Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."
17 Deal bountifully with Your servant, That I may live and keep Your word [treasuring it and being guided by it day by day]. 18 Open my eyes [to spiritual truth] so that I may behold Wonderful things from Your law. 19 I am a stranger on the earth; Do not hide Your commandments from me. 20 My soul is crushed with longing For Your ordinances at all times. 21 You rebuke the presumptuous and arrogant, the cursed ones, Who wander from Your commandments. 22 Take reproach and contempt away from me, For I observe Your testimonies. 23 Even though princes sit and talk to one another against me, Your servant meditates on Your statutes. 24 Your testimonies also are my delight And my counselors.
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
“Let courage rise with danger, and strength to strength oppose!”
Let’s face it! As Christians, we are beginning to feel more and more like strangers in enemy occupied territory.
However, “With God on our side, how can we lose?”
It feels like we are strangers because, with the world coming into our living rooms via television, we witness the radical treatment Christians are being subjected to in anti-Christian parts of the world, and in our own country we are increasingly told we must exclude Christ from public display and conversation.
Whereas our devotion to the Word of God has always been an identifying mark of God’s servants, such devotion nowadays risks alienating and dividing us too.
Thus, we can understand why we could say what the psalmist said many years ago – “I am a stranger on earth” (119:19a). God’s servant felt it then. We feel it today. We are all pilgrims passing through, but, with a message and a mission.
Our message is God’s Word. Our mission is Be true to God’s Word – with an openness to learning it and living it, and with the courage to profess it, practice it, and proclaim it in the face of opposition.
Thus, we can say with the psalmist that we have been
“Blessed with an ever living Courage by the Word of God” – Psalm 119:17-24
God’s Word gives us courage.
Courageous Christians, when rooted in God’s Word, stand upright and strong during the storms of life!
Psalm 31:23-24 Amplified23 O love the Lord, all you His godly ones! The Lord preserves the faithful [those with moral and spiritual integrity] And fully repays the [self-righteousness of the] arrogant. 24 Be strong and let your hearts take courage, All you who wait for and confidently expect the Lord.
That being the case, would not we want to pray as did the psalmist?
“Open my eyes so that I may contemplate (meditate upon) wonderful things (blessed assurances) from Your Word . . . Your instruction . . . Your commands . . . Your judgments . . . Your decrees . . . Your statutes.” In other words:
Whatever God has communicated to you and me about His ways and His Will . . . taught us on how to conduct our lives as His children . . . ordered us to do in how we relate to Him and to others . . . decided about requests we have made of Him and petitions we have presented to Him . . . foreordained to be . . . said as if it has already been carved in stone (Job 19:23-27)– all of this constitutes God’s Word.
The imagery of “eyesight” is used by the psalmist as we should use it: Ask God to turn our eyes away from those things in life that have no “lasting” value – i.e., teachings, values or actions, morals and ethics which are opposed to the Word of LORD God. Ask God to help us stay focused on His Word and His ways.
From time to time our spiritual vision becomes a bit blurred by distractions and disruptions which interferes with our daily prayer routine – and, before I know it, our spiritual discernment loses its cutting edge and we find ourselves in need of renewed vision – clarity – something which won’t happen on our own effort.
We need the help of someone greater than ourselves.
I need the prescribed meditations that the psalmist recommends. “Open my eyes that I may contemplate (meditate on) the wonderful things in Your Law.”
When we contemplate . . . meditate . . . think intensely, intently in a quiet place about greater wisdom, God’s Word, that which inevitably jumps out at us is a renewed understanding of Who God is – His character traits . . . that, if adopted by us and indelibly impressed upon our minds, becomes a part of who we are.
This “merger” of our spirit with the Spirit of God is the dynamic that blesses us with the real courage to do His Will in a world that opposes God and His people.
Psalm 119:23-24 English Standard Version
23 Even though princes sit plotting against me, your servant will meditate on your statutes. 24 Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.
The Wisdom and Words and Precepts of God are not simply a thick rule book God threw down from atop Mount Sinai or E-Mails or Tweets to stir things up.
Rather, it’s a collection of testimonies, or the story of God coming through for his people.
Though Scripture does contain lists like the Ten Commandments and books like Leviticus with its Laws, it is primarily comprised of the stories of God’s people.
In short, the Bible is a book about God written by him through people.
The very way that he chose to reveal himself to us displays that he wants to be in relationship with us.
And, like the Psalmist, those very ancient testimonies should be our delight!
We should delight in them because:
They are true and unflinching (John 17:17; Mark 14:66-72).
They speak to every direction of life because God’s scope is unlimited (Isaiah 48:3).
They are infinitely wise (Proverbs 3, Proverbs 8, Isaiah 55:10-13, 1 Corinthians 1:18-25; 2 Timothy 3:16-17), even if too many of the people in them were not.
Revisit these Scriptures when you meet with God in his word and be thankful.
From God’s first words of the Book of Genesis to God’s last word in Revelation, we have the greatest source of truth, direction and wisdom that has ever been.
And again, how did God choose to teach and reveal these to us?
Through the stories of both the faithful and unfaithful in Scripture.
Not only do we witness the blessing of the righteous but the end result of wickedness.
God shows us in real life through real people how real Christianity ought to be really lived.
He has not left us in the dark.
He has brought us into His Marvelous Light ….
Psalm 118:22-24English Standard Version
22 The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.[a] 23 This is the Lord’s doing; it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Ancient Words …. Ever True …. Forever …. Changing Me …. Changing You ….
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Father, faithful One, teach me your divine wisdom. Inspire me, Empower me to understand wise teaching. Give insight to my simple mind. Help me to live a life that is disciplined and successful, based on the wise teachings of your word. Give me the portion of knowledge I need to make smart decisions and glorify you in all that I do. I know that reverence for you is the beginning of wisdom. Help me listen when you correct me, and not neglect your instruction. I know when I follow your wisdom, I read, listen and give heed to the ancient testimonies, I will receive grace and honor and magnify my Jesus. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord. “[a]Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be like wool. 19 “If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the best of the land; 20 But if you refuse and rebel, You shall be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
I want to begin by looking at this three thousand year old open invitation.
“Now come and let us reason together saith the Lord.”
You know it seems to me as the more we read the Bible and study God’s Word that we find the Lord is constantly calling and inviting mankind to come to him.
And of all the wonderful things God is, He is genuinely Reasonable, He is Just.
A God who offers who does not “stay mad for very long” offers His rebellious children a voice of reason, and a call to the sinner and the backslider to return.
Romans 12:1 God’s personal invitation says, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service.”
In Jeremiah 3:22 the Lord God’s personal invitation says, “Return ye backsliding children and I will heal your backsliding.”
In Jeremiah 29:10-14 the Lord’s promise to His rebellious children about to be taken into a 70 year exile in Babylon reads like a giant sized God type bear hug:
10 “For thus says the Lord, ‘When seventy years [of exile] have been completed for Babylon, I will visit (inspect) you and keep My good promise to you, to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans and thoughts that I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for peace and well-being and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call on Me and you will come and pray to Me, and I will hear [your voice] and I will listen to you. 13 Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and I will [free you and] gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’”
In Malachi 3:7 the Lord said, “Return unto me and I will return unto you.”
Our text today from Isaiah 1:18 says, “Come now and let us reason together.”
As I read this, I just realized that this is not a call to trial or a call to judgement.
It’s an open invitation to forgiveness an mercy, to open up our hearts and listen to what the Lord might just speak to us, that we might hear His voice of reason.
I think of the prodigal son. You know, the Bible says he came to himself from the midst the moment of watching pigs, joyously eating their food in a pig sty, and I believe that suddenly the voice of reason could speak and reach out to him.
Luke 15:14-17 “14 Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to do without and be in need. 15 So he went and forced himself on one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to [a]feed pigs. 16 He would have gladly eaten the [carob] pods that the pigs were eating [but they could not satisfy his hunger], and no one was giving anything to him. 17 But when he [finally] came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough food, while I am dying here of hunger!”
The voice of reason, an inner voice, spoke some very important facts to him:
He had spent his entire inheritance, he had no job and had no source of income.
There is a great famine in the land and the food is running out.
I am slowly starving and I don’t have very many people to rely on for help.
The only job I can get is “feeding someone else’s pigs.”
The only food my stomach desires are the Carob pods found in a filthy pig sty.
He’d gladly get filthy, fight the pigs, steal those filthy Carob pods from the pigs.
With each thought he had, he got progressively closer to his “maximum worst” image of “exactly how much worsen that worse can this whole situation get?”
The greater the degree and measure of “worsen than worse” got, the greater the sound of the voice, the greater the impact of the “voice of reason” became.
Now his thoughts were turning away from the worst of the worst possible ….
And becoming “There is bread enough to spare in my father’s house.”
He didn’t know and probably did not even care over much if his father would accept him as a son again or not, but he knew he would not let himself starve.
Luke 15:18-19 “18 I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; [just] treat me like one of your hired men.”
The Voice of Reason redirected, humbled his thoughts – “I am GOING HOME!”
The voice of reason sent him back and brought him back to his father’s house.
His father’s love restored his sonship.
Luke 15:20-24“20 So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Quickly bring out the best robe [for the guest of honor] and put it on him; and give him a [a]ring for his hand, and sandals for his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let us [invite everyone and] feast and celebrate; 24 for this son of mine was [as good as] dead and is alive again; he was lost and has been found.’ So they began to celebrate.”
I believe the voice of reason spoke to Saul on the road to Damascus.
Jesus “impeded, interceded, questioned and reasoned” with Saul.
And didn’t He do so in a decisively, directly, definitively humbling manner?
Acts 9:1-9 Now [a]Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord [and relentless in his search for believers], went to the [b]high priest, 2 and he asked for letters [of authority] from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any men or women there belonging to [c]the Way [believers, followers of Jesus the Messiah], men and women alike, he could arrest them and bring them bound [with chains] to Jerusalem. 3 As he traveled he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him [displaying the glory and majesty of Christ]; 4 and he fell to the ground and heard a voice [from heaven] saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting and oppressing Me?” 5 And Saul said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He answered, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, 6 now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him [were terrified and] stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. 8 Saul got up from the ground, but though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; so they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was unable to see for three days, and he neither ate nor drank.
He asked Saul, “Why are you persecuting and oppressing me?”
When God has a plan for your life, and you decide you have a better plan, things are going to be very hard.
When we get into our maximum mode of maximum impact sinful rebellion ….
You can count on getting God’s attention – and then God is going to get Yours!
The Voice of Reason – gong to start seriously banging against your conscience.
Ask brother Jonah – Him and his smartphone are in the belly of a “great fish.”
And I hope and pray there is some seriously outstanding reception down there!
I’d be willing to “bet the farm” Jonah had a whale of a conversation with God!
The truth of the matter – from the first verse of Genesis through the very last verse of Book of Revelation – God’s invitation is 100% consistently available,
but, ….
and isn’t there always a but (sometimes spelled “butt”) to be kicked around:
The road away from God is always going to be an extraordinarily rough road.
God reasoned with Abraham over Sodom and Gomorrah.
God repeatedly reasoned with Moses on the back side of the desert and Moses could not find a question nor an excuse that God did not have an answer for.
Now it is 2022! God is calling a meeting. What should we say at this meeting?
Should we plead our innocence?
Surely not, for we all have sinned, fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)
Should we list our excuses?
No. This meeting is not to discuss guilt or innocence.
That part is already been more than adequately and sufficiently stated by God.
Our sins are as scarlet.
We can’t hide our sin from God. (Genesis 3:7-13 NKJV)
7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves [a]coverings.
8 And they heard the [b]sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the [c]cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
How many voices do you hear here?
The Serpents, Eve’s and Adam’s ….
The Voice of the master deceiver ….
The Voices of those who were so easily deceived ….
The Voice of God ….
Whose voice, whose voices are we most apt to listen to or want to hear?
Answers depends on where your heart and soul and whole life are in the exact moment the voices are “clearly and unmistakably heard” and considered too.
From the text of today’s devotional passage from Isaiah 1:18-20 …
It sticks out like a blood red orange on a newly fallen patch of fresh snow.
God is calling a meeting with him, not to establish guilt, but to arrange pardon.
God is not asking for compensation or for retribution for your past.
Jesus took care of that at Calvary.
God is asking us, not demanding from us, for our obedience and repentance.
See how reasonable he is?
As with all invitations there is an appointed time.
Verse 18 says the time for this meeting is NOW.
Now God has already stated his will in this.
He said what he would do.
He is willing to blot out all our transgressions and make us white and clean.
The price has already been paid.
But, verse 19 & 20 tells us he is going to leave the choice up to us.
Only believe?
The devils believe.
You can believe in salvation and never be saved.
You must act on what you believe.
Verse 19 says, If ye be willing and obedient.
Some are willing to be saved, but not obedient to the instruction.
To be saved or renewed today, we will not only have to be willing to hear and prayerfully consider the words of God’s invitation, but also willingly obedient.
You and I are not hearing a call in our collective hearts that is for someone else.
God didn’t dial the wrong number.
God does not dial wrong numbers.
Even in the Year of our Lord, Savior 2022
The Lord says,
Come now, let us reason together. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land.If we are not willing – the sword will also be another choice.
Most people are willing to be blessed, but not willing to live for Jesus.
We can know peace, love, joy, and comfort, if not the sword of the world will devour or overcome us.
That is not a threat, it is just the way things are.
It is just the unmistakable reality, harsh truth of how God has ordered things.
Listen to the Voice of Reason today.
Listen to the Voice of God …
Listen to the Words of the Logos – Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior …
Listen to the whispers of the Holy Spirit as we are reminded of God’s Voice.
There will always and forever be bread enough to spare in the Father’s house.
COME LET US EAT AND LET US REASON TOGETHER, SAITH THE LORD.
And ponder the question:
“What is the Voice of Reason and Truth telling me in this exact moment …?”
In the name of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
God of all truth and wisdom, sometimes I not sure if I’m actually hearing your voice, or if it’s just my own thoughts or even another spirit. Sharpen my spiritual hearing, Lord, so I can recognize your words when you are speaking to me. Help me know it’s really you, with no doubt or second-guessing. When I’m asking for your guidance in important decisions, give me your peace that surpasses understanding with your answer. Help me to always remember that your words to me will never go against your written word in the Bible. Give me a clear mind and push out all my confusion. Let me always exalt, always magnify my Savior Jesus! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
17 For Christ did not send me [as an apostle] to baptize, but [commissioned and empowered me] to preach the good news [of salvation]—not with clever and eloquent speech [as an orator], so that the cross of Christ would not be [a]made ineffective [deprived of its saving power].
The Wisdom of God
18 For the message of the cross is foolishness [absurd and illogical] to those who are perishing and spiritually dead [because they reject it], but to us who are being saved [by God’s grace] it is [the manifestation of] the power of God. 19 For it is written and forever remains written,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise [the philosophy of the philosophers], And the cleverness of the clever [who do not know Me] I will nullify.”
20 Where is the wise man (philosopher)? Where is the scribe (scholar)? Where is the debater (logician, orator) of this age? Has God not exposed the foolishness of this world’s wisdom? 21 For since the world through all its [earthly] wisdom failed to recognize God, God in His wisdom was well-pleased through the [b] foolishness of the message preached [regarding salvation] to save those who believe [in Christ and welcome Him as Savior]. 22 For Jews demand signs (attesting miracles), and Greeks pursue [worldly] wisdom and philosophy, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, [a message which is] to Jews a stumbling block [that provokes their opposition], and to Gentiles foolishness [just utter nonsense], 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks (Gentiles), Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 [This is] because the foolishness of God [is not foolishness at all and] is wiser than men [far beyond human comprehension], and the weakness of God is stronger than men [far beyond the limits of human effort].
26 Just look at your own calling, believers; not many [of you were considered] wise according to human standards, not many powerful or influential, not many of high and noble birth. 27 But God has selected [for His purpose] the foolish things of the world to shame the wise [revealing their ignorance], and God has selected [for His purpose] the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong [revealing their frailty]. 28 God has selected [for His purpose] the insignificant (base) things of the world, and the things that are despised and treated with contempt, [even] the things that are nothing, so that He might reduce to nothing the things that are, 29 so that no one may [be able to] boast in the presence of God. 30 But it is from Him that you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God [revealing His plan of salvation], and righteousness [making us acceptable to God], and sanctification [making us holy and setting us apart for God], and redemption [providing our ransom from the penalty for sin], 31 so then, as it is written [in Scripture], “He who boasts and glories, let him boast and glory in the Lord.”
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
Is the Christian faith a reasonable religion?
Some believers throughout church history have agreed with many nonbelievers in proclaiming that Christianity is not a reasonable religion.
Nevertheless, a powerful theological-philosophical consensus within the history of the faith has argued that the historic Christian religion involves knowledge and is indeed, remarkably compatible with logic and with reason.
This historic agreement has often been expressed in the common statement: “faith seeking understanding.”
Its most articulate and persuasive spokespersons through the centuries have been such distinguished Christian thinkers as Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.
The question of whether Christianity is reasonable all depends on what answer you are looking for. What answers does the world seek for itself and what is it about the answer the Cross gives which is better than what many folks want?
I once read about a dishonest manager who was desperately wanting to hire someone for his accounting department who thought like he did. He ended up with 3 applicants for the job and he proceeded to interview them the next day.
The first applicant came in and sat nervously at the desk and he and the manager engaged in some small talk.
But eventually, the manager asked the applicant this question:
“What does two plus two equal?”
The man was just a bit puzzled, scratched his head, got out his smartphone calculator, but eventually answered, “Well, that’s simple: the answer is four.”
The manager stood up from his chair, walked around his desk, thanked the man profusely for his time and then unceremoniously ushered him out of the office.
The next applicant came in and again the manager engaged him in a pleasant conversation.
But eventually he got around to asking this man the same question.
And the 2nd man responded,
“Well, there are several possibilities: two and two make four, but so does three and one — or two point five and one point five — they also make four. There are a probably number of ways to arrive at that approximate same answer.”
The manager thought that was a pretty good reply, got up from behind his desk, shook his hand, told him he might get back to him in the next several of days.
Finally, the 3rd applicant came in and again the manager some time talking about several subjects, but eventually the man was asked the same question as the others: “What does 2 plus 2 equal. The man seemed startled by the question.
He looked at the manager, cautiously looked around the room, got up out of his chair, went over and closed the door… then he came back and reached inside his shirt pocket, turned off his phone, leaned across the desk, said in a low voice,
“Tell me, what would you like the answer to be?”
He got the job and a hefty bonus in that very instant.
Easy questions for easy times and hard questions for hard times.
The hardest of questions for the very hardest of times,
The most impossible of questions for the most “Impossible” times ….
With those statements now lodged somewhere in your thought processes ….
Waxing philosophically I ask the question today –
“Is Christianity Reasonable?”
Is it logical?
Can you “hang your hat” on what our faith says?
And the answer to that question is this:
It all depends.
What ANSWER are you looking for?
“What would you like the answer to be?”
You see, if Christianity offers the answer you’re looking for… then it IS reasonable.
But Paul tells us in our biblical text today there are people out there who don’t like Christianity because it doesn’t offer the kind of answer they want to hear.
Paul wrote: “… we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles” 1 Corinthians 1:23
The cross is a stumbling block to many.
It’s foolishness to a lot of folks.
In fact, there’s something about the message of the cross that make people uneasy, annoyed, upset… sometimes even downright nasty.
• There was the Roman historian Tacitus who called Christianity a “pernicious superstition”.
• Sigmund Freud believed that religion in general, and Christianity in particular, was a psychotic illness.
• And former Attorney General under Bill Clinton – Janet Reno – declared:
“A cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible studies; who have a high level of financial giving to a notable Christian cause; who home schools their children; who has accumulated survival foods and has a strong belief in the Second Amendment; who distrusts big government. Any of these may qualify a person as a cultist….”
Morning, folks.
Welcome to your cult! (Smile)
Tacitus, Freud and Janet Reno are just a few of those who are offended by the message of the cross.
It makes them angry to think anyone would embrace what we believe.
And yet for those of us who understand what the cross means we KNOW that the cross of Jesus Christ is the answer because it is the very POWER OF GOD to those who are saved.
As Paul wrote:
“the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”1 Corinthians 1:18
The cross IS the right answer… IF it is the answer you are genuinely looking for.
But most of the world that is NOT the answer they are genuinely looking for.
Many people only want an answer that will give them control of their lives.
They want to be “in charge!”
The Bible offends them because it declares that our lives are to be controlled by God.
The cross declares that God bought you with a price – you are not your own. If you accept the answer of the cross you cede authority in your life over to Christ.
That answer doesn’t sit well with a lot of folks.
Many even reject belief in God because they don’t want someone else in control.
Or, if they do believe in God, they do not want a God Who demands change in their lives, they want a God who will automatically change FOR them… they want to say how their lives should be run, how big a box they can put God in.
That was one of the concerns for the Jews of Jesus’ day.
Paul wrote that the Jews of his day rejected the cross because “Jews demand miraculous signs.” 1 Corinthians 1:22
They demanded signs?
But didn’t Jesus do miraculous things during His ministry on earth?
Well, yes He did.
He healed the sick. Raised the dead. And fed 1000s with just 5 loaves and 2 fish.
And because He did the multitudes followed Him. Wherever He went people would crowd the hills and seashores where He would speak. Sometimes for hours on end.
Thousands followed Jesus.
(PAUSE)
That is… until He was crucified.
That is… until he was condemned as the ultimate criminal.
Who puts their whole faith, whole belief system behind a condemned criminal?
As long as Jesus was doing what THEY wanted Him to do… they’d follow Him.
Not really having any concept or vision of the genuine life giving power of God.
They they believed, he was a good man doing many great and miraculous things no one before him had ever done – and they each hungered for more and more.
But once He was arrested, condemned and crucified… they walked, ran, away.
The cross was not the answer they were looking for and some became afraid of.
A lot of people who’ve rejected Christ in their lives have done it for that reason.
God did not answer their prayer in the way and in the time they wanted, or they needed, something happened in their lives hurt them badly, they felt betrayed because God didn’t protect them from that pain. And they walked, ran, away.
As long as God did what they wanted done, they were willing to follow.
As long as someone was actually being, finally, giving and revealing genuine compassion – over a long span of time – fantastic! outstanding! Miraculous!
But then, suddenly it happened – something so completely, utterly unexpected, something so completely contrary to what they understood and seen about God.
The Miracle Worker ….
The only one who had loved them, had unconditional compassion on then, who had told them the Father in Heaven was absolutely on their side – was betrayed!
In the end, at the cross – no one came to help him or to release him or have true, genuine compassion and mercy upon him – including Father God – saved Him.
God did not “show up” to save this miraculous healer, compassionate friend.
Jesus had promised God would always be there to protect them from suffering.
But this was different.
He did not protect Jesus from great suffering and enormous hardship.
Therefore, He didn’t protect them from suffering and hardship either.
That wasn’t what they signed up for.
That wasn’t the God they wanted nor needed nor required.
Scriptures promised many things, that is what they were taught their whole lives, that is what their parents and grand parents raised them to all believe.
It was perfectly reasonable to them to steadfastly believe all of God’s promises.
It was reasonable to want a God who would protect and shield them from all of the very worst difficulties of life – at least that is what was written in Psalm 121.
But the cross defies that notion.
The cross speaks of death, and suffering, and pain, and loss.
It speaks of a world that is often without compassion, without mercy, severely unfair and unreasonably unjust and dangerous and lethal unto the maximum.
It speaks of a world where even God’s people are often required to endure the utmost levels of suffering and tragedy… hardship and pain – wishy washy God.
The cross declares that life is not so sacred as the scriptures repeatedly teach and won’t always turn out the way YOU want it to… or need it or require it to.
But that life will ultimately turn out the way a “wishy washy” GOD wants it to.
So, who among us would choose to trust an apparently untrustworthy God who was not even true to His very own words 100% of the time as the scripture says?
A tough question to ask and a tougher question to try and answer in such a way as to rebuild an apparently irreparably broken promise and convince others too.
To repair, rebuild, restore steadfast and immovable faith and trust and hope in God in a severely shortened, rapidly changing, unaccommodating span of time.
The Ultimate Answer: Jesus said to his disciples in an isolated Upper Room:
“… In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33b
The cross declares that this world WILL be hard. (You WILL have trouble).
BUT there’s something better on the other side. (I have overcome the world).
If you are looking for GOD’S answer… then that’s perfectly reasonable.
The cross of Christ tells us the absolute truth about life.
There WILL always be ultimate suffering. There will also be ultimate pain.
But if you are faithfully willing to wait on Him, Jesus will carry you through.
As Psalm 23 says: “Yea, though I walk through …” what was that?
(The valley of the shadow of death.)
The cross tells you the absolute truth about living in and through this reality.
And that’s because it is the ultimate answer the world needs to understand.
So, 1st – the world looks for an ultimate answer allowing them to be in control.
2ndly – the world looks for a reasonable answer that allows them to be either ultimately foolish or ultimately wise.
Paul wrote that “… Greeks look for wisdom” 1 Corinthians 1:22
They wanted to be able to understand the world on THEIR terms/ according to their wisdom.
The Greeks were into wisdom… their wisdom.
They were a culture known for their philosophers and sages.
But their philosophers were looking for wisdom based on their perceptions and their views of life.
When it came to God, if they couldn’t explain Him or understand Him on their terms they weren’t going to be happy. God had to fit in the box they had built for Him.
A college student once told a Christian professor: “For me to believe in God, I have to have a God which I can reasonably be expected to fully understand.”
The professor smiled and replied, “God refuses to be that small!”
God refuses to be small enough for us to fully understand Him on our terms.
In fact, we couldn’t understand Him in that way if we wanted to.
In Isaiah 55:8-9 God declared:
“… my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
God doesn’t fit in anyone’s neat little jewelry box.
He’s not easily understood.
He’s different than we are.
He THINKS differently than we do… and He ACTS differently than we do.
And that’s why it is so important to read and study the Bible.
It tells us all we need to know about WHO God is and WHAT He’s like.
It tells us of a God we wouldn’t have guessed existed.
One of the major characteristics of God is found in the Cross.
Isaiah 59:15b-17 describes it this way:
“…The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene; so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.”
There was no one else to intercede on our behalf, so God clothed Himself with righteousness and came down to intervene on our behalf.
But the Greeks couldn’t understand that.
They couldn’t understand one single God who’d sacrifice Himself for them.
Back when I was in High School I loved to read the stories of the Greek (and later Roman gods).
They were intriguing stories of the multitude of deities the Greeks worshipped.
It was called the “Pantheon”.
But none of their gods were like the God of Scripture.
There was Zeus, Poseidon, Aphrodite – and numerous other gods and demi-gods.
But there stories described them as being egotistical, selfish, bickering, petty, vindictive, adulterous and heartless, occasionally also being compassionate.
And those were their good and bad and absolutely indifferent traits.
What’s baffling to me is that the Greeks actually worshipped these gods.
They made sacrifices to these petty, mean-spirited gods.
And you just KNOW they made these gods up out of whole-cloth.
These are all made up stories.
But why would the Greeks portray their gods as being so selfish and evil beings?
Well, perhaps because these were the kinds of lifestyles Greeks identified with.
These were the kinds of behaviors they could easily simplify and understand.
Because perhaps this was how the average Greek viewed life in the big city itself.
It’s how they lived their lives.
The Greeks could not understand a God who would sacrifice Himself for them, because they wouldn’t be willing to do that for others.
The Cross declared a God they could not understand in their own wisdom.
I’ve had several people in my life describe me as an “optimist”. An “idealist” who really doesn’t understand “reality”. And I can see where they get that.
Most people know when I’ve entered a building even before they see me… I’m whistling, or humming or singing a song. They are right! I am truly an optimist.
But that doesn’t mean I’m not a realist.
And do you know why?
Because I have a God who is real.
Not a god that I’ve cooked up in my imagination.
Not a god that is the result of my own personal wisdom.
My God is real.
My God stepped down out of heaven and took my place on the cross.
My God loved me so much that He gave His only begotten son that (since) I believe in Him I will not perish, but have everlasting life.
And if I have a God who is willing to do that… what else would He do for me?
My God isn’t based on “my wisdom” and my perception of life.
My God is based on reality.
And so is my attitude.
My God is absolutely ALIVE!
And will forever and ever remain so – even beyond the ends of eternity itself.
Yes, I’m an optimist.
But since I have a God who is real, and who really cares for me, that makes me a realist too.
So, 1st – the world looks for an answer that will give them control of their lives.
2ndly – the world looks for an answer that that allows them to be wise on their own terms
And 3rd – the world is looking for an answer that will give them strength… on their terms
1 Corinthians 1:25 says
“… the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”
Many in this world want to be strong.
If they tell you a story about themselves they come across as the heroes of that story.
That’s what my father always did.
He’d tell me a multitude of stories about himself… each and every one had him be the hero.
It wasn’t until later that I heard someone else tell me a story about how dad’s best friend had beaten him badly in a short race up and down their street.
Dad didn’t tell that side of the story.
His stories had him being the hero.
And (for the most part) so does everyone elses’.
Folks don’t like to come across as being weak.
They don’t like being shown as having failed.
They don’t like hearing that they have messed up.
They know they have messed up – they just don’t like hearing it.
And so they tend to reject the message of the cross because it describes them as having sinned.
Singer Billy Joel, for example, was very offended by the message of the cross.
“.. I viewed the whole business as a lot of very enthralling hocus pocus. There’s a guy… nailed to a cross and dripping blood, and everyone’s blaming themselves for that man’s torment, but I said to myself, ‘Forget it. I had no hand in that evil. I have no original sin. There’s no blood of any sacred martyr on my hands. I pass on all of this.”
I guess perhaps Mr. Joel didn’t like the idea his personal sin put Jesus on the cross.
That would mean he was guilty of sin.
That he was weak. That he had failed
Perhaps, He didn’t, like a great number of people, simply want to hear that.
But the message the cross isn’t so much that Billy Joel killed Jesus by his sins.
The message of the cross is that Billy Joel deserved to die on the cross for HIS OWN sins… and Jesus simply offered to take his place.
Jesus came to die for those who had failed. For the weak and broken and the losers of life. And that’s why the message of the cross is so powerful for people like that.
Jesus didn’t come for the “healthy”, He came for the sick.
One person I personally know has observed to me that:
“Anybody with an active imagination could come up with a religion whereby those who allegedly “deserved” to get into heaven might just manage do so.”
“And anybody who takes a good hit from crack cocaine or LSD could do it also.”
However, the Word of God for the Children of God reveals that at the cross God promised those who DID NOT deserve heaven could receive it. (Romans 5:8-11)
All the other religions in the world are designed to assure the “righteous”, the “deserving,” by their own strength, goodness can ‘buy’ their way into a heaven.
But the Cross declares that not only does NO ONE deserve heaven… the only way you CAN get into paradise is by accepting the sacrifice of Christ.
You have to confess with your whole heart that you are weak and undeserving and absolutely need God’s help. (Romans 10:9-13)
The world views that as an insult to their reliance on strength.
The want power not weakness.
But the cross is all about power.
Not one ounce of ours, but every last possible, maximum measure of God’s.
1 Corinthians 1:18 says “the message of the cross… to us who are being saved.. is the power of God.”
The cross supplies all the power the world does not want to accept.
It supplies an answer the world can’t provide nor willingly, readily accept.
And we have got to understand that.
The Cross IS our answer to this world, because it is only through the Cross that lives can be changed.
That’s the power of God unto salvation.
And that is the answer the world needs to hear.
1 Kings 18:20-40Amplified Bible
God or Baal on Mount Carmel
20 So Ahab sent word to all the Israelites and assembled the [pagan] prophets together at Mount Carmel. 21 Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you [a]hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.” But the people [of Israel] did not answer him [so much as] a word. 22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone remain a prophet of the Lord, while Baal’s prophets are 450 men. 23 Now let them give us two oxen, and let them choose one ox for themselves and cut it in pieces, and lay it on the wood, but put no fire under it. I will prepare the other ox and lay it on the wood, and I will not put a fire under it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord; and the god who answers by fire, He is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.”
25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull for yourselves and prepare it first, since there are many of you; and call on the name of your god, but put no fire under it.” 26 So they took the bull that was given to them and prepared it, and called on the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, hear and answer us.” But there was no voice and no one answered. And they leaped about the altar which they had made. 27 At noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied, or he is out [at the moment], or he is on a journey. Perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened!” 28 So they cried out with a loud voice [to get Baal’s attention] and cut themselves with swords and lances in accordance with their custom, until the blood flowed out on them. 29 As midday passed, they played the part of prophets and raved dramatically until the time for offering the evening sacrifice; but there was no voice, no one answered, and no one paid attention.
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” So all the people approached him. And he repaired and rebuilt the [old] altar of the Lord that had been torn down [by Jezebel]. 31 Then Elijah took twelve stones in accordance with the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Israel shall be your name.” 32 So with the stones Elijah built an altar in the name of the Lord. He made a trench around the altar large enough to hold b]two measures of seed. 33 Then he laid out the wood and cut the ox in pieces and laid it on the wood. 34 And he said, “Fill four pitchers with water and pour it on the burnt offering and the wood.” And he said, “Do it the second time.” And they did it the second time. And he said, “Do it the third time.” And they did it a third time. 35 The water flowed around the altar, and he also filled the trench with water.
Elijah’s Prayer
36 At the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, Elijah the prophet approached [the altar] and said, “O Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Jacob), let it be known today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant and that I have done all these things at Your word. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that You, O Lord, are God, and that You have turned their hearts back [to You].” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood, and even the stones and the dust; it also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw it, they fell face downward; and they said, “The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!” 40 Then Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.” They seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and [as God’s law required] killed them there.
Choosing between faith in the ‘gods’ of this world or the God of all Creation –
Was it reasonable for the priests of baal to keep ranting and raving, maiming themselves repeatedly over a long period of time waiting for their fire to come?
While completely contrary to all worldly expectations Elijah did everything reasonably possible to sabotage his own efforts – but God defied his reason?
Reasonable versus Unreasonable is only defined by God’s true righteousness.
What are the expected results of man’s efforts to control and contain ‘holy’ fire except to say they are severely flawed and only reasonably be expected to fail.
No lives are changed – but mutilated by ‘song and dance,’ pleading and praying to ‘gods and idols’ which do not and cannot ever exist and our adherence to sin.
The reasonableness of Christ and Christianity is in the forgiveness of all sins and the obviously changed lives it inevitably produces for all to witness too.
That’s the ANSWER of the Cross and the POWER of the cross .
Man’s attempts to seek to control their lives, man’s attempts to live by their own wisdom, man’s attempts to live on their own strength – they all utterly fail… because those are really never going to produce life changing answers.
Many of us reading these words are Christians.
Many more who might get around to reading these words are not and are in the categories of being hardcore pessimists, skeptics and agnostics and atheists.
We who have already accepted the answer of the cross in our lives know the changes which God has alone wrought in our lives through all circumstances.
But perhaps you know someone who doesn’t accept that.
Someone who is existing – living by answers that have convinced them to reject the cross outright and hardcore.
Maybe now is the most reasonable time to ask ourselves –
How good is it with God right now?
For those who are in that place of seeking, asking for something much more,
Maybe now is the most reasonable time – reasonably learned to ask these folks:
“How’s that “rejection” thing working out for you right now?”
“Do you sleep well at night? Or do you struggle with sleeplessness because of things you’ve done or said? Do you feel good about yourself? Do you believe that if you died tonight, you’d be able to stand up confidently, directly before God?”
As Christians we need to realize that the Cross IS the answer the world needs.
But do all these words of mine mean that if you are reading this and do not at this moment choose to believe in God, are expected to automatically believe?
The answer to that is an unequivocal NO!
It is not reasonable for me me to expect my words will instantly change how you feel about life and whether or not your life will get better with God in it.
My mere words, my alleged wisdom here, possess no such grandiose power.
What happens to your life after reading these words plus reading and digesting the Word of God for the Children of God – is solely, absolutely in God’s power!
I can only change myself through God’s Word and God’s Grace and Power ….
However, when God’s time comes, we get ‘warmed,’ we need to say with Paul:
“For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” 1 Corinthians 2:2
The wisdom if His Words, the wisdom waiting for us in the shadow of the cross gives everyone who dares to come, all the answers to all those struggles of life.
But first you and I have to willingly lay our lives down at the foot of the cross.
Perhaps now is the most reasonable time to ask this most reasonable question:
“How reasonable or unreasonable is it with our souls exactly right now?”
In the name of God, the Father and God God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Lord of wisdom, I sometimes finding understanding the Bible to be difficult. I know you want me to apply your word to my life. I thank you for giving me your word so I can grow in my relationship with you. Help me grasp what you want me to know as I read your revealed word. Open my eyes to see the wisdom and power of the cross, the wonderful truths waiting in the shadow of the cross, in your instructions there. Be my One teacher, so I can live and obey your word. Thank you for your wise advice. Amen.
11 Soon afterward Jesus went to a city called Nain [near Nazareth], and His disciples and a large crowd accompanied Him. 12 Now as He approached the city gate, a dead man was being carried out—the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the city was with her [in the funeral procession]. 13 When the Lord saw her, He felt [great] compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.” 14 And He came up and touched the bier [on which the body rested], and the pallbearers stood still. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise [from death]!” 15 The man who was dead sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother. 16 Fear and profound awe gripped them all, and they began glorifying and honoring and praising God, saying, “A great prophet has arisen among us!” and, “God has visited His people [to help and care for and provide for them]!” 17 This news about Him spread through all of Judea and in all the surrounding countryside.
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
The divine image, which every single human being bears as a result of God’s indescribable and undeniable benevolence at creation, attracts us to the Divine.
Human beings are religious by nature and in order to fully realize themselves as human beings they have to be and live out the divine qualities instilled in each of them by the Creator of their Life, Author of their Life, Redeemer of their Life.
The opposite is often the case when human actions are critically evaluated.
One of the divine qualities, which we ought to acquire and practice in order to enhance good human relationship, is compassion.
This singular divine feature characterized Jesus earthly ministry in words and deeds.
In this Narrative text, the writer Luke, focuses on an episode in the life of Jesus, as recorded in the Gospel according to Luke 7: 11-17.
The man Rabbi Jesus walked into a dire situation, he had compassion on the widow who lost her only son; he consoled and restored her son back to her.
In following upon Jesus’ footsteps, demonstrating His radical counter-cultural compassion we can make our world better, be able to bear and live with others.
Instantly upon walking into this situation, Jesus made an instant assessment of all the other’s needs, Jesus’ heart went out to this woman who was left all alone.
While many rightfully, righteously grieved and mourned with her upon the loss of her only son, the man, Rabbi Jesus’ heart was touched, longed to comfort her.
His heart was full of indescribable and undeniable compassion.
He could say what no one else could say: “Don’t cry!”
Most of us can only cry with those who have lost loved ones.
Only Jesus can wipe away our tears.
Jesus is touched by our loss, moved to compassion by our mortal limitations.
That’s why he came to earth.
We can be blessed and we can be assured He feels our losses in the same way.
Psalm 103:11-14English Standard Version
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him. 14 For he knows our frame;[a] he remembers that we are dust.
When we cry in grief, we do not cry alone.
The coming of the kingdom of God was not heralded by spectacular and dramatic victories over the powers and authorities of the world but through something much more transformative: the great compassion of its King.
Throughout their accounts of Jesus, the Gospel writers present us with encounter after encounter demonstrating Christ’s unparalleled compassion.
In these incidents, Christ’s power is revealed as His compassion is extended.
In chapter 7 of his Gospel, for instance,
Dr. Luke highlights Jesus’ compassionate response to a sorrowful widow—a response which hopefully, prayerfully, clears any doubts about His greatness.
The woman in this part of Luke’s narrative was in true need. Her husband was already gone, and now her son had just died.
In an ancient Middle-Eastern society, this meant that she had no means of protection or provision.
She faced a life of sadness, loneliness, and precariousness—and then the end of the family line.
But then Jesus entered into the extremity of this woman’s life, and “when the Lord saw her, instantly had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep.’”
All it took to arouse the compassion of our tender Shepherd was seeing this grieving woman.
Literally, that word “compassion” means “His bowels moved”—our equivalent would be “His stomach churned.”
When Jesus, through whom and for whom all things were created, sees sadness and grief in this broken world, He feels it and He feels it DEEPLY!.
Here is a King who cares deeply.
Even more beautiful is that Jesus had the power to meet this widow’s need, and so He chose to do something only He could do: to bring the dead back to life.
He didn’t just restore a deceased son alive again to a mourning mother and thereby meet her need and obliterate her grief, though.
More importantly, Jesus revealed Himself to the crowd (and to us!) in all of His power, grace, mercy, lovingkindness, authority—even authority over death.
Scenes such as this show us that Jesus doesn’t simply comment on or cry over sickness and death, those great enemies of mankind.
He overcomes them.
He hears the cries of the sorrowful, He comforts them, not only in an earthly, temporal sense but also in a final, perfect, and eternal way, by offering Himself as the only true and genuine means of salvation to all who confess and believe.
Your King is not merely infinitely powerful; He is infinitely compassionate.
And note the combination of those two qualities in Him is sufficient to bring you through every single sadness and every single grief of this world, until you and I stand in His amazed presence and He wipes every last tear from our eyes.
Now, what should we say and how should be address, what should be connect others with about a “reasonable” human response to such a magnitude of love?
Philippians 4:4-7Amplified Bible
4 Rejoice in the Lord always [delight, take pleasure in Him]; again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentle spirit [your graciousness, unselfishness, mercy, tolerance, and patience] be known to all people. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious or worried about anything, but in everything [every circumstance and situation] by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your [specific] requests known to God. 7 And the peace of God [that peace which reassures the heart, that peace] which transcends all understanding, [that peace which] stands guard over your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus [is yours].
Philippians 4:5 English Standard Version– THE REASONABLE CHRISTIAN
5 Let your reasonableness[a] be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;
“They will know you by your love.”
This saying is often used in the church as we talk of reaching others for Jesus.
This is taken from the famous verses in John 13:34-35.
A question we need to ask ourselves though is, “What does this love look like?”
It is reasonable for us to surmise that it can be helping those around us, giving of ourselves, our time, resources to the needy, or just lending an ear or lending our quieting presence to someone as they just “desire someone to be near by.”
But, what if showing love meant being a reasonable person?
The Greek word for “reasonable” can also be translated to the word “gentle” with its definition: seemly, equitable, yielding.
Does this sound like someone you have come to know an deeply trust?
Is this one person you claim to know and trust so thoroughly – actually YOU?
Aren’t we called to be strong in our stances and to not bend in what we believe?
The answer is yes!!
But we can do it in a reasonable manner.
Too many times Christians can be looked at as a hard headed, divisive group of bickering snarky people who want argue with everyone they don’t agree with.
You know, that guy or gal who wants to always argue, never compromising and is never wrong and who has about as much compassion, mercy and forgiveness as the specks of dust on top of their bookshelves loaded down with 1000 Bibles.
I know I am definitely guilty of being one of those people at times.
We are never going to change people by belittling their views and putting them down, never seeking to find, till, seed, that reasonable piece of common ground.
We are, however, definitely going to win them over with the same measure of love, uncompromising compassion Jesus revealed to everyone at that funeral when we reasonably meet their grief, and lovingly show them Christ’s mercy.
Our reasonable, unreasonable arguments don’t and won’t change reasonable or unreasonable people, the infinitely reasonable Jesus reasonably changes people.
Beloved Child of God, God has absolutely seen your tears.
He has absolute compassion on you.
He will absolutely and reasonably respond to your needs,
He will absolutely and reasonably help you,
He will absolutely and reasonably strengthen you.
He will absolutely change your dead situation to life and celebration!
Today ….
In this point of uncompromising fact, in this exact and exacting moment ….
In these coming days and weeks ahead, challenge yourself and someone else …
How has God, in Savior Christ Jesus, been reasonably compassionate with you?
How have you been a reasonably ‘reasonable’ compassionate Christian today?
Where have you been a reasonably ‘reasonable’ compassionate Christian today?
Were you a reasonably ‘reasonable’ compassionate Christian yesterday?Why Not?
Why were you a reasonably ‘reasonable’ compassionate Christian today?
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us gather as reasonable Christians and Let us together Pray ….
God of the Helpless, I know that You want Your children to show compassion for those less fortunate. I know this, but I have failed to help others as You would like me to. I know there are so many in need of kindness, Lord. Please open my heart and fill it with Your compassion for Your creation. Please guide me on how I should reach out to each of my neighbors, as Jesus did for the widow and that grieving and mourning community at that funeral and live love for the less fortunate for Your glory. Amen.
13 Do your best to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way; see that they are supplied and lack nothing. 14 Our people must learn to do good deeds to meet necessary demands [whatever the occasion may require], so that they will not be unproductive.
15 All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith.
Grace be with all of you.
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
These verses are Paul’s final exhortations in the book of Titus.
Paul is saying to this church leader help people to devote themselves to doing good works, and then he uses this phrase in Titus 3:14,
“so as to help cases of urgent need”.
Let that soak in, an urgent need.
Take some time to ponder the day to day stuff about your life in this moment.
Ponder and take some time to recognize where is there urgent need around you in your life, in your own family, in your church, in your community, in the city around you? Just kind of broaden it. Where is there urgent need in the world?
We are entering into the seasons of Thanksgiving and Christmas – How does this wee little tidbit of information stir up your heart and your soul and life?
First thoughts might turn to filling local church pantries, donating necessary items to local emergency or long term shelters – preparing and serving food.
There are always a host of charitable organizations to connect ourselves with.
Except the inevitable question are …. do we, will we – but not just one or twice a year depending on whether there is a major holiday or Christian celebrations?
Hours of service volunteering our services ought not to be determined that way.
God’s Word here revealed in Paul’s Letter to Titus, a Church Leader, is calling us to open wide our eyes to “urgent need” and to devote ourselves to good works.
Devote ourselves to good works – where ever and when ever God presents them.
You and I are not here by chance but by God’s choosing.
You did not invent yourself, nor did you have any part in your own creation.
You were intricately knit together in the womb (Psalm 139:13).
The hand of God formed us to be the people that we are; He created you and me at the very exact moment that He desired, and He has placed you and I at this exact point in history so that we, in Christ, by grace, through faith, might do good deeds—good deeds which He has planned for us to do (Ephesians 2:10).
In other words, we have received grace upon grace that we might do good work.
While the concept of “doing good works” is not foreign to anyone, and may not be our very first morning thought when we consider the impact on ourselves of God’s transforming grace, it was virtually number one on the apostle Paul’s list.
In his very brief letter to Titus, he writes him and his church that God, in Christ Jesus, “gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14, emphasis added).
This emphasis appears several times throughout the letter, culminating in Paul’s closing exhortation:
“Let our people learn to devote themselves to good works.”
Paul’s particular zeal for good works was and is completely countercultural, both in his day and in our own.
We live in a 21st century world full of enticements to pursue self-centered lives of solitary leisure. How, then, are we to imitate Paul and excel in good deeds?
First, we need to ponder, recognize, be clear our pursuit of good deeds does not, cannot earn God’s favor. We do not do good to be saved but because we’re saved.
Without grace as its foundation, the call to virtuous living is pure externalism and will either exhaust us or puff us up.
Second, we need to remember that our pursuit of good deeds does bring God pleasure; we live “not to please man, but to please God who tests our hearts” (1 Thessalonians 2:4).
So, we to ponder and recognize living a life to be marked by God-honoring, Christ-exalting goodness as a true, living testimony to our great salvation.
Recognize also that our ability to do good is also, Paul says, a learned behavior.
We are called to “learn to devote” ourselves to goodness.
Our actions should not just be the result of an emotional surge or come about only when we feel like it.
Instead, we all are to endeavor on a daily basis to do the kingdom work that God has planned for each one of us, recognize, and do it intentionally and habitually.
We must ponder, recognize opportunities for Kingdom Works for new believers.
Train those new to the faith to be confident, take courage and to let them know there is a definite place for them to exercise and energize their quickened lives.
Get them Started – Get them Inspired – Get them Energized – Set them on Fire for God – then release them – then Unleash them upon an unsuspecting need.
And we are to look at those further on in their faith who live this kind of life and seek to learn from them – be mentored – be groomed by God for greater works.
John 14:10-12Amplified Bible
10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not say on My own initiative or authority, but the Father, abiding continually in Me, does His works [His attesting miracles and acts of power]. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe [Me] because of the [very] works themselves [which you have witnessed]. 12 I assure you and most solemnly say to you, anyone who believes in Me [as Savior] will also do the things that I do; and he will do even greater things than these [in extent and outreach], because I am going to the Father.
In our Savior Christ, all of our days and all of our deeds will one day be good and beneficial, 100% divinely blessed for that someone, for something, somewhere.
Learn to recognize “God Opportunities” – Learn to begin each day asking for His help to do good to others as a response to His grace to you, trusting that He will 100% graciously enable you to give evidence of your beliefs by your actions.
Everyday is always a very great day to open wide our eyes and our souls and our hands to the “urgent needs” of others, devoting ourselves to doing good works.
Titus 3:14 Reminds Each of Us That There Are Always Going to be MANY Urgent Needs
God in his word is calling us to open our eyes to urgent need.
He’s telling us to devote ourselves to good works in order to help in cases of urgent need.
I watch television, I watch the news – both local and national and global.
I am on the internet and from all this I certainly see urgent needs on a local, national and global scale and my heart is “strangely warmed and stirred up.”
So obviously I don’t know what’s going on in your specific life and your specific community, but on a global scale when I see places where there’s no gospel in the world, I truly recognize that there is definitely all manner of urgent needs.
There’s people right now that are dying and going to an eternity separated from God who’ve never even heard about the gospel.
That’s urgent need.
People who don’t have the gospel, people who don’t have water, like clean water, that’s urgent need.
I was just seeing statistics about disease epidemics in many different countries due to a definite lack of clean and safe drinking water. That’s urgent need.
I think about places where there’s no food, where starvation is a reality.
People don’t just say kind of casually, “Oh, I’m starving”, because they want a meal. That’s actually a reality. People are starving to death. That’s urgent need.
I think about orphans who don’t have a family. That’s urgent need.
I think about people who are oppressed and persecuted around the world and every day being abused, mistreated, broken, even killed. That’s urgent need.
Just to take a few moments to think about it, we can obviously get overwhelmed recognizing about what God presents to us as “urgent need,” but the picture is there’s a very real sense in which we should be driven and a way driving us to devote ourselves to good works in a world of urgent need, to not be unfruitful.
Titus 3:3-8Amplified Bible
3 For we too once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various sinful desires and pleasures, spending and wasting our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. 4 But when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared [in human form as the Man, Jesus Christ], 5 He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we have done, but because of His own compassion and mercy, by the cleansing of the new birth (spiritual transformation, regeneration) and renewing by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom He poured out richly upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so we would be justified [made free of the guilt of sin] by His [compassionate, undeserved] grace, and that we would be [acknowledged as acceptable to Him and] made heirs of eternal life [actually experiencing it] according to our hope (His guarantee). 8 This is a faithful and trustworthy saying; and concerning these things I want you to speak with great confidence, so that those who have believed God [that is, those who have trusted in, relied on, and accepted Christ Jesus as Savior,] will be careful to participate in doing good and honorable things. These things are excellent [in themselves] and profitable for the people.
Paul reminded Titus that at one time they were fully foolish and utterly ungodly—“disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.”
Ouch! That was probably a sharp and painful reminder stuck into their ribcages.
Paul also would have surely insisted that we be included in that description too!
But then “the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared,” and now through God’s power and because of our Savior Jesus Christ, we can all be transformed!
God always does the unexpected.
He comes to us with kindness and love, for he is “God our Savior,” who “saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.”
I recall that the German philosopher Nietzsche hated Christianity with a great passion because it encouraged all manner of human kindness to all humanity.
He rejected the biblical concept of love because, he said, it always drained the strong people among them by making them kind, driving them to waste their time, energies and resources on the lepers, cripples, and the oppressed people.
How thankful we can be that God comes to us with kindness in his heart and in his hands.
We need a God who is loving and compassionate and kind beyond all measure.
We have a Savior who is compassionate and merciful and kind beyond measure!
We have a Holy Spirit who intercedes on our behalf 24 hours a day – every day!
What’s more, our nations, our communities, and our families constantly need a Savior in Christ, people who are willing to “waste their energy” by being kind.
Let’s see how many people we can “waste our energies” and be kind to today.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
God, we pray that the commentary on our lives in a world of urgent need right around us and then on a global scale, that it would not be said of our lives that we were unfruitful. Lord, we want to be fruitful in a world of urgent need. Lord, help us to be fruitful. We want that to be said of our lives and of our families. Help us to devote ourselves to good works. God, we pray for that in your church today. We are so tempted, we’re so tempted to use so many of our resources in our lives, our families and our churches on ourselves, so we pray for a devotion to thy compassion, good works in the world around us to mark our churches.
Savior Jesus, We pray that we would be a fruitful people who are helping cases of urgent need for the glory of your name. Urgent physical need and urgent spiritual need. We know that the most urgent need anyone in the world has right now is to hear the gospel, to believe in Christ, and to receive salvation from sins. God, help us to devote ourselves to that good work, sharing that good news. Then as we do that, God, help us to devote ourselves to all sorts of good works. To help cases of urgent need so that it would be said of us, oh God, may it be said of us that our lives, our families, our churches were fruitful for the glory of your name in a world of urgent need. In Savior Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
22 Now Joseph lived [remained] in Egypt, he and his father’s household, and Joseph lived a hundred and ten years. 23 Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children; also the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born and raised on Joseph’s knees. 24 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up out of this land to the land which He promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob [to give you].” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel (Jacob) swear [an oath], saying, “God will surely visit you and take care of you [returning you to Canaan], and [when that happens] you shall carry my bones up from here.”
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
As near as I can calculate, roughly 65 years of Joseph’s later life are summarized by Genesis 50verse 22: “Joseph lived [remained] in Egypt…..”
Presumably, these were quieter times than the recorded drama of his early days.
But these 65 “remaining” years are definitely not to be considered pointless.
Considering these “remaining” years in the life of Joseph causes us to reflect:
Whatever age we are in this exact moment, we must ask ourselves; “What, Who, are we living for? What are we planning to do with the time God has given us?”
It’s far too easy to spend our lives chasing earthbound horizons such as career success, financial stability, or comfortable luxuries.
The myths of these things is seductive: life is about slaving at your job as long as you can in order to build, edify, add on to the nest in which you plan to settle down—that the most essential purpose of life is to prepare for our retirements.
Just at the point when believers are often in a position—financially, physically, emotionally, socially—to free up that incredibly elusive amount of time to serve God’s kingdom, they start to talk “just wanting a period of rest, hibernation.”
As devoted, obedient and steadfast followers of our Lord, Savior and King Jesus, we must ‘minimize our footprint’, to not live as though this world is all there is.
John 3:28-30 admonishes and teaches us we have a humble, limited role in life.
“28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I stated, ‘I am not the Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed),’ but, ‘I have [only] been sent ahead of Him [as His appointed forerunner and messenger to announce and proclaim His coming].’ 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands by and listens to him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this pleasure and joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase [in prominence], but I must decrease.“
Yet some of us cannot, will not say with integrity, “There is more than just this life,” because everything we are doing with our time, talents, and money seems to be saying, “This is it! Done! That’s why I am working up to 60 hours a week.”
“That’s why I don’t come home or take a vacation.”
“That’s why I missed church again last Sunday.”
“That’s why I don’t make time and take risks to serve and to share the gospel with my neighbors.”
“Because this is it.”
Being “my working myself into the grave for a lifetime of rust worthy material things which I can never hope to ‘stuff into my coffin’ to take with me anyway.”
It is wonderful thing to have a dynamic, hard core, faith-filled, vibrant and unwavering faith when we are in the center of a whirlwind of a battle; it’s a whole new challenge to live a life of steady obedience through daily routine.
For a life to be well spent—especially as it relates to our resources and legacy—we must consider not just what we want in life but what we ought to do with life.
We need a vision of the heavenly horizon.
Joseph had a purpose for his life and for those final, quieter years.
His vision was set for a time and place and ‘life’ beyond the borders of Egypt.
He was neither centered or focused on himself; he was responsible for ensuring his children and his children’s children did not settle down too comfortably in Egypt but instead remained unsettled enough so they would be more desirous of a significantly better life and might truly settle one day in the promised land.
24 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up out of this land to the land which He promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob [to give you].” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel (Jacob) swear [an oath], saying, “God will surely visit you and take care of you [returning you to Canaan], and [when that happens] you shall carry my bones up from here.”
Joseph said to his brothers:
“but God will surely take care of you and bring you up out of this land which He promised to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob [to give you.]”
then Joseph made the sons of Israel (Jacob) to swear [an oath] saying to future generations – God will surely visit you and God will surely take care of you and surely be returning you to Canaan – the promised land – God WILL do all this!
God turned an early life of great life threatening negativity, given him peace, prestige, and prosperity in Egypt—everything that so many of us chase today.
Yet he had always kept his eyes and his soul and heart, looking beyond Egypt.
He truly knew Egypt was not where he, or any of God’s people, truly belonged.
The man, Master Rabbi Jesus, communicated this, his “last will and testament” to His disciples in the Upper Room during those fateful final hours of his life:
John 14:1-3Amplified Bible
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
14 “Do not let your heart be troubled (afraid, cowardly). Believe [confidently] in God and trust in Him, [have faith, hold on to it, rely on it, keep going and] believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, I would have told you, because I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back again and I will take you to Myself, so that where I am you may be also.
Apostle Paul would, just several years later, would echo the very same thought:
Philippians 3:12-14Amplified Bible
12 Not that I have already obtained it [this goal of being Christlike] or have already been made perfect, but I actively press on [a]so that I may take hold of that [perfection] for which Christ Jesus took hold of me and made me His own. 13 [b]Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the [heavenly] prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Joseph knew by his steadfast and immovable faith that he was not yet home!
The man, Master Rabbi Jesus knew we were not yet home – Just believe on Him!
Apostle Paul knew, communicated – we can live with eternity deep in our souls.
We too must live in such a prophetic way that we help our loved ones and our own hearts to “desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16).
Whatever you have or do not have ‘rusting away’ today, you are not yet home.
John 10:9-10Amplified Bible
9 I am the Door; anyone who enters through Me will be saved [and will live forever], and will go in and out [freely], and find pasture (spiritual security). 10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].
There is absolutely abundantly more, absolutely, abundantly better, than this.
Be sure that your abundance of time, talents, and money reflect that knowledge.
This place called planet earth is not, was never meant to be, our forever home!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Lord, my teacher, I’m often confused when I need to make important decisions about my work, my relationships, my health, or finances. Show me the way I should go when I don’t know which way to turn. Help me remember to come to you, rather than trying to figure everything out on my own. Guide me along the best pathway for my life. Advise me and watch over me. Help me to listen to your guidance and not resist it. I thank you that your unfailing love surrounds those who trust you. Amen
11 Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and [the voice] of the living creatures and the elders; and they numbered myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands (innumerable), 12 saying in a loud voice,
“Worthy and deserving is the Lamb that was sacrificed to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.”
13 And I heard every created thing that is in heaven or on earth or under the earth [in Hades, the realm of the dead] or on the sea, and everything that is in them, saying [together],
“To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb (Christ), be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever.”
14 And the four living creatures kept saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped [Him who lives forever and ever].
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
The Bible makes it crystal clear that history is moving purposefully towards a definite conclusion.
That reality is one of the distinctive features of the biblical worldview.
One way that Christianity distinguishes itself, in other words, is in the matter of how all things come to a close.
Sometimes, in looking at old historical photographs we may just find ourselves asking,
“Where am I in this picture?”—or, “Am I even in this picture?”
“Do I recognize the person, the people or the place or the moment?”
“Is it a random small piece of history or a very specific and significant one?
“I wonder what is really happening in the picture – what is its real story?”
Is there enough personal interest in the story for me to do more research, to want to know every single detail of the time, the people, the place, the events?
When it comes to our envisioning or picturing God’s plan, though, every single person, people and place on earth is included in Revelation’s picture of history.
No one is missing from the story.
Everyone who believed or did not believe on Jesus as their Savior are included.
And when history comes to a close, it will surely end in division and separation.
Jesus spoke about this separation when He said that the sheep and goats will be divided (Matthew 25:31-46): light and darkness will be delineated, and those who believed on Jesus as their Savior will be set apart from those who do not.
No one will be left out, though tragically some will have chosen to be shut out.
Therefore, our position in this big picture matters.
All of history’s ebb and flow is to be viewed in light of the fact that there is a throne in heaven and that throne is not empty; rather, it is occupied by God, who is in control. Jesus is King, and He is seated at the right hand of the throne.
Although many do not yet recognize His kingdom, many refuse to recognize His Kingdom, or have not been introduced, it doesn’t alter the reality He yet reigns.
From humanity’s fall to the end of time there exist, as the great fourth-century theologian Augustine of Hippo put it, two rival cities—two rival loves.
By our sinful human nature, we are involved in the city of man, and only by God’s grace will we ever be involved in and ever be devoted to the city of God.
2 Corinthians 5:1-5Amplified Bible
The Temporal and Eternal
5 For we know that if the earthly tent [our physical body] which is our house is torn down [through death], we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For indeed in this house we groan, longing to be clothed with our [immortal, eternal] celestial dwelling, 3 so that by putting it on we will not be found naked. 4 For while we are in this tent, we groan, being burdened [often weighed down, oppressed], not that we want to be unclothed [separated by death from the body], but to be clothed, so that what is mortal [the body] will be swallowed up by life [after the resurrection]. 5 Now He who has made us and prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave us the [Holy] Spirit as a pledge [a guarantee, a down payment on the fulfillment of His promise].
The Word of God says The earthly city, the city of man, our earthly tent, our physical body is destined to be torn down by time, pass away through death.
But the heavenly city, God’s kingdom, will absolutely go on forever and ever!
Reading our text from Revelation 5:11-14, the many Angels around the throne and the voice of the living creature and the Elders, who numbered “myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands – innumerable (verse 11) recognized Him.
Saying in a loud voice –
“Worthy and deserving is the Lamb that was sacrificed to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing.” (verse 12)
From within the context of our own 21st jumble of our own “Christian-ality”
Our own personal expressions of devotion, personal expressions of obedience, adherence to the precepts and commandments and covenants set by our God,
In our ministries and missions, our forays into all the streets and back alley ways, all the highways and byways and boulevards of God’s Neighborhood, Luke 10:1-3, Acts 2:43-47, 1 Corinthians 12:14-26, and Galatians 3:27-29)
Enemies or Friends, Faults, Failures, Fears, Flaws, Sins not withstanding …
In the eyes of God, we are ALL Children of God …. Without any Exceptions,
From the fears, failures and faults of mankind, however, exceptions okayed,
Do ALL Lives absolutely, unequivocally, without exception, equally Matter?
Do we recognize with our whole hearts our souls, our voices – Jesus as King?
How each of us give God in Christ an answer is a matter of eternal significance.
And how we give an answer to God is also a matter of present consequence. (Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 23:23-33, Mark 3:31-35, Mark 4:21-29, Mark 7:1-16, Luke 10:25-37, Luke 11:33-36, Luke 19:1-10, John 5:1-15, and Acts 3:1-10)
If Jesus is your One and Only true King, then you will live as His subject, seeking to obey Him even when His command cuts against all your biases, preferences.
If Jesus is your King, you will be loyal and obedient to Him above all others, for this world is not yours or mine home and you and I are just passing through.
As the Apostle Paul wrote, “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
Be sure to live as a citizen of a better country and a subject of a greater King.
When our earthly tents take their last breaths, will we spend eternity joining with Angels and Elders in bringing Him honor and glory, praise and worship?
I pray we may give a good answer to God, do so in our words and conduct today.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
God of ALL truth, sometimes I not sure if I’m actually hearing your voice, or if it’s just my own thoughts or even another spirit. Sharpen my spiritual hearing, Lord, so I can recognize your words when you are speaking to me. Help me know it’s really, only you, with no doubt or second-guessing. When I’m asking for your guidance in important decisions, give me your peace that surpasses understanding with your answer alone. Help me remember that your words to me will never go against your written word in the Bible. Give me a clear mind and push out all my confusion. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, My King and My Savior and Best Friend Amen.
8 But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word [the message, the basis] of faith which we preach— 9 because if you acknowledge and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord [recognizing His power, authority, and majesty as God], and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart a person believes [in Christ as Savior] resulting in his justification [that is, being made righteous—being freed of the guilt of sin and made acceptable to God]; and with the mouth he acknowledges and confesses [his faith openly], resulting in and confirming [his] salvation.
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
The most common name for God in the entire Bible is the Greek word kyrios, which means “Lord.”
Combining its use in the Old Testament (when translated from Hebrew to Greek) and the New Testament (written in Greek), the word kyrios for “Lord” appears an estimated 6000 times.
The word kyrios originally meant “power” or “might,” but over time it came to mean “lord” or “master.”
When the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew to Greek, it used kyrios for “Lord” wherever the words YHWH or Adonai occurred in the Hebrew text.
The Jewish writers of the New Testament, who were likely raised reading Scripture in both Hebrew and Greek, similarly used kyrios whenever they referred to Yahweh and Adonai.
Further, they used kyrios in a radically new way, declaring Jesus also is Lord.
In Romans 10, for example,
Paul uses kyrios in a discussion about Jesus, quoting God’s Prophet Joel 2:32, which states, “Everyone who calls on the name of Yahweh will be saved.”
Paul uses kyrios in this passage to refer to both Jesus and Yahweh as Lord, declaring that both are the one true God.
In this example we see the central teaching of the Bible, built on this single foundational truth: Jesus is Lord!
In the 1st Century both Jews and Gentiles lived under the military might and “fist of iron” rule of the Roman Empire and therefore under the rule of Caesar.
As Rome would conquer different territories they would allow them to keep their gods and religious practices as long as they openly recognized Caesar is, was and always would be their first and foremost and only lord over them.
For the early 1st century Christians to say that all of life in general and their lives specifically are under the lordship of Jesus created a bit of tension.
Although their freely confessed commitment to Jesus often made them better citizens, the Roman government often saw this as subversive and rebellious.
Christians would not allow Jesus to be just another god on the smorgasbord of Roman an Greek gods, neither would they seek to limit His rule in their lives.
Neither would they walk away or retreat from that confession – publicly or privately – would they retract that confession – even at the risk of their life.
Many are the Christians who have been killed and martyred and continue to be martyr, who have not renounced their faith in their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
“Jesus is Lord” is true Christianity but can look very different than our American brand of Christianity.
American brand of Christianity—we go to a church worship service where everything is decorated nicely (nothing wrong with that), where we do rituals to help us in worship (nothing wrong with that either), where we hopefully have a spiritual encounter with God (definitely a good thing), and then go back to the rest of our daily life until we can get our next dose of Jesus (not OK at all).
Unfortunately, what we have done is successfully moved God to nothing more than an occasional pit stop in the middle of a frantic fast ‘race track’ paced life.
To say “Jesus is Lord” means He invades every single area of our lives—every single circumstance – good, bad, catastrophic – it absolutely all belongs to Him.
Maybe we do not have a pantheon of Roman gods or Greek gods we worship, but we still have our own unique cultural pantheon of “gods,” all competing for our fullest possible attention, for our maximum expressions of absolute allegiance.
Proverbs 8:13Amplified Bible
13 “The [reverent] fear and worshipful awe of the Lord includes the hatred of evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way, And the perverted mouth, I hate.
Proverbs 11:2Amplified Bible
2 When pride comes [boiling up with an arrogant attitude of self-importance], then come dishonor and shame, But with the humble [the teachable who have been chiseled by trial and who have learned to walk humbly with God] there is wisdom and soundness of mind.
Proverbs 13:10Amplified Bible
10 Through pride and presumption come nothing but strife, But [skillful and godly] wisdom is with those who welcome [well-advised] counsel.
Proverbs 16:18Amplified Bible
18 Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit before a fall.
Proverbs 17:19Amplified Bible
19 He who loves transgression loves strife and is quarrelsome; He who [proudly] raises his gate seeks destruction [because of his arrogant pride].
Proverbs 21:4Amplified Bible
4 Haughty and arrogant eyes and a proud heart, The lamp of the wicked [their self-centered pride], is sin [in the eyes of God].
Proverbs 21:24Amplified Bible
24 “Proud,” “Haughty,” “Scoffer,” are his names Who acts with overbearing and insolent pride.
Proverbs 29:23Amplified Bible
23 A man’s pride and sense of self-importance will bring him down, But he who has a humble spirit will obtain honor.
Your Question for the Day – What Is the Real Meaning of “Jesus Is Lord”?
In the New Testament, Lord is the most frequently used title for Jesus Christ.
Although we rarely use this term in our daily lives, we are all quite familiar with another word: boss.
That is basically what Lord means—one possessing authority, power, and control.
The Word of God describes Jesus as the head of the church, the ruler over all creation, and the Lord of lords and King of kings (Col. 1:15-18; Rev. 3:14, 17:14).
Jesus is Lord: Scripture Meaning
Following the resurrection, the term “Lord,” being applied to Jesus, became more than an indication of devotion or respect.
Stating, “Jesus is Lord,” became a way of recognizing Jesus’ divine standing.
Biblical References of Jesus as Lord started with Thomas’ declaration when Jesus arrived at the apostles after His resurrection:
“Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:28).
From thereafter, the message of the Apostles was that Jesus is Lord, signifying that “Jesus is God.”
Peter’s bold and powerful sermon on the Day of Pentecost carried that idea:
“Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36).
Peter later declared this in the house of Cornelius, stating that Jesus is “Lord of all”(Acts 10:36).
It is important to note that in Romans 10:9 Jesus’ lordship is connected to His resurrection: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
The declaration “Jesus is Lord” indicates that Jesus is God. Jesus holds “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).
He is “Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5); “our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 1:4); and “the Lord of lords” (Revelation 17:14).
What Makes Jesus a “Lord”?
The realm of Christ’s reign covers everything that happens in heaven and on the earth. No one—not even those who deny His existence—can be free of His rule or outside His sphere of full, complete and absolute authority.
Although Satan tries to convince us that liberty is found in doing what we want, true freedom is acquired only through submission to Christ’s loving lordship.
Even death cannot release anyone from the authority of God’s Son. He is Lord of both the living and the dead.
All people must eventually decide to either yield to or rebel against Him, but they have the opportunity to make this choice only while they are still living.
After death, they will acknowledge Christ’s lordship through accountability to Him.
If we have not bowed the knee to Jesus in life, we will be forced to bend it in the judgment.
Have you and I genuinely submitted to Christ’s absolute rule over our lives?
The thought of His absolute authority over all life causes anger and fear in individuals are use to being in self-control, who have not yet yielded to Him.
Those who have experienced His loving kindness trusted in His goodness and have willingly “thrown their hands up” and surrendered to His authority take His full measure comfort in knowing Him as the Lord of their whole entire lives.
Right now, in this very exact and even more exacting moment,
Who is fighting for your attention and allegiance?
Who do you say is actually winning the fight for your attention and allegiance?
Can you and I accept that this fight has already been fought and is already won?
Do we dare confess – whether publicly and privately – we know who fought it?
Do we, will we, dare confess – both publicly and privately – who has already won?
1 Corinthians 15:57Amplified Bible
57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory [as conquerors] through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Surrender your life to him today, worship him! Jesus is your Lord and your God!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Holy and gracious God, You are the greatest of all. You are the Creator and Lord of All. You are full of wonders that no mere human can comprehend. Lord, I seek to understand you and your ways so that I can live according to your commandments. I pray for your divine illumination in my heart and mind. Help me see what you intend for me to see. Help me understand what you intend for me to understand. Open my eyes, my ears, my mouth to see you, hear and speak your whispers. Amen.
12 [a]Therefore I urge you, [b]brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be [c]transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
Try imagining a father… A perfect heavenly father who loves you a million times more than anyone could ever hope to love anyone; a true heavenly father who is perfect, compassionate, gracious, merciful, loving in all of his dealings with us.
This amazing father offers one of the rarest of all commodities on this planet, forgiveness.
He resets the relationship.
He removes the garbage.
He does not pretend that the sin didn’t happen, but he covers it, he removes the shame, the embarrassment is gone, he makes the relationship what it ought to have been all along – through the life blood of his own Son – Savior Jesus Christ.
Today we will talk about imagining something called redemption.
Chip and Joanna Gaines are unquestionably amazing and very inspiring to me.
Not just them but all of those programs on HGTV.
Are any of you readers with me on this?
So, these people take outdated properties and pour a ton of effort and love and money into getting rid of their former ugliness, restoring the beauty of them.
Presto… Now another family they have their dream house! And suddenly we need a wall with shiplap upon it. And better landscape. And an open concept.
There is a Bible name for stuff like that – redemption.
To redeem something simply means that somebody puts up the effort and the money to buy back or to purchase something so that it can become their own.
HGTV features properties that have seen better days but now they’re going to get a new chance at life.
Tune into Motor Trend and one will observe several TV shows revealing that this happens to old, rusted out automobiles turned into modern classics as well.
The specialty of Savior Jesus Christ is doing this very same thing – but not to property, not to automobiles, and not to furniture, not to rusted blades but to human beings who were originally made in his image but became horribly scarred, disfigured by sin – our sin and the sins others committed against us.
Jesus is called a Redeemer because he rescues the sinner from his/her problems and dilemma’s, he ransoms, he buys back those who have been given up on, he takes the lost and the least likely, transforms them into a trophy of his grace.
You see… Savior Jesus is absolutely interested in…
– Your health
– your heart
– your faith
– your relationships
– what you believe
– the details of your life
– your spiritual sanity
– your eternal home
– your eternal destiny
But what we are going to prayerfully discover today is Jesus doesn’t just redeem people, but he also lays his hands and redeems every messed-up thing in life.
If you remember the movie “I can only imagine” you see a picture of how God takes an angry and alcohol fueled raging man and can change not only him but also the reprehensible actions of his life that had harmed so very many people.
Only God can do something like that.
That’s why we’re here today because we want God to do something like that…
For you.
For me.
For everyone who with their whole heart and their whole soul and their whole life – freely confess the Lord Jesus Christ as their one and only personal Savior.
If old cars can be brought back to life…
If old homes can be brought back to life…
If old furniture can be brought back to life…
If old-rusted knives can be reforged, resharpened and repurposed, and given an opportunity to refunction and reuse in someone else’s kitchen (Proverbs 27:17)
Why cannot people be likewise brought back to life?
Isn’t this part of what happened in the Prodigal son story? (Luke 15: 11-32)
Good father, rebellious son.
Son demands “rightful inheritance to live his own way – apart from his father.”
Good father gives his rebellious son is inheritance.
Rebellious son wastes his inheritance on everything bad while good father hopes that one day his rebellious son will come home.
Rebellious son spends his inheritance his way but only ends up in a pigsty.
Rebellious son wakes up and feels the gravity of his sin and decides to go home.
Rebellious son does not know, nor cares, what will happen when he gets home.
Good father sees defeated, rebellious son walking up the road and runs to him and smothers him with undeserved grace and kindness and hugs and kisses.
Good father restores rebellious son to the family.
Good father throws a party and it’s at that party that he says this… Luke 15:23 …and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’
Right there, in that Parable, is the power that our heavenly father has called redemption – the dead live again. The lost are found again. The orphan is part of the family again. The dirty or clean again. The useless are made useful again.
The broken are fixed and Messes become messages, Tests become testimonies.
Today, let me paint you 4 pictures of redemption.
I love these kinds of messages because we are talking about what God does and what God does is full of 100% hope, gives max faith to trust him in the process.
Four things today ….
1. God redeems people.
2. God redeems souls, hearts, bodies and minds.
3. God redeems your worst days.
4. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
1. God redeems people.
What is Redeemer God’s response to all of us less-than-perfect people, and wholly messed up people, and even those who seem to have gone too far?
Romans 5:19-21Amplified Bible
19 For just as through one man’s disobedience [his failure to hear, his carelessness] the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of the one Man the many will be made righteous and acceptable to God and brought into right standing with Him. 20 But the Law came to increase and expand [the awareness of] the trespass [by defining and unmasking sin]. But where sin increased, [God’s remarkable, gracious gift of] grace [His unmerited favor] has surpassed it and increased all the more, 21 so that, as sin reigned in death, so also grace would reign through righteousness which brings eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
These verses talk about sin, lots and lots and lots of sin.
• Bad sin,
• more and more sin,
• overwhelming sin.
• Read that no matter how far….
• how deep,
• how messed up,
• how wide,
• how perverse,
• how destructive,
• how utterly damning,
• how stupid,
• how embarrassing sin is to the sinner and what sin has brought to your life- the condemnation, the complications, the associations, the reputation – grace goes absolutely, significantly, infinitely further. It is God’s unlimited character.
The Apostle Paul is saying …. If your sin is abundant, grace is more abundant.
If sin brought the garbage in, grace will take it out and clean out the house.
If sin has made a mess, grace will clean up the mess and sanitize everything.
If sin has stolen anything and everything of value, grace will find those stolen goods and redeem them, buying them back.
If sin has disfigured you, grace does plastic surgery and restores you
If sin has left you laying in the gutter, grace puts you in a mansion.
Grace untangles the knots…
Grace puts broken things back together
God’s grace redeems you or rescues you or buys you back out of sin.
Redeeming grace is God going abundantly, infinitely further than your sin.
Redeeming grace is never lacking nor skimpy.
Redeeming grace is always “so very much more” than anything sin does to us.
Redeeming Grace is exceeding, drenching, saturating, over the top, abundant, and is of the very highest quality as well as the maximum measure of quantity.
Redeeming Grace is never about barely enough or just a little bit; redeeming grace is God always giving you absolutely everything he knows that you need.
Do you see the incredible power of redeeming grace?
– It seeks you out while you are out of it
– It climbs over every obstacle, every sin, every degrading things, all our opposition, all our ignorance
– It pays the price
– It engages our heart and mind and makes us aware
– It gives us the faith to believe
– It does the work to recreate us
– It forgives
– It empowers us anew
– It puts us in the family
– It never brings up the past
– It creates a new future
What more can God do?
Grace in its purest form is our God’s radical redeeming intervention into our ‘rusted’ lives to rescue us from darkness, to forgive us of sin and to transform us – the undeniably undeserving – into followers of Jesus. His grace delivers us the entire gift of salvation without conditions, limits and without reservation.
Grace reaches to the undeserving not to validate but to clean up the mess that sin has made.
Grace is the activity of God intervening in life with God’s resources to restore us to God’s created intention.
2. God redeems souls, hearts, bodies and minds.
Psalm 107:1-9Amplified Bible
Book Five
The Lord Rescues People from Many Troubles.
107 O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; For His compassion and lovingkindness endure forever! 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, Whom He has redeemed from the hand of the adversary, 3 And gathered them from the lands, From the east and from the west, From the north and from the [a]south.
4 They wandered in the wilderness in a [solitary] desert region; And did not find a way to an inhabited city. 5 Hungry and thirsty, They fainted. 6 Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, And He rescued them from their distresses. 7 He led them by the straight way, To an inhabited city [where they could establish their homes]. 8 Let them give thanks to the Lord for His lovingkindness, And for His wonderful acts to the children of men! 9 For He satisfies the parched throat, And fills the hungry appetite with what is good.
One way to prayerfully, better understand, the beauty that God created is to understand its opposite: the ugliness and sorrow of being separated from God.
Because of our sin, this world is not the way it ought to be.
Sin has brought hardship and ugliness into our lives and into this world, though God designed it all to be good and beautiful.
We know that God has restoration in mind because we don’t feel “at home” in a world broken because of sin.
We are homesick for a world of peace and beauty.
We are homesick to be with God.
When we’re stuck in brokenness and facing the ugliness of this world of sin, we feel mightily homesick for God’s world of goodness and beauty.
Psalm 107 points out the sorrow and longing of this homesickness.
The world can feel like a wasteland, providing no place where people can rest, no place where they can settle and be at peace.
But the Lord, whose “love endures forever,” offers redemption.
The Lord hears his people cry out in their trouble caused by sin, and he delivers them from all distresses. God brings them to a place where they can settle and live in peace. “He satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.”
Ultimately, we know that all of life’s goodness and beauty will be restored when Jesus comes again, the new life he provides us even now gives us an ever- living hope for eternity with God.
Romans 12:1-2New King James Version
Living Sacrifices to God
12 I beseech[a] you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your [b] reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
God’s redeeming grace, the one moment when that supernatural work called salvation – the day that Jesus and the Holy Spirit enter your life – what God seeks to do now is to refocus your thoughts, transform you from the inside out.
He is not going to leave you in the same condition he found you.
He’s not going to continue to let you think the way you thought, to do what you did, be enslaved to those addictions, go right back into everything your life was.
The two big words here in this passage are…
– “Let God…”
That simply means that you put yourself in a position where God can do the work.
The great story of Zaccheaus (Luke 19:1-10) in the Bible illustrates this; when faced with his sin he left it.
He allowed the work of Jesus to not just forgive him of his sin, but he left his sin.
– The other big word in this passage is “transform.”
The redeeming power of God does not happen all at once.
All of your bad thoughts do not just go away at the snap of the proverbial finger.
All of your bad habits don’t just go away either.
All of your previous beliefs don’t just go away.
All of your selfishness doesn’t just go away.
The transformation that God does is a changing of your mind which changes your heart which changes your behavior, but it takes time for this to happen.
It also takes a few other critically essential things: being in the word of God, being in the church, being in prayer, being in fellowship with other godly people, being filled with the Holy Spirit, filling your mind with God things.
And here is a compare and contrast of what a redeemed person looks like…
Galatians 5:19-25New King James Version
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: [a]adultery, [b]fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, [c] murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 [d]gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24 And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
3. God redeems your worst days.
Romans 8:28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.
Here is some hope and assurance that we need;
God even redeems the things we think are irredeemable, have no value, that could never be of any good in our life. God’s redeeming grace even covers that.
Look at Joseph as he looks at his brothers who years prior had tried to kill him out of jealousy and rage and then tried to cover up their actions before Jacob.
Genesis 37 through 44 – Joseph is betrayed by his brothers …. sold to traders, lived a precarious life in Egypt – but with God on his side, rose to high power.
Then one day, several years later, Joseph’s brothers enter into his presence.
The brothers don’t recognize their younger brother whom they presumed dead.
Genesis 45:3-5New King James Version
3 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph; does my father still live?” But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. 4 And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So, they came near. Then he said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.
Grace has no time or geographic boundaries covers all the way back to the beginning and grace is so powerful that it takes us all the way to the end.
Not only that but God’s grace is so comprehensive. so thoroughly extensive that it takes all the sin that was killing us and redeems it.
Grace rules over sin and takes away its damage and turns what was bad into something called a testimony.
A testimony is how what sin was using to destroy us God is now uses to destroy sin!!!
Grace makes us right…no matter how wrong we were.
Grace makes us acceptable…no matter how unworthy we were.
Grace makes us favored…no matter how unfavorable we have been.
God redeems…
– Addictions
– Wasted years
– Prison time
– Lost money
– Dumbness
– Stupidity
– Accidents
– Things done against you
4. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
Psalm 107:1-3English Standard Version
Book Five
Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So
107 Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! 2 Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he has redeemed from trouble[a] 3 and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say…
– He has chosen me.
– He has rescued me.
– He lives in me.
– I live in the palm of his hand.
– He is changing me.
– He is making me.
– He is transforming me.
– His hands are on my past. He is leading me into his future.
– His grace is overflowing to me.
– His riches overflow to me.
– My needs are met by his glorious resources.
– I have joy in the Lord.
– I have a song to sing.
– He is working it out.
Philippians 1:3-7NKJV
Thankfulness and Prayer
3 I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, 5 for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;7 just as it is right for me to think this of you all, because I have you in my heart, inasmuch as both in my chains and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all are partakers with me of grace.
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Father God, Creator, Author and Redeemer and Restorer of my life, teach me to do your will, for you are my God. May your Holy Spirit lead me on level ground. I see your faithfulness and goodness in what you have done for me throughout my life. I think about these things, and I thirst for you. Let me hear of your unfailing love every morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you. Keep me on firm footing for the glory of your name. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.
12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north [where the ten tribes have been taken as captives] and say,
‘Return, faithless Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not [a]look on you in anger. For I am gracious and merciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not be angry forever. 13 ‘Only understand fully and acknowledge your wickedness and guilt, That you have rebelled (transgressed) against the Lord your God And have scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord. 14 ‘Return, O faithless children [of the twelve tribes],’ says the Lord, ‘For I am a master and husband to you, And I will take you [not as a nation, but individually]—one from a city and two from a [tribal] family— And I will bring you to Zion.’
15 “Then [in the final time] I will give you [spiritual] shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and [true] understanding. 16 It will be in those days when you have [repented and] multiplied and increased in the land,” says the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It will not come to mind, nor will they [seriously] remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again [for instead of the ark, which symbolized My presence, I will be present].
The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.
The prophecy from the Lord through His Prophet Jeremiah speaks of God’s promise to give us spiritual shepherds to feed and nourish us with knowledge and understanding that would cause an increase in the lives of His people.
Spiritual Shepherds then …. We call them Pastors today.
A question is being asked today: What is a pastor according to God’s heart?
Well, before we try to answer that question, let’s take the time out and define what a pastor is.
Well according to the dictionary, Pastor is a noun, it is defined as a Christian minister or a priest who is a leader of a congregation.
But according to the Word of God, a Pastor is a shepherd, a spiritual shepherd who leads God’s people, which is the church.
The pastor is one who oversees, he leads, he guides, he protects, he teaches, he trains, he counsels, he preaches to, he prays with and for it, and He feeds and nourishes and grows the church with spiritual food which is the Word of God.
In Jeremiah 3:15, the Lord says, And I will give you pastors according to my heart, which will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
The knowledge and understanding that the pastors are to feed us with is the Word of God.
Acts 20:28 says, “Take care and be on guard for yourselves and for the whole flock over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd (tend, feed, guide) the church of God which He bought with His own blood.”
The New Testament, word of His grace (Acts 20:32), says that it is God Who gave us Pastors.
“And now I commend you to God [placing you in His protective, loving care] and [I commend you] to the word of His grace [the counsel and promises of His unmerited favor]. His grace is able to build you up and to give you the [rightful] inheritance among all those who are sanctified [that is, among those who are set apart for God’s purpose—all believers].”
They are shepherds and father-like ones God has given us to be one of the channels of His grace to us.
Ephesians 4:8 – 11 says,
“Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. 9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers.”
They are a critically essential part of His design for our life and His Church.
This is not a day to be without the gift of a Pastor in your life.
Yes, the pastor is to feed the church through preaching and teaching the Word of God.
But yet a question is still being asked: What is a pastor according to God’s heart?
Now, the key phrase is Pastors according to God’s heart.
And it is important to know what a pastor is according to God’s heart because there are a lot of people who call themselves pastors, but they are not Pastors according to God’s heart.
So, the question is, what is a pastor according to God’s heart?
Well, a Pastor according to God’s heart is someone who is:
1. Called by God.
2nd Timothy 1:8-10 says,
“8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord or about me His prisoner, but with me take your share of suffering for the gospel [continue to preach regardless of the circumstances], in accordance with the power of God [for His power is invincible], 9 for He delivered us and saved us and called us with a holy calling [a calling that leads to a consecrated life—a life set apart—a life of purpose], not because of our works [or because of any personal merit—we could do nothing to earn this], but because of His own purpose and grace [His amazing, undeserved favor] which was granted to us in Christ Jesus before the world began [eternal ages ago], 10 but now [that extraordinary purpose and grace] has been fully disclosed and realized by us through the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus who [through His incarnation and earthly ministry] abolished death [making it null and void] and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
2. Chosen by God.
John 15:16 says, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name; he may give it you.
3. Annointed and Appointed by God.
Acts 20:28 says, “Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.”
4. Sent by God.
Romans 10:13-15 says, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things.”
5. Given to the church by God.
Ephesians 4:11-13 says, “And he gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ ….
7. A man of prayer, not just for himself, but for his family, and for the church…
Matthew 26:41 says to “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.”
8. A man who studies the Word of God that he may present Jesus Christ in his preaching and teaching as the central theme of the gospel message, and that his preaching and his teaching will be considered sound doctrine.
2nd Timothy 2:14-15 says,
An Unashamed Workman
14 Remind the people of these facts, and solemnly charge them in the presence of God to avoid petty controversy over words, which does no good, and [upsets and undermines and] ruins [the faith of] those who listen. 15 Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth.
9. A man who willingly, sacrificially, patterns his whole life after the life of Jesus Christ so he may be an example of Jesus Christ before his congregation.
1 Peter 5:1-3 says,
Serve God Willingly
5 Therefore, I strongly urge the elders among you [pastors, spiritual leaders of the church], as a fellow elder and as an eyewitness [called to testify] of the sufferings of Christ, as well as one who shares in the glory that is to be revealed: 2 shepherd and guide and protect the flock of God among you, exercising oversight not under compulsion, but voluntarily, according to the will of God; and not [motivated] for shameful gain, but with wholehearted enthusiasm; 3 not lording it over those assigned to your care [do not be arrogant or overbearing], but be examples [of Christian living] to the flock [set a pattern of integrity for your congregation].
10. A man who rules and leads well, not just in the church house, but also in his own house…
I Timothy 5:17 says, “Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine.”
11. A man who loves God and who loves God’s people.
I Peter 1:22 says, “Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto the feigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently.”
12. A man of deep compassion who goes above and beyond to care for people.
Matthew 9:13 “Go and learn what this [Scripture] means: ‘I desire compassion [for those in distress], and not [animal] sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call [to repentance] the [self-proclaimed] righteous [who see no need to change], but sinners [those who recognize their sin and actively seek forgiveness].”
Matthew 15:32
Four Thousand Fed
32 Then Jesus called His disciples to Him, and said, “I feel compassion for the crowd, because they have been with Me now three days and have nothing [left] to eat; and I do not want to send them away hungry, because they might faint [from exhaustion] on the way [home].”
Mark 6:34 “34 When Jesus went ashore, He saw a large crowd [waiting], and He was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd [lacking guidance]; and He began to teach them many things.
A man who is patient with people.
A man who is kind and gentle with people.
A man who is humble.
A man who is unselfish.
A man who is peaceable.
A man who has the joy of the Lord as his strength.
A man who loves praising and worshipping God and leading his people to worship God.
A man who is willing and loves to serve God.
A man who loves working with the youth as well as the senior citizens.
A man who loves ministering to singles, as well as the married couples.
A man who ministers to those in prisons as well as those in the hospitals.
A man who believes in doing the right thing and being holy.
A man who is courageous and strong in the Lord.
A man who will stand up for righteousness, and speak out against sin.
A man who is honest and truthful.
A man with a vision from the Lord.
Proverbs 29:18 says, Where there is no prophetic vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.”
13. Last but not least, a man who is born again.
John 3:3 says, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” To be born again, you must be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Last but not least, it must be understood that a pastor according to God’s heart is not a perfect pastor.
King David was a man who was after God’s heart, but he was not perfect.
But yet God used him mightily to be one of the most powerful kings of Israel.
God used him to write most of the Book of Psalms we have in our bibles today.
And like wise Pastors who are according to God’s heart are not perfect, but God uses them anyway.
That is why as the church we should pray for our pastors, support our pastors, honor our pastors, love our pastors, take care of our pastors, obey our pastors so they can do the job that they have been called to do without the unnecessary trouble, to do the often-thankless labor as a pastor with joy and not with grief.
In the midst of a season when they are needed most, pastors are burning out at an alarming rate!
As Christians, we should feel deep agony over this fact, especially since the main reason for it appears to be . . . us!
The very Christians who comprise the congregations of pastors who are rapidly dropping out of ministry are often the cause.
God has not called us to criticize or damage our pastors.
He has called us to love them (1 Cor. 13:1-13), to be submissive to their leadership (Heb. 13:17), and to pray for them (1 Tim. 2:1-2).
The Father has called our pastors and has ordained them to be our shepherds (Acts 20:28).
How can you pray effectively for your Pastors and their families?
Make a commitment to pray for them daily. If your pastors knew that you, your family, and others were praying for them, and for their families, each day . . . can you imagine what an encouragement that would be? Would their hearts be lifted if they knew that they could share a need or a concern with your family and you would take it to the Lord on their behalf? You know it would!
Pray that your congregation will allow them to minister in a loving and caring environment. Many pastors and their families feel very alone in the midst of their churches. Often, they don’t have close friends in the congregation to whom they can go with burdens. They may feel that they can’t share needs because they, of all people, should have everything together. In truth, the pastor’s family is just like yours. They struggle with similar issues and problems. They desperately need others to come alongside of them and commit to fervent, continuous prayer so that the enemy won’t have the opportunity to do damage.
Your pastor’s ministry will only be as effective as the prayer that fuels it. If you want a joyful, Spirit-filled shepherd, who confidently leads their congregation into a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ and demonstrates a passion for revival and for reaching the lost, then you must pray for them – and for their families!
Here are some specific ways that your family can pray for your pastors and their families:
1. Pray that your pastors will always have a passion to know Christ more intimately.
2. Pray that your pastors will minister out of a humble spirit.
3. Pray that your pastors will minister from the Spirit’s power.
4. Pray that your pastors will be persons of prayer and of the Word (Acts 6:4) in order to live a holy and pure life.
5. Pray for the families of your pastors.
6. Pray for protection against the schemes of the devil.
7. Pray blessing into the life of your pastor(s) and their families.
Becoming the Answer
Now you have prayed for and blessed your pastor(s) and their families, here are some practical ways to care for, encourage, show your appreciation to them:
Submit to the spiritual authority of your pastor(s) and encourage others to do the same…especially if there are any who are complaining or grumbling.
Extend hospitality to your pastor(s) and their families by inviting them to your home for a meal or including them in family activities. Think of other creative ideas.
Recognize that your pastor(s) and their families go through the same struggles as everyone else’s families and be empathetic rather than critical.
Give your pastor(s) and their spouses time together while you care for their children or hire someone to do so.
Fix a meal and take it to them with an encouraging note.
Take a basket of items you know would encourage them. Find out some things they like to snack on, or some of their favorite coffee, card games, etc.
Find out if there are any needs in their home that need attention: leaky shower, car repairs, yard work, etc. and see that they are taken care of.
Send notes of encouragement and appreciation from your whole family; have your children draw pictures or write their own notes.
Recruit as many people as you can to pray regularly for your pastors and their families. Try to cover them in prayer seven days a week.
Encourage your church leaders to send your pastor(s) on a spiritual retreat regularly so that they can be renewed and refreshed by the Holy Spirit.
Use your imagination.
There are so many things you can do to show your love and appreciation.
Be determined to pray for and care for your pastors and their families and allow God to work in and through you by encouraging other families to do the same.
Your simple efforts will do much to advance the cause of Christ in your church and community, as God does a mighty work in and through your pastor(s) lives.
May your thoughts and prayers and those of many others in your church, along with expressions of kindness, care and appreciation, keep pastors and their families safe, joyful and productive and above all other things, well-loved and highly cherished for many years to the glory and honor of Savior Christ Jesus!
In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,
Let us Pray,
Creator God, Author of all Life, Divine Shepherd of us all,Thank you for a pastor that seeks You with their whole heart. The pastor’s singular desire, Lord, is to serve and please You. So, Father, show the pastor the way. Give the pastor Your vision. Grant Your clarity. Make the complex simple. And then give the pastor boldness to step out in faith to accomplish Your plans for their ministry and for our church. It’s easy to be distracted by many voices, so Father let the pastor hear but one voice, and let that voice be Yours. These things I pray with hope and expectation, in Jesus’ name.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 