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"Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves" (Philippians 2:3)
Recently I stopped at a traffic light next to a company vehicle belonging to a major insurance firm. The driver clearly needed to get into my lane in order to exit just ahead, so as we waited for the light to change, rather than battle it out for first place, I motioned for him to get ahead of me in traffic. He waved his thanks and off we went.
Contrast that with a more common practice from my high school days. Whenever we would race to the lunch line at the cafeteria and a late-arriving friend would ask to be let in line, the common response as we would do so was: "After me you're first!"
That attitude from high school days, beloved, has sadly become all too familiar today, even among Christians. No one is supposed to best us, to take the lead on us in any way. We aren't to sacrifice ourselves or even be inconvenienced for someone else' benefit. In other words, "After me, you're first"!
But what did the Apostle Paul say to the believers in Philippi about such an attitude? How are we to respond when facing the needs of others? Is ours to be some sort of modified "after me, you're first" focus? Paul's reply to our question is as unsettling as it is startling. Regard one another as more important than yourselves! Very simply, seek the good of others ahead of your own desires. It is just that simple.
Let me propose to you, beloved, one clear-cut reason why we should have no difficulty considering everyone else to be more important than ourselves. First of all, we do so simply because that is what the Lord wants us to do. Paul's words do not constitute a suggestion or recommendation but rather a command. The apostle is describing in no uncertain terms what the Lord expects us to do. It is what He demands of those who profess to be His followers, His servants.
Then, because He commands it, as we obey Him in it we are in reality putting Him first. How often do we who claim to follow Him refuse to put others first? If we do not consider others to be more important than ourselves, beloved, then we cannot really be putting Him first! We may as well let this listening world hear us say to Jesus, "After me, You're first" as we would let them see in our living that we do not consider one another to be more important than ourselves.
What is your attitude, then, toward the place Jesus has in your life? Did you know that it is reflected most clearly in your attitude toward others? It may begin with simply letting someone in front of you in traffic, but it reaches far beyond something as trivial as that!
Ron
Friday, June 7, 2013
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Coming Soon!
"And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:30)
I was on my way somewhere recently, beloved, when I passed a construction site where a new store for a well-known grocery chain is being built. The sign showed the name of that chain in splendid letters with the two words following: "COMING SOON!" That corporation wants us as potential customers to know that if we will just be patient and anticipate the grand opening, soon a new store will stand on that location and serve the needs of all in that community.
Even as I passed by and read the sign, beloved, I could not help but smile and think instantly of Jesus' promise to us just like the one in the verse of Scripture above. And as I see what is happening all around us in the world today, including the staggering changes taking place right here at home, I am thrilled at the prospect that Jesus is indeed coming soon!
If you've never read, and I mean really read, Matthew's twenty-fourth chapter, then let me encourage you to do so...and soon. You see, Jesus has laid out for us the order of events that will precede His coming and, very simply, this world falling apart morally and socially and politically is a major part of the preparation for that coming. It is not my intention here in this brief post to examine all the details of events preceding the day of His return, but rather to encourage you to do precisely what that grocery chain that is building the store is urging its future customers to do - anticipate its coming. I want you to be fully aware of all that is going on around us, especially here at home, but I do not want you to be discouraged or fearful. Rather I want you to see in all of it the announcement of Jesus that should gladden our hearts: "COMING SOON!" This is a time to rejoice, beloved, as well as a time to be as active as we can be in standing up for kingdom values and in promoting the message of the cross to this lost generation. It may well be our last opportunity to do so.
I am not at all sure if we will ourselves become customers of that soon coming grocery store that is even now being built. But I do know this. I know that we will be a part of what Jesus is Himself even now preparing for us, what is even now "under construction." What a "hard hat area" that must be! One day we who know Christ by grace through faith will not have to think about Him "coming soon" for He will arrive in power and glory and every promise of Scripture will be fulfilled. Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords will be forever all in all.
COMING SOON! Could any news possibly be any more exciting than that? Are you ready for His coming, beloved? Do you know someone who isn't? Why not tell them He's on the way?
Ron
I was on my way somewhere recently, beloved, when I passed a construction site where a new store for a well-known grocery chain is being built. The sign showed the name of that chain in splendid letters with the two words following: "COMING SOON!" That corporation wants us as potential customers to know that if we will just be patient and anticipate the grand opening, soon a new store will stand on that location and serve the needs of all in that community.
Even as I passed by and read the sign, beloved, I could not help but smile and think instantly of Jesus' promise to us just like the one in the verse of Scripture above. And as I see what is happening all around us in the world today, including the staggering changes taking place right here at home, I am thrilled at the prospect that Jesus is indeed coming soon!
If you've never read, and I mean really read, Matthew's twenty-fourth chapter, then let me encourage you to do so...and soon. You see, Jesus has laid out for us the order of events that will precede His coming and, very simply, this world falling apart morally and socially and politically is a major part of the preparation for that coming. It is not my intention here in this brief post to examine all the details of events preceding the day of His return, but rather to encourage you to do precisely what that grocery chain that is building the store is urging its future customers to do - anticipate its coming. I want you to be fully aware of all that is going on around us, especially here at home, but I do not want you to be discouraged or fearful. Rather I want you to see in all of it the announcement of Jesus that should gladden our hearts: "COMING SOON!" This is a time to rejoice, beloved, as well as a time to be as active as we can be in standing up for kingdom values and in promoting the message of the cross to this lost generation. It may well be our last opportunity to do so.
I am not at all sure if we will ourselves become customers of that soon coming grocery store that is even now being built. But I do know this. I know that we will be a part of what Jesus is Himself even now preparing for us, what is even now "under construction." What a "hard hat area" that must be! One day we who know Christ by grace through faith will not have to think about Him "coming soon" for He will arrive in power and glory and every promise of Scripture will be fulfilled. Jesus Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords will be forever all in all.
COMING SOON! Could any news possibly be any more exciting than that? Are you ready for His coming, beloved? Do you know someone who isn't? Why not tell them He's on the way?
Ron
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Fired Up or Spewed Out?
"I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth" (Revelation 3:15-16)
Tepid. Now there is a word you don't hear in normal everyday conversation! Try using that one in a sentence, grammar-fans! Actually, tepid is a very descriptive but at the same time disgusting word. Case in point: Have you ever poured for yourself a steaming cup of coffee, only to be distracted and set it down in order to go and take care of whatever it was that drew your attention away? Who hasn't? Some time later you remember that patiently waiting cup of coffee and go looking for it. When you find it, what happens? You put the cup to your lips hesitantly and take a swig. EWWWWW! Tepid! The coffee is no longer hot but neither is it yet cold. It is instead lukewarm. Revolting! So you pour it out in disgust.
It is bad enough when coffee that should be steaming and delicious is lukewarm and disgusting, beloved. But when it happens to those who profess to be Christians, it is a spiritual tragedy. Jesus described the degree of such a condition in His words to John that were meant for the Asian church in the city of Laodicea. And in His statement we discover a wonderful challenge for our own living today.
Note that Jesus accused the professing believers in Laodicea of being "neither hot nor cold." To be "hot" spiritually, a translation of the Greek word zestos, is to be filled with the Spirit of God and to be ablaze with love for and commitment to Jesus Christ. We like to use the term "on fire" to describe such believers today. On the other hand, to be "cold" spiritually, a translation of the Greek word psuchros, is to go beyond mere disbelief. It is to take a stand as strongly against the gospel of Jesus Christ as being "hot" is to stand for it. That Jesus was sending this warning to a local church speaks volumes of what can and does happen today even among those professing faith in Christ and part of an organized visible body.
Perhaps what is most surprising here, however, is Jesus' stated preference concerning those in Laodicea professing to be His followers, that they be either "hot" or "cold" rather than "lukewarm." The preference for them to be spiritually "hot" we can certainly understand. But "cold"? Perhaps the answer lies in a closer look at the word "lukewarm." The Greek word chliaros describes a spiritual state in which one professes to be a true follower of Christ, yet in whose life the evidence of the life of God does not exist. This is the one who has substituted "religiosity" for saving faith and "heated religious activities" for genuine service to the Lord. Jesus' preference is understood, then, because to be "cold" or an outright denier and rejecter of the gospel tells us what the need is and how to go about meeting it. But of the one who has all the outward signs of being a Christian yet whose heart Christ does not occupy becomes the worst of all stumbling blocks. He presents himself to the world to be something he in actuality is not! And in condemning and rejecting such a person, the world will often do so with a wide stroke of the brush and will reject Christianity altogether.
Jesus declared His preference that we be either "hot" or "cold" instead of choosing to be "lukewarm." But do not assume for a moment that He would actually have any one to reject the gospel message! The challenge laid before us here through His words to the Laodiceans is that we need to be on fire every moment of every day for the Lord Jesus Christ! Anything less is simply unacceptable. It is already to Him because He said so and it should be as unacceptable to us as well.
Ron
Tepid. Now there is a word you don't hear in normal everyday conversation! Try using that one in a sentence, grammar-fans! Actually, tepid is a very descriptive but at the same time disgusting word. Case in point: Have you ever poured for yourself a steaming cup of coffee, only to be distracted and set it down in order to go and take care of whatever it was that drew your attention away? Who hasn't? Some time later you remember that patiently waiting cup of coffee and go looking for it. When you find it, what happens? You put the cup to your lips hesitantly and take a swig. EWWWWW! Tepid! The coffee is no longer hot but neither is it yet cold. It is instead lukewarm. Revolting! So you pour it out in disgust.
It is bad enough when coffee that should be steaming and delicious is lukewarm and disgusting, beloved. But when it happens to those who profess to be Christians, it is a spiritual tragedy. Jesus described the degree of such a condition in His words to John that were meant for the Asian church in the city of Laodicea. And in His statement we discover a wonderful challenge for our own living today.
Note that Jesus accused the professing believers in Laodicea of being "neither hot nor cold." To be "hot" spiritually, a translation of the Greek word zestos, is to be filled with the Spirit of God and to be ablaze with love for and commitment to Jesus Christ. We like to use the term "on fire" to describe such believers today. On the other hand, to be "cold" spiritually, a translation of the Greek word psuchros, is to go beyond mere disbelief. It is to take a stand as strongly against the gospel of Jesus Christ as being "hot" is to stand for it. That Jesus was sending this warning to a local church speaks volumes of what can and does happen today even among those professing faith in Christ and part of an organized visible body.
Perhaps what is most surprising here, however, is Jesus' stated preference concerning those in Laodicea professing to be His followers, that they be either "hot" or "cold" rather than "lukewarm." The preference for them to be spiritually "hot" we can certainly understand. But "cold"? Perhaps the answer lies in a closer look at the word "lukewarm." The Greek word chliaros describes a spiritual state in which one professes to be a true follower of Christ, yet in whose life the evidence of the life of God does not exist. This is the one who has substituted "religiosity" for saving faith and "heated religious activities" for genuine service to the Lord. Jesus' preference is understood, then, because to be "cold" or an outright denier and rejecter of the gospel tells us what the need is and how to go about meeting it. But of the one who has all the outward signs of being a Christian yet whose heart Christ does not occupy becomes the worst of all stumbling blocks. He presents himself to the world to be something he in actuality is not! And in condemning and rejecting such a person, the world will often do so with a wide stroke of the brush and will reject Christianity altogether.
Jesus declared His preference that we be either "hot" or "cold" instead of choosing to be "lukewarm." But do not assume for a moment that He would actually have any one to reject the gospel message! The challenge laid before us here through His words to the Laodiceans is that we need to be on fire every moment of every day for the Lord Jesus Christ! Anything less is simply unacceptable. It is already to Him because He said so and it should be as unacceptable to us as well.
Ron
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
It's the Gospel!
"Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man's enemies will be the members of his household" (Matthew 10:34-36)
It is absolutely a fact of Scripture, beloved, that Jesus made a number of "hard" statements that many are loath to face and understand and accept today! Such is the declaration that faces us in these verses. Jesus had been giving to His disciples a discourse on the cost of discipleship. It seems to be rather weakly understood today that a "disciple" is not just a student of Christ or a worshiper of Christ, but in actuality an active follower of Christ. Being a disciple, then, is much more about obedience than it is simply about knowledge and religious ceremony.
Such obedience as marks a true disciple of Christ is further proven in the arena of everyday living in a world that is lost in the darkness of sin. Today the media would have everyone believe that we who are part of the "religious right" are fraught with all manner of social and moral and cultural shortcomings. We are bigoted and narrow-minded, homophobic and even racist, or so says the modern media anyway. And many of the followers of Christ have made the mistake of following such accusers right into their own trap. We face them and try to defend ourselves upon moral and social and cultural grounds. And that is where, I truly believe, we are making our most serious mistake.
You see, beloved, the hatred that abounds today for the "religious right" - those followers of Jesus Christ who are committed to the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures, those who are persuaded that if God says it, that settles it, is not politically based at all. The division between the "liberal left" and the "religious right" is not at heart a moral or social or cultural or especially a political problem, beloved. It is at heart what it has always been, a spiritual problem! You see, it is not at all political ideologies that divide us. It is not socio-economic differences, suburban versus urban living. It is not even one's per capita income or the lack thereof. It is very simply the gospel of Jesus Christ!
If you want to find out what is at the heart of the hatred that liberal-thinking people have for us as Christians, all you have to do is button-hole one of them and tell that God says that Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life. (Pause here for sound of huge explosion!) Jesus prophesied Himself that His sacrifice on the cross would divide brother from brother, sister from sister, children from parents, and even spouses from each other. Nor would such divisions occur along ideological lines but rather because some family members become believers, those who follow Jesus Christ, and others do not.
So what do we do? We do the only thing that we can do, beloved. We keep on telling men and women and boys and girls that Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life. Political differences will rise and wane and cultural differences will fluctuate with each new generation. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ is unchanging and never-ending. So let's quit falling for that old trap of arguing with people along political or moral or cultural lines. Let's determine instead to use our energies to so live out the reality that is Jesus Christ that the Spirit of God may use us to draw the lost to Himself.
Ron
It is absolutely a fact of Scripture, beloved, that Jesus made a number of "hard" statements that many are loath to face and understand and accept today! Such is the declaration that faces us in these verses. Jesus had been giving to His disciples a discourse on the cost of discipleship. It seems to be rather weakly understood today that a "disciple" is not just a student of Christ or a worshiper of Christ, but in actuality an active follower of Christ. Being a disciple, then, is much more about obedience than it is simply about knowledge and religious ceremony.
Such obedience as marks a true disciple of Christ is further proven in the arena of everyday living in a world that is lost in the darkness of sin. Today the media would have everyone believe that we who are part of the "religious right" are fraught with all manner of social and moral and cultural shortcomings. We are bigoted and narrow-minded, homophobic and even racist, or so says the modern media anyway. And many of the followers of Christ have made the mistake of following such accusers right into their own trap. We face them and try to defend ourselves upon moral and social and cultural grounds. And that is where, I truly believe, we are making our most serious mistake.
You see, beloved, the hatred that abounds today for the "religious right" - those followers of Jesus Christ who are committed to the inerrancy and infallibility of the Scriptures, those who are persuaded that if God says it, that settles it, is not politically based at all. The division between the "liberal left" and the "religious right" is not at heart a moral or social or cultural or especially a political problem, beloved. It is at heart what it has always been, a spiritual problem! You see, it is not at all political ideologies that divide us. It is not socio-economic differences, suburban versus urban living. It is not even one's per capita income or the lack thereof. It is very simply the gospel of Jesus Christ!
If you want to find out what is at the heart of the hatred that liberal-thinking people have for us as Christians, all you have to do is button-hole one of them and tell that God says that Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life. (Pause here for sound of huge explosion!) Jesus prophesied Himself that His sacrifice on the cross would divide brother from brother, sister from sister, children from parents, and even spouses from each other. Nor would such divisions occur along ideological lines but rather because some family members become believers, those who follow Jesus Christ, and others do not.
So what do we do? We do the only thing that we can do, beloved. We keep on telling men and women and boys and girls that Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life. Political differences will rise and wane and cultural differences will fluctuate with each new generation. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ is unchanging and never-ending. So let's quit falling for that old trap of arguing with people along political or moral or cultural lines. Let's determine instead to use our energies to so live out the reality that is Jesus Christ that the Spirit of God may use us to draw the lost to Himself.
Ron
Monday, March 18, 2013
You Are Not Forgotten
"Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to render to every man according to what he has done" (Revelation 22:12)
One of those very special heart-touching moments happened to me recently, beloved. A military retiree came up to me and handed me a small clear plastic envelope containing a business-sized card and a white embroidered star clearly cut from an American flag. The card explained that the star came from a flag that had flown over someone's home until worn and tattered and in need of replacement. A local veterans organization had rescued the flag among others and had separated the stars into keepsake bags to hand out to veterans like me. The card's message concluded with these words:
"Please carry me as a reminder that you are not forgotten. Thank you for your service."
You can be sure that I will keep and treasure this memento, beloved! I am as honored to carry a star from Old Glory as I am to have served my country over which she waved.
As a follower of Jesus Christ I have His assurance as well that those who serve Him faithfully are not forgotten. He has promised that one day He will return for us and that He will have with Him heaven's reward for faithful service. Even now you and I through faithful obedience are "laying up treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:20). Every life that we touch in His name, every act of service in meeting a need, every encouraging word prompted by His Spirit within, all are being noted by Him and will be rewarded.
So take heart, fellow pastor! Cheer up, stalwart youth worker! Stay strong, child of God! You are not forgotten! I am so thankful for that scrap of flag that was given to me. And I am eternally grateful for the assurance we all have from our Lord that in our service for His name's sake we are not forgotten.
Ron
One of those very special heart-touching moments happened to me recently, beloved. A military retiree came up to me and handed me a small clear plastic envelope containing a business-sized card and a white embroidered star clearly cut from an American flag. The card explained that the star came from a flag that had flown over someone's home until worn and tattered and in need of replacement. A local veterans organization had rescued the flag among others and had separated the stars into keepsake bags to hand out to veterans like me. The card's message concluded with these words:
"Please carry me as a reminder that you are not forgotten. Thank you for your service."
You can be sure that I will keep and treasure this memento, beloved! I am as honored to carry a star from Old Glory as I am to have served my country over which she waved.
As a follower of Jesus Christ I have His assurance as well that those who serve Him faithfully are not forgotten. He has promised that one day He will return for us and that He will have with Him heaven's reward for faithful service. Even now you and I through faithful obedience are "laying up treasures in heaven" (Matthew 6:20). Every life that we touch in His name, every act of service in meeting a need, every encouraging word prompted by His Spirit within, all are being noted by Him and will be rewarded.
So take heart, fellow pastor! Cheer up, stalwart youth worker! Stay strong, child of God! You are not forgotten! I am so thankful for that scrap of flag that was given to me. And I am eternally grateful for the assurance we all have from our Lord that in our service for His name's sake we are not forgotten.
Ron
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