Alternate Plans
Bible Order: Exod 5–7
Chronological Order: Gen 22–23
Fruitfulness Is Where It’s At!
In yesterday’s reading Jesus told the Parable of the Sower. In today’s reading Jesus explains the parable to His disciples. I’m glad to know that even those that were being personally trained by Jesus didn’t always understand what He was saying. In response to yesterday’s post Larry made a comment, and I’d like to encourage you to read it. From the Home page scroll down to yesterday’s post and click on “comments” to the right, under the title “Today’s Bible Reading:…” Larry really nailed the challenge most of us face when confronted with living a fruitful Christian life.
Did you know that Jesus wants you to be fruitful, not simply for His sake but for yours? In the Old Testament we read that children are to honor (I read that as obey) their parents, not for the parent’s or God’s well-being, but for the children’s well-being. God says honor your father and mother so that it will go well with you! Do you not understand that this applies to you and your relationship with your Heavenly Father? You need to be fruitful as a Christian so you can have the fullness of life, the joy, Jesus intended for you.
I want to break down Jesus’ explanation of this parable for you and please let me know if you disagree with my assessment. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
The seed sown along the path represents one who hears the Gospel but does not understand it because the Evil One has stolen it from them. Can you think of anyone who has heard the Gospel but utterly refused its truth? That is who Jesus is referring to here.
The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who thinks the Gospel message sounds good but they never really submitted their life to Christ. They are not true Christians. They have no real conviction that Jesus is Lord and so when they get bored, or people condemn them, or God doesn’t do what they want Him to do, they say “this thing isn’t real, I quit”. Do you know anyone that fits in this category?
I believe that the seed sown among the thorns is the person who truly submitted their life to Christ, but finds the hustle and bustle of life and the challenges of life distract them from what is truly important, and they become bogged down and discouraged by worldly things. These folks have their eyes pointed downward toward the dirt and the muck and have forgotten to lift their heads up so they can see the Sun/Son shining. A life focused on one’s earthly needs and desires is a fruitless and depressing life. That is not the life Jesus came to give us.
Brothers, I believe most of us fit in this category. We are saved, we belong to Christ, but we are unfruitful. This is not a tragedy for God; it is a tragedy for us! Don’t you want to have the fruitful life Christ died to give you? If so you need to be the one whose seed has found its way into good soil and becomes fruitful. What does it mean to be fruitful? How do you think Jesus would answer that question? Take a look at the three other groups of which you find yourself one. Could being fruitful have something to do with sowing seeds yourself? Could being fruitful have anything to do with encouraging others to be fruitful? I do know this, being fruitful includes being in right relationship with God. It is this relationship from which the nutrients we need flow. You can’t grow if you don’t have the water and nitrogen/bread you need to grow.
This water and bread can be found and digested by having daily quiet time with God in prayer and Bible study. These are the basics. The budding fruit of your Christian life is your selfless leadership of your wife and children. You need to be leading your family as Christ commands, in a selfless way. This is your first “ministry”. The maturing fruit of your Christian life is your active participation in the work of your local body of believers. You will grow as you actively go about the work God has given you to do. The ripe fruit of your Christian life is your active work in sharing the Gospel. This is where your fruitfulness gets that 30, 60, and 100 hundred fold production. At that point you have become a sower yourself. This is the life God intends for you.
Examine your life and your relationship with God. Ask Him to reveal to you what He would have you do and then go do it. No ifs, ands, or buts. Obey your Heavenly Father so it will go well with you!
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Alternate Plans
Bible Order: Gen 42–44
Chronological Order: Job 39–42
Only Jesus Reveals The Father
Here in chapter 11 of Matthew Jesus makes it clear who He is and who John the Baptist is. The Old Testament told of one who would come before the Messiah to prepare the way before Him.
Malachi 3:1 ESV
“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.”
In fact, Malachi later says specifically who this messenger will be.
Malachi 4:5 ESV
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes.”
So Jesus is saying that John the Baptist is Elijah and He goes on to say, by claiming to be the “Son of Man”, that He is the Messiah. You know to this day, as Jews celebrate the Passover, they leave an empty place at the table and the door to their homes open in anticipation of Elijah’s return. They missed it. They missed the return of Elijah and they missed the return of the Lamb of God. Neither they nor we will miss the return of the Lion.
As Jesus continued He became rather explicit about who He is.
Matthew 11:27 ESV
“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”
Did you catch that? God has turned everything over to Jesus so that no one knows God unless Jesus reveals Him to them. Have you heard the nonsense about there being “many paths to God”? Jesus is throwing down the gauntlet; He doesn’t give you the luxury of lumping Him in with other paths. The only ones who really know God are those whom Jesus has called. You may wish to reject this notion but to do so you must reject Jesus. Jesus can’t be some great moral teacher if He is lying or crazy. He can’t be sent by God if He is wrong.
I did nothing to deserve Jesus revealing Himself to me. I would be condemned to an eternity separated from God if Jesus hadn’t drawn me to Him. It is through Him that I have been able to return to God in right relationship. If you are reading this post and you are not a Christian, if you haven’t submitted complete control of your life to Him there is some good news for you. He is calling you. He wants you to know God the Father. Will you listen? Will you respond?
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Alternate Plans
Chronological Order: Job 6–8
A Higher Standard
In yesterday’s post I included a picture of Jesus standing on a mountain surrounded by multitudes listening to Him preach. I got this picture from a software package I purchased which contained such images. The image was labeled “Sermon on the Mount” so the artist had this particular moment in mind when he created it. The funny thing is the Sermon on the Mount, as it is recorded here in the book of Matthew, appears to have been delivered not to a multitude but to His disciples. Take a look at a verse from yesterday’s reading:
Matthew 5:1
“Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him.”
Remember that the Bible was not written as chapters and verses. Those designations came later so a new chapter doesn’t necessarily mean a new subject or change in direction. At the end of Matthew 4 we read that Jesus had begun His earthly ministry and had preached to multitudes, but here at the beginning of chapter 5 we read that seeing the crowds he went up on the mount and sat down with His disciples. He was getting away from the multitude.
Now, more than likely Jesus reiterated what He said in the Sermon on the Mount on other occasions and to larger crowds but here He is speaking to His disciples. I think that is significant. He wasn’t speaking to the lost; He was speaking to His followers. We Christians understand that we are under a new covenant, but we sometimes think that this means the old covenant, or Old Testament, no longer applies. Jesus clearly stated that this is a false understanding.
Matthew 5:17-20
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Notice that He says that someone who relaxes the Old Testament commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. This means that we, as followers of Christ, are not held to a lesser standard than the Old Testament but to a higher standard. It also means that His followers will still be in Heaven even if they occasionally get their theology a little wrong. There are two things being communicated on top of that. First, we cannot fulfill the Law in our own power; we need a Savior. Once we have that Savior, His Holy Spirit will empower us to obey not only the old standard but the new higher standard. It also means that even when we fail at living up to this standard we still have our salvation; we may be least in the Kingdom of Heaven do to our failings, but in Heaven we still will be.
Right about now I can hear the amens coming from those that think that we should be observing the Sabbath, which is Saturday, rather than worshipping on Sunday or that we all need to be circumcised and so on. Sorry guys but you are missing the point. The new standard has to do with the heart rather than actions. Under the old covenant and Law people tried to perform right actions while their hearts were far from God which lead to individuals attempting to earn their salvation through their own actions. The point of the old covenant was to show us that we need a Savior, that we couldn’t perform up to a righteous standard on our own.
Jesus was often accused by the Pharisees of violating the old covenant. For example, He healed on the Sabbath. Jesus taught that the spirit of the Law was what was important. If we were to get our hearts right, our actions would follow our hearts, meaning that everything was in proper alignment. So as we consider Christ’s comments that not one iota or dot will pass from the Law until all is accomplished, keep in mind all that He said and did in order to get a more accurate understanding of the concept He is preaching.
Finally I suggest you take particular notice of the higher standard Jesus introduces in today’s verses. The old covenant stated that murder and adultery were wrong and punishable by death. The new covenant, as Jesus illustrates, holds that anger and lust are just as wrong. This is a much higher standard. Since you have accepted Christ, have you managed to remain anger and lust free? I haven’t guys. Does this mean I don’t belong to Christ, that I don’t have the Holy Spirit residing within me? No it does not. When I have been angry or lusted in my heart, God’s Holy Spirit has convicted me of my wrong doing. I have hurt for the wrong I did which caused me to fall down on my knees before God and ask for forgiveness. His grace is sufficient and I leave my time in prayer forgiven and determined to do better.
The new covenant does not release us from the lower standard of the old covenant but commits us to a higher standard. We have been given power to live toward this standard with forgiveness for our occasional failures, as long as they are occasional, accidental disobedience rather than habitual, intentional disobedience. Don’t get discouraged by this new standard. Be glad that God is helping you learn to live at such a level!
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Alternate Plans
Chronological Order: Gen 1–3
God Is With You
Happy New Year! I hope 2011 was a year of blessing for you and your family and that 2012 will be even more blessed. I feel I must warn you, however, God’s blessings are not necessarily as man would like them. We tend to think of blessings in terms of good health, wealth, and assorted pleasures. God thinks of blessings in terms of eternity. We often complain when we struggle with life. Sometimes we even think that God has abandoned us. Nothing could be further from the truth for those that belong to Him. For the child of God, hardship in this life is simply preparation for eternity. It is through those struggles that we learn to lean on, and follow, God. It is in those times of trouble that we are reminded of our need for Him. It is in difficulty that we mature spiritually. For this we should be grateful.
Here in 2012 we will read only the New Testament. We are going to try to dig deeper than before into this last will and testament of Jesus the Christ. I must add a warning here as well. The New Testament does not stand alone, it is built upon the solid foundation of the Old Testament. In fact, if you are not familiar with the Old Testament you will miss a great deal of the story. Doing so would be like getting to the theatre and taking your seat during the second act of a two act play. You get to see how the thing ends but you will have missed all the lead up to the critical turn in history. In fact, the Old Testament is necessary to show us why we need a Savior. If you don’t know why you need a Savior then learning of His arrival loses a bit of its power.
If you have not been with us over the past two years as we read through the entire Bible together, you may prefer a reading plan that allows you to start at the beginning. I have made two such plans available for those who would prefer to read the entire Bible this year. One plan goes straight from Genesis to Revelation in biblical order, the second plan starts at Genesis but proceeds in chronological order. If you subscribe to the daily e-mail you will receive the New Testament reading for the day along with its corresponding commentary. The e-mail will also contain the other two full Bible reading plans. If you click on the passages for the day of the particular plan you wish to follow you will be taken to www.esvbible.org and your day’s passage will be available for you to read.
If you are following the New Testament plan I want to make one thing perfectly clear, if you have to choose between reading the Bible or my commentary, read the Bible. We all have limited time which means we must prioritize; we must put first things first. Time with God in prayer and Bible reading should be at the top of your list. My words are simply an opinion and an option. If you do have the time, however, I would love to read your comments on the daily passages, which brings me to another point.
Years ago I would attempt to read the Bible in one year as a personal goal. There would be times when I would stay on schedule and then other times when I would get behind. In fact, I could get as far as a couple months behind. I would then do some heavy duty catching up. The problem with my approach is that I wasn’t really digesting what I was reading. The words were going in but they were not penetrating my mind, let alone my heart, because my goal was reading the Bible not growing from daily time spent in God’s Word. I started this blog to force myself to get more out of God’s Word and to challenge other men to join me in the journey.
Along the way I found that reading God’s Word with the intention of writing something about what I had read forced me to digest the Word. It was no longer a goal to simply have my eyes travel over all the words in the Bible. I would like to suggest a couple of things for you to consider as you start this year off with me. First, consider making a daily comment on this blog about what you’ve read. If you’d rather not have others read your words, consider keeping a journal. This journal can be a word processing document you keep on your computer or it can be an old fashioned pen and paper journal, but reading God’s Word with the intention of putting your thoughts down on paper is a power tool for spiritual growth.
Second, try to set aside a particular time every day to have your quiet time with God. We make time for the things that are important to us. Now I confess that while I target first thing in the morning for my quiet time it often slips to lunch time or late at night. It can be difficult to keep the same time every day set aside for God. Our jobs, family life, or any number of other commitments can force us to shift things around. That is okay as long as we keep our commitment to grow in God’s Word every day. Even so, it is inevitable that you will miss a day. What are you going to do when you miss? Will you try to catch up? Will you simply pick up at the current place in the reading plan? The answer to that comes down to your goal. It is fine to have a goal of reading the entire Bible in a year or the New Testament in a year, but the more important goal, and you can have more than one goal, is to grow through the digestion of the Word.
That brings me to my third and final suggestion. Don’t quit. Keep your commitment to grow in God’s Word every day. When you miss, simply get back in the saddle again. My father used to say to me “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” God’s grace is new every morning. Get up every day and ask yourself “What am I going to do with the rest of my life!”
Well, I’ve written over a thousand words and I haven’t yet commented on today’s reading. I guess I’ll have to keep this short. I want you to notice one thing.
Matthew 1:23
“‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us).”
Mankind could not save itself so God came down to Earth in the form of a little baby so He could walk in our shoes (okay, sandals) and suffer and die so that His blood could save us from the penalty we earned. While Jesus bodily ascended into Heaven, He is still with us in the form of His Holy Spirit which resides within the hearts of all who have submitted their lives to Him. This is my point brothers, never forget that you are not alone. God is with you.
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!
Stephen: Obedient Unto Death
Acts chapter 7 contains the witness and death of Stephen. He had been selected as a deacon in yesterday’s reading (chapter 6) and it is clear that he was a godly man, filled with the Holy Spirit. Have you ever stopped to think about why Stephen recounted the history of the Old Testament when confronted by the elders of the council concerning his testimony about Christ? Nine tenths of the 60 verses of Acts 7 are a retelling of Old Testament history; history the council of elders knew quite well. These people knew the history, why tell it to them again?
These people knew the history of the Old Testament but they did not understand it. They were set up as the great experts of Scripture but they couldn’t recognize the Messiah when He lived among them. Stephen recapped this history in yet another attempt to open their eyes to what they had missed. Sometimes we are blind because of ignorance and sometimes we are blind because we have no desire to see the truth. All a Christian can do is speak the truth in love. If one is blind due to ignorance there is hope they will eventually see the truth. If one is deliberately blind they are lost. Now all things are possible with Christ and even the deliberately blind can see if Jesus chooses to rip the scales from their eyes.
A religious Jew named Saul watched as Stephen was stoned and he heartily approved of this murder. He then went about hauling Christian men and women from their homes and casting them into prison. Scripture says he “was ravaging the church”. Later this man would be physically blinded by Christ and another Christian would be sent to remove the scales from his eyes. This man became the Apostle Paul – a man who would later write much of our New Testament.
Think about the impact this man who once hated and persecuted Christ and His followers subsequently had on the spreading of the Gospel. The testimony of faithful Christians was the beginning of God’s dealing with Saul. God used the testimony and faithfulness of Christians like Stephen to lay the ground work that would eventually lead to the salvation of one of history’s greatest evangelists.
You and I are to be like Stephen. We cannot worry about whether or not a person will accept Christ due to our testimony; that is in the hands of God. What we can “worry” about is being obedient to God. Stephen had no desire to die but he did have a desire to be the man Christ re-created him to be. He served others with love in his heart and when he was called upon to bear witness to his faith he did so even unto death. He would have no idea how his obedience would be used by God but that in no way hindered his obedience.
In today’s reading we can see Stephen’s commitment to his Lord and Savior. What is your commitment to Him? Are you prepared to be obedient and surrender all to His purpose and glory? That is what you are called to do. I hope you’ll do it.
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Matthew 13:18–35
