Topic:
F) CHRISTIAN
LIVING
No 1
(What to do when reborn)
When a person accepts Jesus Christ as
personal Savior, he or she becomes a Christian but is unaware of what they are
getting into. All they know is that they
now have inner peace and are assured of a place in Heaven. What they don't know is what they are to do
and how they are to act. The Bible says
in John 4:24: "Yet a time is coming
and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and
truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in
truth."
That's great you say, now how do I go
about this? Here is where mature
Christians come into trhe picture and show the new Christians how to adore God
in an acceptable manner. The are many ways to do this and it is our duty as
Christians, saved by grace, to put them to practice in our lives.
No 2
(Acceptable true spiritual worship)
God has devoted more space in the Bible to
worship than any other topic; so it goes without saying that we, as His people,
should consider worship as top priority.
We were saved for worship: (Heb
12:28, 29) "Wherefore we receiving a
kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God
acceptably with reverence and godly fear; For our God is a consuming
fire." The key word in this
passage is "acceptable" . So how do we go about doing this?
The Bible gives many examples of how to
worship God in an acceptable, true, spiritual way. It all began in Leviticus and His people
needed to have object lessons (slaughtered lambs) in order to worship God in a
true manner; that has all changed now.
We are now able, because of Jesus
Christ, to worship God in a true spiritual manner in our everyday lives and the
Bible shows us how: a) Our treatment of
fellow believers - Rom 14:18 b) Winning
someone to Christ - Rom 15:16 c) Giving
money to meet needs - Phil 4:18 d)
Living a righteous life - Eph 5: 8 - 10
e) Being honest - 1 Tim 2:2, 3
f) Praising and glorifying His name - Heb 13:15, 16.
In all these verses, is the word "acceptable" is either
directly stated or implied. Our lives
must honor God and everything we do must be directed to Him; any deviation of
this is either sin or uselessness; it's as simple as that.
No 3
(Acceptable True Spiritual Worship
Explained)
When it all boils down, there are only
two ways of worshiping the Lord: acceptably and unacceptably. The early Jews learned this lesson the hard
way. When they were waiting for Moses to
come down from the mountain with the law, they grew impatient and created an
idol; well, technically it was an idol but their intention was to create an
image of the One that brought them out of Egypt (Exod 32:4). They worshipped the true God, but in the
wrong manner. Another occasion is when
Aaron's sons, Nadab and Abihu burned incense that was not commanded by the Lord
on the altar and it is called in verse 1 of Levitcus 10 : "strange
fire". They worshipped the true
God but in a self-styled manner. One
last example is where the Jews were offering sick sheep or lame ones and had
taken worship to be something of a ritual
(Malachi 1:8). They worshipped
the true God but with a bad attitude.
In our last study on this, we looked at
several verses in the New Testament that gave ways of worshipping the true God
in an acceptable manner. All these
verses basically spoke of meeting people's needs and offering this to God as
acceptable true spiritual worship. Could
we ever be accused of doing these things, say: in the wrong manner, or in a
self-styled way, or with a bad attitude??
This is a retorical question, of course, but nonetheless, it needs to be
asked.
If we want to worship God in a true,
spiritual and acceptable manner we must worship Him with what He gave us when
He created us. We learn how to worship
God by reading His Word ( our intelligence); we choose
to worship Him (our wills) and because of what He did for us and because He
loved us first, we worship him by our love (our emotions). God created us in His
image; we ressemble Him by our minds, our wills and our emotions.
No 4
(Prayer in the Life of a Christian)
Does a Christian need to be told that
prayer is important? The Lord commands
us to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians
So what are we to pray for? That the Lord save
someone who is dear to us? The Lord wants everyone to be saved (2 Tim 2:4) so why should we
pray for someone's salvation? I believe
the Lord gives us opportunities to speak to the unsaved and lets us partake in
the joy of seeing someone come to Him in repentance. Therefore, we should pray
for opportunities to witness to people; will this guarantee their salvation? No it won't.
Once, there were these two life-long
friends; one was a Christian and the other one wasn't. The Christian prayed earnestly all his life
for the salvation of his friend but he never did see him come to the Lord. When the Christian died, his unsaved friend
trusted Christ as his Savior at his funeral.
The Lord is in control of everything and
I sincerely believe that we are to pray to be in God's will; that we are to
pray according to His Word; that we are to pray as Daniel prayed. Daniel chapter 9 from verse 1 to 19 is a true
intercessory prayer and in verse 19, Daniel prays: "O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not,
for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy
name".
Our prayers ought to be modeled on
Daniel's.
No 5
(When a Christian sins)
Two things happen when a true Christian
commits sin :
the Body of Christ is diminished and the person normally feels
guilty. I emphasize the word
« true » because oftentimes, we believe that because someone says
that they are Christian, they are Christian; such is not always the case. A true Christian,
never remains in sin because he or she has the Spirit of God abiding in them
and is convicted immediately. But, because his or her body is imperfect, it is
subject to the three areas of potential sin.
They are : the lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes and the pride of life 1 John 2 :15. Why do Christians sin? Very simple; they are not focused on Jesus
and are usually starved spiritually because they only snack on the Word of God
instead of feasting on It.
Isn’t wonderful that the Bible gives us
a perfect example to follow when a person is tempted? When Jesus was in the desert and tempted by
Satan, it was in precisely these three areas : The Bible says in Matthew 4 that Satan said
to Jesus in verse 3 : “if you
are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread”. (Here Jesus
was tempted in the flesh). Further
in Matthew 4, Satan took Jesus to the top of the temple and in verse 5, said to
Him : “if
you are the Son of God, throw Yourself down” (Jesus was tempted with the pride of
life). Lastly, Satan tempted Jesus in
verse 9 when he said to Him «All these things I will give you, if you will fall
down and worship me » (Jesus was tempted in the lust of the eyes).
Notice, in these passages, how Jesus
responds to Satan’s temptations - He quotes Scripture and nothing
else. Wow! The last time I looked, we have these very
same Scriptures in our Bibles and God wants us to use them in similar situations
when we are tempted. But to use these
Scriptures, we must know them; to know them we must read and, better yet,
meditate on them. Trust me, it works;
God’s Word is perfect.
No 6
(How does the family fit into God’s
plan?)
The definition of a family in the World
Book dictionary is : 1) a father, a mother and their
children; 2) the children of a father
and mother. Pretty
basic, right? The Bibical
definition varies somewhat : “Therefore
shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they
shall be one flesh” (Genesis
In past studies, we have seen the three
areas in which we sin : “lust
of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life” (1 John
No 7
(Applying the Bible to daily life)
The Bible is the Word of God; it is a
book about love…and it is unchangeable. Why?
Because it addresses problems about humans that are just as prevalent
today as they were in the days when it was written. It is a book about the salvation of man
provided by a God who is thrice Holy and who cares
about us dearly. Some say that because
the Bible was inspired by God, it can only be understood by an elite class of
people; of course, this is wrong for the simple reason that God made it
specifically so that we could understand it. John, in his gospel (Chapt
In John’s gospel alone there are four :
John
John
John
John
In the epistles there so many (32), that
I cannot list them all but here are the main ones :
Romans
Romans
Romans
Galatians
Galatians 6:2 “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil
the law of Christ”
Ephesians 4:2 “With all lowliness and meekness, with
longsuffering, forbearing one another in love”
Ephesians
Colossians
Colossians 3:16 “Let
the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing
one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your
hearts to the Lord”
1 Thessalonians
Hebrews
Hebrews
1 John
So, in conclusion, how far does one
go? As far as it takes or as Jesus said
to Peter in Matthew 18 : 22, “seventy
times seven” and that’s in one day (implied).
Let’s not get bogged down with quarrels
and bickering or even heavy ministerial duties, for that matter and forget one
of the purposes of us being together in the same Body. Jesus said in John 13:35 “By this shall all men know that ye are my
disciples, if ye have love one to another”.
No 8
(God’s will for our lives)
Wouldn’t it be great if we could pray to God to find out if He approves
of us marrying a certain person or taking on a new job or better yet, getting
involved in His work on a full-time basis and have the response right
away? Or if we could send God an e-mail
message and He would answer us back giving us exactly what He expects of
us. Actually, He has already given us
exactly what He expects of us and He has placed these expectations in the
Bible. Well, now you say hold on Dave,
the Bible does not give us this specific information for our lives. You’ re right, it doesn’t. However, I have come to realise over the
years that if we are obedient in the revealed will of God for our lives, the
unrevealed will of God for our lives will become crystal clear. You say what??? Just this – the Bible says in Matthew
22 : 37-40 that : “Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy mind……thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself…..on these two commandments
hang all the law”. In these three
short verses, Jesus has given us everything we need to know about God’ s revealed will for our lives. Now here comes the tough part :
putting these verses into practice. This is easier said than done, right? God has set a standard for us and wants what
is best for His children. He blesses,
unequivocally, any effort on our part to conform to this standard. So, if we are faithful in doing our part, He
will be faithful in doing His part. This
doesn’t mean that we just sit down and do nothing; we must be actively involved
in life; we must trust Our Lord in everything and we must make an effort to
improve ourselves in all areas of our lives.
Jesus often used parables to explain important truths and an example of
this is where He told the story of a landowner who goes away for a while and
gives responsibilities to three of his servants (Matthew 25 :14 to
30). In this one parable alone, Jesus
taught us stewardship, diligence, spiritual growth, accountability, fidelity,
and humble service; not to mention obedience.
Our God is awesome and He is faithful.
Try Him out and see!
No 9
(Marriage, divorce and re-marriage)
We are going to discuss a very difficult
subject; it is difficult because the Bible does not give many verses and the
ones that are given, Bible scholars differ as to their interpretation. The study will be in three parts
: 1) The Marriage Bond 2) The
Divorce Exception 3) The Remarriage
License.
The Marriage Bond Marriage is ordained of God; so here is a
good starting point :
the Bible says in Genesis 2 : 18 – 24
“..It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an help fit for him…therefore shall a man leave his father
and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh”. Jesus commented on this passage and His
remarks should help us understand the permanence of marriage – “What,
therefore, God hath joined together, let no man put asunder” (Mark 10 : 9). Jesus was
echoing His Father’s words about marriage.
Paul also underscored the permanence of marriage in the book of Romans
when he penned these words :“For a woman who hath an husband is bound by the
law to her husband as long as he livith but if the husband be dead, she is
loosed from the law of her husband” (Rom 7 : 2). It can’t be any clearer, right? Paul takes it even a step further when he
wrote to the Corinthian church these words : “And a
woman who hath an husband who believth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with
her, let her not leave him, for the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the
wife” (1 Cor
No 10
(Divorce)
Are there ever any proper grounds for divorce or is the
husband-wife union unbreakable? God
hates divorce which is why He gave no provision for it when He instituted
marriage in Genesis 2 : 23, 24 : “And Adam said
this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh….and he shall cleave unto his
wife and they shall be one flesh”.
But in Deuteronomy 24 : 1-4, the Bible also
says : “…and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes because he
hath found some uncleanness in her, let him write her a bill of divorce” . There seems to be a contradiction here in
the original plan for marriage – a man could divorce a woman if he found an “uncleanness in her”. What is an uncleanness? This is left to interpretation and for a
while there, Jewish history tells us that the men were divorcing their wives
for burning the bagels and other such frivolous reasons. This was confirmed when the Pharisees asked
Jesus a question in Matt 19 :3b : “Is it lawful for
a man to put away his wife for every cause?”. Jesus quoted Genesis 2 :
24 and said to them :“Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered
you to put away your wives : but from the beginning, it was not so” (Matt 19 : 8). Jesus did not stop there, He went on to say : “…Whosoever shall put away his wife, except for
fornication and shall marry another, committeth adultery…” (vs 9). Those who are
pro-divorce for Christians use this verse and also the fact that God divorced
No 11
(Remarriage)
This is yet another subject that has given the Church many
difficulties over time. First of all,
remarriage shouldn’t even exist because the Lord had not intended it to exist
at the outset of creation : “Therefore shall a man
leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall
become one flesh” (Gen
No 12
(Help for Those Who Walk Alone)
Recent figures indicate that 50 million adults living in
1 Thessalonians 4 : 3
“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification,
that ye should abstain from fornication”.
1 Thessalonians 5 : 18
“In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you”.
1 Peter 2 : 15
“For so is the will of God that with well doing ye may put to
silence the ignorance of foolish men”.
In all honesty, this is easier said than done but if we put
these verses of Scripture to practice in our lives, the Lord will bless any
action we wish to undertake; these principles apply to everyone, not just
singles. We want to get married?
Fine! We want to remain single? Fine!
We want to go into the mission field? Fine!
Just do what is good, avoid impurities and give thanks to the Lord in
all things. The Lord only wants what is
best for our lives and He gave us His Word as a guide. The Bible is only a compass for our lives,
not a map.
No 13
(Our conscience - 1)
“For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto
themselves: 15Which shew the work of the law written in their
hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean
while accusing or else excusing one another” (Rom 2:14, 15). Our conscience functions like
an automatic pilot warning system in an airplane. The warning system will shout out orders when
it senses danger. We all come into
world with a sense of right or wrong (conscience) :
v15 – “the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing
witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one
another”. The conscience is a
warning system that sounds off when we violate the law or affirms us when we
obey it. The conscience is not “the
law written” it is merely the warning device. The conscience gives warnings to us and it is
to the soul what pain is to the body.
Just like pain is critical to physical preservation, the conscience is
critical to spiritual preservation. When
the conscience is violated, it produces feelings of shame, of regret, of guilt,
of fear, of anguish, of depression. The
conscience is designed by God to create those feelings when “the law”
(V15) is violated. Our conscience
requires information for it to function properly and, as Christians, we must
feed it with the law of God; the Bible.
So in life’s situations, our conscience warns us or affirms us in our
actions. Of course, we can choose to not
listen to it; God gives us that choice.
But if we are truly born again, we will heed the warnings and thank God
for the affirmations. We will look
further into this issue in future studies. (Taken from a sermon by John
MacArthur)
No 14
(Our conscience - 2)
This is follow-up on the last study on the subject of our
conscience. As we saw, God gave us our
conscience to be a warning system to our soul and if it is violated, it
produces various negative feelings – guilt, sadness, etc. These feelings ought
to push us to repentance. The conscience
functions on information that it gathers and the more information it has the
better it is. Satan, of course knows
this and he tries, through our society to do two things: 1) To mis-inform
our conscience by destroying the moral law and to give a new morality but
not the morality of the Bible; 2) To de-sensitize our
conscience by telling us that our conscience is lying and that it is not
sin that gives us those “bad feelings” but a lack of self-esteem. It’s not that we are bad but are good and we
need to think better of ourselves. What
Satan wants to do is to shut off our conscience. There is a story about a Spanish airliner
that crashed into a mountain during heavy fog.
The black box was found and revealed that the plane’s warning system
repeatedly sounded off
“pull up, pull up” but the
pilot was not listening. The black box
also recorded the voice of the pilot who said, just before slamming into the
mountain, “shut up, gringo” and turned the warning system off. Many people died because the pilot refused to
listen to the warnings. Our conscience
is the same – we can heed its warnings or choose to shut it off.
No 15
(Our conscience, final part)
This is the last of a study about our conscience. Up to now, we have seen that it is a warning
system that God gave us. The Apostle
Paul, in his letters, gave warnings about the effectiveness of our
consciences. He warned about : a) Muddying
it “Howbeit there is not in every
man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it
as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled” (1 Cor 8:7)
b) Callusing it “For if
any man see thee which hast knowledge sit at meat in the idol’s temple, shall not
the conscience of him which is weak be emboldened to eat those things which are
offered to idols” (v10) c) Wounding
it “But when ye sin so against
the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ” (v12)
d) Burning or searing it “Speaking
lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (1 Tim
4:2). The battle, in our lives is fought
on the inside, not the outside. There are three types of people in the world –
Those who are in the battle; those who watch the battle pass in front of them
and those who don’t even know that there is a battle. If we lose it on the inside, James says : “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away
of his own lust, and enticed. 15Then when lust hath conceived, it
bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death”
(James
No 16
(Is Life Really All Vanity? –
Ecclesiastes)
The book of Ecclesiastes (one of my
favourites) paints a very grim picture of what life is
here on earth. Words such as vanity
of vanities and vexation of spirit appear quite often
during the book and the writer of Ecclesiastes (probably Solomon) even stated
“wherefore I
praised the dead which are already dead more than the living which are yet
alive” (ch 4:2). I believe the writer had
come to a point in his life where he was disgusted
with what he had done and was feeling guilt, shame and remorse for the
lifestyle that he
had had. God had made him the wisest
of all kings and had blessed him with earthly
riches “I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there
was none like
thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee. And I have also given
thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there
shall not be
any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.” (1Kings
Solomon to have all this, God had only
one condition: “And if thou wilt walk
in my ways,
to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk” (v14b). Life
is a wonderful gift of God; He created mankind to adore and honour Him so
that, one day,
He would welcome us into His eternal
resting place, heaven. Solomon had
abused this
gift and was actually not that dis-similar from how we could come to a point
in our lives
where we feel the same way he did.
However, toward the end of his book, he gives us a
formula to avoid having to go through difficult periods; he said “Fear God, and keep his
commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” (ch 12:13b). Wiser words were never
spoken.
No 17
(When a Christian Backslides)
We all know of at least one person who has backslidden in his or
her Christian life and there is nothing more sad to see than a person who has
been saved and who turns from their Heavenly Father, who loves them so much
that “He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). What exactly is a backslidden Christian? Is it someone who was never saved in the
first place, therefore he or she simply refused God’s gift of salvation? Or is it someone who was saved and who lost
his or her salvation? I believe that
neither one of these excuses are exact.
That first one (never saved) is what I call a cop-out; in other words,
people use this excuse to sin and have the best of both worlds. They are “As
a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly.” (Proverbs
26:11). The second one (lost salvation)
is totally unbiblical; one cannot lose salvation; it is a gift of God. So I ask again, what is a backslidden
Christian? I believe the Bible addresses
this issue in a most clear way and gives the person a way to return to their
Heavenly Father. The account of the
prodigal son in the gospel of Luke chapter 15 is one good example of how Jesus
used a father/son relationship to illustrate the principle of backsliding and
God’s unconditional forgiveness.
However, the strongest verse of scripture on unconditional forgiveness is
found in 1 John 1:9 “If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This verse is directed towards true Christians who sin and God forgives
them unconditionally; backsliders are also in this category. When true Christians backslide, they do so
knowing that they refuse to obey God’s Word and deliberately commit sin. Is salvation lost? Absolutely not!! However, the person is stomping, we could
say, on his or her salvation and is risking to lose
all rewards that are bestowed on obeying Christians. This person will be in heaven but, as we have
seen “If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive
a reward. If any man’s work shall
be burned, he shall suffer loss:
but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”
(1 Corinthians 3:14, 15)
No 18
(Our Emotions)
Can we trust our emotions?
God gave them to us and they are part of the human make-up. The Lord said in Genesis 1:26a “let us make man in our image, after our
likeness” ; I don’t think the Lord was referring to physical appearance
here, I believe He was referring to spiritual resemblance. We are like God in three ways – our
intelligence, our will and our emotions; they all play a role in our
relationship with Him. So what about
negative emotions such as worry, guilt, passion, anger, sorrow? They are
emotions just as love, happiness, joy, etc.
We will look at one of these negative emotions in our study today : worry.
The pressures of modern life can be staggering and coping with stress, family
tragedies, and unscrupulous people is becoming more and more difficult.
Unfortunately, Christians are not excluded when it comes to experiencing this
crippling emotion. Experts say that
worry comes from within and 90% of it comes from situations over which we have
no control; the remaining 10% will, generally work itself out. Therefore, must
we as Christians cave in and become victims of our fast-paced society? Absolutely
not!! Here are some practical
suggestions to handle worry : 1) Trust
in the Lord (Psalm 43:5) 2)
Don’t forget to pray (Philippians 4:6,7)
3) Live by the day (Matthew
6:34) 4) Remember God’s faithfulness (Lamentations 3:22,23) 5) Be
aware of God’s presence (Hebrews 13:5,6)
6) Believe God for every need
(Matthew 6:30-33). These suggestions
help us to cope with worry; they worked for me.
I have a poster on my wall that contains the following verse “But they that wait
upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as
eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:31. Let’s be like eagles!!
No 19
(Our emotions – guilt)
A common emotional problem confronting Christians is guilt; some feel beaten down and
overwhelmed by it. Oftentimes, guilt is
felt by the most high-principled and sin-sensitive people. There are two types of guilt – objective and
subjective. The first is real; the other
is not; it is only a misdirected feeling.
The first is judicial and involves the violation of some code or
law. The other is emotional and we only
feel guilty, whether we did something wrong or not. As Christians, if we disobey one of God’s
commandments, we feel guilty because we are
guilty (objective guilt). We must face
the fact and deal with it – confession “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
(1 John 1:9). However, subjective guilt
is quite another story – an example would be that persons set unrealistic goals
for their lives and when they miss the mark, they feel guilty because they failed again. Here are some suggestions that help us deal
with the nagging sense of guilt that we may have. They are 1)
Revise our expectations. If we
have set goals that are too high for us or our family, we must admit our own
fallibility; our own humanity and go on from there. 2)
Establish a forgiving attitude.
We will be surprised if we start forgiving others instead of
fault-finding. Perhaps our entourage has
adopted this spirit of fault-finding and condemnation. This creates a situation
where the main purpose of living is to escape the accusing finger of others
rather than obeying God. 3) Walk in obedience to the Lord. If we obey God in our lives, we will
a have sense of peace and spiritual well-being; feelings of guilt will
disappear. 4) Ask for help in evaluating our circumstances. Sometimes a brother or a sister can help us
see what our problem of guilt can be.
Don’t forget – the Lord uses His Spirit and His word to speak to us but
He also uses godly people.
No 20
(Passion)
The World Book dictionary describes
passion as “strong feelings or emotions
as an obstacle to civilized conduct or rational behaviour.” The Lord has built humans to have passion
and, if used in a normal way, can produce very good results. It takes passion to write a 600-page
commentary on the book of Matthew; passion is a must if someone is to preach
the Gospel on street corners in the face of ridicule and passion is also
required to play a musical instrument.
However, because of our twisted and distorted sin nature, passion can
also produce negative results. A husband
who verbally and physically abuses his family or people who are jealous and
envious of others are examples of misdirected passion. Unfortunately, these and other sins of
passion such as rage, greed, pride and immorality are found in true born-again
Christians. Passion is alright but when
it gets out of hand and sin ensues, the Lord has given us His Word to fall back
on. Paul was passionate and he wrote
these words : “Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of death?”
(Rom
No 21
(Sorrow)
So far, we have looked at worry, guilt and passion; we will now
look at sorrow. Someone may ask : are we allowed to feel sorrow as true Christians? The answer, of course, is yes and may I even
say that sorrow is one emotion that we are encouraged to express in the
Bible. The Lord only wants what is good
for His children so He gave us His Word that we might find comfort in our times
of sorrow and sadness. The book of
Psalms is filled with encouraging passages that the various authors penned
during their times of grief and
gloom. David’s grief-stricken prayer to God about the treachery of his son,
Absalom is found in Psalm 3 where he wrote “LORD,
how are they increased that trouble me! Many are they
that rise up against me” (v1). David was sorrowful about his enemies; we
see this in Psalm 13 : “How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart
daily? How long shall mine enemy be exalted over me?” (v2). The prophet Jeremiah was sad because of the
condition of his people : “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold,
and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me,
wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.” (Lam
No 22
(Let’s Face the Issues)
In our Post-modernism society with its
permissive and promiscuous behavior, a question begs to be answered – Who sets the rules for human conduct? We will hear several answers; such as: “I set my own rules” and then there is “I set my own rules, but I always consider
the greater good” or how about “I set my own rules but I consider the
situation and always do the loving thing” ; these are all humanistic answers. A fourth answer to the question
is simply this : “God
sets the rules in the Bible and I try to obey them as best I can”.
Here are some of the major issues that
we face in today’s society – abortion, euthanasia, abolition of capital
punishment, suicide, gay rights and the list goes on ad infinitum, ad nauseam.
The Bible and true Christianity flies in the face of all these issues which is
why we must share the Gospel with as many as we can while the Lord tarries “…behold, now is the accepted time; behold,
now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2b). Should Christians walk in protest of
abortion? Should Christians sign
petitions against the abolition of capital punishment? Should Christians oppose euthanasia? My answer to all these questions is yes but
lest we forget that “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who
can know it?” (Jer 17:9). The government cannot legislate
this type of human behavior – it must come from the heart. All right then,
should Christians get involved in politics; should they run as candidates in
elections? Again I say yes, most
assuredly so but keeping in mind that true Christian politicians have been
openly ridiculed in the past and have had very little influence on the major
issues of our time. No, I sincerely
believe that our energy and time must be spent in spreading the Gospel.
No 23
F) Am I a legalist, a Pharisee?
When a person becomes a born-again
Christian, he or she receives a new life in Jesus Christ and depending from
when and where this person came from will largely determine his or her
convictions. A conviction is a “firm belief or the state of being convinced”. So, when a person has convictions, this is
good…? Not necessarily; here’s why. A Christian’s conviction must be based on
Biblical truth, not on his or her beliefs.
A person can become legalistic when he or she wants to impose their
convictions on people in their entourage; oftentimes, in begins in the
family. Some new Christians will get rid
of their sound system and all the music in the house saying it’s from the devil
or will force family members to remain at the table for a long Bible reading;
you know what I’m talking about. A
person can also impose harsh dress codes and forbid certain types of clothing
based on appearance (what will other
people think?). Once an American
Christian criticized a French person for drinking wine and smoking to which the
French Christian said in response that they could not understand why Americans
wore high heels and put make-up on their faces; the French knew that those
things were immoral. One cannot oblige
someone else to adhere to regulations that they don’t have a conviction
for. The Bible says in Romans 14 “One man regards one day above another, another regards every day alike.
Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.” (v5) and also “But he who doubts is condemned if he eats,
because his eating is not from faith; and whatever is not from faith is sin.” (v23). In other words, don’t force
someone to do something that is marginal at best and think less of that person
if they do not go along with your conviction.
There are, of course many things that are not marginal and the Holy
Spirit is the one that does the convincing, not us.
No 24
(Doing good deeds)
There are many things which we can think of doing in our heart
but some we will never do. It is good that they be in our heart; but if we want
be to useful, we must not be content with forming ideas in our heart and
talking of them; we must carry them out : “Whatsoever
thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might” Eccl 9:10 refers to works that are
possible. One good deed is worth more
than a thousand brilliant ideas. Let us not wait for large opportunities or for
a different kind of work, but do just the things we see that have to be done
day by day. We have no other time in which to live. The past is gone; the
future has not arrived; we will never have any other time but the present time.
Let us not needlessly wait to serve God but may we endeavour now to bring forth
fruit. Serve God now, but be careful as to the way in which you perform what
you find to do “do it with thy might.” Do it promptly; let us not waste away our
lives in thinking of what we intend to do to-morrow as if that could recompense
for the idleness of today. No man ever
served God by doing things tomorrow and if we honour Christ, it is by the
things we do today. Whatever we do for Christ, we should throw our soul into
it. We should not give Christ a little idle labour now and then; but when we do
serve Him, it should be with our whole heart, and soul, and strength.
But where is the strength of a Christian? It is not in himself,
for he is totally weak; his strength lies in the Lord. Let us therefore seek
his help; let us proceed with prayer and faith, and when we have done so, let
us wait upon the Lord for His blessing. What we do will therefore be well done
and will not fail in its effect. The
Apostle Paul said it best when he wrote “do
all to the glory of God.” 1
Corinthians 10:31b. He also wrote “behold, now is the accepted time; behold,
now is the day of salvation.” 2 Corinthians 6:2b. Once the good deeds are done, the Lord may
give us the opportunity to “…. give an
answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with
meekness and fear:” 1 Peter
No 25
( The Privileges of the Saved)
“I am the door: by me if
any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in
and out, and find pasture.” (John 10:9)
Jesus, the great I AM, is the entrance into the true Church, and
the way of access to God Himself. He gives to the man who comes to God by Him
four choice privileges:
1. “He shall be saved” None
can be lost who take Jesus as the door of faith to their souls. Jesus is the
only door, an open door, a wide door, a safe door; and blessed is he who rests
all his hope of admission to glory upon the crucified Redeemer.
2.“He shall go in” He shall be privileged to be in the divine
family and participating in all their honours and enjoyments. He shall go in unto the King of kings in the
power of the Holy Spirit, and the secret of the Lord shall be with him.
3.“He shall go out” This blessing is much forgotten. We go out
into the world to labour and suffer, but what a mercy to go in the name and
power of Jesus Christ! We are called to
bear witness to the truth, to cheer the weary, to warn the careless, to win
souls, and to glorify God; the Lord would have us proceed as His messengers in
His name and strength.
4.“He shall find pasture” He who knows Jesus shall never want. He
will have fellowship with God and he will grow. Having made Jesus his all, he shall find all
in Jesus. His soul shall be as a watered garden, and as a well of water whose
waters fail not.
No 26
(The wisdom of the Christian)
Who of God is made unto us wisdom.”1 Cor
Our intellect seeks rest and by nature seeks it apart from the
Lord Jesus Christ. The educated, even
when converted, sometimes look upon the simplicities of the cross of Christ
with too little reverence. They are tempted in the same way that the Grecians
were taken and want to mix philosophy with the revelation of God. The
temptation of a refined, highly educated person is to depart from the simple
truth of Christ crucified and to invent a more intellectual doctrine. This led
the early Christian churches into all sorts of heresies such as Gnosticism that
said that spiritual knowledge is more important than faith for salvation. Whoever we are and whatever our education may
be, if we be the Lord’s, be assured we will find no rest in philosophizing
divinity. We may receive this dogma of one great scholar or a dream from a profound
thinker but what the chaff is to the wheat that will these be to the pure word
of God. Even when our reason is well guided, it can only find out the A B C’s of truth and even
that lacks certainty while in Christ Jesus there all the fullness of wisdom and
knowledge is found. All attempts on the part of Christians to be content with
systems of religion will fail; true heirs of heaven must come back to the
simple reality which gives us joy and peace that only Jesus Christ can give. He
came into the world to save sinners and Jesus satisfies the most elevated
intellect. The fear of the LORD is the
beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction”
Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of
wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise
endureth for ever.” Psalm 111:10
No 27
(Perseverance)
“Continue in the faith” Acts 14:22
Perseverance is the mark of true saints;
the Christian life is not a beginning only in the ways of God, but also a continuance
in the same as long as life lasts. It is with a Christian as it was with the
great Napoleon: he said, “Conquest has
made me what I am, and conquest must maintain me.” So, under God, conquest
has made us what we are and conquest must sustain us. He only is a true
conqueror and shall be crowned at the last who continues till the war ends.
Perseverance is, therefore, the target of all our spiritual enemies. The Bible
says “But he that shall endure unto the
end, the same shall be saved.” (Math 24:13). A true believer will endure to
the end because he is saved not to be saved. The world does not object to our being a
Christian for a time if it can tempt us to cease our pilgrimage and settle down
to buy into its vanities. The flesh will seek to ensnare us and to prevent our
pressing on to glory. Satan will make
many a fierce attack on our perseverance; it will be the mark for all his “fiery darts” (Eph
No 28
(Shade for our Children) (Taken from a
chapter in a book of John MacArthur’s writings)
“…bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord”
(Ephesians
6:4).
A Chinese proverb says “One generation plants the trees and the next
generation gets the shade.” In
spiritual terms, shade comes from parents and grandparents and, unfortunately,
the demise of the family in this generation wreaks havoc on this
principle. Is it too late to save the
family? Some would say yes what with
all the obstacles it faces – same-sex marriage, divorce, abortion and the list
goes on. Yet, others stick to the
fundamental beliefs of the Bible; not without paying a price mind you, but they
persevere nonetheless and the Lord blesses those efforts.
Parenting is joy, not a burden and there
is no greater joy for parents than to see their children walking in the Lord’s
ways; however, this does not happen in a vacuum. If parents leave the raising of their
children to others (day-care), they are failing to follow the simple rules that
God set out in the Bible. Does
Scripture guarantee that our parenting will succeed if we follow God’s plan?
Success in parenting is measured by what
the parents did, not what the children did.
“Train up a child in the way he
should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Proverbs
22:6. That sounds like a sure thing, no? Not exactly. The book of Proverbs is not a set of rules
but rather a catalogue of wise sayings and truisms. Children’s most important influences come
from their parents, not their peers.
Parents must get involved in
their children’s spiritual lives to prevent other influences from taking
precedence. There is no such thing as “quality time”!! Raising children is a full time job and
there is a passage of Scripture that describes this perfectly; it is found in
Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived; God is not
mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” May we be vigilant to provide shade for our
children and grandchildren.
No 29
(A Price to Pay)
There is a price to pay for becoming a Christian – we receive
this wonderful inner peace that only God can give but we quickly realize that
not everyone shares this same enthusiasm.
When Jesus preached the Gospel, He did not say that life would
be easy; on the contrary, He said “…If
any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23b); the gospels of Matthew and Mark record similar
statements. To deny oneself is contrary to human behaviour; we usually tend to
take very good care of ourselves. And if
that were not enough, Jesus went on to say elsewhere“He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and
he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” (Matt
Then comes the time when we must confess Him before others; this
is just as demanding “ Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess
also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.” (Matt
No 30
(Knowledge)
“The people that do know their God shall be strong.” (Daniel
11:32b)
Every believer understands that to know God is the highest and
best form of knowledge and this spiritual knowledge is a source of strength to the
Christian. It strengthens his or her faith. Believers are constantly spoken of
in the Scriptures as being persons who are enlightened and taught of the Lord.
The Bible says “But ye have an unction
from the Holy One, and ye know all things” (1 John
If we know only little of Jesus, what He has done for us, and
what He is doing for us now, we cannot love Him much; but the more we know Him,
the more we will love Him. Knowledge
also strengthens hope. How can we hope for a thing if we do not know of its
existence? Knowledge supplies us
reasons for patience. How shall we have patience unless we know something of
the sympathy of Christ and understand the good which is to come out of the
correction which our heavenly Father sends us?
Nor is there one single grace of the Christian which, under God, will
not be brought to perfection by holy knowledge. How important then are the
words of Peter in his epistle: “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory
both now and for ever. Amen” 2 Peter 3:18)?
No 31
(Give and you will receive)
“He that watereth shall be watered also himself.” Proverbs 11:25
In this passage, we are taught a great lesson that to get, we
must give; that to accumulate, we must scatter; that to make ourselves happy, we
must make others happy; and that in order to become spiritually vigorous, we
must seek the spiritual good of others. In watering others, we are ourselves
watered.
How? Our efforts to be useful bring out our powers for
usefulness. We all have hidden talents and dormant faculties which are brought
to light by exercise; just like muscles. Our strength for labour is hidden even
from ourselves sometimes and only until we go and fight the Lord’s battles or
to climb the mountains of difficulty, do we discover it. We often find that in teaching others, we
gain instruction for ourselves. Oh, what gracious lessons some of us have learned by teaching!
We went to teach the Bible and we came away taught. When we speak with
saints, we are taught the way of God more perfectly for ourselves
and we get a deeper insight into divine truth; so that watering others makes us
humble.
We discover how much grace there is where we had not looked for
it. Our own comfort is also increased by our working for others. We endeavour
to cheer them and the consolation gladdens our own heart. Like the two men in the snow – one rubbed the
other’s limbs to keep him from dying and in doing so,
he kept his own blood in circulation saving his own life. The poor widow of
Sarepta gave all her supply for the prophet’s wants and from that day on, she
never again knew what want was. The Bible says in 1 Kings