of Americans have stopped going to church.

The COVID-19 pandemic greatly impacted church attendance in the United States, but many people didn’t return when the lockdowns ended.

Ask churchgoers why they think people in their communities don’t come to church and they’ll likely say, “They aren’t believers.”

But Joe Carter at The Gospel Coalition said that, according to surveys, lack of church attendance is more often for practical or personal reasons than lack of belief.

Carter offered two reasons why being part of a local church community is important.

First, it’s “not possible,” he said, to be part of the larger community (the body of Christ) without being part of the smaller communities that make it up.

Second, every letter in the New Testament “assumes Christians are members of local churches,” Carter said.

Biblical truth is taught and modeled in a local church framework.

Christ-followers learn how to get along with each other, encourage the weak, conduct themselves, deal with unrepentant sinners, etc. in a local church community.  

Author Rhonda Stoppe suggested ten reasons to go to church — even if we don’t feel like it, when we’re turned off by hypocrites in the congregation, when we’re too busy for church, or even when we feel pulled to attend other good things instead.

Stoppe’s perspective is biblical and healthy.

“Church is not a place to go,” she said, “rather it is a living body where God wants you to become a part — for your good and His glory.”

Stoppe’s reasons to be part of a Christian church community included;

hearing the Word of God,

participating in corporate worship,

sharpening others spiritually,

exercising spiritual gifts,

encouraging the pastor (and I’d add the pastor’s wife, along with staff members and their spouses),

finding godly mentors,

teaching children to love the church,

learning how to be a light for Jesus outside the church,

bearing others’ burdens, and obeying God.

Notice all those action verbs!

The local community of believers is meant to be a vital, active group!

It’s a place of belonging, but also worship, fellowship, and ministry.

How Can I Get Involved in a Good Christian Community?

Certainly, we can find a good Christian relationships outside the church, but the writer of Hebrews sternly admonished us all; never to give up meeting together, and it is to be assumed he meant as part of a place of praise, prayer and worship.

Finding a good Christian community isn’t always easy.

While we may look in a whole host of online directories and search engines for possibilities, more often than not, finding a good church comes when we pray for direction and seek out godly Christians to ask where they attend church.

Be careful in your search; some churches claim to be Christian but they are not biblical. 

There is no perfect church — but there are traits to look for that are both biblical, practical, and in some cases, personal preference.

These “traits” offer an expansive view of biblical community.

First, look for biblical traits.

Is it a Gospel-centered congregation?

Does the church stand firm on solid biblical doctrines?

Does the pastor preach the “whole counsel” (or will) of God?

Is the worship biblical and focused on God?

Is it an equipping church, enabling the members to better reach those without Christ?

Are the people being properly shepherded?

Do the church members seem devoted to Jesus and His mission for the church?

Are they committed to reaching those who have not heard the Gospel?

Is there a plan for church planting?

Do members regularly share their testimonies?

Does it seem that they anticipate God working in their midst?

Is God increasing the number who are being saved and joining the church?

How does the church incorporate teaching, ministry for the next generation, from young children through college age?

Does the church practice biblical church discipline to uphold honoring the Lord?

Second, look for practical Christian living traits.

Is the leadership mutually accountable to each other to pursue holiness and good character?

Are the members of the congregation seeking God and living holy lives?

How do they interact?

With love, forgiveness and unity?

Do they show grace when others exhibit their human flaws?

Do the leaders appear to bully others?

Are congregants loyal and committed to each other?

Do they gossip and slander?

Are there strong,  thriving marriages?

Are there small group studies for additional growth?

Do believers practice hospitality?

Is it a giving church, compassionate and generous?

Do believers enter regularly into the greater community to help and bring hope?

Third — and this is definitely not most important — look for personal preference traits.

Do you enjoy the musical style in the church and feel it contributes to your biblically worshipping God?

Are there ministry groups within the church that attract you and motivate you to become involved?

Remember: church attendance isn’t only about what you can receive, but also what you can contribute to the community.

God knows that our becoming a part of a good Christian community is a blessing, but He wants us to know that too.

It’s worth the time to investigate local churches and find the right local church family for personal growth, others’ good, and God’s glory.

Sticks and Stones and Broken Down Fences – Mending the Gaps

Are we holding back from becoming community, holding back from praying to your almighty Father for healing and mending out of an awareness of our sins?

Be sure that the blood of Jesus has covered it – all of it.

Are we under the impression that we, the baptized, need to collectively clean up our act, bring more than our good deeds before God if He is to bind us together?

Collectively, corporately, are we clear the curtain is torn, Jesus has done it all?

Do we skip drawing near to God out of complacency or busyness?

Hurts and hiccups, slights, grudges and bruised and broken egos?

Dogmas and Doctrines?

Be aware that Jesus died to give us the privilege of entering into God’s presence.

By His mercy, by His forgiveness of our sins, because of Calvary, the veil is torn to shreds and we can, and should, draw near with confident, grateful joy today.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/

1 Corinthians 16:14 Amplified Bible

¹⁴ Let everything you do be done in love [motivated and inspired by God’s love for us].

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Love.

It’s a word that can mean so many things.

We can say: “I love God,” “I love me,” “I love my mom and dad,” and “I love my mom’s spaghetti and meatballs,” and mean every single word of them.

The biblical idea of love is also multifaceted, but–unlike in the English language–there were different Greek words to express the nuances of different kinds of love.

What Is Paul’s Meaning, ‘Let All That You Do Be Done in Love’?

The unconditional love of God for us which the indwelling Holy Spirit empowers us to show back to God and toward others is called agape love.

This is the kind of love Paul is talking about at the end of his first letter to the Corinthians when he says: “Let all you do be done in love” (1 Corinthians 16:14).

In the lengthy letter, Paul has been giving the believers many instructions for how to live in the world as Christians and how to handle many thorny issues they have been facing, and now he is summing up before signing off with his own expression of love: “

My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen” (1 Corinthians 16:24).

What Else Does the Bible Say about Love, Loving Others, and Loving Service?

The command to love has often been used to sum up Christian teaching, such as when someone tried to trap Jesus by quizzing him:

“Which is the greatest commandment in the law?” (Matthew 22:36).

Jesus didn’t skip a beat, simply saying:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).

Earlier in his letter to the Corinthians, Paul has spent an entire chapter showing them the “still more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31) of love.

Paul details what love is in chapter 13, which is often read at weddings but has an application on every day of a Christian’s life:

“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8).

Paul makes the crucial point that it’s pointless and even harmful to do even good things without love (verses 1-3):

“If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.”

Elsewhere, Paul says succinctly:

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:16 NIV).

What Does it Look Like to Let All We Do Be Done in Love?

As a fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit, love is something that God plants and cultivates and nourishes and grows in such a way that it can lend supernatural inspiration and motivation and power to our everyday actions and interactions.

But what does this look like practically?

Anchor yourself in the love of God.

1 John 4:19 reminds us that “we love because He first loved us.”

This is not simply a nice idea or a historical happening, but a real, moment-by-moment reality in which we live and by which we are empowered and inspired.

We can “know and rely on the love God has for us” because “God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16).

It is in the atmosphere of God’s love that we are filled up and enabled to love Him back and love others, giving freely what we have been freely given.

Love is the core of the Gospel, and it never loses any relevance in our lives.

As J.I. Packer said: “We never move on from the gospel; we move on in the Gospel.”

When seeking to grow in any other way, always combine it with love.

In any discussion of virtues in the Bible, love is always nearby and involved.

As Paul said in 1 Corinthians, doing anything without love being part of it is hollow and pointless.

In Colossians 3:12-13, Paul tells the believers to put the virtues of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forbearance, and forgiveness, but he cannot finish the discussion without bringing love into the picture:

“And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (Colossians 3:14).

If we’re seeking to develop any Christians character quality in our life, it will be enhanced if you also “earnestly pursue love” (1 Corinthians 14:) at the same time.

Recognize your responsibility to make God’s love tangible.

1 John reminds us that “no one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us” (1 John 4:12).

What a wonderful responsibility and calling!

Jesus says:

“Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

Love is–or should be–the identity, the identifier, the identifying mark of a believer, for a believer has been filled up with such an abundant supply of the love of God he or she cannot help but overflow and share this love with others.

More Heavily Press into, Lean into, love when tempted to fear.

As we go through life, we will face many difficult circumstances and much uncertainty.

Yet we believe that fear has no place in the life of the believer, since, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear” (1 John 4:18).

Fear is nothing to be ashamed about–it is a natural response to recognizing our smallness when the world feels chaotic–

but it is also an invitation to live into Paul’s prayer: “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance” (2 Thessalonians 3:5).

Though the world may seem chaotic, we use our Spirit-empowered eyes to see that “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).

If we feel tempted to fear, we can use that as an opportunity to shift gears, recognizing what is already true and living as if we believe it:

“For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Romans 8:15)

¹⁵ For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading again to fear [of God’s judgment], but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons [the Spirit producing sonship] by which we [joyfully] cry, “^[a]Abba! Father!” [Amplified]

And what is the Spirit of adoption?

In a word: love. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God; and so we are…Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:1-2)

Because of God’s incredible which has been and continues to be lavished on us, we can overflow with that same love.

This love can undergird all the actions of a believer, showing the world what God is like.

1 John 3:3 Amplified Bible

³ And everyone who has this hope [confidently placed] in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (holy, undefiled, guiltless).

This love is a haven for us that casts out fear, empowers us to do hard things, and fills all of our life with rich relational meaning both now and for eternity!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Dear Father,

In watchfulness, may I stand firm in faith, be courageous, and be strong. Let everything I do be done in love. Help me to subject myself to those in your church who have devoted themselves to serving all the saints and to refreshing the spirits of your servants. May I be a true fellow worker and sincere laborer in your vineyard, always extending joyous greetings and sincere blessings to brothers and sisters in Christ. Most of all, help me to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart and soul. If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. Maranatha! Lord Jesus, come. Come now in spiritual presence. Come finally in visible manifestation! May the love and the grace of the Lord Jesus, in whose name I pray, be with us for ever and ever.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 The Message

^13-14 Keep your eyes open, hold tight to your convictions, give it all you’ve got, be resolute, and love without stopping.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Throughout this letter to the Corinthians, there are practical admonitions and little encouragements for the saints in Corinth to live out lives that honor God.

Paul wanted all the believers there to grow in their Christian faith and to walk in the spirit of power and truth.

He tackled things that caused division within the church and exposed the foolishness of human wisdom, by contrasting it with the wisdom of God.

Throughout the letter he touched on marriage and related matters, and laid down powerful principles of godly conduct, he discussed the importance of the Lord’s Supper, and the varieties of spiritual gifts and the supremacy of love.

Paul reminds the Corinthian believers of our blessed hope in Christ and opens our understanding to the resurrection of the dead and the certainty of our own resurrection, because by the power of God, Jesus Christ had rose from the dead.

It is as he draws his letter to a close, that Paul offers his concluding exhortation, which is beneficial, eminently practical, for ALL those who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus and to grow in grace and in a knowledge of our Lord and Savior.

“Keep your eyes open,” “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong,” he urges, “and always let EVERYTHING that you do be done in love.”

Perhaps, this last exhortation from Paul to the saints in Corinth umbrellas all his other directives and instructions, for when all that we say and do and think, is carried out in LOVE, it embraces every other lesson Paul taught.

“Let ALL that you do be done in love.”

“Love without stopping.”

It may be a simple instruction to admonish and encourage the Church but it is one of the greatest challenges with which any of us can be presented, for it is the Holy Spirit of God Who calls us to live as Christ lived, to love as Christ loved.

Such divine love is an impossibility in our own limited, human strength.

It is only as the power of the Holy Spirit is given absolute sway to carry out His work within, that this impossible command can be carried out before our eyes.

It is as we abide in Christ and He in us, that we begin to learn the lesson of love – godly love – sacrificial love.

It is as we die to self in all things and live for Christ alone that we begin to be fashioned and formed into the lovely image of Christ.

It is as we surrender to the power of God through the resurrection, permit the power of the Holy Spirit to carry out His good work in and through our lives, we can become conduits of power through whom His love can flow out unto others.

And in this final chapter of Paul’s first letter to the church at Corinth, he here exhorts both believers and unbelievers in the city, “to let all be done in love.” 

What a sublimely simple instruction to the Body of Christ the Church of today.

Yet too what a profound depth of truth is contained within this simply stated, uncomplicated and divine directive.

Paul’s heart aches for all the body of believers everywhere and for all time, as Jesus’ heart ached for all God’s children in His much beloved city of Jerusalem.

Matthew 23:37-39 The Message

^37-39 “Jerusalem! Jerusalem! Murderer of prophets! Killer of the ones who brought you God’s news! How often I’ve ached to embrace your children, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you wouldn’t let me. And now you’re so desolate, nothing but a ghost town. What is there left to say? Only this: I’m out of here soon. The next time you see me you’ll say, ‘Oh, God has blessed him! He’s come, bringing God’s rule!’”

Perhaps it is time for the 21st century “interpretation” of the Body of Christ to embrace that unrelenting unstoppable power of the heartaches Paul and Jesus both undoubtedly felt as they uttered their words to those biblical communities.

Can anyone genuinely underestimate the highest intensity of Paul’s heartache?

1 Corinthians 13 English Standard Version

The Way of Love

13 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned,^[a] but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;^[b] 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. ¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love is the fulfilling of the Law, and only as we truly allow the love of Christ to saturate our being, as by our baptism, we die to self to live for Christ and walk in the power of the spirit and truth, can this Christlike characteristic be executed.

This simple statement is sufficiently elementary even for the youngest child to understand, and yet so lofty that man’s combined wisdom is unable to scratch the surface of its true meaning, or plumb the depth of its wider significance.

Jeremiah 23:28-29 The Message

^28-29 “You prophets who do nothing but dream—
    go ahead and tell your silly dreams.
But you prophets who have a message from me—
    tell it truly and faithfully.
What does straw have in common with wheat?
    Nothing else is like God’s Decree.
Isn’t my Message like fire?” God’s Decree.
    “Isn’t it like a sledgehammer busting a rock?

It stings hard the conscience of every man.

Sledge hammers our hearts of hardest stone which our sins have encased.

Goes straight to the marrow of our bones, convicts the attitudes of humanity.

It challenges the godliest saint and forever condemns the human race.

But this unreachable goal is the impossible command given to all believers.

It not only applies to the natural loving kinship within the inner nucleus of beloved companions and best-loved family members, but the beggar in the street, thieving politicians, the accusatorial religionist, the enemy at the gate, scoffers of our faith, and those that despise, reject, hate, persecute, and kill us.

Every action and every attitude,

every word and every work,

each thought of the heart,

each decision of the mind, even the motives that influence the choices we make,

Acts 14:14-15 The Message

^14-15 When Barnabas and Paul finally realized what was going on, they stopped them. Waving their arms, they interrupted the parade, calling out, “What do you think you’re doing! We’re not gods! We are men just like you, and we’re here to bring you the Message, to persuade you to abandon these silly god-superstitions and embrace God himself, the living God. We don’t make God; he makes us, and all of this—sky, earth, sea, and everything in them.

needs to be bathed in the powerful purifying gaze of the Holy Spirit, washed in the fountain of God’s divine love and covered with the unconditional grace of Christ, Who for His unstoppable love of His church went to the cross willingly – so that like Him, everything which we do, may be done through HIM – in LOVE.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Loving Father, Author of my Life, Caretaker of my Soul, I confess that in my own strength, it is impossible for me to carry out all that I say and do in love, but I know that it is possible in the strength and power of the Spirit of love. You have promised to pour Your love through me to others, so that I may love others as Christ loved me. Use me to be a vessel of love in the lives of all I meet today, knowing that it is Christ that loves through me and not me myself. In Jesus’ name I pray, AMEN.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 Amplified Bible

¹³ Be on guard; stand firm in your faith [in God, respecting His precepts and keeping your doctrine sound]. Act like [mature] men and be courageous; be strong. ¹⁴ Let everything you do be done in love [motivated and inspired by God’s love for us].

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

1. Be On Guard
2. Stand Firm in the Faith
3. Be Courageous
4. Be Strong

These robust commands urge our readiness for warfare against Satan and his angels of darkness. ^[2] The battle is at hand. We must be prepared to Hold On!

But, were we a little surprised with that not so sounding warlike 5th command?

Let everything we do be done in love – motivated and inspired by God’s love for us – not physical weapons of destruction being waved around in greatest anger?

Be On Guard With Faith the Size of a Mustard Seed

When looking at the cornerstones of the Christian life, some tenets include prayer and worship, but the key cornerstone of being on our guard is our faith.

Putting our trust in God, that He will take care of the future, provide for needs, and provide for salvation.

Rabbi Jesus spoke about the power of faith several times in His teachings and then used multiple metaphors to explain what faith is and how important it is.

One of the most powerful is that faith can be like a mustard seed.

Jesus said to those struggling with belief,

“Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:20).

God wants to work with His people, to strengthen them, but will not force them to become instruments of His will like puppets; instead He works through them based on their faith, challenging all believers to a deeper relationship with Him. 

What Does It Mean to Have Faith of a Mustard Seed?

The mustard seed would have been a common enough plant in that culture; they would be able to picture it without reference.

Classified as an evergreen, the Salvadora perisica can grow to twenty feet wide and tall.

They can thrive in environments typically hostile to plants.

Their seeds are very small, but yet they grow large and expansive and tall.

The mustard seed in Jesus’ example symbolizes the potential in faith.

As a believer begins their journey, they’ve just begun to learn about how much God loves them, how much He wants to do for them, all that He has for them.

God wants to work with these believers to bring others to Himself, and to build His kingdom;

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).

By faithfully following God’s plan, Christians will do great things for Him, even with the small mustard seed of faith they have at the beginning of their walk.

Of course, the truth about a seed is that it does not remain a seed.

Planted into the soils of our hearts, by the grace and nurturance of God, it eventually germinates, where, sight unseen, the seedling slowly breaks out of the shell, breaks through the ground surface and grows into a full-sized plant.

Mustard trees are huge, despite the size of their seeds.

Faith cannot remain static or the same in order to have a deeper relationship with the Lord.

The things people will do for God, and the cultivated, germinating courage they do it with for their neighbors, is correlated with the amount of faith present.

If someone has faith God has saved them from their sins, but that God cannot heal an illness, they have a smaller measure of faith than someone who does.

The courage to share faith in dangerous settings, it takes a lot of maturing faith.

James even wrote, “faith without works is dead” (James 2:26b).

Faith must be cultivated, faith must be nurtured, faith must grow, must mature and be tested, to persevere, and be acted upon with good deeds and evangelism. 

Does It Matter How Much or Little Faith We Have?

If Jesus is saying faith as small as a mustard seed is all it takes, then is that all that’s needed?

Can one “be on guard against the evil one” and have just a little “seed of faith?”

Putting one’s faith in Jesus Christ is an important step.

In the same chapter where Jesus tells the parable of the mustard seed, the people in his hometown reject Him, and lacked faith.

The Bible says, “And [Jesus] did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58).

It was not just in Nazareth where Jesus would not work great miracles because of a lack of faith.

He declared, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works one in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (Matthew 11:21).

In Mark 8:22-26, an account of Jesus healing a blind man in Bethsaida recounts that Jesus took the blind man out of the town before He healed him, and ordered the man, “Do not even enter the village” (Mark 8:26b).

The people of Nazareth, Chorazin, and Bethsaida had so little faith that nothing Jesus could have done would have led them to repent.

There are still people like that today.

The level of faith one has can also impact how God can bless individual Christians.

In the Book of James, the writer stated, “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You cover and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2).

Believers in James’ time were fighting amongst one another because they lacked, but they did not have the faith to go to God and ask.

This statement does not mean that one can have anything, or that ‘name it and claim it’ philosophy is true, but that it is important to fully and faithfully rely on God, and ask Him in prayer, in supplications for the things of faith needed.

Without even a mustard seed measure of faith, the Christian life is inhibited, and lacking the fullness that God wants to bestow upon those who love Him.

What Does This “Mustard Seed” Mean for Us Today?

The importance of faith is as crucial today as it was when Christ walked the earth 2,000 years ago.

Jesus gave a commission to His followers as He ascended into Heaven, a command to follow until He returns,

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:19-20).

Once the seed of faith has been planted in someone’s heart and they are saved, the next steps of faith are for that seed to be cultivated and nurtured, to learn more about this new connectional relationship, obey this GOD commission. 

Faith can be difficult, fleeting and failing, which is why it seems that in some moments in life it can be easy to have great faith, but at others, almost none.

When cultivating our relationship with God, growing that faith regularly can be truly empowering the believer to know their Savior better, and obey Him fully.

But, our great enemy of the faith Satan is always going to be, faithfully going to be on the prowl, like a roaring hungry lion looking for an easy, vulnerable meal.

1 Peter 5:6-9 Amplified Bible

⁶ Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God [set aside self-righteous pride], so that He may exalt you [to a place of honor in His service] at the appropriate time, ⁷ casting all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully]. ⁸ Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to devour. ⁹  But resist him, be firm in your faith [against his attack—rooted, established, and immovable], knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being experienced by your brothers and sisters throughout the world. [You do not suffer alone.]

Be On Guard

The Scriptures make it clear that believers in Christ are to be on our guard because the enemy is against God, so He too will attack the Father’s children.

We are part of a spiritual battle that many days we wake up forgetting is going on – when our lives are consumed with the temporary, we forget the eternal.

When you stop and think about how you need to specifically be on your guard right now, what comes to mind?

In what ways is the enemy attacking you, your family, your friendships, your workplace, and your church?

Just as God is faithfully active, the Devil is faithfully active too.

He is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for people to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

Being on our guard works best when we are not reliant on our own strength but on the help of the Holy Spirit and the armor of God.

We are not left in the greatest heat of the battle unguarded and vulnerable, we are equipped and we are empowered with the victory of our Lord, Savior Jesus and hopeful that this temporary suffering is for His glory. (1 Corinthians 15:57)

In Our Savior’s Victory – Stand Firm in the Faith

Here is the call to stand firm.

When we think of the word “firm”, what do we envision, what do we picture?

I think of a rock, a strong muscle, or a wall.

I imagine something immovable, unshakeable and steady, something that will not shake or even give or even minimally lend itself to the idea that it would fall.

We have a firm foundation in Christ. 

1 Corinthians 3:11 says, “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.”

There is absolutely nothing that I can create with my own hands to build my life on that will ever be more firm than choosing to steadfastly place trust in Jesus.

When Christ is the King over our lives, when we have placed our faith in Him, we too are now stable and immovable in Him.

He is the reason that we can have confidence and a place of refuge in the difficulties in life.

He gives us peace and bravery.

When a hurricane comes, it matters more what the homes are built out of to withstand the storm.

Although all will be hit by the storm, not all will crumble.

Because of Jesus, even though we are always in the midst of the storm of sin in this world, always under Satan’s ever watchful evil gaze, we will not crumble.

2 Timothy 2:19 says, “Nevertheless, the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness.’”

We can be rest assured that our Father God knows we are 100% His Children.

He can help us, and He can remind us that He is our firm foundation in this life.

We can place our full trust in Him, more so than when we sit in a chair and it holds us up or ride in a plane and hope it lands.

We have the promise He is always with us, and He will keep us safe in His arms. (Psalm 121)

Psalm 121 The Message

121 ^1-2 I look up to the mountains;
    does my strength come from mountains?
No, my strength comes from God,
    who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.

^3-4 He won’t let you stumble,
    your Guardian God won’t fall asleep.
Not on your life! Israel’s
    Guardian will never doze or sleep.

^5-6 God’s your Guardian,
    right at your side to protect you—
Shielding you from sunstroke,
    sheltering you from moonstroke.

^7-8 God guards you from every evil,
    he guards your very life.
He guards you when you leave and when you return,
    he guards you now, he guards you always.

In Our Savior’s Victory Be Courageous and Strong

Sin teaches us well – it is easy to live in fear when trials occur around us.

Satan is faithfully lurking – we can fall into the pit of anxiety and worry.

However, our victorious Christ has called us to be courageous and strong.

Joshua 1:1-9 GOD’S WORD Translation

The Lord Instructs Joshua

1 After the death of the Lord’s servant Moses, the Lord said to Moses’ assistant Joshua, son of Nun, ² “My servant Moses is dead. Now you and all these people must cross the Jordan River into the land that I am going to give the people of Israel. ³ I will give you every place on which you set foot, as I promised Moses.  ⁴ Your borders will be the desert ⌞on the south⌟, nearby Lebanon to the Euphrates River (the country of the Hittites) ⌞on the north⌟, and the Mediterranean Sea on the west. ⁵ No one will be able to oppose you successfully as long as you live. I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will never neglect you or abandon you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous, because you will help these people take possession of the land I swore to give their ancestors.

⁷ “Only be strong and very courageous, faithfully doing everything in the teachings that my servant Moses commanded you. Don’t turn away from them. Then you will succeed wherever you go. ⁸ Never stop reciting these teachings. You must think about them night and day so that you will faithfully do everything written in them. Only then will you prosper and succeed.

⁹ “I have commanded you, ‘Be strong and courageous! Don’t tremble or be terrified, because the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.’ ”

Just like Joshua was chosen, commanded by God to be strong and courageous, we too have been chosen and called by God to do the same in our generation.

Although Joshua battled real people, today, we have a great spiritual battle going on, raging all around us.

The covenant calling from God for both is still 100% the same, “be strong and courageous,” the promise the Lord is always with His people remains as well.

In Our Savior’s Victory – Do Everything in His Love

1 Corinthians 16:14 Amplified Bible

¹⁴ Let everything you do be done in love [motivated and inspired by God’s love for us].

Apostle Paul finishes out his first letter to the Corinthian church with a few last guidelines.

He tells them do everything in love, inspired and motivated by God’s love for us.

Love is something that is talked or written about a lot.

Usually the thought of love is a physical, temporary love.

During the 1960’s many people talked about love being the most important feeling, however, it was a physical love.

The world understands the physical side of love very well.

God made man to know and need that type of love.

Yet, there is a different kind of love that Paul talks about here.

It is not the physical, nor the emotional type of love.

This type of love is God’s kind of love, eternal, selfless, pure love.

This type of love loves no matter what. It love each and every person, regardless of any past actions.

It guards.

It protects.

It remains firm.

It endures all things.

It puts others first.

It builds up, rather than tears down.

It believes.

It trusts.

It is self-sacrificing for others.

It is with this kind of love that every action that is done is to be done in.

Most of the actions of those in this world are done for selfish reasons.

Believers are not to act that way, they are to do things for others out of love for others.

Jesus showed this type of love when He left heaven to live on this earth.

He showed this love when He died on the cross for the sins of each and every person on this earth.

He shows this immeasurable victorious love as He forgives any person who comes to Him with repentance for their sins.

This is true love.

In order to do everything in the same way Jesus did, one must do it in God.

God is love.

He is that perfect love.

When the believer does things in God, he will do it in love.

As we go through our day, take a look at all of your actions.

Are we doing these things in the love and victory of God?

And are we doing these things in genuine love, true love?

Love for others can be shown no matter what is being done.

It can be revealed, it can be shown in our helping others, sharing the gospel message, prayer, and even in rebuke of sins.

God’s kind of love must be shown in every word and every action that we do.

It must permeate everything that we do.

Are we doing everything in love?

I pray today that we will know God’s love for us and others; that we will love others as God loves them; that all of our actions and words will reflect God’s love for others; and that our life will be a reflective and revealing one of true love for God and others.

Intersecting our Savior’s Victory: Our Faith and Life:

How do we sense the enemy trying to work his mischief in our life?

In what ways is our faith being tested?

How can we remember to stand firm on Christ and not in our own strength and abilities in the midst of our enemies fiery trials?

How is God equipping and enabling us to be courageous and strong through His Spirit today?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

ABBA Father, thank You for loving us in spite of how messed up we are – for the grace of mustard seed faith and for the promise of answered prayer. Help us, Father, understand that every answer to our prayers is filtered from Your heart of love, even when it doesn’t look like what we think it should. Fill those pockets of unbelief in our prayer lives with mustard seed faith. And Lord, when we struggle to believe You, please help our unbelief. Thank you that nothing is impossible in my life as I trust you in every area. Give me wisdom in all these difficult things facing me today. Give me the faith to be able to trust again, to forgive, to care, to love all those who have caused me pain. Give me the faith that I need to keep doing the right thing at work and at home. Give me the faith to be able to keep on trusting You for all the hard spots in my heart, home and work. I’m giving You all the worries and concerns facing me today, trusting You to do the impossible Lord. Increase my faith, today I pray.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/

Mark 11:22-25 The Message

^22-25 Jesus was matter-of-fact: “Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, and nothing will be too much for you. This mountain, for instance: Just say, ‘Go jump in the lake’—no shuffling or hemming and hawing—and it’s as good as done. That’s why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you’ll get God’s everything. And when you assume the posture of prayer, remember that it’s not all asking. If you have anything against someone, forgive—only then will your heavenly Father be inclined to also wipe your slate clean of sins.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Faith has been wonderfully described in and throughout the length of the Bible, used by great people who loved God, would do anything and everything for Him.

Noah, at God’s command, working tirelessly, built a gargantuan ark of gopher wood with his own determined hands in the face of continuous scorn, threats.

Even the obedient at all costs Abraham, the father of faith, had such faith in God to the point setting himself and everything else aside, of sacrificing his only son Isaac (God intervened with a Ram, blessed Abraham as the father of nations).

Faith in the Gospel, which is accepting and trusting the One we cannot ever see, knowing that He came, he lived, died and rose and will come again — that is the faith of salvation in Christ Jesus, through which every single baptized believer who has confessed Christ as their Savior, received redemption for their souls.

Faith, as the gift of the Spirit, is another example of faith we have read and even seen; Paul, and the apostles worked tirelessly, and worked tremendously with this gift of God through the power of the Holy Spirit with great signs following.

We have seen and read of the great miracles that seemed impossible but done by the Holy Spirit through generation after generation after generation of all those great clouds of witnesses, great evangelists of our time, both past and present, because of their steadfast and immovable faith in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Faith to Move Mountains into the Sea

Mountains come to us in diverse forms, such as obstacles, opposition, sickness, death, difficulty, impossibility, and insurmountable situations.

Zechariah 4:5-7 Amplified Bible

⁵ Then the angel who was speaking with me answered me, “Do you not know what these are?” And I said, “No, my lord.” ⁶ Then he said to me, “This [continuous supply of oil] is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel [prince of Judah], saying, ‘Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit [of whom the oil is a symbol],’ says the Lord  of hosts.  ⁷ ‘What are you, O great mountain [of obstacles]? Before Zerubbabel [who will rebuild the temple] you will become a plain (insignificant)! And he will bring out the capstone [of the new temple] with loud shouts of “Grace, grace to it!”’”

Isaiah 40:3-5 Amplified Bible

³ 
A voice of one is calling out,
“Clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness [remove the obstacles];
Make straight and smooth in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴ 
“Every valley shall be raised,
And every mountain and hill be made low;
And let the rough ground become a plain,
And the rugged places a broad valley.
⁵ 
“And the glory and majesty and splendor of the Lord will be revealed,
And all humanity shall see it together;
For the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.”

The mountains here are not a literal mountain that we see as we drive through our National Parks, this mountain is a figurative mountain as expressed above.

Steadfast and immovable Faith in our steadfast and immovable God removes them from our way, it makes them plain and they become as nothing before us.

For nothing can stand in the way of a man or woman of faith (Mark 11:23; Matthew 21:21-22 The Message).

^21-22 But Jesus was matter-of-fact: “Yes—and if you embrace this kingdom life and don’t doubt God, you’ll not only do minor feats like I did to the fig tree, but also triumph over huge obstacles. This mountain, for instance, you’ll tell, ‘Go jump in the lake,’ and it will jump. Absolutely everything, ranging from small to large, as you make it a part of your believing prayer, gets included as you lay hold of God.”

Jesus was telling the disciples, who were marveled because the fig tree dried up, that even this mount, the Mount of Olives if you say to it be thou cast into the sea, it will quite literally be cast into the sea because you believe it can be done.

Why?

Because we have that degree of obedience as Abraham did, as Noah did, that measure of unshakeable faith, that whatever we say we believe shall be done.

Just as we believe that Jesus is the Son of God and Jesus is our personal Savior.

So, therefore, no matter how little our faith is, even if it is as small as a mustard seed, inasmuch as it has the backing of faith as we make our declarations, it will be, only but by the grace and mercy, forgiveness of God, just as we say it should.

That is why reading, study, speaking and praying in faith is important for us as believers, we are not just ordinary people, Christ says whatever you believe it shall be established unto you, the Matthew Henry’s commentary puts it better.

“Whosoever shall say to this mountain, this Mount of Olives, be removed and cast into the sea. If he has but any word of God, general or particular to build his faith upon, and if he shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he said, according to the warrant he has from what God hath said, shall come to pass, he shall have whatever he said through the strength and power of God in Christ Jesus, the greatest difficulty shall be gotten over and the thing shall be effected.”

Buttressing on this, Jesus went further in Mark 11:24

{²⁴ For this reason I am telling you, whatever things you ask for in prayer [in accordance with God’s will], believe [with confident trust] that you have received them, and they will be given to you.}

telling them of the importance of believing while making a request in prayer,

and Hebrews 11:1-2 tells of how men and women of old used faith to move obstacles seen and unseen.

The Triumphs of Faith

11 Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. ² For by this [kind of] faith the ^[a]men of old gained [divine] approval.

Seemingly Unmovable Mountains

We have been able to discuss faith as it applies to salvation and also as the gift of the spirit; we have also seen how faith no matter how small can move mountains, figurative mountains or literal mountains.

How then does our faith move mountains?

Having identified your mountain (mountains in the form of difficulty, failure, and sickness, etc.).

Anything we can think of that serves as an obstacle to enjoying the best life God has for us, how then can we exercise our immovable faith in moving them?

Matthew 17:14-21 New King James Version

A Boy Is Healed

¹⁴ And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying, ¹⁵ “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is ^[a]an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water. ¹⁶ So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”

¹⁷ Then Jesus answered and said, “O ^[b]faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me.” ¹⁸ And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.

¹⁹ Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”

²⁰ So Jesus said to them, “Because of your ^[c]unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. ^21 [d]However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Using Matthew 17:14-21, the disciples could not cast out the demon, and then Jesus pointed out some factors that hindered them:

• Unbelief; lack of faith
• Payers
• Fasting
• *And I add, to be deeply rooted in the Word

Having these we can move any form of the mountains, which was buttressed in Matthew 17:21 because most times, as recorded in 2 Corinthians 10:4, the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this world.

They have divine power to demolish strongholds.

Most of the time our unbelief restricts the manifest power of God in our lives, it is because of our unbelief that we bring little to pass if you have but a grain of true faith, though little as mustard seeds, you shall speak and it shall stand.

Note, an active faith can remove mountains, not of itself, but in the form of a divine power engaged by a divine promise (Word of God), both of which faith fastens upon.

Jesus, in all his teachings, always taught his disciples the importance of faith and why they needed to be in faith, any time his disciples fell short of this, he would ask, “Where is your faith? You faithless generation?” (Luke 8:25; Mark 9:19; Mark 4:40; Matthew 14:31).

But to anyone who shows his or her faith, he would commend, like the woman with the issue of blood (Matthew 15:28), the Centurion (Luke 7:1-10), etc.

This shows that when we truly apply our faith to our difficulties, God is always pleased because this shows we trust in him to make all impossibilities possible.

What Does This Mean?

There’s power in our words.

When we speak words of faith, awesome things can happen.

But how do we begin speaking faith-filled words?

How can we speak faith over a situation that seems hopeless or over something that seems dead?

We do it by beginning to dream.

Begin by dreaming and imagining what we’d like our situation to be like.

As we do, we’ll find that we begin to have faith to see these things come to pass.

When that happens, it’s easier to speak faith-filled words.

As we speak faith and life over our situations, we begin to see God gifted results.

For example, let’s say doing well at school has always been hard for you.

Maybe you have anxiety about taking tests.

To overcome this, you’d want to begin to dream and begin to imagine yourself successfully taking tests.

Maybe you’d imagine yourself getting a good grade, or a better grade or being really more confident the next time when it became time to taking another test.

Once we see something in your mind’s eye, it’s a lot easier to speak faith over it.

So if we can begin to imagine it happening, by faith, can speak it into existence.

Descending, falling, into the snares of fear, doubt, unbelief, and prayerlessness hinders the working wonders of faith in our lives, whenever we show the above, we are essentially communicating, “God, this situation is bigger than you, you just cannot solve this,” carelessly forgetting God is the God of all possibilities.

Matthew 19:26 Amplified Bible

²⁶ But Jesus looked at them and said, “With people [as far as it depends on them] it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Steadfastly, immovably, genuinely trusting in God is leaving all to Him in faith, knowing that, by God’s grace alone, everything will work out just fine for you.

Romans 8:26-28 The Message

^26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

But that does not mean we should not do our own part, for faith without labor, faith without “our getting both of our hands and feet in the mud,” works is dead.

Jesus did a spectacular miracle in withering the fig tree with his command (Mark 11:12-14, 20-21).

Now, Jesus wants his followers to understand that they can do amazing things too, if they will truly steadfastly labor to overcome their unbelief – to believe.

Bottom line: Jesus wants us to pursue his will without thought of limitations and without fear of asking too much.

“Have faith!” our Lord tells us, “and ask without doubt.” Let’s do these things!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

O Father, today I want to ask you for something that does not seem possible. I know this cannot be accomplished without your power and blessing. So I ask this of you in the name of Jesus my Lord … (Please heartily and fervently share with the Father your areas of acute and chronic “unbelief,” give Him all thy personal faith requests.) By the grace of God and In Jesus’ exalted name, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia, Amen.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

https://translate.google.com/

John 6:1-14 GOD’S WORD Translation

Jesus Feeds More Than Five Thousand

6 Jesus later crossed to the other side of the Sea of Galilee (or the Sea of Tiberias). ² A large crowd followed him because they saw the miracles that he performed for the sick. ³ Jesus went up a mountain and sat with his disciples. ⁴ The time for the Jewish Passover festival was near.

⁵ As Jesus saw a large crowd coming to him, he said to Philip, “Where can we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶ Jesus asked this question to test him. He already knew what he was going to do.

⁷ Philip answered, “We would need about a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each of them to have a piece.”

⁸ One of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, who was Simon Peter’s brother, told him, ⁹ “A boy who has five loaves of barley bread and two small fish is here. But they won’t go very far for so many people.”

¹⁰ Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.”

The people had plenty of grass to sit on. (There were about 5,000 men in the crowd.)

¹¹ Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to the people who were sitting there. He did the same thing with the fish. All the people ate as much as they wanted.

¹² When the people were full, Jesus told his disciples, “Gather the leftover pieces so that nothing will be wasted.” ¹³ The disciples gathered the leftover pieces of bread and filled twelve baskets.

¹⁴ When the people saw the miracle Jesus performed, they said, “This man is certainly the prophet who is to come into the world.”

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, Amen.

There is inherent power in doing the little things.

In fact, some of the most notable people who changed history knew this, even as they accomplished great and noble strides for humanity.

We should pay attention to their words of wisdom:

“Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.” – Mother Teresa

“Anyone who doesn’t take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either” – Albert Einstein

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.” – Helen Keller

And of course, the greatest world changer that ever lived, Jesus Christ said:

Matthew 17:20 GOD’S WORD Translation

²⁰ He told them, “Because you have so little faith. I can guarantee this truth: If your faith is the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” ^[a]

The Awesome Power Displayed: “Smallest of Things”

When Elisha received twenty barley loaves and some grain, he saw that by God’s power the food would feed a hundred people (2 Kings 4:42-44).

Jesus took five barley loaves and two fish and fed a crowd of five thousand.

At both meals there was so much that there were several baskets of leftovers.

As in the days of Elisha, the Lord often did miracles to help with the personal needs of his people.

Jesus, the bread of life, is concerned that we have not only food for our souls but also our daily bread.

Sometimes we do not appreciate exactly how much God cares about of our smallest and seemingly most meaningless and mundane day-to-day needs.

But notice that Jesus does not feed the people by himself—he uses the disciples to distribute the bread and serve the people.

As Jesus’ disciples today, we should expect the same—Jesus will use us to share in his many ministries of compassion – even the tiniest of ministries have great value in the kingdom of God – even those of which are staffed by only children.

Without any display of partiality, He is always eager to bring us into His work.

He not only wants to feed our tiny bellies but also wants us to help him feed the tiny and tiniest bellies, souls, spirits of others whom God calls our neighbors.

Of course, like the disciples, we will look at our meager resources and wonder how we can make any difference – our supplies will seem small and inadequate.

But Jesus doesn’t care about how meager our finite resources might be.

Our call is to offer what we have to him and to trust that it will be enough.

Are we ready to stand by, ready to serve from our meagerness, to be surprised by what He does with the most temporary and very finite of resources we have?

The Size and Scope of What the World Presents to Us

This massive crowd was gathering and heading toward Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover holiday, similar to the thousands upon thousands which pour into Times Square, New York City to ring in and celebrate the coming New Year.

It was a crowd of 5,000 heads of households (men), along with their wives and children, that came to witness the ministry of Jesus.

So the enormous problem confronting the disciples which needed to be resolved was exactly how to feed a large famished crowd without having food on hand.

This was a big problem!

It was not going away.

The disciples tried to dismiss them for lack of money and available food.

Except Jesus refused to dismiss them without giving them something to eat.

So, all the disciples could do was look at them all in their great wonderment –

Imagine all of the shoulders being shrugged, all of the heads being scratched!

All the thoughts, “How impossible is this?” being thrown towards the heavens?

And how does it get solved?

Simply, by someone believing in the power of “small” doing something small – a small boy who had five barely loaves and two small fish, gave Jesus his lunch.

Even though we would all recognize this gesture was small in relation to the size of their problem, we probably do not understand exactly how small it was.

We might be able to visualize the meagerness of “five barely loaves and two small fish” as being the equivalent to loaves of French bread and two Tilapia.

But this was a little boy’s lunch, and the word used here by John describes the boy as a “lad,” which refers to a boy between the ages of 5 and 7 years old.

So, his lunch would have probably been more similar to five crackers and two small sardines from one “Lunchables” found in a grocery store! That’s small.

Now, everybody there – including the disciples – felt like the only way to solve the problem is with a big solution.

Recall that Philip said in verse 7 that two hundred denarii (about eight months worth of work wages) could not come close to being able solve their problem.

More than likely, the others unhesitatingly, nodded vigorously in agreement.

I imagine Jesus’ eyes lighting up with satisfaction as Andrew made the tiny little suggestion of the loaves and fish, possibly thinking, that’s it, he gets it.

He understands!

And then even Andrew caved to the snickering and peer pressure, and adds “but what are they among so many?” (John 6:9b)

It is a sad thing to witness, as we fail to reach our potential, either as individuals or as caring and compassionate communities (churches, neighborhood groups, school communities, charitable organizations), because we too often fall victim to this worldly snare which utters “what are they among so many” mentality.

What good will the once a month that I can serve do to make any difference in the life of our church, in our adult ministries, young adults ministry or in our kid’s ministry?

What good will my one compliment to a co-worker do to change the morale of our work environment?

What sort of good will my small donation make in the bottom line of such a large organization?

There is a very definite self-defeating, morale suppressing, mindset that needs to be broken off that teaches the little things do not really make any difference.

It’s a lie that keeps us paralyzed in life, and prevents us from being proactive. It’s what leaves us as Christ followers in the pathetic state that James refers to:

James 2:19-20 The Message

^19-20 Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands?

We remain paralyzed in life because we have bought the lie that we are too insignificant to spark change, and too inadequate and weak to be impactful.

That our talent is too small and our time too limited and too unnecessary.

We belly up to the table of apathy and complacency, believe that our treasure, our financial contribution, is too insignificant to ever really make a difference.

The truth is, there is genuine power in one, no matter how small it may seem!

The Power of One

Nehemiah 8:1-11 GOD’S WORD Translation

The Public Reading of Moses’ Teachings

8 ⌞When the seventh month came,⌟ all the people gathered together in the courtyard in front of Water Gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of Moses’ Teachings, which the Lord had commanded Israel ⌞to follow⌟. ² Then Ezra the priest brought the Teachings in front of the assembly. This included men, women, and any ⌞children⌟ who could understand what they heard. This took place on the first day of the seventh month. ³ From daybreak until noon, he read from it in the courtyard in front of Water Gate to the men, women, and ⌞ children⌟ who could understand it. All the people listened to the Book of Moses’ Teachings.

⁴ Ezra the scribe stood on a raised wooden platform made for this occasion. Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah stood beside him on his right. Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchiah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam stood beside him on his left. ⁵ Ezra, standing higher than all the other people, opened the book in front of all the people. As he opened it, all the people stood up. ⁶ Ezra thanked the Lord, the great God. All the people responded, “Amen! Amen!” as they raised their hands and then bowed with their faces to the ground and worshiped the Lord. ⁷ The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah—explained the Teachings to the people while they were standing there. ⁸ They read the Book of God’s Teachings clearly and explained the meaning so that the people could understand what was read.

⁹ Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people told them, “This is a holy day for the Lord your God. Don’t mourn or cry.” All the people were crying as they listened to the reading of God’s Teachings. ¹⁰ Then he told them, “Go, eat rich foods, drink sweet drinks, and send portions to those who cannot provide for themselves. Today is a holy day for the Lord. Don’t be sad because the joy you have in the Lord is your strength.” ¹¹ So the Levites calmed all the people by saying, “Listen. Today is a holy day. Don’t be sad.”

I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; I will not refuse to do something I can do.” – Edward Everette Hale

One man – Ezra the Scribe – stood tall in the pulpit and read the Word of God to the gathered people for the first time is who knows how many years, decades!

Nehemiah, one man, a well respected advisor to a Babylonian King, gave up everything to return to the city of his ancestors and in a miraculously small amount of time, brought his nation together by rebuilding of the city walls.

From our reading of John’s Gospel, Andrew understood (at least for a moment).

But more importantly, the lad with the lunch understood that even one person doing something small, with the anointing of God, could make a big difference.

Is it any wonder why Jesus himself said:

Matthew 18:1-5 The Message

Whoever Becomes Simple Again

18 At about the same time, the disciples came to Jesus asking, “Who gets the highest rank in God’s kingdom?”

^2-5 For an answer Jesus called over a child, whom he stood in the middle of the room, and said, “I’m telling you, once and for all, that unless you return to square one and start over like children, you’re not even going to get a look at the kingdom, let alone get in. Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s kingdom. What’s more, when you receive the childlike on my account, it’s the same as receiving me.

This little boy easily believed what the adult disciples struggled with, that big things could be solved through the power of doing something small.

And guess who made history that day?

The little boy.

He believed that there is great power in doing even the small and very smallest of things, so much that he was the first one moved to taking a positive action.

John 6:11-13 GOD’S WORD Translation

¹¹ Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed them to the people who were sitting there. He did the same thing with the fish. All the people ate as much as they wanted.

¹² When the people were full, Jesus told his disciples, “Gather the leftover pieces so that nothing will be wasted.” ¹³ The disciples gathered the leftover pieces of bread and filled twelve baskets.

And because that little boy believed, people were drawn to Jesus as a result of it.

John 6:14 GOD’S WORD Translation

¹⁴ When the people saw the miracle Jesus performed, they said, “This man is certainly the prophet who is to come into the world.”

Even the smallest size absolutely matters! How many people would be drawn to Christ if we, as His church, would begin to do more small things, like warmly greeting the people we come into contact with, or doing simple acts of kindness (can I get you a bottle of water, pick you up anything from the store, help you to meet your deadline, maybe help with the dishes, the laundry or the homework).

The Power of Everyone Doing Something Small

Acts 2:43-47GOD’S WORD Translation

⁴³ A feeling of fear came over everyone as many amazing things and miraculous signs happened through the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers kept meeting together, and they shared everything with each other. ⁴⁵ From time to time, they sold their property and other possessions and distributed the money to anyone who needed it. ⁴⁶ The believers had a single purpose and went to the temple every day. They were joyful and humble as they ate at each other’s homes and shared their food.  ⁴⁷ At the same time, they praised God and had the good will of all the people. Every day the Lord saved people, and they were added to the group.

If there is such tremendous power in just one person doing something small, how much more power is there when a group of believers join hearts and minds, and collectively, synergistically, begin to worship God, start working as a team?  

We follow Jesus’ example together, I definitely believe we’ll change the world!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Almighty God who is my Abba Father, thank you! Thank you for Jesus’ sacrifice. Thank you for the Spirit’s presence in my life. Thank you that these two parts of your being intercede for me as I pray. Lord, I want to be excited about life and the things you have in store for me and your people. I yearn to live with devotion for you and the things that matter to you. Father, I long for the Spirit to help me have a soul-level reverence and awe for you and your work in my life and the lives of your people. I know you will work this devotion and awe in my life as I live with the expectation for your work and power released through the Spirit to me and your other children. I commit to this expectation and pray with all reverence to your honor. Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen, Amen.

https://translate.google.com/

Psalm 119:129-136 Authorized (King James) Version

פ  Pe

¹²⁹ Thy testimonies are wonderful:
therefore doth my soul keep them.
¹³⁰ The entrance of thy words giveth light;
it giveth understanding unto the simple.
¹³¹ I opened my mouth, and panted:
for I longed for thy commandments.
¹³² Look thou upon me, and be merciful unto me,
as thou usest to do unto those that love thy name.
¹³³ Order my steps in thy word:
and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
¹³⁴ Deliver me from the oppression of man:
so will I keep thy precepts.
¹³⁵ Make thy face to shine upon thy servant;
and teach me thy statutes.
¹³⁶ Rivers of waters run down mine eyes,
because they keep not thy law.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen.

What are we truly asking for when we ask God, “Order my steps”?

The King James Version of Psalm 119:133 reads, “Order my steps in thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.”

Other translations use different phrasing, such as “establish my footsteps” (NASB), “direct my footsteps,” (NIV) or “keep steady my footsteps” (ESV).

The Message reading of this passage is as thus;

^129-136 Every word you give me is a miracle word—
    how could I help but obey?
Break open your words, let the light shine out,
    let ordinary people see the meaning.
Mouth open and panting,
    I wanted your commands more than anything.
Turn my way, look kindly on me,
    as you always do to those who personally love you.
Steady my steps with your Word of promise
    so nothing malign gets the better of me.
Rescue me from the grip of bad men and women
    so I can live life your way.
Smile on me, your servant;
    teach me the right way to live.
I cry rivers of tears
    because nobody’s living by your book!

The Complete Jewish Bible reads the verse this way: ¹³³ Guide my footsteps by your word;
don’t let any kind of sin rule me.

Although the translations of the Bible vary, they all portray the psalmist’s desire to live according to God’s loving wisdom through His Word, not ours..

While the exact phrase “order my steps” may only appear in one translation of a single verse, the theme of God alone directing His people in the way they should go runs throughout Scripture and is an integral part of what it genuinely means to be a disciple of Christ—the greatest calling of all believers.

What Does it Mean For God to Order Our Steps?

When we repent and turn to Christ, we acknowledge that we have been wrong.

We have lived our lives in such a way that does not honor our created design—a way that does not come close to honoring, glorifying and worshiping God.

Doing so, we have greatly oppressed, suppressed, wounded ourselves and one too many others -to the point we have lost all sight of what is good and true.

Repentance is a turning from that oppressive and suppressive way of life and a turning to Savior Christ, who is “the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

It is a process of unseating dethroning one’s own will, reinstating God’s will.

Thus, Romans 10:9 says that those who believe God raised Jesus Christ from the dead and give their heartfelt confession with their mouth Jesus as Lord will be saved.

Being a baptized Christian is not simply a matter of acknowledging that God is real but an echelons beyond serious matter of actually choosing to follow Him.

In following Christ, we are asking Him to order our steps, to guide us as we attempt to live like Christ in a world that pulls us in every other direction.

Verse 105 in Psalm 119 paints for us a clear picture of what it looks like for God to order our steps: “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path,” it reads.

The psalmist uses both darkness or blindness to describe those who do not acknowledge God in their ways (Proverbs 4:19, Romans 1:20-21).

Proverbs 4:19 Complete Jewish Bible

¹⁹ The way of the wicked is like darkness;
they don’t even know what makes them stumble.

Romans 1:20-21 Complete Jewish Bible

²⁰ For ever since the creation of the universe his invisible qualities — both his eternal power and his divine nature — have been clearly seen, because they can be understood from what he has made. Therefore, they have no excuse;  ²¹ because, although they know who God is, they do not glorify him as God or thank him. On the contrary, they have become futile in their thinking; and their undiscerning hearts have become darkened.

In a world continually shaped by darkness, God’s word acts as an illuminating force, showing us the ONE right way, ordering our steps according to wisdom.

What Does the Psalmist Say Will ‘Order My Steps’?

The writer of Psalm 119 asks that God order His steps according to His word.

This psalm is exceptional because it is the longest single chapter in the Bible—coming in at 176 verses.

God’s word is referenced throughout the psalm, using various terms: His law, testimonies, precepts, statutes, commandments, judgments, words, and His ordinances.

The psalmist confirms all of them point to the character of the One who gave them.

The psalmist desperately wants the very heart of God to guide His steps, as it is being revealed through His continually living and continuously active word.

As believers under the new covenant, we have the glorious benefit of knowing Christ, whom John refers to as “the Word” in the opening line of his gospel.

John 1:1-5 Complete Jewish Bible

1 In the beginning was the Word,
    and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.
²     He was with God in the beginning.

³ All things came to be through him,
    and without him nothing made had being.

⁴ In him was life,
    and the life was the light of mankind.

⁵ The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness has not suppressed it.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

The term that John used for “Word” is Logos.

In Greek philosophy, this term referred to divine reason or the natural law of the cosmos.

According to the Stoics, aligning your life with the Logos was to live well.

When John takes this term and applies it to Jesus, he uses a term familiar to both Jewish and Gentile audiences to show that the world was created and is sustained not merely by a mediating principle but through a personal God.

Only in Jesus, through Whom the world was made (John 1:3), can we know truth and make sense of the world.

The Logos, a set of principles, was the Stoics’ guiding force.

For a Jew (like the Psalmist), the word of God, as revealed in their recorded history, in the 614 laws that God gave to Moses, and the commandments that God gave directly to His people, revealed the Lord’s heart.

He was their guide.

For a new covenant believer, our guide is the Word: Jesus Christ, the fullest revelation of God the Father’s heart, will, and intentions (Hebrews 1:1-4).

God’s Final Word in His Son

1 God, having spoken to the fathers long ago in [the voices and writings of] the prophets in many separate revelations [each of which set forth a portion of the truth], and in many ways, ² has in these last days spoken [with finality] to us in [the person of One who is by His character and nature] His Son [namely Jesus], whom He appointed heir and lawful owner of all things, through whom also He created the universe [that is, the universe as a space-time-matter continuum]. ³ The Son is the radiance and only expression of the glory of [our awesome] God [reflecting God’s ^[a]Shekinah glory, the Light-being, the brilliant light of the divine], and the exact representation and perfect imprint of His [Father’s] essence, and upholding and maintaining and propelling all things [the entire physical and spiritual universe] by His powerful word [carrying the universe along to its predetermined goal]. When He [Himself and no other] had [by offering Himself on the cross as a sacrifice for sin] accomplished purification from sins and established our freedom from guilt, He sat down [revealing His completed work] at the right hand of the Majesty on high [revealing His Divine authority], ⁴ having become as much superior to angels, since He has inherited a more excellent and glorious ^[b]name than they [that is, Son—the name above all names].

To know Him better—and know God the Father and the Holy Spirit better—we must read, study and know the Word of God as its revealed through Scripture.

What Happens When We Let the Bible Order Our Steps?

Psalm 1:1-3 Amplified Bible

Book One

The Righteous and the Wicked Contrasted.

1 ^[a]Blessed [fortunate, prosperous, and favored by God] is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked [following their advice and example],
Nor stand in the path of sinners,
Nor sit [down to rest] in the seat of ^[b]scoffers (ridiculers).
² 
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
And on His law [His precepts and teachings] he [habitually] meditates day and night.
³ 
And he will be like a tree firmly planted [and fed] by streams of water,
Which yields its fruit in its season;
Its leaf does not wither;
And in whatever he does, he prospers [and comes to maturity].

Psalm 1:1-3 shows the advantage of living according to God’s law.

The one who does so aligns with the truth.

They will experience the inherent benefit built into the system.

The book of Proverbs echoes this sentiment in its repetitive contrast of wisdom with foolishness.

“He who trusts in His own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely will be delivered” (Proverbs 28:26).

Someone who has allowed God to order their steps is walking wisely and will be delivered.

Fools will follow their own path and unavoidably stumble into the snare they set for themselves.

Apart from God’s wisdom, we are fools trusting in our own hearts, walking according to our own understanding—believing lies, living as if they were true.

Inevitably, this will lead to ruin.

But suppose we allow the Bible to order our steps?

If so, we live according to the wisdom by which God established the earth (Proverbs 3:19).

¹⁹ 
The Lord by His wisdom has founded the earth;
By His understanding He has established the heavens.

We find the necessary conditions for experiencing the benefit of aligning ourselves with the truth.

Yes, we still live in a fallen world.

Even if wisdom is applied to its fullest, bad things still happen.

The prosperity gospel falls flat on its face.

Karma loses its livelihood.

Stoicism falls short.

While the Stoics would agree with Christians that the best way to live was to align oneself with natural law, they had little to offer when nature seemed to crumble in on itself.

As Jesus Himself can testify, allowing God’s word to order one’s steps will not exempt one from suffering.

What then?

Christians have an even greater hope than a life untouched by harm.

As we allow the Word of God to guide and teach us, we grow in conformity with Christ and our understanding of His heart.

As we “walk in a manner worthy of the Lord,” we “increase in our knowledge of God” (Colossians. 1:10).

As we trust Him and find that He is true to His word, our faith more precious than gold (1 Peter 1:7), is strengthened and established.

As we see the goodness in His wisdom, our understanding of His heart expands.

As we experience His willingness to be our strength when His commandments feel too burdensome, we know Him as our “very present help” (Psalm 46:1).

Our obedience becomes how we come to know Christ Himself.

That is true joy and freedom.

That is life eternal (John 17:3).

Steadfastly following our God’s commandments safeguards us from our utter foolishness’s consequences, creating the space for greater intimacy with our Lord and Savior.

How Can We Start Letting God’s Word Order Our Steps Today?

For God’s Word to guide us, we must know His voice.

The best way to become familiar with how He speaks is to read His Word.

To really know God’s voice and become transformed by it, we need to spend daily time in the Bible.

After all, “man shall not live on bread alone, but man shall live on everything that comes out of the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy. 8:3).

Just as we cannot live and function without physical sustenance, we cannot thrive without the word of God.

No matter how good it tastes, starving all week before having a feast does not make a healthy body.

No matter how enriching, a Sunday service cannot replace a personal, daily interaction with God through His Word.

Like any relationship, you cannot truly know someone without spending time with them.

Through diligence and discipline, only when His revelation of Himself shapes your image of God and your understanding of how He speaks through Scripture can you really know that you are obeying His voice?

Only then can He truly “order your steps.”

If you want to start incorporating a daily Bible study into your life but don’t know the first steps, begin with a Bible reading plan.

Choose a time of the day when you can consistently spend time reading the Bible.

Bring other people into your journey.

Find a mentor or friend with whom you can share your intention and then ask them to hold you accountable.

Doing so will give you another person to process what you have been learning with.

We aren’t meant to live our Christ life alone!

We were made to grow in relationships.

The Holy Spirit will teach and convict you as you spend more time in Scripture.

God’s Word will reveal areas of your life that need to be surrendered to and transformed by Him.

This is a good thing, “for the Lord disciplines those whom He loves” (Hebrews. 12:6).

It is an opportunity to intentionally, instinctively choose faith in Christ as you allow Him, and Him alone, to order your steps.

If what He calls you to do feels too a might bit burdensome, remember Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:18-21:

Ephesians 1:18-21 Amplified Bible

¹⁸ And [I pray] that the eyes of your heart [the very center and core of your being] may be enlightened [flooded with light by the Holy Spirit], so that you will know and cherish the ^[a]hope [the divine guarantee, the confident expectation] to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the ^[b]saints (God’s people), ¹⁹ and [so that you will begin to know] what the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of His [active, spiritual] power is in us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of His mighty strength ²⁰ which He ^[c]produced in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, ²¹ far above all rule and authority and power and dominion [whether angelic or human], and [far above] every name that is named [above every title that can be conferred], not only in this age and world but also in the one to come.

The power that raised Christ from the dead is available to you.

Christianity is not a ‘pick yourself up by the bootstraps’ religion but God calling you to walk humbly in freedom by His grace.

Sometimes, though His guidance will be less clear when big decisions arrive, and the route will appear foggy.

Here, relationship, prayer, and surrender will become vital.

Are all areas of your life surrendered to Christ?

We can only expect to be led by Him in the big things if we listen to Him in the little.

If you have chosen deafness in an area where He has been speaking, address that first.

Then, as you come to Him with “clean hands and a pure heart” (Psalm 24:4), you can trust that He will guide you in all wisdom (James 1:5).

God’s word is a light to our dark path in a morally uncertain world.

It must be our standard for right and wrong, righteousness and evil.

As God’s will and Word have sway in our life, we are delivered from all sorts of destructive practices that can ruin our lives.

As God’s will and Word have sway in our lives, we are enlightened to the truth of the Cross – that God so loved the world He sent His only Son to save us from sin.

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Great and Almighty God, Creator of all things, Author of all life, who raised His Son, who raises the dead and restores the fallen, make my heart delight in your truth and my life more perfectly conformed to your will. Lead me in your way and guide my footsteps in righteousness. Empower me to freedom from any form of bondage that Satan might use to control me and ruin my godly influence. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and Renew a right spirit within me. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen.

https://translate.google.com/

1 Timothy 4:11-14 The Message

^11-14 Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don’t let anyone put you down because you’re young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by demeanor, by love, by faith, by integrity. Stay at your post reading Scripture, giving counsel, teaching. And that special gift of ministry you were given when the leaders of the church laid hands on you and prayed—keep that dusted off and in use.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father and the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen.

It can be so easy to look at a younger person and think what would they know?

But God, without any partiality or regard to age, has put us all in specific places, for specific times, and with God-given talents and skills, and life experiences.

1 Timothy 4:12 New Living Translation

¹² Don’t let anyone think less of you because you are young. Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity.

The Book of Timothy was written by the Apostle Paul to his friend Timothy.

Timothy was a young trusted associate of Paul and was an active and faithful missionary and church leader in the Early 1st Century Church. 

The purpose of this epistle or letter was to encourage, inspire young Timothy and to outline a set of instructions for church leadership and organization. 

Some of the most important topics built into this letter include prayer, worship, husbands and wives, church leadership structure, false teaching, and money. 

Of course, as we now are reading in our text, within these topics, Paul discusses, values and highlights the importance of not looking down on young people just because they are young and that is our focus for this devotional effort this day.

What is the Context of 1 Timothy 4:12?

1 Timothy 4:12 New King James Version

Take Heed to Your Ministry

¹² Let no one ^[a]despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, ^[b]in spirit, in faith, in purity.

1 Timothy 4:12 states: “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in  purity.”

I love that Paul does not throw out idle words, but he backs up the command with ways to assist his young protégé Timothy in following it through. 

Timothy was to not allow the world to despise, to look down on him because he was a younger person than some, but he was to be a young man who showed himself to be capable, mature for his years, “set an example for the believers.” 

Paul does not stop there but he specifically itemizes the areas in which Timothy was to set that example: 

in speech, in the words he shared with others,

in conduct, in his actions,

in love, in how he treated others, 

in faith, in his belief in God and lastly,

he was to set an example in purity or how he treated women and acted with his own body (1 Timothy 4:12). 

This list covers every area of Timothy’s life.

I believe what Paul is laying out here is the idea that we are not only saved for Sundays, but our faith should be embedded into every facet of our lives, and like young Timothy, we must also become a people who set an example to the world around us and ensure that we are each becoming more and more like Jesus. 

Paul was a man who knew what it was to offer a whole life to God.

Paul was a man who knew what it was to place highest personal value to a whole life devoted to living more like the example set by Christ and to revealing Christ.

He wrote in so many places in Scripture about this, but another is in Romans 12.

The Message version of verses 1 and 2 of this reads: 

Place Your Life Before God

12 ^1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

Isn’t it marvelous that Paul even goes as far as to say, “God helping you,” or as the NIV puts it, “in view of God’s mercy.” 

A Living Sacrifice

12 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Even the Apostle Paul knew this was a life we could never attain on our own, but we would each always need every single measure and last degree of God’s help.

Isn’t it somehow just a tiny bit more refreshing to hear that message spoken, know we don’t have to live up to a certain way of being in our own strength!?

Paul also knew what we in our humanity will absolutely sometimes forget it.

In our technologically advanced, technology dependent ways, it is too easy in life to get caught up with what is going on around us than what God is doing. 

So, Paul, in verse 13, lends his wealth of education, experience, and wisdom, fleshes these words out a little by saying Timothy was to devote himself to the reading of Scripture and doctrine and to never neglect the gifts God gave him. 

1 Timothy 4:12-13 New King James Version

Take Heed to Your Ministry

¹² Let no one ^[a]despise your youth, but be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, ^[b]in spirit, in faith, in purity. ¹³ Till I come, give attention to reading, to exhortation, to ^[c]doctrine.

How Does this Passage of Text Apply to Us Today?

British evangelist Henry A. Redpath was once quoted saying,

“A Christian might have a saved soul but a wasted life — but no follower of Jesus should ever be content with such a place.” 

Friend, let this be a friendly reminder that when God created you, He embedded into your very existence gifts and purpose, passions and valuable life principles.

No matter what your age, whatever your skill set, Paul writes to young Timothy to please use them up for God’s glory, do not bury them away, never hide them.

Jesus Himself echoes these words;  

Matthew 5:13-16 New King James Version

Believers Are Salt and Light

¹³ “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it [ever] be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.

¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. ¹⁶ Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Not that God will one day owe us a reward or a prize, or that we may become prideful of our own gifting’s and progress, but so that God gets revealed, God gets every measure the glory, honor, worship and His kingdom is expanded!

Timothy, Paul writes, was to be diligent or focused on the above, but also, he was to watch or observe the public and private conduct of his own life closely; if not, it could ultimately lead unto the destruction of those he was trying to lead. 

It is so important that Christians self-examine, and ask God regularly to show us, as David would say, “If there is any wicked way in me?” (Psalm 139:23-24). 

While the above sounds like a very long list of things Timothy needed to do, I feel it is worth once again mentioning all of this would be done with God’s help, and over time and with personal discipline to reading, and study and prayer, it would be a way of life, not a list of boxes to be ticked when Timothy felt like it. 

Young Timothy was also being reminded to persevere even in the hard seasons because it was going to be example of that perseverance which would save both him and embolden, inspire and empower the hearers of the words he shared. 

I feel it is worth pointing out right here that it is not our good behavior nor our faithfulness that actually saves a person. 

I believe Paul is pointing out here that it is essential for us, without regard for our ages to evaluate ourselves so that we do not lead a church or people astray by false teaching, false worship and faked and poor private, public behaviors.

Again, Jesus echoes these words;  

Matthew 6:1-13 New King James Version

Do Good to Please God

6 “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ² Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ³ But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you ^[a]openly.

The Model Prayer

⁵ “And when you pray, you shall not be like the ^[b]hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ⁶ But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you ^[c]openly. ⁷ And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.

⁸ “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. ⁹ In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
¹⁰ Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread.
¹² And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
¹³ And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
^[d]For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

It is also so important that we do so because our actions, our words, and our faithfulness to God are sometimes, and quite often how others come to Christ. 

They see things in us that they do not see in the world and that is attractive to those who do not yet know the peace that passes all understanding (Philippians 4) or to the joy that can exist for us when we have trials in our lives (James 1). 

These things are noticed, scrutinized by those who live around us, and often, they are what draws an unsaved friend, workmate, or family member to Jesus. 

Why Does This Passage of Text Matter to us Today?

Friend, it is easy to look at a younger person and think, what would they know?

But our absolutely impartial God has put us all in specific places, for specific times, and purposes and with God-given talents and skills, and life experience. 

It is vital that we listen to those around us, and help the younger ones in ministry to grow, praying for them, reminding them of their role when they seem to be going the wrong direction in love, and, of course, mentoring them. 

But also dignifying them, honoring and respecting them, listening when they come to us with words from God, or to pray for us, or to teach and admonish.

We must lean into acknowledging the youth, the knowledge that God can use anyone, any age, and respect our leader in authority, whatever age they may be. 

Of course, respect must go two ways, and if we read on into 1 Timothy 5, Paul outlines for Timothy how he must treat and respect the older generations, and those younger than he: with dignity, respect, giving proper recognition, and to honoring and to treating them as though he would his own father or mother. 

The life of the church is best imaged in that of family.

God created us all with relationship in mind, and it is important that we see each other how God sees us, loved!

If we see through the eyes of compassion, mercy, forgiveness and love, we will inevitably find it so much harder to treat each other so poorly, or dismissively.

So, friend, whatever age you are, there will be those in leadership older than you and younger.

As you come to mentor those older and younger, do so in love, not forgetting God has placed you into this season for good reason, and follow His guidance.  

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Heavenly Father, thank You for the wisdom and instruction that we gain from the pastoral epistles to Timothy and Titus. May I look to Jesus, day by day, and stand firm in the faith, holding fast to the truth of the glorious gospel of grace. Help me not to be offended by the actions or attitude of others towards me, but rather, may my speech and conduct be honoring to You, and may I serve You in faith and purity, to my life’s end. Help me to be a living godly example to those with whom I have to do, for Your holy name’s sake, and greater glory. This I ask in my Savior Jesus’ name, AMEN

Glory be to the Father and the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen.

https://translate.google.com/

Proverbs 22:4 New Living Translation

⁴ True humility and fear of the Lord
    lead to riches, honor, and long life.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen.

Pride goes before destruction.

In an exaltation of power and freedom, Icarus flew so high that the sun melted the wax holding feathers on his wings, he crashed into the sea and drowned.

Eve and Adam wanted to be like God, and ended up mortal, expelled from the Garden. Nebuchadnezzar boasted, “Is not this great Babylon which I have built (Daniel 4:30)?” until God deprived him of his wits.

Pride comes naturally to the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve, but “God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble (James 4:6).”

Pride does not end in riches and honor and life.

Humility requires God’s grace, given often through rebukes, setbacks, God’s Word, parents, and teachers, until we learn that God is God, and we are not, and that other people deserve the same love and consideration we do.

The truly humble person thinks brutally, honestly about himself, not too highly, nor falsely denying what God has given: “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity).”

God commands us to cultivate humility.

“Humble yourselves (I Peter 5:6, James 4:10),” before God by accepting His Word and Providence without grumbling, and before other people by putting their interests above your own (Philippians 2:1-5).

Coupled with humility is the fear of the Lord.

The proud forget God, do not call on Him for help and forgiveness, and refuse to give Him any degree or measure of thanks.

The humble know they rely on Him even for breath itself.

The reward for true humility and fear of the Lord is “riches and honor and life,” the things God promised Abraham when He called him to go to a land filled with milk and honey, and young Solomon after he asked for wisdom (1 Kings 3:3-15).

It’s what Jesus promised Peter, who asked Him what he would get for having left everything to follow Him:

Very truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life (Mark 10:29-30).

There are great blessings and profound rewards in this life for for those who seek true humility through genuine heartfelt repentance and fear of the Lord (Psalm 51 and Psalm 32).

But because the world is malignantly proud and resists God, the rewards come “with persecutions” — job demotions and loss, separation and then divorce, homelessness, a ruined reputation, loss of personal freedom – that is jail and imprisonment, and (Acts 5:1-10) sometimes even severe accountability, death.

No follower of Jesus should ever get so prideful to believe that God promises a life of uninterrupted success resulting in “riches and honor and life,” such as Job had before God allowed Satan to take them away – our true riches are stored up for us in the age to come, when God gives the truly humble one eternal life.

We read in the Word that God resists the proud. 

Proverbs 16:5 New Living Translation

⁵ The Lord detests the proud;
    they will surely be punished.

Proverbs 21:4 New Living Translation

⁴ Haughty eyes, a proud heart,
    and evil actions are all sin.

That the Lord hates the proud look and the arrogant heart.  

Temporary riches and deceptive honor may come without humility – but the real thing demands it. 

The truly wise, humble person realizes at the top of all things is God – the only true “way to the mountain top” comes as we humble ourselves before Him.

History is littered with those who thought they could become the big cheese – yet in the end – they only smelled like bad, over aged and spoiled limburger.  

2 Kings 20:1-6 New Living Translation

Hezekiah’s Sickness and Recovery

20 About that time Hezekiah became deathly ill, and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to visit him. He gave the king this message: “This is what the Lord says: Set your affairs in order, for you are going to die. You will not recover from this illness.”

² When Hezekiah heard this, he turned his face to the wall and prayed to the  Lord, ³ “Remember, O Lord, how I have always been faithful to you and have served you single-mindedly, always doing what pleases you.” Then he broke down and wept bitterly.

⁴ But before Isaiah had left the middle courtyard,^[a] this message came to him from the Lord: ⁵ “Go back to Hezekiah, the leader of my people. Tell him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your ancestor David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears. I will heal you, and three days from now you will get out of bed and go to the Temple of the Lord. ⁶ I will add fifteen years to your life, and I will rescue you and this city from the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my own honor and for the sake of my servant David.’”

Like Hezekiah, when we genuinely, truly humble ourselves before God – we place ourselves in the direct path of “good health” “longer life” and blessings.  

The truly wise man embraces humility and his own weaknesses. 

He even glories in them because he knows that as he sees himself weak – then God becomes the strength in his life – the strength is his choices – the strength behind his behaviors, character and all future actions. (2 Corinthians 12:6-10)

God also speaks His truth to our haughty lives through this proverb to tell us succinctly that the other twin of riches, honor, and life is the fear of the Lord. 

This is a respect and intrinsic honor shown to our Sovereign God, His Word, and His complete and perfect judgment on all matters. 

We are told at the very beginning of Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. 

Without a proper reverent fear of God – we will degenerate into a pride and self-assuredness which will lead us astray from wisdom. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25) 

This fear of God often begins with a terror initially as we grasp Who God is – and where we stand before Him.  

Imagine the moment Paul grasped the true fear of the Lord. 

He had settled into a self-assured sense of his own right-ness in his religious views and stands. 

This had led him to the point of zealously persecuting Christians to the death – and imprisoning others.  

On his way to Damascus to continue his war on the church – Jesus manifest His ultimate power and knocked Paul off his horse and blinded his eyes with light.

Imagine the fear that must have gripped Paul when he heard that the answer to “Who are you Lord?” was, “I am Jesus, Whom you are persecuting.” 

The fear of God had to almost paralyze this man who lay on the road. 

But that moment of terror was also the beginning of wisdom for Paul. 

It led him away from a religion of effort and self-righteousness – to the true wisdom and ultimate truth of God’s grace in the gospel. 

There are many voices teaching us, telling us, conning us on all of the quickest and easiest ways of how to get, be rich, honored, and truly alive in this world.

Unless they are teaching us, telling us that the way to these things is through the path of true humility and the fear of God . . . they are ultimately wrong. 

God will vigorously resist those who take other messages than this one. 

Acts 2:38-39 New Living Translation

³⁸ Peter replied, “Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God, and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹ This promise is to you, to your children, and to those far away^[a]—all who have been called by the Lord our God.”

But for those who embrace humility and the fear of the Lord – there is a wealth, an honor, and a God promised eternal life that can never be taken from them. 

Truly theirs is the wisest way of achieving them – and holding to them forever.

The Day of Pentecost, empowered by the Holy Spirit, Peter preached, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38).

In other words,

“by your baptism, Put off your old way of living and all your own attempts to be holy in your own strength. Put off the FACADE of being a Christian, and put on Jesus Christ. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, for the promise is for you!”

According to the Scriptures, three thousand truly humbled souls were added to the Church that day — three thousand religious people who had been doing the best they could to be godly in their own strength; three thousand who were perhaps tired of learning about God and His former power; three thousand who noticed that there were people who actually possessed the power, Spirit, of God!

So what must you and I do in order to get this power of God today?

After all, we will surely need it in order to confront the days ahead of us.

First, we must wave our white flags, surrender ourselves and return to the full purpose that God intended for our lives on this earth: to be living witnesses of who He is, which requires truest humility, for we will be mocked and ridiculed.

Yet, regardless of what the world may think of us, there must be a resolve in our heart that says, “I don’t care what it will cost. I want this new life, this strength to go with God, strength to share God, and I will not settle for my being lukewarm.”

This is a choice you and I must make.

Remember, the promise of the Holy Spirit is to you, to your children, to the young, the old, the educated, the uneducated, the strong, the weak.

Do you and I really, truly, want it — and the lifestyle that accompanies it?

If we are genuinely willing to allow ourselves to be humbled, I encourage us to go before the Lord in humility and ask him to fulfill HIS greater promise to us.

He will surely be faithful to humble us to the Truths of HIS active, living Word.

Humbled as his Church, we will return to the power of God in these last days!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Abba Father, God of Righteousness, Peace and Love, we humble ourselves before you, prostrate and penitent, for all wisdom, all knowledge, all virtues, come from you, Who are the inexhaustible source of all Holiness. Your Holy Word teaches us to seek truth, purity, godliness and knowledge that leads to love and harmony. You are the embodiment of love, and we are nothing without you, which proves, most assuredly and most undeniably, undoubtedly, that where there is no love, there is nothing.

We are naught, in your sight, without the blessing of the generous spirit of love. Sharing this spirit of benevolence, means caring for our lesser endowed, poorer brethren, for you, God, are impartial in your great and perfect love, making the sun shine on the rich and poor, in equal measure. Lord, may we not lose your favor, for reasons of selfish pride. Teach us to practice humility in all our worldly dealings.

Bless us with true Christian humility, in imitation of Christ, for which you have graciously promised manifold rewards, for it is a grace of great price in your sight. May we fear your greatness and justice in condemning all that is false and imperfect in us. By the power of thy Holy Spirit, May we be sanctified and purified from all grave misdemeanors, by transforming our lives to gain the merits and comforts of this life, and happiness of the next, promised to us, in Jesus’ Name. Alleluia, Amen

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen, Amen.

https://translate.google.com/