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"But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16)
This particular post has been gnawing at me for quite some time, beloved, and only last night did it actually begin to take shape and become something that I truly believe has come from the Spirit of God. You see, like so many other Americans who are Christians I have been closely following this current presidential campaign - watching all the political commercials (true and false), listening to the myriad of "sound bytes" that assault our ears each and every day, thinking about how much this country that I love could change disastrously if the wrong man wins this election. But then again, who hasn't, right?
Last night as I was getting ready for bed and was thinking back over the day's political bombshells that burst all around us, I began to realize that my focus as a Christian should not be primarily political but rather spiritual. And the words of the Apostle Paul to the saints in the region of Galatia came to mind:
Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh!
My greatest responsibility before God, beloved, is not to vote the right way, but to live the right way! And as I thought further about these words of Paul, I realized that if I will as a Christian but give myself wholly to the right walk, then I will not have to worry about the right vote. Though no one with any sense of perception can deny that this world is in a mess, that reality does not for a single moment alter the one and only solution that the Spirit of God within each one of us would have us to see. Consider with me for a moment, then, the command of God here in Paul's words: "walk by the Spirit."
The word here translated "walk" actually means order one's behavior or conduct oneself in a certain manner. The noun form in the New Testament refers commonly to a person's lifestyle, that which is consistently the same, that which we show to those who are all around us. To "walk by the Spirit," then, is to live your life consistently under the direct control of the Spirit of God. It is to demonstrate a life that is given over completely to what God wants and one that seeks every moment of every day to be pleasing to God even at the cost of what others may say or do. It is to see life through God's eyes, to seek God's glory in every decision, every choice that we make. And that, beloved, includes how we carry out our God-given privilege of electing public officials. We carry out that responsibility according to God's standard and we do so for God's glory and not for our own political advantage.
As we make the decision to so live, what will be the outcome? Consider the remainder of Paul's words: "you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." When we yield to the control of God's Spirit, beloved, we walk the path that God has for us and that of necessity means that we avoid what the selfish person inside us desires. We live for God's purpose and God's glory and not for our own agenda. Suddenly party planks and platforms take on a whole new perspective in our thinking. We examine everything and everyone in light of how they line up with what God says is true and just and right.
So there you have it. Should we be political or should we be spiritual? I am persuaded that if we will but give ourselves completely to walking by the Spirit as Paul here commands, all that is political will fall into place. And when our world begins to see us as Christians really living like we have always been intended to live, imagine what the Spirit of God will be able to do in this world of ours that has so desperately lost its way!
Ron
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Saturday, September 8, 2012
How Sound Are Your Investments?
"Do not lay up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust destroys, and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Matthew 6:19-21)
Ask the average person what his "treasure" is, beloved, and get ready for some of the most unusual and eyebrow-raising responses imaginable! We simply define "treasure" in as many different ways as there are people to whom you could put this question. Even the government has weighed in recently, spending millions to tell us what our "treasure" ought to be. Amazing! Simply amazing!
What is so fascinating is that we have heard little or nothing concerning what God considers to be a wise and sound investment! It is at this juncture, then, that we turn to Jesus and seek to find out what He has to say about where our "hearts" ought to be. And when we do so, we find to our delight that there is no vagueness in His words, no "wiggle room" in His plan.
Jesus tells us as plainly and simply as He possibly can that we should not invest or "lay up treasures" here on earth as that upon which we build our sense of personal security. Treasures that can be easily taken from us or which will not stand the test of time are simply not worth our time or energy. So He advises us to avoid becoming "worldly-minded" in our approach to living in this present world.
What, then, is to be our wise investment? Jesus tells us just as plainly and simply that we should invest in the kingdom of heaven! Let our investments of time and energy and resources be deposited there for eternity's sake. And to invest in the kingdom of heaven means nothing less, beloved, than investing in the lives of people. Whether sharing the gospel with the lost around us or discipling new believers or seeking to meet the material needs of those without basic necessities, to make a "sound investment" in the kingdom of heaven is to invest in the lives of those for whom Jesus went to the cross and laid down His life.
Sunday, September 16, has been proclaimed as National Back to Church Sunday and I, for one, am going to promote it for all I am worth! You see, it is through the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ that we who are believers and members of His body can best make sound investments in the kingdom of heaven. It is through the dedication of and use of our spiritual gifts that we can be sure that we are investing in eternity.
So I say to you in love, if you profess to be a follower of Jesus Christ but are not currently active in a local gospel-believing church, then please for the sake of the kingdom of heaven get back to church! And if you are an active member of such a local assembly, then by all means find someone who is not active and invite them earnestly to get back to church!
How sound are your investments at this moment?
Ron
Ask the average person what his "treasure" is, beloved, and get ready for some of the most unusual and eyebrow-raising responses imaginable! We simply define "treasure" in as many different ways as there are people to whom you could put this question. Even the government has weighed in recently, spending millions to tell us what our "treasure" ought to be. Amazing! Simply amazing!
What is so fascinating is that we have heard little or nothing concerning what God considers to be a wise and sound investment! It is at this juncture, then, that we turn to Jesus and seek to find out what He has to say about where our "hearts" ought to be. And when we do so, we find to our delight that there is no vagueness in His words, no "wiggle room" in His plan.
Jesus tells us as plainly and simply as He possibly can that we should not invest or "lay up treasures" here on earth as that upon which we build our sense of personal security. Treasures that can be easily taken from us or which will not stand the test of time are simply not worth our time or energy. So He advises us to avoid becoming "worldly-minded" in our approach to living in this present world.
What, then, is to be our wise investment? Jesus tells us just as plainly and simply that we should invest in the kingdom of heaven! Let our investments of time and energy and resources be deposited there for eternity's sake. And to invest in the kingdom of heaven means nothing less, beloved, than investing in the lives of people. Whether sharing the gospel with the lost around us or discipling new believers or seeking to meet the material needs of those without basic necessities, to make a "sound investment" in the kingdom of heaven is to invest in the lives of those for whom Jesus went to the cross and laid down His life.
Sunday, September 16, has been proclaimed as National Back to Church Sunday and I, for one, am going to promote it for all I am worth! You see, it is through the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ that we who are believers and members of His body can best make sound investments in the kingdom of heaven. It is through the dedication of and use of our spiritual gifts that we can be sure that we are investing in eternity.
So I say to you in love, if you profess to be a follower of Jesus Christ but are not currently active in a local gospel-believing church, then please for the sake of the kingdom of heaven get back to church! And if you are an active member of such a local assembly, then by all means find someone who is not active and invite them earnestly to get back to church!
How sound are your investments at this moment?
Ron
Thursday, September 6, 2012
All Things Working Together for God
"Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31)
As I was recently preparing my sermon outline for an upcoming message on Romans 8:28, beloved, I inadvertently miss-keyed and typed the title that you see above instead of what the verse in question says about "all things working together for good." Then it suddenly occurred to me that what might have been a typographical error was definitely not a doctrinal error. God does indeed cause all things to work together for God!
One lesson that we seem to have great difficulty getting straight in our minds as Christians is the fact that all that God does is aimed ultimately at His own glory. So important is His glory to Him, in fact, that to "fall short" of that glory is the direct consequence of our own sinfulness.
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)
And because of the price that Jesus paid when He laid down His life on the cross for our sins, we find eternal assurance of our salvation in our personal relationship with Christ by faith.
"Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through which also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2)
Not only do we exult in hope of the glory of God, beloved, but we live daily in pursuit of that glory visible through thought, word, and deed.
"In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:11-12)
And that glory which is so important to God is to be the highest priority of the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21)
Without a doubt the one moment when God's glory will be most clearly and gloriously manifested will occur at that moment when all of creation past, present, and future shall proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.
"Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11)
Thus, beloved, as Scripture so vividly points out, all things do work together for God first and for our own spiritual good as well! Whether then it be in an activity as ordinary and mundane as eating and drinking or in anything else in which we might happen to be engaged, our sole goal, our precious priority, our critical calling is to do it all for the glory of God. That is life at its richest and the greatest height of personal fulfillment to which any of the redeemed may aspire!
Ron
As I was recently preparing my sermon outline for an upcoming message on Romans 8:28, beloved, I inadvertently miss-keyed and typed the title that you see above instead of what the verse in question says about "all things working together for good." Then it suddenly occurred to me that what might have been a typographical error was definitely not a doctrinal error. God does indeed cause all things to work together for God!
One lesson that we seem to have great difficulty getting straight in our minds as Christians is the fact that all that God does is aimed ultimately at His own glory. So important is His glory to Him, in fact, that to "fall short" of that glory is the direct consequence of our own sinfulness.
"For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23)
And because of the price that Jesus paid when He laid down His life on the cross for our sins, we find eternal assurance of our salvation in our personal relationship with Christ by faith.
"Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through which also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God" (Romans 5:1-2)
Not only do we exult in hope of the glory of God, beloved, but we live daily in pursuit of that glory visible through thought, word, and deed.
"In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory" (Ephesians 1:11-12)
And that glory which is so important to God is to be the highest priority of the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21)
Without a doubt the one moment when God's glory will be most clearly and gloriously manifested will occur at that moment when all of creation past, present, and future shall proclaim that Jesus Christ is Lord.
"Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:9-11)
Thus, beloved, as Scripture so vividly points out, all things do work together for God first and for our own spiritual good as well! Whether then it be in an activity as ordinary and mundane as eating and drinking or in anything else in which we might happen to be engaged, our sole goal, our precious priority, our critical calling is to do it all for the glory of God. That is life at its richest and the greatest height of personal fulfillment to which any of the redeemed may aspire!
Ron
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