Mar 27 - I Didn't Know I was Rich

Mar 27

I didn’t know

Eph 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness

of his power to us-ward …

When I opened the door I suddenly realized I had been making a mistake for years. Oh, nothing unscriptural, just ignorance on my part.  I cannot remember how many times I have traveled to Fort Wayne, IN and stayed for a week of genealogy research. But I have done it for years.

A motel company we use has two motels in Ft. Wayne; one called south and the other north. We always stayed in the south one, because we were comfortable there and knew the roads and area. But in preparing for the trip we are on as I write this, we saw some photos of the North unit and decided to give it a try.

Oh my!  For the same price we used to pay for a nice room,  we stayed in a suite. The kitchen was a separate room, with a huge counter on one side, a full stove with oven, microwave, dishwasher, and a full size refrigerator with freezer. The bedroom was a separate space as well. The rest of the very large room was sort of divided between the entrance area with closet and the living room with sofa, overstuffed chair, TV, coffee table, etc. The study area with a large desk was in between the entrance and the living room. While everything was not divided into actual rooms with doors, it served the same purpose as a five room suite. And for the same price that we used to pay for a single room with an efficiency kitchen in one end and a bed in the other end.

It was beyond anything we had thought we would get in our price range. Oh, we were comfortable in the South motel, only because we did not imagine anything better. The north motel was there all the time. We passed it by because we did not know what we were missing.

OK. By now you are wondering if I am writing a guide to traveling and selecting motels, so I will get to the spiritual application.

Perhaps you were born again several years ago and have settled down into a comfortable level of Christianity. I think that is what most of us do. We grow in our faith until we are comfortable, understand the basics, and do the kind of Christian things our culture expects of us. Our friends think we are nice people, the preacher doesn’t point at us when talking about bad people, and spiritually we are comfortable. But it is because we are unaware of what we could be enjoying in Christ.   

Even as I was comfortable in the south motel because I could not imagine anything better for the price, I believe we miss out on some of God’s greatest blessings because we can’t imagine how much more God has for us. The book of Ephesians is a book that explains how rich we are in Christ.

 Eph 1:3 …hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings

in heavenly places in Christ:

What are these “…all spiritual blessings?”   

Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption

through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,

according to the riches of his grace; 8 Wherein he

hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

Redemption, forgiveness, riches of His grace, abounded toward us! 

Ps 130:7 Let Israel hope in the LORD: for with the LORD there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption.

 Col 1:14 In whom we have redemption

through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Eph 2:7 That in the ages to come he might

shew the exceeding riches of his grace in

his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus

Ro 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the

offence might abound. But where sin abounded,

grace did much more abound: 

Paul understood how rich we are because we have been redeemed, forgiven, sanctified, made joint heirs with Christ, given a new nature, and seated in the heavenlies.  

Eph 2:6 And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

There is not space to list all the aspects of our riches. So let me just finish with one from our title verse.

Paul knew the great power of God. He encourages us to use it. He explains it with different words for power.

Eph 1:19 And what is the exceeding

greatness of his power to us-ward who believe,

according to the working of his mighty power,

The first word power is <dunamis> the root word for dynamite and dynamo. Dynamite makes things move. Dynamoes are power producing machines that change one kind of power into another form of power.  Here Paul is emphasizing the power to make things happen, make things move, even things thought unmovable…like dynamite in a mountain. 

Then the second word power, “…the working of his mighty power,” is from the Greek <ischus> Which talks of might and strength. I like to think of that as the kind of strength that is unmovable. God gives us power to make things happen and strength to not be moved. I am not a Greek student, but that makes sense to me.

So the question for us today is, will we stay in what is comfortable and miss what is magnificent?  Will our riches in Christ remain unused, even unknown to us? Let us live like children of the king and not as spiritual paupers in his courts. 

Eph 3:20 Now unto him that is able to do

 exceeding abundantly above

all that we ask or think,…,

Mar 26 Expressways

Mar 26

Expressways

Heb 12:1 …and let us run with patience

the race that is set before us

“I want it all, and I want it now!”  What a perfect way to describe our modern day world. The time saving gadgets in our lives have become our masters. The need for instant everything has infected our way of thinking so that we are depressed when we have to do things the old slow way.

But our verse for today speaks of patience. The common old joke is “I want patience and I want it now!”  Perhaps that is because we see patience as a long slow process, but our verse talks of racing and patience in the same sentence. How can that be? Running a race is not about how fast you can go, but how you pace yourself. If you follow auto racing you have seen the driver who leads most of the race lose before the finish line because he ran out of fuel. There is a lot of truth in the hair and the tortoise story. The slow turtle wins because the fast rabbit stopped to rest.

That story is not about going as slow as a turtle as opposed to racing like a rabbit. It is about slow and steady wins the race. Today’s world seems to force us into expressway kind of thinking. Even expressways are not fast enough. The speed limit is 70 on most expressways and we have all been passed by people doing way more than the limit. I was driving on an expressway on a Sunday morning in downtown Chicago. I was in the slow lane and doing 85 to stay with the traffic flow. The speed limit was 55. Suddenly a cop car came down an entrance ramp, pulled onto the expressway right behind me, and then flew past me at who knows what speed. 30 miles over the limit and it was seen as normal! You may have seen the same situation when driving because we live in a hurry scurry society.

There isn’t space to list all the instant things in our world today. There used to be one telephone in a house, now people wear the phone on their ear.  Fast food isn’t fast enough. We want them to hand it out the window so we don’t have to take time to go inside to eat. We can’t wait until the evening news so we now have 24 hour news. Ditto for weather. Cooking takes too long so grocery stores sell us food they have cooked  or prepared. 

Now are these convenience items bad? No, not in themselves. What is bad is the loss of patience for things that require time. God is not in a hurry and learning spiritual lessons sometimes takes time. There is no shortcut to spiritual maturity. Perhaps that explains why so many Christians have not grown to their full potential spiritually. There is no drive up window for maturity. No 30 second instant box of spiritual understanding. No “instant on” of Bible knowledge.

When I taught computers at a college I had a student who was unhappy. She said she wanted to do advanced graphic design and “the real complicated stuff on computers”. I asked her to do something very basic but when she was unable to she complained, “I don’t want to waste my time learning all the simple stuff, I want to know how to do the really advanced computer things.”  She wanted to learn how to run without first learning to crawl or walk.

I  sometimes talk with Christians who want to discuss far out prophetic interpretations from Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation, yet they have not applied some of the most basic concepts required for spiritual maturity.

2Pe 1:5 tells us to be diligent and add to our faith; virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brother kindness, and charity. So how are we doing in this area? How is your Bible knowledge. That requires actually reading the Bible, and that is not an instant task. Some kids at a Bible School did a marathon reading of the Bible, and read in turns nonstop. I think it took them about 44 hours or something like that to complete the reading of the Bible. If we would read it once a year it would be wonderful.

Then after knowledge comes temperance. (Moderation in all things.).  The list continues and ends with Charity. Modern Bibles substitute the word ”love” for charity. Charity encompasses so much more than just love. But even with that crippled definition I see people who are self-deceived. I hear them talk about loving people when it is obvious they have not mastered brotherly kindness.

Developing a mature Christian character is not something done in a microwave in 30 seconds. But as the Chinese say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. It would be good for us all to pause, that means stop multitasking for a few seconds, and slowly read down through the verses from 2 Peter. Stop at each one and ask “How am I doing with this one”.  Peter continues after the list with these words.

2Pe 1:9 But he that lacketh these things is blind,

and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten

that he was purged from his old sins.           

Ouch!! I need to review the list. Perhaps you do too!

2Pe 1:5 ¶ And beside this, giving all diligence,

add to your faith virtue;

and to virtue knowledge;

 6 And to knowledge temperance;

 and to temperance patience;

and to patience godliness;

 7 And to godliness brotherly kindness;

and to brotherly kindness charity.

Mar 25 - 500 Angels

Mar 25

500 Angels

2Ti 2:23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid…

“A fool can ask more questions than a wise man can ever answer.” That is true even more now in the “information age”.  Several years ago a school superintendent asked me several Bible related questions. He said he was a Christian, and told me about his wonderful Bible preaching grandfather. I think he was trying to impress me with his deep knowledge of the Bible. He was the kind of Christian who wore cowboy boots, drank whiskey, chawed tbaccy, told dirty stories, cussed with the best of them, but never used God’s name in vain.  He knew that was just wrong!  

His questions were about creation. Things like if light wasn’t created the first day how did God see what he was doing.  Did the trees have growth rings in them? Where did Cain and Able get their wives? Just one foolish and unlearned question after another.

So I responded to his questions by telling him “500!”  He looked puzzled and asked “500?” 

“Yes, I think the answer to your questions is 500 angels can dance on the head of a pin.”  That was a reference to the medieval ages when theologians debated such silliness.  I was in effect telling him that I was not going to respond to his questions which were of the same type the ancient theologians debated. He smiled and the conversation changed.

The Bible is pretty clear and easy to understand, at least the basic central theme. For example;

Ge 1:1  In the beginning God created

the heaven and the earth.

Pretty simple to understand what this verse says. There are no big words. People who want to ask picky technical questions about creation probably do not accept the first verse of the Bible. Sometimes I just take them back to this verse and ask if they believe it. Yes or No! Paul gave Timothy the best advice. Do whatever it takes to avoid foolish and unlearned questions.

     Do not be deceived by those who pretend to be spiritual and ask questions no man can answer. They do not seek answers, they only want to show your understanding is flawed, to reinforce their own unbelief.

1Ti 1:4 Neither give heed to fables and endless
genealogies, which minister questions,
rather than godly edifying which is in faith...

It requires some discernment to tell who is seeking to know God better and who is there just to try to befuddle you with foolish questions. If someone does not want to talk about Christ until you tell them if the ass Balaam rode spoke Hebrew or Chaldean, (Num 22:28) you are talking to a fool. Ignore their foolishness because whatever answer you may give will not lead to either their edification or your own.  

     Paul repeats the same warning 3 times in Timothy and once in Titus. There were false teachers in those days. They had altered the scriptures.

2Pe 3:16 As also in all his epistles, …which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.

Paul warned Titus to beware of such foolish people.

Tit 3:9 ¶ But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies,
and contentions, and strivings about the law;
for they are unprofitable and vain. 10 A man
that is an heretick after the first and second admonition reject; 11 Knowing that he that is such is subverted,
and sinneth, being condemned of himself.

The world is filled with people who reject the simple Biblical message of Salvation by faith alone.  They do not need to prove every verse of the Bible is wrong. The biggest lies are the ones which are mostly true, but the key element is false. Our society is filled with lies, and we are encouraged, sometimes by the force of law to conform to this world (Rom 12:1) Homosexual marriage is just two people who love each other.  Abortion isn’t evil. Evolution is how God did it. Fornication (unmarried sex) is normal. The Bible is filled with violence and bloodshed and genocide. God wouldn’t do that. He loves everybody and we will all get to heaven in our own way.  The Bible is filled with errors.
    Then to make matters even worse, Bible publishing houses rewrite the Bible, leave out a verse here and there, then copyright it to protect their profits and tell you they have the most accurate Bible. A dozen or so years later, a different publisher copyrights their version and claims it is the most accurate. Their goal is not accuracy, but profits. 

We are awash in misinformation, lies, and heresies. Our thought for meditation today is an antidote to avoid such foolishness. Do not study to be an expert in what is false. Build up your knowledge with the truth of God. Read your Bible. It will be a greater blessing than arguing with a fool.

2Ti 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God,
 a workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.
16 But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

 

 

 

         

Mar 24 Too Cold to Plow

Mar 24

Too Cold to Plow

Pr 20:4  The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold.…

You can’t fix a leaky roof while it is raining and when the rain stops there isn’t any reason to fix it. That old common humorous saying is like our verse for today. They are both excuses.  People have been making excuses since the Garden of Eden. Adams excuse was a classic.

Ge 3:12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest

to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

He had a double barreled excuse. He blamed both the woman and God. Men have been blaming their wives ever since!

Another classic excuse that is so bad it is almost funny deals with Aaron and the golden calf. Moses was on the mountain talking with God and receiving the ten commandments. He returned to find the people were partying so loudly he thought there was a war going on. At about the same time Moses saw the people were worshipping a golden calf. When Moses confronted Aaron about the golden calf Aaron’s excuse is nearly laughable.

Ex 32:24 And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any

gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me:

then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.

Perhaps it was not a sculpture of a calf. It may have been a pool of gold from the fire that sort of, kind of, maybe looked like a calf. That may have been what they were worshipping. Even then it took someone to interpret the shape as a calf worthy of worship. Just like today people find potato chips that look like Jay Leno or some other figment of their imagination.

Excuse making seems to be a human trait. Men do not want to accept blame for their actions and one excuse is as good as another. But our verse today deals with more than just excuses. Our verse deals with sluggards! Webster defines a sluggard as “habitually lazy”.  There are times when it is too cold to plow. But the diligent farmer is busy working on something else and will plow as soon as conditions are acceptable. The sluggard uses cold as an excuse to do nothing and maybe rolls over in bed and sleeps.

Pr 26:14  As the door turneth upon his hinges,

so doth the slothful upon his bed.

The sluggard may finally crawl out of bed but instead of working on something else finds another excuse to stay in the house.

Pr 22:13  The slothful man saith, There is a

lion without, I shall be slain in the streets.

After while these flimsy excuses become almost funny. They are so ridiculous we laugh at the person who is foolish enough to offer such dumb excuses.

Christ used people who had dumb excuses as an illustration in Luke 14:16. A certain man had planned a great supper and invited many. When the appointed time came he sent his servant to remind the guests to come.

Lu 14:18 And they all with one consent

 began to make excuse.

One had bought land and needed to see it, another had purchased 5 yoke of oxen and needed to see what he had bought, and the third said he was now married and couldn’t come. All sorry excuses. Who buys land or oxen sight unseen?

The host was so angry he filled his table with anyone who would come, with the exception of those who had made excuse.

Lu 14:24 For I say unto you, That none of those men

which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

The spiritual meaning of Luke 14:16-24 is pretty clear. Those who have an excuse for not coming when called shall not taste the masters supper. Some people may excuse themselves right out of heaven. Not now. Some other day.  They have another road to heaven. They were baptized as an infant. Etc Etc. They cannot claim this verse. 

Ro 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness

with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

We can all do better in our Christian walk. The thought for today is to watch out for people who never read their Bible, never pray, find little joy in worship, and are careless in their manner of living. Yet they claim the name of Christ and make excuses for their lack of evidence. The man who claims to be a farmer, but will not plow by reason of the cold is not a farmer. He is a sluggard. May we be watchful for those who claim the name of Christ but in reality are lost sluggards without saving faith.

May God reveal to us our own silly excuses for not being what we should be. Our prayers should echo the words of Paul. 

Php 3:13 …I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,  14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.