Alternate Plans
Bible Order: 1 Chron 1
Chronological Order: Psalm 102-104
Compelled By Love
Today’s reading reminds me of how popular Jesus really was. When we think of his followers we tend to think of the 12 disciples and when we think of those who wanted Jesus dead we think of a mob demanding He be crucified. The text shows us the opposite, that He had many followers and that His enemies could do nothing against Him openly because they were fewer in number.
As Jesus entered Jerusalem according to Old Testament prophecy, sitting on a colt, a large number of people cheered His arrival.
Luke 19:37 ESV
“As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen”
Did you catch that phrase “whole multitude of His disciples”? Those that sought Jesus’ death were the smaller number. We know this by the fact that they had to arrest Him in the dead of night. The small group of power elite wanted to be rid of Jesus but they couldn’t exercise their power because an overwhelming number of people loved Him and His teachings.
Luke 19:47-48 ESV
“And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words.”
It has always bothered me that evil men accuse “the Jews” of killing Jesus Christ. It was a group of corrupt Jewish politicians that demand His death, a corrupt Gentile politician that ordered His death, and brutal Gentile soldiers who nailed Him to the cross. Jesus died for all, but He also died because of all. There is no human being, and therefore no people group, who is innocent of the murder of Jesus Christ.
While a small group of Jews were involved in demanding the death of Christ, it is through the self-sacrificing efforts of a much larger group of Jews, that Jews and Gentiles the world over, and throughout history, have been saved. You see it was Jews who took the Gospel and shared it with a lost and dying world at first. If these faithful Jews had not gone out and suffered horribly for the lost, you and I wouldn’t be saved today. Our Lord Jesus Christ was a Jew. The twelve disciples were Jews. Paul was a Jew. All those who went out to share the Gospel were Jews. How can you condemn that entire people group on the one hand without giving them credit on the other?
Jesus was loved by a multitude of Jews and that love for Him compelled them to show love to others, Jew and Gentile. If you are a Christian you are because the love of Christ compelled someone to share the Gospel with you. What does the love of Christ compel you to do?
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Alternate Plans
Bible Order: Deut 31:30–34:12
Chronological Order: Num 26–28
Love and Self Denial
Divorce was a tricky issue back in Jesus’ day and it isn’t any less so today. In Deuteronomy Moses writes the following:
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 ESV
“When a man takes a wife and marries her, if then she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some indecency in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, and she departs out of his house, and if she goes and becomes another man’s wife, and the latter man hates her and writes her a certificate of divorce and puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house, or if the latter man dies, who took her to be his wife, then her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after she has been defiled, for that is an abomination before the LORD. And you shall not bring sin upon the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance.”
From this one mention of a “certificate of divorce” the Jewish people devised a system by which a man could divorce a woman for any excuse he could imagine. This is a rather callous attitude toward marriage and not what God intended. The Pharisees, perhaps in one of their many attempts to trip Jesus up, asked Him if it was Lawful to divorce ones wife. When a Pharisee asks if something is Lawful he means does it meet the letter of the Mosaic Law as laid down by Moses. You see, they didn’t care about the spirit of the Law, only the letter. Here is how Jesus answered them:
Mark 10:5-9 ESV
“And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
A man and woman joined in Holy matrimony become one flesh before God. Can you imagine the pain if part of your body was torn from the rest? Without immediate medical attention you would die. People who have survived an amputation tell of phantom aches and pains in the limb that no longer exits. Such an amputation changes the amputee forever and the associated hurt and pain and sense of loss never truly goes away. In the heat of arguments and anger, divorce can come to be viewed as a less painful alternative to remaining married but it is a lie. Husbands and wives will also often tell themselves that they should divorce “for the sake of the children”. This argument is based on the idea that seeing mommy and daddy argue and yell at each other non-stop causes more harm than divorce. This argument has been around for a long time and the research is conclusive. This too is a lie. Divorce hurts and it hurts everyone forever.
Our society today encourages so much behavior that inflicts a vast amount of incredible pain. People who have divorced have tried to make a decision that they thought was best, unfortunately they have been more influenced by the world than the spirit of the Bible. That spirit is one of love and self-sacrifice. You shouldn’t have to choose between divorce and your children hearing parents argue all the time. You are an adult and those children depend on you to act like it.
Most of our arguments and anger arise from our self-centeredness. We don’t like it when people are disrespectful to us, or don’t do things the way we want them to, or wrong us in some way. All of that comes from a focus on self. What would happen if you denied yourself and focused on doing your very best for your spouse? What if you wanted to do things her way rather than storm around and get into arguments because she doesn’t do them your way? Granted there are times when our spouse’s way of doing things might be dangerous or immoral and in those situations we are honor bound to step up and confront, in a loving way, the issue. What would happen when your spouse did or said something disrespectful to you if you ignored it? What if instead of being angry you showed them how much you respected them?
You are the spiritual head of your home. That means that it is up to you to take the first steps in changing the dynamic in your home. It isn’t about you; it is about the glory of God. How does how you treat your wife reflect the glory of God? You can’t control what other people say and do. You can control how you respond to them. You are the leader. It is up to you to deny yourself and put others first. Others are not here to serve you and you’ve got to get that into your head. Love and self-denial are crucial disciplines to master if you are going to be the man God created you to be. Get to work.
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Stand Against Evil In Love
Brothers, today our reading is very short. 2 and 3 John are very short letters. These letters were written to very specific individuals and yet they hold truth for each of us today. 2 John reminds us that we are to love each other. The overriding principle of the Gospel is love. I once said that if I had to boil the entire Bible down to one word that word would have to be love. If we have not love we have nothing. Our love for others is evidence of God’s Holy Spirit working within us.
Our love for Christ should compel us to be obedient to His commands. He said that if you love Him you will obey Him. Our love for Christ should also compel us to love those He came to die for. Our love for Him should compel us to tell others the Good News. Are you willing to obey your Savior?
3 John shows us that not everyone who claims to be a Christian is a Christian. It shows us that individuals can actually move up very high in the church and yet not truly be a follower of Christ. It is not a loving act to allow non-Christians to pose as Christians, particularly if they are in a powerful position from which they can negatively affect the eternity of others. Loving others does not mean that we look the other way when evil is perpetrated. Love does not require that we submit to evil. Love requires that we speak against evil. John takes a stand against one who is doing damage to the church in this letter but he intends to address this problem in person.
We are called to love others and stand up for truth. Let us not think that these two traits are incompatible. They are in fact completely compatible. We must take a stand against evil in love.
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Godliness Is Not A Means Of Gain
What do you desire? It dawns on me that this is an essential question with devastating consequences for a wrong answer. There is only one right answer. That doesn’t make sense does it? I just asked an opinion question didn’t I? How can there be only one answer to an opinion question? Each of us is put together differently and faces different challenges; wouldn’t each of us have some kind of unique desire based on who and where we are?
That is human logic speaking and it actually misses a bigger picture. What I desire is a matter of what I am. Am I a child of the Living God or am I a god unto myself? If I am a god unto myself then I desire any number of things that I hope will make me feel good. If I am a child of the Living God then I desire only to obey my Lord and Savior, to be His faithful servant in everything I think, say and do. Now, before I go further let me say that I have a pain in my heart as I read those words for I must admit that not everything I think, say, and do is faithful to God’s standard for my life. Does this mean that I am not really a Christian? No it does not. I actually do desire to be God’s faithful and obedient servant. I often fail in this but God is not finished in His perfecting of me.
I can have a desire to get a perfect score on the math test and still get a few wrong when the test is graded. How do I respond to this failure? If my desire remains to be perfect in my math test taking then I will resolve to work harder to achieve my goal. On the next test I may not get that perfect score for which I toil but I’ll bet you I get a little bit closer. My advancement toward my goal is completely dependent on my desire to attain the goal.
My sense of fulfillment in attaining my goal, however, is actually dependent on my reason for seeking the goal. Do I wish to attain this perfection because I will be puffed up with pride? Do I wish to attain this perfection because it will allow me to gain a better job and thereby make more money? Do I wish to attain this perfection because chicks really dig mathematical brainiacs?
Often when we strive to achieve a goal for the sole purpose of some personal gain, we experience disappointment once the goal is achieved. We can achieve all for which we strove and find that we are still left with an unfulfilled emptiness. Why is that? I believe it is because we have struggled to fill a whole in our hearts that only God can fill. I don’t know about you but the most fulfilled I have ever felt after achieving a goal was when my goal was based on pleasing my parents. There is something about the pleasure my parents took in certain achievements that swelled my heart. I realized that those moments were so fulfilling because they were not about pleasing me but pleasing my parents.
Self-centeredness is the root of all evil – all sin. Now this sounds like a paraphrase from today’s reading doesn’t it? Have you heard the saying “Money is the root of all evil”? That saying is also a paraphrase of a verse from today’s reading. Take a look.
1 Timothy 6:10
“For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils….”
Notice that it is not money that is the problem but the love of that money. Notice also that it is not the root of all evil but a root of all kinds of evil. The things we “love” seem to always be based on what those things can do for us. That is not godly love, it is self-centeredness. We love what we can gain from some thing or someone. Now some act godly for what they believe they can gain. They accept Jesus because they want Him to heal them or enrich them in some way. They “love” Christ for what He can do for them rather than for what He has already done. This is the self-centered path to an empty faith.
Below Paul gives Timothy a warning to watch out for this kind of professing Christian.
1 Timothy 6:3-9
“If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. But godliness with contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”
“Godliness with contentment is great gain.” Are we content with food and clothing? Is there more that we desire? Why? The things of this world cannot fill our god-sized hole. Only God can fill that hole. Having been saved from Hell, and having been granted an inheritance in Heaven, what more is there for us to want? Contentment in godliness comes when we no longer love ourselves but rather God, not for what He can do for us, but because of what He has already done for us. When our desire is no longer for ourselves but for obedience to our Savior we will find godly contentment.
If you are a Christian but have not yet found godly contentment, don’t quit. God is working on you through His Holy Spirit. He is bringing you to fullness in Christ. Keep taking the test. Keep striving to do better. One day you will find perfection and contentment in Jesus Christ.
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Speak The Truth!
I have a bad memory for time frame so I’m not sure how long ago it was that I watched a woman on TV who had been a recording artist in the Christian genre. She was “coming out” as they say. She claimed to be a homosexual and a Christian. She was on some kind of talk show and they had brought her former pastor on the show to debate the fact that the Bible says homosexuality is wrong. Isn’t it funny that people want to debate facts as if they aren’t facts? I want to commend the pastor. I would have liked to see him better defend the Bible, but he was truly broken hearted about the fate of this poor misguided woman. Someone had sold her a bill of goods and she will stand condemned because she bought it.
This young lady stated that the “one place” in the New Testament that was quoted as being against homosexuality was actually translated incorrectly. I could have laughed if it wasn’t so tragic. It was like watching a train wreck – disaster all around and you just can’t look away. Let me ask you something, do you or someone you know speak Spanish? I had one year of high school Spanish. If you are willing to put in the time and effort you can become very proficient in reading and speaking Spanish. For me it is a foreign language but I can master it if I so desire. Why is it people can understand Spanish is a language readily learned and understood but seem to think Hebrew or ancient Greek can’t?
Ancient Greek is a language. It is readily studied and learned. There are numerous ancient Greek readers and speakers in this world today and many of these individuals have studied the New Testament in its original language. How can all of these expert Greek readers be wrong and a small group with an agenda, and no ancient Greek proficiency, be right? What this woman had to say was a lie. There are several places in the New Testament where homosexuality is expressly labeled as sin. There are even more instances of such condemnation in the Old Testament, on which the New Testament is built.
Now if you want to tell me that you don’t like the Bible, or don’t believe the Bible – fine, God has given every individual the responsibility of making their own decision about Him and His Word. There are consequences for our decisions but each will face his own. What outrages me is the idea that these folks will, with the straightest of faces, tell such an egregious lie. Words have meaning. Facts are facts. The Bible clearly states, in context, that homosexuality is wrong. If you want to practice a homosexual lifestyle you are an enemy of God. You reject His authority over you. You can claim to be a Christian all you want but when you stand before Him on that day of judgment He will say “I do not know you”.
Am I angry with that doomed young lady? No. I am broken hearted. She has condemned herself, and anyone else she has led astray, to a disastrous eternity. Friends, the fact that she is a sinner is not what bothers me. I am a sinner – saved by grace. I struggle and fail and sin. The difference is I admit it is sin. I confess I have sinned and fall on my knees in repentance and ask God for His forgiveness through the shed blood of His son Jesus Christ, and God, in His mercy gives me grace. That young lady is claiming sin is not sin. You cannot repent of something you do not think is wrong. The person that says sin is not sin is truly lost, their eternity will be horrendous. I take no satisfaction in that fact. It breaks my heart that so many are speeding so quickly toward their doom.
I have gone on and on about this and you are probably wondering why. Well, in today’s reading in Romans Paul lists homosexuality as a sin. He explains that no one is ignorant of God and His glory, for the evidence exists all around them. Below is the passage that brought the fate of that poor lost woman to my mind.
Romans 1:24-27
“Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.”
Brothers, there is no error in translation. The Bible says what it says. There are some who have been given over to the lusts of their hearts and who have exchanged the truth for a lie. Should we be angry? No. Let our hearts be broken over this tragedy, but more importantly let us take a stand for truth. Let us not be silent just because the world will hate us for the truth. Can we in good conscience sit idly by and watch as these misguided people plunge blindly toward their eternity in Hell? They are going to Hell for eternity and you are afraid they might be mad at you if you tell them the truth? Really?
Is your faith all about you or all about your love for Christ? God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). If He loves the world so much, and you love Him, shouldn’t you be showing the world His love? It is not loving to agree with a lie. It is not loving to ignore the fate that awaits the ignorant. It is not loving to sit by and watch them race to their doom. Do you love? Then speak the truth!
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Does Your Love Grow Cold?
Today’s passage recounts the same information we read in yesterday’s passages in Mark. Mark is thought to be the first of the Gospel’s written. This is because Matthew and Luke contain similar, at times word for word, passages. Now this may seem a waste of time for an individual studying these books. Isn’t one reading of the shared passages enough? Remember that each of these Gospels was a letter written to a specific audience. Even though these passages are very similar, sometimes there are slight variations that offer greater understanding of the story in question.
The following passage in Matthew expresses a similar passage in Mark but it is worded differently and offers a poetic image that, in my opinion, better communicates an important truth.
Matthew 24:9-14
“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. And then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.”
Mark also says that the followers of Christ will suffer difficulties, and even death, for His sake. Mark goes on to encourage the reader to be ready for Christ’s return, as does Matthew, but Matthew warns the reader what it means to not be ready. Those that are not ready for Christ’s return are those who “fall away, and betray one another and hate one another”. Matthew says that the love of these individuals will have grown cold. I love that imagery “the love of many will grow cold”.
“For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). That is a lot of love my friend. Upon submitting our lives to the authority of Christ we are given His Holy Spirit which infuses us with His love. That is a lot of love you have residing within you brother. Do you remember when you met the woman who would become your wife? Your love was hot then wasn’t it? Has that love grown cold? If so what is your relationship like with your wife? I can tell you why your relationship cooled. It was because the focus of your love shifted from your wife back to yourself.
When we let our love for God grow cold the focus of our love shifts away from Him and back to ourselves, our relationship with Him suffers greatly. This is the falling away Matthew described. With the love of God cold and dead in our heart, hatred is the result, separation from God is the result, death is the result. Do you know when Christ will return? What will He find in you when He does? Will your love have grown cold? I pray not brother, I pray not.
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Luke 19:28–48
