Alternate Plans
Bible Order: Num 27–29
Chronological Order: Lev 21–23
The Only Question
I’d like to make just one short comment today. It seems to me Mark’s purpose in writing his book is to show that Jesus is truly the Son of God. He does this by showing how Heaven and Earth, spiritual and physical, obey His every command. The verse that really jumped out at me today was this:
Mark 3:11-12 ESV
“And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.”
I am amazed when people say they don’t believe Jesus was the Son of God or that God even exists. Let me tell you something brother, even Satan knows God exists and that Jesus is His Son. It may seem odd that demons would fall down before Jesus and confess His name since demons by definition have rejected God’s, and therefore Jesus’, authority. There are a lot of people throughout history, and all across this world today, who have rejected God’s and Jesus’ authority. They, along with every demon and Satan Himself, will one day bow their knee and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
Philippians 2:10-11 ESV
“so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
Jesus has authority over everyone and everything. The only question is whether you acknowledge that fact now and are saved, or acknowledge that fact later and are condemned for eternity. That is the only question.
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Are You Saved
How do you know you are saved? You submitted your life to Christ right? So you know you are saved right? I’ve said many times before that I am worried that far too many who claim to be Christians aren’t really. I have offered in my own words how one can know for sure if they are truly saved. In today’s reading John actually tells us how we know we are saved.
1 John 2:1-6
“My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.”
It isn’t simply about what we say but also about what we do. We are saved, we belong to Him, if we keep His commandments. Jesus tells us the greatest commandment is this:
Matthew 22:37-38
“…You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”
In the very next verse He told us the second great commandment.
Matthew 22:39-40
“And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
While there are many things that Jesus taught and commanded there is one other prominent command that He gave. I find it of great importance because it is the last command He gave His followers before ascending into heaven.
Matthew 28:18-20
“And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Are you doing these things? If so you belong to Him, you are saved. If not, why not? Do you belong to Him or not? Understand that it is not the doing of these things that saves you. It is the doing of these things that demonstrates the accomplished fact of your salvation.
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
You Are Being Saved
In this blog I have mentioned from time to time the idea that a Christian is saved, is being saved, and will be saved. This can upset some because they think I am suggesting that one can lose their salvation. I mean nothing of the kind. We cannot pick and choose the bits and pieces of the Bible we agree with and discard the rest. We must take it all or nothing. Jesus said that none who are given into His hand will be lost. Paul speaks of us “working out” our own salvation with fear and trembling on the one hand and on the other of the fact that we are not saved by works. We typically see these things as mutually exclusive concepts but evidently they are not.
When we think the Bible contradicts itself the problem is not with the Bible but with our understanding. The moment we submit our lives to Christ we are born again as a new creature in Christ. Now we begin this new life as we began the old, as babes with much growing yet to do. We are saved at the moment of our new birth, but we are also saved as we become more and more like Christ every day, and we will be saved the day we stand before God and are required to make an account of our life. You see, we all will be judged. When judgment comes the difference between the followers of Christ and the lost will be Jesus telling God the Father that the Christians belong to Him.
One of the things I found interesting in today’s reading was the first two verses of 1 Corinthians 15 which implies exactly what I’m talking about.
1 Corinthians 15:1-2
“Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.”
As you read today’s reading see if you don’t agree that Paul is communicating the idea that you are saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved.
Have a blessed day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Why Were You Saved
Deuteronomy 9-11
Why did God save you? If you truly are a Christian then God has saved you from the consequence of your sin. Why did He do that? There is a reason and I will share it toward the end of this post but first let’s look at why God gave the Promised Land to the descendants of Abraham. Did the Israelites “earn” the Promised Land? No they did not. Did God give this land to the Israelites just because He had a soft spot in His heart for them? No, that is not the reason either. God drove the inhabitants of Canaan out of their land because of their own depravity. They were not innocent people groups whom God cast out to make way for His favorites.
Deuteronomy 9:4-5
“Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
God cast the Canaanites out as a consequence of their sin. He gave the land to the Israelites to glorify Himself. You see He had decided to bless the world through the descendants of Abraham. He decided to do this for His own glory. We saw the continual rebellion of the Israelites from the moment God brought them from Egypt until this point. Why did God put up with them? He put up with them because all of humanity was just like them. There wasn’t a “better” group of people God could use for His purpose, all were equally worthy of eternal death. God chose to show His grace to the world through the descendants of Abraham.
So back to my original question, why did God save you? He saved you to show His grace to the world reveal His glory to all. You didn’t earn forgivingness any more than Israel earned the Promised Land. When you submitted to Christ His Holy Spirit came to live in your heart. You no longer belong to yourself but to God Himself. You are now His vessel through which He reveals His grace to the world. Can the world see His grace in you? Brothers, when you are obedient to God, He reveals His glory in you and through you. This is your ultimate purpose for being. It is the reason you were created and it is the very thing in which you will find your greatest contentment. Let you light shine before men. It is the reason you were saved!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
For God So Loved The World
1 Peter 4 – 2 Peter 2
Well brothers, it’s Christmas Eve. What a joy it is for me to read God’s Word as I contemplate what He did to make my salvation possible. God came down from Heaven and squeezed all that He is into the tiny body of a baby boy. He did this so He could suffer and die for me. When I think of God lying in a manger, the lamb to be slain, I am overcome. Am I worth that? Of course not. God didn’t come down to save me because I deserved it. He came because of His incredible love, grace, and mercy. God saved me because of who He is not because of who I am.
My response to that love, grace, and mercy is to turn control of my live over to Him. My response is to make my life about bringing glory to God. I’m going to provide an outline for 2 Peter below but before I do look at what Peter calls each of us to do as followers of Christ.
2 Peter 1:3-10
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.”
Do you see that His death on a cross made it possible for you and I to be partakers of the divine nature: to escape the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire? The birth of Christ over 2,000 years ago means you and I are no longer slaves to sin because we accepted His sacrifice. Often we feel helpless in the face of temptation. We are not. We are free. And yet, we must not take our freedom for granted. Peter instructs us to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, steadfastness, godliness, brotherly affection, and love. Here are seven qualities we are to cultivate within ourselves. We are to be diligent in practicing these qualities for with them we will never fall!
OUTLINE
2 Peter
This brief letter was not mentioned by the earliest church fathers, but was identified by Origin around a.d. 225 as Peter’s. However, early Greek papyrus manuscripts of the New Testament show it was definitely accepted by the church as canonical (having authority as Scripture). There is no compelling reason to doubt the book’s own claim to have been written by Peter.
Certainly this book, which looks at the dangers facing the church in the coming decades, reflects the same concerns found in 2 Timothy and in Jude. As the sixth decade of the Christian era drew toward its close, the church faced many dangers (cf. 1:13–14; 2:1–3). In his first letter Peter was more concerned with external pressures exerted on Christians by society. In this letter Peter is concerned that Christians wander from foundational teachings and to false teachers (2:1–22). These immoral and greedy persons may twist and ridicule God’s truth, but they rush headlong toward the certain judgment that God will execute when Jesus returns and this universe dissolves in flaming fire.
In the face of this internal danger Peter reminds us of the importance of a growth in goodness and of how confident we can be that Scripture is utterly trustworthy. Surely false teachers are not all that hard to recognize. And just as surely, in view of the certain approach of the Day of the Lord, we are to commit ourselves to living spotless and blameless lives.
Dealing With Heresy
Second Peter, with 2 Timothy, 1 John, and Jude explore the nature of heresy in the early church and show us how to deal with theological aberrations today. The word “heresy” occurs several times in the New Testament, usually in the nondoctrinal sense of “sect” or “party,” such as “the party of the Pharisees” (Acts 15:5). The word also may indicate a party within the church which separates itself from others (cf. 1 Cor. 11:18; Gal. 5:20).
But in 2 Peter “heresy” is used in a developed, theological sense (2 Peter 2:1). Here “destructive heresies” deny basic doctrines and are introduced by false teachers who encourage sinful behavior. The early church fathers used “heresy” in this same, theological sense. They used it to denote groups within Christianity which taught errors hostile to God’s revealed truth. In church history, the emergence of heresies was a strong impetus to attempts to define the more important Christian doctrines. This was typically done through much debate which led ultimately to the calling of a church council.
How are Christians to respond to heresy? The basic approach is to keep on teaching sound doctrine. False teaching will ultimately be shown to be out of harmony with God’s truth. There is no instruction in Scripture for a crusade to purify the church by excluding those with whom we differ, even in important ways. Instead, the writers of the New Testament are confident that when the truth of God is presented with clarity and compassion, God’s Spirit will enable Jesus’ people to distinguish between the false and the true.
THEOLOGICAL OUTLINE OF 2 PETER
I. GOD’S CALL CONFIRMED 1
II. HERESY IDENTIFIED 2
III. THE WORLD’S END 3
CONTENT OUTLINE OF 2 PETER
Greeting (1:1–4)
I. God’s Call Confirmed (1:5–21)
A. By a Godly Life (1:1–11)
B. By Established Truths (1:12–21)
II. False Teachers and Heresy (2:1–22)
A. The Danger Ahead (2:1–3)
B. Examples of Judgment (2:4–10a)
1. Angels (2:4)
2. Noah’s flood (2:5)
3. Sodom and Gomorrah (2:6)
4. A promise, and a warning (2:7–10a)
C. The Character of False Teachers (2:10b–16)
D. The Uselessness of Their Teaching (2:17–22)
III. The World’s End (3:1–18)
A. The Day of the Lord Is Coming (3:1–10)
B. The Moral Implications (3:11–16)
C. The Challenge Ahead (3:17–18)
Richards, L. O. (1991). The Bible readers companion (electronic ed.). Wheaton: Victor Books.
Merry Christmas brothers!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Servanthood
Luke 15-17
There is much in today’s reading concerning the behavior of a faithful servant. The Parable of the Lost Sheep and Lost Coin both concern individuals that searched for what was lost. We tend to think of the shepherd and woman in these parables as analogous to God and the lost sheep and coin as analogous to us. This is an accurate analogy on one level, but there is another analogy that is routinely missed. Once we ourselves have been found, or saved, our role in the analogy changes. You were called by God through the instrument of another human being. The servants of God are the ones God sends to find the sheep and the lost coin. The shepherd and the woman are the servants of God searching for what was lost. As a saved person, you are the seeker after the lost in these parables.
These two parables immediately precede the Parable of the Prodigal Son. We usually focus on the foolish son who represents the lost. We recognize in that wayward son our selves prior to salvation. This is accurate with regard to that time in our life, but the story isn’t really about the wayward son. Oh, he is an important part of the story but let us remember what scripture came before immediately prior. We had a shepherd searching for a lost sheep and a woman searching for a lost coin. Who went searching for the lost son? We hear nothing of the brother of the lost son until the end of the story when we learn that he is angry that there is a celebration for the return of his brother. He did not go searching for his brother. He was content to remain where he was and simply claim his inheritance. He was blind and indifferent to the longing of his father for the return of his lost brother.
We seem so focused on the condition of our own souls. The condition of our souls is important, but once we are saved, that issue is settled. Having been saved we are to be about our fathers business. We are to be concerned about the condition of the souls of those around us. You are no longer lost. You are no longer the lost person in these parables. You are now the searching servant in these parables. Are you the one who diligently searches for that which was lost or are you content to receive your inheritance with no concern for your lost brother? Do you care about that which your Father cares about? He longs for the return of His wayward children. Are you blind and indifferent to the desire of His heart or are you prepared to search for that which was lost?
These first three parables are followed with parables and statements by Jesus concerning our behavior as servants of God. There is the Parable of the Dishonest Manger, which I must admit has me scratching my head a bit and requires a bit of further study on my part. There are the statements concerning divorce, temptation, faith, thankfulness, and hardship; all lessons for the servant of God.
There is one verse, one sentence really, on divorce. It is dynamite. If I am not careful with this verse I envision igniting a conflagration; an explosion of controversy, debate, and angry feelings. I am addressing this verse only and specifically in terms of servanthood. I have no desire to get into anything more about this verse than that specific topic. The verse is this:
Luke 16:18
“Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.”
When we marry we become one flesh with our spouse. God never intended for one flesh to be torn asunder. I believe scripture is clear; God HATES divorce. Still over 50% of American marriages suffer the catastrophic consequences of divorce. I suspect that if any of us have not experienced divorce ourselves, we have loved ones or friends who have. It is a painful, destructive, tearing of that which was never intended to be divided. The pain from divorce is rarely limited to the less than happy couple. It also affects children, family, and friends and continues on for each as a dull ache for the rest of their life. I hope our feelings toward those that have suffered this pain are of compassion rather of self-righteous contempt.
That said, this sentence on divorce from Jesus can teach us something about being His servant. The trouble with humanity is self-centeredness. This malady, which is the driving force behind sin, is the poison that destroys marriages. In today’s reading Jesus makes it clear that following Him means we are servants. If you are His servant, and you acknowledge that all that you have belongs to Him and is placed in your care to manage for Him, then your attitude toward your wife is completely different from that of the rest of the world. Most people look at their spouse as a source of fulfillment and happiness for themselves. When our spouse doesn’t provide that fulfillment or happiness we become angry and resentful. Eventually we feel we deserve better and start looking for “greener pastures”.
All of this comes from an attitude of self-centeredness. If we belong to Him we should view ourselves as servants. We should not view our spouse as a source of fulfillment and happiness but as one we must serve as faithful followers of Jesus Christ who gave our spouse for the purpose of protection and provision. This does not simply refer to meeting their physical needs of protection and provision but their spiritual and emotional needs as well. What would marriage be like if both individuals put the well being of their spouse before their own? Do disagreements disappear? Does resentment and anger disappear? Does happiness and fulfillment in marriage re-appear? I believe the answer to all of the above is YES!
Now you may say, “I’m willing to serve my wife but she isn’t willing to serve me.” There you go again, focusing on yourself. Whether your spouse is faithful to the expectations of Jesus in your marriage or not, is between Jesus and your spouse. The “sins” of your spouse are no excuse for you to sin. Frankly obedience on your part may over time be used as an example by the Holy Spirit to convict your spouse to follow suit. This is part of what it means to be the spiritual leader of your home. You must do right before you can expect others under your leadership to do right. Even if this desired change in your spouse never occurs, however, you still owe obedience to your master Jesus Christ.
We must learn the attitude of servanthood in our daily walk and interactions with others. I think Jesus communicates the appropriate attitude pretty well in the following verses from today’s reading.
Luke 15:7-10
““Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”
We don’t really like the idea of being that kind of servant do we? Work hard and then work some more while others sit back and enjoy the fruit of our labor. That rankles doesn’t it? It does so because we want to be the master. Guys, we aren’t the Master; we are the servant. Jesus provided the example. He could have come in His power and glory and forced every head to bow and knee to bend; but He didn’t. He came as a servant. He came to sacrifice for our good. He turned His back on being served and came to serve. How can we do anything less?
We need an attitude adjustment in our daily walk. We need to be good stewards of all that Jesus placed in our care. If we wish to hear “well done good and faithful servant” upon our entrance to His throne room then we must start putting the needs of others first. We must take on the attitude of humble servant in our relationship with God, our spouse, and others. Let us meet the expectation of our Master with joy and thanksgiving for our reward will be exceedingly great!
Have a servant like day!
Your brother and servant in Christ,
Bill
Dying to self, living to serve!
Mark 3:1–21
