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"...in order that no advantage be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes" (2 Corinthians 2:11)
I am indebted for the idea behind this devotional thought to a waste collection agency, one of its trucks anyway, behind which we found ourselves this morning and upon whose rear portion we saw proudly displayed the sign: GARBOLOGIST AT WORK! Garbologist! Don't you just love that term? What an intriguing title for the critical and beneficial work of garbage removal and disposal!
Even as I commented to my wife and chuckled about that sign as we passed the truck, the thought immediately occurred to me that there is a "garbologist" at work in the world today and that there is absolutely nothing "beneficial" about his activities. I hereby officially bestow upon Satan, the enemy of all mankind, the title of "Garbologist"! All that he plans and all that he carries out is nothing but sheer spiritual garbage in the lives of people. His primary goal is now and always has been to keep people away from the grace and mercy and love of God. Know this for a certainty, beloved, that Satan stands opposed to everything that God by His grace is doing in the world today. If that fact does not earn for him the title of "Garbologist," then I do not know what does!
The Apostle Paul in his second recorded letter to the church in Corinth gives to us a wonderful word of encouragement and source of hope in our daily dealings with the enemy of our souls. He first promises that there is no need for any "advantage (to) be taken of us by Satan." In other words, we do not have to find ourselves covered by the spiritual garbage that he seeks to heap up in our lives. We do not have to fall prey to his schemes or become victims of his lies. And the reason is simply, as Paul put it so well, that "we are not ignorant of his schemes." That is one of the most glorious promises in all of the New Testament concerning the potential victory of the child of God! The apostle told the Corinthian believers that we as followers of Jesus Christ are "not ignorant" of how the enemy works today. We not only know from personal life experience, but we know because the Word of God instructs us in how to deal with him and how to have victory over him. This same Paul exhorted the saints in Ephesus to "put on the full armor of God" in facing each new day.
"Put on the full armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11)
So there is no reason, beloved, especially as we face the onset of a brand new year, for any of us to fall prey to the "garbage" that Satan loves to sling: thoughts that are misaligned with the truth of God, actions that are not in keeping with what He requires of us, attitudes that are not glorifying to Him or edifying to one another, a lifestyle that is not redemptive because it does not point the way to the cross of Calvary.
May this New Year be for you one of complete and total victory over Satan and one of glorifying Jesus Christ in all that you say and do. And remember, always keep your eyes and ears open! There is ever nearby a garbologist at work!
Ron
Thursday, January 2, 2014
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
The Secret to Staying Awake in Church
"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied" (Matthew 5:6)
It's been a while since I have posted anything, beloved, primarily because I remain determined to do so only when I feel like I really have something worthwhile to share with you. Tonight I have been working on the current passage in the book of Acts upon which we are focused at present in Sunday worship. The passage is a unique one involving a young man who "fell asleep in church" while the Apostle Paul was preaching and fell to his death from a third story window. Often today believers assume that it was a sign that Paul's sermon was too long for Eutychus and he could not stay awake.
What I find in this unusual experience, however, is a question that immediately confronts us when we jump to such a conclusion. That question quite simply is: "Too long with reference to what standard?" The truth is that what is "too long" for some worshipers is in fact "too short" for others! I have enjoyed the privilege of preaching on the island of St. Lucia in the West Indies where worshipers are accustomed to services that go on for two to three hours. I have personally been asked by the resident pastor there to preach for 90 minutes. I don't know about other denominations, beloved, but try that in the average Baptist church and see what happens!
In the famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) Jesus pronounced that "blessed" or happy and fulfilled are those who have a true "hunger and thirst for righteousness." How could a worshiper possibly lose his focus in any way, much less actually fall asleep, when the truth of God is being taught in a service of worship? Instead of asking, then, if Paul's sermon was too long for Eutychus' attention span, perhaps we should consider that Eutychus' hunger was too short for Paul's message!
How is your personal "hunger and thirst" for righteousness, beloved? Does the enemy consider you to be a threat to his perverted purposes or does he rather find you to be "yawning" your way through each day as a professing Christian? Are the Biblical messages we hear on a regular basis truly "too long" for our ability to pay attention, or is the problem with the degree of our spiritual hunger?
Do you want to know, then, the secret to staying awake in church? Develop a hunger for the Word of God, an insatiable craving to live out the truths of God each and every day, and you will never become a Eutychus. Other than this, the only advice that I can give you is to stay away from churches where the sanctuary is above the ground floor!
Ron
It's been a while since I have posted anything, beloved, primarily because I remain determined to do so only when I feel like I really have something worthwhile to share with you. Tonight I have been working on the current passage in the book of Acts upon which we are focused at present in Sunday worship. The passage is a unique one involving a young man who "fell asleep in church" while the Apostle Paul was preaching and fell to his death from a third story window. Often today believers assume that it was a sign that Paul's sermon was too long for Eutychus and he could not stay awake.
What I find in this unusual experience, however, is a question that immediately confronts us when we jump to such a conclusion. That question quite simply is: "Too long with reference to what standard?" The truth is that what is "too long" for some worshipers is in fact "too short" for others! I have enjoyed the privilege of preaching on the island of St. Lucia in the West Indies where worshipers are accustomed to services that go on for two to three hours. I have personally been asked by the resident pastor there to preach for 90 minutes. I don't know about other denominations, beloved, but try that in the average Baptist church and see what happens!
In the famous Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) Jesus pronounced that "blessed" or happy and fulfilled are those who have a true "hunger and thirst for righteousness." How could a worshiper possibly lose his focus in any way, much less actually fall asleep, when the truth of God is being taught in a service of worship? Instead of asking, then, if Paul's sermon was too long for Eutychus' attention span, perhaps we should consider that Eutychus' hunger was too short for Paul's message!
How is your personal "hunger and thirst" for righteousness, beloved? Does the enemy consider you to be a threat to his perverted purposes or does he rather find you to be "yawning" your way through each day as a professing Christian? Are the Biblical messages we hear on a regular basis truly "too long" for our ability to pay attention, or is the problem with the degree of our spiritual hunger?
Do you want to know, then, the secret to staying awake in church? Develop a hunger for the Word of God, an insatiable craving to live out the truths of God each and every day, and you will never become a Eutychus. Other than this, the only advice that I can give you is to stay away from churches where the sanctuary is above the ground floor!
Ron
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Religious Like Me?
"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma" (Ephesians 5:1-2)
Recently a good friend invited me on an outing with a couple of friends of his, telling me that I would like them a lot because they are "religious like you." I'm pretty sure I know what he meant by that. At least, I sure hope he meant what I think that he did! But either way, his choice of words really set me to thinking. Is that the image I present to those who know me, that I am "religious"? Is an outward adherence to a set of dogma what I am putting on display before others? Is that what a Christian is at heart?
Paul told the believers in Ephesus to "be imitators of God." And in elaboration of that command he urged them to "walk in love." He further presented to them the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as the perfect example of such love. He reminded them that Jesus "gave Himself up for us" as a once for all time offering for our sins. His, then, was a truly sacrificial love. Very simply, He put all of mankind ahead of Himself when He went to the cross and paid the price for our sins!
But let's get back to this "religious" thing for a moment. Is that really what any one of us as Christians wants to convey to those who know us...that we act religiously? How will that lead anyone to faith in Jesus Christ? Being an imitator of the Lord Jesus Christ, beloved, is of necessity an attitude of heart made visible through a manner of life. Because I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, He lives within me. And because He lives within me, I live Him outside of me for everyone to see!
In all honesty I must confess to you that I have definitely not mastered that last line just yet. I find that it was a whole lot easier for me to write in this blog than it is for me to do day after day after day. I'm still working on that part of it. But that fact does not change for a single moment the need for me, for each one of us, to be more than just somebody's idea of "religious"!
What my good friend said to me today, and I am sure that he meant it in a very positive way, is something that I for one definitely want to change. I don't want to be somebody's idea of "religious." I do want to be somebody's idea of a person who clearly knows Jesus Christ personally. Want to join me?
Ron
Recently a good friend invited me on an outing with a couple of friends of his, telling me that I would like them a lot because they are "religious like you." I'm pretty sure I know what he meant by that. At least, I sure hope he meant what I think that he did! But either way, his choice of words really set me to thinking. Is that the image I present to those who know me, that I am "religious"? Is an outward adherence to a set of dogma what I am putting on display before others? Is that what a Christian is at heart?
Paul told the believers in Ephesus to "be imitators of God." And in elaboration of that command he urged them to "walk in love." He further presented to them the Lord Jesus Christ Himself as the perfect example of such love. He reminded them that Jesus "gave Himself up for us" as a once for all time offering for our sins. His, then, was a truly sacrificial love. Very simply, He put all of mankind ahead of Himself when He went to the cross and paid the price for our sins!
But let's get back to this "religious" thing for a moment. Is that really what any one of us as Christians wants to convey to those who know us...that we act religiously? How will that lead anyone to faith in Jesus Christ? Being an imitator of the Lord Jesus Christ, beloved, is of necessity an attitude of heart made visible through a manner of life. Because I have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, He lives within me. And because He lives within me, I live Him outside of me for everyone to see!
In all honesty I must confess to you that I have definitely not mastered that last line just yet. I find that it was a whole lot easier for me to write in this blog than it is for me to do day after day after day. I'm still working on that part of it. But that fact does not change for a single moment the need for me, for each one of us, to be more than just somebody's idea of "religious"!
What my good friend said to me today, and I am sure that he meant it in a very positive way, is something that I for one definitely want to change. I don't want to be somebody's idea of "religious." I do want to be somebody's idea of a person who clearly knows Jesus Christ personally. Want to join me?
Ron
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Smarter Than Your GPS?
"There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death" (Proverbs 14:12)
How many of you have ever felt at times that your computer is smarter than you are? Yep, me too. How about your GPS? Not so much for me. Today I learned that I am definitely smarter than our GPS. Here is what happened. We traveled up to Wake Forest to a local high school to see our oldest grandson play in a showcase baseball game against another travel-team. We loaded the address of the school into the GPS and it took us there perfectly. No problems. The trip home, however, was an entirely different story. Bev hit the "Home" button on the GPS which is supposed to simply reverse the directions and take us home the same way it brought us there. Not this time! Since I had just driven that GPS-directed route a short time before, I remembered the way home. We decided to allow the GPS to lead us home anyway. As we approached the very same highway that we had traveled en route to the game, however, the GPS tried to take us past that point and to another highway that was out of the way and a longer route home. Even as I drove past the road I had taken up there, I said to my wife, "This is not right." Her advice was as profound as it was simple: "Then turn around." I did so and was soon on the same road back home that we had taken to get there. And all the way home, would you believe it, that GPS did everything it could to re-route us on to the road I had refused to take to get home? It never did acknowledge that I had taken the right way and it had taken the wrong one. This was one time when ignoring the GPS and doing what I knew was right to do was the right thing to do!
So often in life today, beloved, people make decisions that seem to them to be the right thing to do. Just like our GPS that stuck doggedly to its errant way home and did its best to lead us to follow that way, men just decide that they know what is best for their lives and so forge ahead into disaster and ruin. Solomon in his godly wisdom declared that this is a failing in our nature that plagues all of mankind. We think we know the way and push ahead regardless of where it may lead us. And as Solomon went on to say, that end is "the way of death." In this regard we are our own worst enemy!
Only God's way is the right way, beloved. Only God's path is the one we should travel. Only God's way will lead us to life instead of to that inevitable death. If you are on the wrong way right now, what can you do? Listen to my wife's wonderful advice once again: just turn around. You do not have to take one more step down the road that you are on if that road is not the one that God has chosen for you. You don't have to listen to your own inner "GPS" if it is trying to lead you the wrong way. The glorious thing about God's way is that you are free to choose it any time and it is always accessible to you.
Which way are you on? Are you smarter than your GPS? If you are choosing God's way, then you most certainly are! And the road you are traveling will lead you to eternal life and to a wonderful peace that passes all understanding.
Ron
How many of you have ever felt at times that your computer is smarter than you are? Yep, me too. How about your GPS? Not so much for me. Today I learned that I am definitely smarter than our GPS. Here is what happened. We traveled up to Wake Forest to a local high school to see our oldest grandson play in a showcase baseball game against another travel-team. We loaded the address of the school into the GPS and it took us there perfectly. No problems. The trip home, however, was an entirely different story. Bev hit the "Home" button on the GPS which is supposed to simply reverse the directions and take us home the same way it brought us there. Not this time! Since I had just driven that GPS-directed route a short time before, I remembered the way home. We decided to allow the GPS to lead us home anyway. As we approached the very same highway that we had traveled en route to the game, however, the GPS tried to take us past that point and to another highway that was out of the way and a longer route home. Even as I drove past the road I had taken up there, I said to my wife, "This is not right." Her advice was as profound as it was simple: "Then turn around." I did so and was soon on the same road back home that we had taken to get there. And all the way home, would you believe it, that GPS did everything it could to re-route us on to the road I had refused to take to get home? It never did acknowledge that I had taken the right way and it had taken the wrong one. This was one time when ignoring the GPS and doing what I knew was right to do was the right thing to do!
So often in life today, beloved, people make decisions that seem to them to be the right thing to do. Just like our GPS that stuck doggedly to its errant way home and did its best to lead us to follow that way, men just decide that they know what is best for their lives and so forge ahead into disaster and ruin. Solomon in his godly wisdom declared that this is a failing in our nature that plagues all of mankind. We think we know the way and push ahead regardless of where it may lead us. And as Solomon went on to say, that end is "the way of death." In this regard we are our own worst enemy!
Only God's way is the right way, beloved. Only God's path is the one we should travel. Only God's way will lead us to life instead of to that inevitable death. If you are on the wrong way right now, what can you do? Listen to my wife's wonderful advice once again: just turn around. You do not have to take one more step down the road that you are on if that road is not the one that God has chosen for you. You don't have to listen to your own inner "GPS" if it is trying to lead you the wrong way. The glorious thing about God's way is that you are free to choose it any time and it is always accessible to you.
Which way are you on? Are you smarter than your GPS? If you are choosing God's way, then you most certainly are! And the road you are traveling will lead you to eternal life and to a wonderful peace that passes all understanding.
Ron
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Whatever, Whenever, Wherever, Whomever
"To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22)
Volumes have been written and dissertations delivered, beloved, on the importance of establishing one's true purpose in life. From the perspective of some that we should "to one's own self be true" to the conviction of others that it is "better to burn out than to rust out" so many philosophies for living daily seem to abound.
I want to propose to you that the Scriptures define for us clearly and distinctly what God's desire for our personal mission statement is. Here, for example, we find the Apostle Paul succinctly outlining his own heartfelt purpose in life. Very simply, in words familiar to any true student of God's Word, we hear him declaring: "I have become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some." Powerful and complete!
I wanted to suggest to you in this brief statement a much shorter version of what Paul wrote to the saints in the Greek city of Corinth, not different at all, but shorter - whatever, whenever, wherever, whomever.
Consider with me how Paul in this verse of Scripture clarified the whatever of his personal life purpose. His exemplary "all things" reveals this aspect of his mission statement. He was willing to do whatever it would take to reach one single person with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But note also here his whenever as well as the wherever of his mission statement as found in the term "all men." Since none of us ministers to people all at one time or in one place but rather day by day and in varying places and circumstances, then we discover that Paul's commitment to servant-hood had a definite whenever/wherever aspect to it. He was simply never "off-duty" as a servant of Jesus Christ.
Further we discover about him the wonderful whomever quality of his life's focus. To Paul it simply did not matter who you were: where you came from, what you might have done, how famous or infamous you might have been. To the apostle all that mattered was what you needed to become and where you would spend eternity.
The beauty and simplicity of his life-statement as an apostle of Jesus Christ can best be seen, however, in the term "so that I may by all means save some." Paul cared about people perhaps like no one else. He was not necessarily the archetypical "people person." But what he was reached so much deeper within himself and as a result so much further out from himself. Because God had filled his heart with His own divine love for lost people, Paul's passion in life had become telling people about Jesus and seeing them turn in genuine repentance and faith to Jesus Christ.
WHATEVER, WHENEVER, WHEREVER, WHOMEVER. Certainly an intriguing statement of personal servant-hood, wouldn't you agree, beloved? And is that not what every child of God ought to aspire to become? You see, it is one of the most powerful yet simple definitions of what a true "servant" of Jesus Christ is to be!
Ron
Volumes have been written and dissertations delivered, beloved, on the importance of establishing one's true purpose in life. From the perspective of some that we should "to one's own self be true" to the conviction of others that it is "better to burn out than to rust out" so many philosophies for living daily seem to abound.
I want to propose to you that the Scriptures define for us clearly and distinctly what God's desire for our personal mission statement is. Here, for example, we find the Apostle Paul succinctly outlining his own heartfelt purpose in life. Very simply, in words familiar to any true student of God's Word, we hear him declaring: "I have become all things to all men so that I may by all means save some." Powerful and complete!
I wanted to suggest to you in this brief statement a much shorter version of what Paul wrote to the saints in the Greek city of Corinth, not different at all, but shorter - whatever, whenever, wherever, whomever.
Consider with me how Paul in this verse of Scripture clarified the whatever of his personal life purpose. His exemplary "all things" reveals this aspect of his mission statement. He was willing to do whatever it would take to reach one single person with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
But note also here his whenever as well as the wherever of his mission statement as found in the term "all men." Since none of us ministers to people all at one time or in one place but rather day by day and in varying places and circumstances, then we discover that Paul's commitment to servant-hood had a definite whenever/wherever aspect to it. He was simply never "off-duty" as a servant of Jesus Christ.
Further we discover about him the wonderful whomever quality of his life's focus. To Paul it simply did not matter who you were: where you came from, what you might have done, how famous or infamous you might have been. To the apostle all that mattered was what you needed to become and where you would spend eternity.
The beauty and simplicity of his life-statement as an apostle of Jesus Christ can best be seen, however, in the term "so that I may by all means save some." Paul cared about people perhaps like no one else. He was not necessarily the archetypical "people person." But what he was reached so much deeper within himself and as a result so much further out from himself. Because God had filled his heart with His own divine love for lost people, Paul's passion in life had become telling people about Jesus and seeing them turn in genuine repentance and faith to Jesus Christ.
WHATEVER, WHENEVER, WHEREVER, WHOMEVER. Certainly an intriguing statement of personal servant-hood, wouldn't you agree, beloved? And is that not what every child of God ought to aspire to become? You see, it is one of the most powerful yet simple definitions of what a true "servant" of Jesus Christ is to be!
Ron
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