4-25-2020 THINK ON THESE THINGS

Philippians 4:4-9

Paul wrote to the church at Philippi encouraging words:

            Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice

            Let your moderation be known to all men.  The Lord is at hand.

Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, or if there is any virtue or if there is any praise, think on these things.

Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me, do and the God of peace shall be in you.

1 Corinthians 10:23-24

All things are lawful for me but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me but all things don’t edify.

Ephesians 4:21-32

If so that you have heard Him (Jesus), and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus.

That you put off concerning former conversation of the old man, which is corrupt according to deceitful lusts

            And be renewed in the Spirit of your mind,

That you put on the new man, which after God, is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Therefore putting away lying, let every man speak truth with his neighbor, for we are members, one of another.

            Be angry and sin not, don’t let the sun go down on your wrath.

            Neither give place to the devil.

Let him that stole, steal no more, rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good that he may give to him that needs.

Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace to the hearers.

And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you are sealed unto the day of redemption.

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.

And be kind, one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you.

Let’s talk a little about what should be driving our actions, what we say, what we think.

Rejoice

Be cheerful, well-off, joy, God speed (Strong’s 5463).  I might add “be happy in our heart.  Let the Lord know you appreciate all that He is and has done!”

Let our moderation be seen before men

Appropriate, gentle, patient (Strong’s 1933).  Let’s be patient in all situations, with all people.  The Lord is always near and ready to help us.  He is our strength (Phil. 4:13)

Be careful for nothing.

Don’t be anxious rather think it through (Strong’s 3309).  Don’t worry about things rather pray about them and thank God for what He is going to or has already done.

Let God’s peace reign in our hearts because of our Lord, Jesus Christ

Quietness or rest (Strong’s 1515).  Let God’s peace (like a river) rest in our soul (Isa. 48:18).  Remember Jesus says He is always with us and will never forsake us (Heb. 13:5).  Who can fight against God and win (Acts 5:39)?  God is in us!  Quit worrying about things!  It’ll only give you an ulcer.  But do take appropriate action!

True

Not concealed (hidden) (Strong’s 227).  Say what you mean and mean what you say.  Don’t blow any smokescreens hiding your true intents.  Be ‘open’, ‘transparent’.

Honest

Grave (serious)(Strong’s 4586).  Let’s be straightforward and not deceiving.  If you can’t say something good or true about someone, keep the lip zipped.  We can always say good things yet, don’t flatter just to get people to agree with you or do what you want.  Don’t lie, even the inner person can be beautiful!

Just

Innocent, holy, proper (Strong’s 1342).  ‘Nuff said?  Do that which is the right thing to do or say.  Don’t condemn, but, as led by the Spirit, correct and direct.  Helping a brother walk closer with the Lord is better than a ‘slam dunk’.  (hah, I’m right!)

Pure

Modest, chaste, perfect, clean (Strong’s 53).  When we live in God’s love, we find ourselves being as the definition describes.  Or at least, we are working in that direction.  Following Jesus’ example for living and confessing our sins (immediately) goes a long way in maintaining spiritual purity.

Lovely

Friendly (Strong’s 4375).  That is we should always take a non-violent, congenial approach to everything.  I’m not saying wishy washy.  Assertive is being strong yet not aggressive.  Stand your ground (when right) but, to get your point across, don’t snarl and punch him in the nose!  Love, be pleasant, you may gain (or regain) a friend. 

Good report

Well-spoken, reputable (Strong’s 2163).  Paul encourages us to always do that which edifies (1 Thess. 5:9-11).  That means we don’t gossip about or tear down others.  Rather we do or say that which helps another person draw closer to Christ.  As we draw closer to Him in our own lives, it makes it difficult for others to, in truth, speak ill of us.  God blessed Joseph right into 2^nd only to Pharaoh in Egypt because he was of ‘good report’ (Gen. chptrs 37-47).

Virtue

Excellence, praise (Strong’s 703).  We have Jesus in our heart, we do our best to live right, do right and be right.  We live by God’s standards. It ain’t easy, but we do our best (thank You, Holy Spirit).  Live our lives so that people can only say good things about our example.  Let them see the love of Christ alive and well in our own lives.

Praise

Laud (Strong’s 1868).  I may expand this to include lift up, glorify, magnify, even exalt (we’re talking about our relationship with our Father).  How many good things can we think of who He is and our gratitude for what He has done for us?  When we can no longer think of anything to say, we can always ask the Spirit to help us out.  We can also speak good things of others but let the praise be true.  Also consider, our actions can speak louder than our words.  We go bonkers over entertainers, does God deserve less?

Grieve            

Be sad or sorry, make heavy [as burdened] (Strong’s 3076).  We grieve the Holy Ghost when we do things contrary to God’s word and will.  The Spirit is grieved when we credit to anything else with what Father has done.  If you will, His heart cries at our disobedience.  Jesus didn’t just cry for Lazarus, but as he entered in, He cried for all Jerusalem (John 11:35). Think how we might feel if we saw a car strike and kill a puppy.  Sadness fills our heart.  Jesus knew that Jerusalem yet was rejecting His free love!

Malice

Evil, wickedness, (Strong’s 2549) When I first read this I said that doesn’t make any sense because I read ‘with’ to mean as to ‘how’.  Then the Holy Ghost had me read it a little differently –‘’malice’ along with these other things’.  Then it made sense!

Now, go back and reread our passages.  Do you see them any differently?

As we live our life in Christ Jesus, we grow into living more and more in God’s love.  Living in love IS keeping His law for His law (briefly [Exod. 20:1-17]) describes how to love Him and our neighbor for God is love.  As we grow in that love we discover the things that we do are lawful because they fall into alignment with God’s love (will).  That is we make the decision to move away from those things that don’t please our heavenly Father and gravitate, more and more, towards those things that do.  Ergo, the things that we do ARE lawful because we do that which is IN God’s will.

Jesus is the truth so we put away the old, sinful man, and put on the new man living in God’s love.  As we move into alignment with God’s love, we find our mind (our thoughts and mindset) is being led by the Holy Spirit so we are putting off those lustful and selfish thoughts that used to motivate us and putting on God’s love.  truly caring for others – agape love. 

Our ‘new man’ seeks after true holiness and righteousness therefore we quit lying to our neighbor and especially our Christian brother.  Remember, those in Christ are one body.  Would we lie to ourselves? (hope not)

Being angry at what someone has done to us is natural and we don’t have to like a word or an action directed at us.  But we need to remember what motivates that action.  Our fight is always against the forces of darkness, Satan and those angels who fell with him (Eph. 6:12).  We take action against the root of what has been done against us then forgive the person by which that offense came (they don’t really understand) – before the day ends.  Harboring anger only hurts us because it tears at our spirit and draws us away from God as we are consumed by that anger.  In rebuking and resisting whatever the attack was (from our enemy) and by forgiving the one by whom the offense came, we are eliminating places in which the devil can operate in our life.

Stealing comes in many forms so let us do the works worthy of our love for Jesus.  Remember, He shed His precious blood for us while our works were yet far from Him, bringing us the promise of eternal fellowship with our heavenly Father. 

Malachi asks will a man rob God (Mal. 3:8-9) by not giving Him our tithes and offerings.  We do, when we don’t support what God is doing through His people (church).  Understand, the tithe is 10% of our increase, what we’ve earned since the last time we gave.  Not only is God due our tithe but He commands it (Mal. 3:10-12).  We can also rob God by not using the talents and/or gifting, which He has given us, for His glory.  I’m not saying we can’t benefit from our talents or gifts, but who gave us that ability to sing, organize, play music, dance, etc.?  We just need to always remember where that gift came from, thanking Him for His goodness.  Not acknowledging what Father has freely given us is just like not tithing.  It is stealing.  We rob Father of His glory as He works through us.  We just ‘take’ and give nothing back.  Giving Him the glory is ‘giving back’!  Amen?  Oh, and by the way, we can rob people of blessings when we don’t share the talents God has given us.  Think about it.    

Don’t tear down, demean nor destroy others with our words.  Rather let us consider what can help that other person to be a better person and walk closer with our Lord.  The list in Philippians is a good place to start by putting it into practice.  The power of life and death are in our tongue.  We build up, not tear down.  We can destroy or build by how we act or in what we say (Prov. 18:21).

Let us put an end (in our lives) to bitterness, evil speaking and the like by applying diligence and sincerity into what we say and do.  When we retain evil in our heart and deny the power of the Holy Ghost, we grieve Him.  As long as we are on this earth, we should never grieve the Holy Ghost.  It is put this way, for when we are with the Lord in eternity, I don’t believe it will even be possible to grieve the Holy Ghost.  Then we should all be walking and talking in God’s will.  We will all know the role of the Holy Ghost in the Godhead.  After all, then, we will be with Him, (present and accounted for) – Father, Son and Holy Ghost!

God’s love is expressed through our kindness towards others, being caring for their situations and helping them to draw closer to God.  We should always be forgiving towards all men – even if they don’t repent or ask our forgiveness.  As he was being stoned to death, Stephen asked God to forgive those stoning him (Acts 6:9 - 7:60).  (sound familiar?  Luke 23:34)

We all have an eternal judge.  Jesus makes the final call who comes into eternal peace and who goes into eternal damnation (John 5:22).  And remember, even when we denied and rejected God, Father came into this world in the form of Jesus Christ and shed His blood on the cross, cleansing us from all unrighteousness, iniquities, our sin and bringing all who repent, back into His fold (eternal life).

Make no mistake.  All this takes effort – great effort – on our part.  It doesn’t ‘just’ happen.  We choose to do that which is right, then pursue it!

So, what things should we think on?  Being thankful and glad for God’s love towards us, as we do our best to give our love back to Him.  Jesus says that we show our love for Him by helping those around us.  As we help others, we find that God fills us with Joy.  Especially helping those ‘in God’s kingdom’ for Jesus says that as we do unto the least in His kingdom, we do unto Him (Matt. 25:40).  God gives us joy when we give Him the glory for what He does in us and through us.

We should focus on those things that edify others, not stroke their egos, but say and do things that 

will help them become better people and closer to God. 

Do we seek the peace of God in our heart?  As we give Father His due and respect others, we discover that we can rejoice, be glad and enter His gates with thanksgiving in our heart.

These things we think upon – then do.

Amen

4-11-2020 Wrestling With God

       

        

    

Jacob served Laban for twenty years, 7 each for Leah and Rachel and another six for livestock (Gen. 31:41). 

Gen. 32:24-30

Jacob had decided to go back to his homeland and ask his brother’s (Esau) forgiveness.  On the way, Jacob and his family came to a brook where he sent his family across while he stayed behind, alone.  It was here that he wrestled with a ‘man’ until the break of day.  As they wrestled, the man touched Jacob’s thigh and put it out of joint and said “Let me go for the day is breaking.”  Jacob refused unless he received a blessing.  The man asked Jacob (supplanter, trickster) his name then said not any more, now you shall be called Israel for you have power with God and man.  Jacob asked the man his name and the man asked “Why do you want to know my name?”   The man blessed him there.  Jacob called the place where they wrestled “Peniel” for he saw God face to face and lived. 

Jacob declared that He had seen God face to face and lived.  Later, God explains to Moses that no man can see His face and live (Exod. 33:20), yet He let Moses see His back (Exod. 33:22-23) and Jacob wrestled with Him and lived.  Why do you suppose God said this? 

His presence is so awesome, we can’t begin to imagine.  In the natural, we cannot contain His glory, that is comprehend it.  Years ago, I asked God how BIG is He really?  In a split second, my mind started seeing and was racing through galaxies, faster than I could imagine.  Multitudes of stars just whizzing past me at incredible speed,  countless behind me and limitless more still ahead. Then it came to a sudden stop (screech!).  It just stopped!  I felt like my brain (head) was expanding in all directions.  Had it continued, I felt as though my little, pea-pickin’ brain would have exploded!  I was a little sad, but thankful.  Sad that I couldn’t see more, but thankful that I was still alive.  So, did God lie about dying if we saw Him?  Not because He might kill us, rather because we just can’t contain His glory.  But God can give His grace and favor to whomsoever He desires (Rom. 9:15-16), whenever He desires.  Yes?  I think that on that day, Father gave me an understanding about what He meant (to see Him = death), the racing through the galaxies.  Had it lasted even a split second longer, I have no doubt I surely would have died.  My mind couldn’t even begin to contain what I was seeing.

However, think about it, in the Old Covenant man could not look upon the face of God and live (save by special grace), but in the New Covenant, with the Holy Spirit in us, Father invites us to come in and sup with Him (Rev. 3:20).  To be in His presence?????  Hmmmm.  Seems to me that with Jesus in our hearts and the Holy Spirit in our lives, something has changed!  We may not be able see God with our naked eye (though some have claimed) but we surely can experience Him!  Feel His 

presence.  Know that He is there, with us.  And live!

So do we literally wrestle with God. 

The Apostle Paul tells us that we don’t wrestle with flesh and blood but against powers, principalities and the rulers of darkness in this world and spiritual wickedness in high places (Eph. 6:12).  So our battles are not with things which we can see, but with things we can’t see with the natural eye.  God is a Spirit (John 4:24).  And because God created all things through Jesus (Col. 1:16-17), I think that we may say ‘that makes Him (God) the ‘Top Dog’ in anything and everything that is.  So nothing else can possibly be above Him (Jer. 10:6).  Yet, Father gives us (those who have received Jesus) access to Him personally, in His throne room, through the torn curtain in the ancient temple (Matt. 27:51) upon Jesus’ death upon the cross.  The veil separating man from  God was torn in two.  His blood was shed that we might live (Matt. 26:28), that is, have eternal fellowship with the Father (John 17:20-23). 

For us, today, we can see Him in the Spirit, yet Father tells us that we shall see Him as He really is (1 John 3:2).  God is Spirit so we experience Him, in this world, in the Spirit and in the Spirit  we worship Him (John 4:24).

Do we wrestle with issues today?  Do we just give up and wallow in our self-pity (woe is me)?  Or do we press on through the situation.  Therefore we have to remember that our ‘fight is always spiritually based.  Whether someone is physically attacking us or a situation seems more than we can handle.  Whether it’s resisting the enemy or yielding and receiving blessings from God.  Whether it’s illness or issues.  It is spiritual!

Our walk with God is a life-long struggle yielding ourselves over to Him.  The devil doesn’t want us to get closer to Father so he does his best to draw, entice, trick us (whatever) to prevent us from doing so.  How hard do we fight to let God’s love reign supreme in our lives?

When we petition Father, there is a sacrifice on our part.  We may have to give up something.  At times, even though we desire to go ‘left’, we may need to actually choose to go ‘right’ –because that’s where God has our blessing or answer.  I’ve struggled with a lot of things over the years (and still do) and at times I haven’t always made the right choice (no comment).  Even though I may have travelled down the wrong road (for a while), Father has made a cutoff path for me so I could get back over on to the ‘right’ path (repentance & making the decision to get back into alignment with Father).  I just had to keep my eyes open to recognize what was going on and get back into alignment in His will.  He always gives us a way out of our wrong choices (1 Corinth. 10:13).  We just have to recognize it, then follow the lead of the Holy Spirit.

The hardest time I’ve had is when Father took my wife of 34 years home to be with Him.  That was the first time I had cried in over 50 years (literally).  Later, He explained to me that He used that event in my life to open up compassion within me.  He also told me that He used this as a means of drawing me into the closer relationship with Him (which He wanted).  It also served to bring my daughter and my granddaughter much closer together than they had been.  Hard lesson for me, but I would have learned neither had life gone on as before.  I know this in my heart.  We do have to give up things so God can accomplish what He desires in our lives.  Hold it!  Now I’m not saying everyone has to lose a loved one.  I AM saying that there is a cost, whatever it may be and it could be something we love dearly.  A person, an object, and idea, something.  Just what is hindering our relationship with the Lord?

Want to lose weight?  We have to change our current eating habits and maybe even fast (complete or partial) at times and even get up off our duffs and do some exercising. (whoa!  Now you’ve gone from teaching to preaching!).  Does that mean I may have to give up my bon bons, chocolate ice cream, etc.?  No, no!  Not that item I just bought!  I LOVED it!  Now wait a minute, my time is my time.  Are you saying I might have to give Father MORE TIME?  Mmmm, Could be. 

Once we’ve shown Father how serious we are, He’ll step in and give us the strength (we need) to accomplish whatever we’re striving for.  It is a struggle.  It is a fight, but it is winnable!

Once we’ve yielded the hindrances and taken steps to change we become like the steward who was faithful with his talents.  His master gave him money to keep for him.  The faithful servant went out and invested that money so that when the master came back, he could give him, not only the money he was given, but interest as well (Matt. 25:14-30).  In the parable, the servant who was faithful with much was also given much (for his faithfulness) even that which the ‘unfaithful’ servant had buried and returned (in tack) to his master. When we do what Father expects us to do, He will bless us richly.  Father tells us that there is nothing we can give up that He won’t give back to us, 100 fold in this life and in the world to come (eternity) (Mark 10:29-30).

 Do we wrestle with God?  Of course.  Not because He doesn’t want us to have things but it is our being obstinate to not follow in His will which creates the wrestling match.  The question is do we give up quickly once things get a little tough?  Or, like Jacob, do we hang on until we get the blessing?  How long are we willing to hold on?  Do we wrestle (with life) to obtain the prize (1 Corinth. 9:24-25).  As we stay true with the Lord, this is one race we all win – eternal fellowship with the Father through Jesus, the Son.  We may receive bumps and bruises as we wrestle.  We may experience setbacks.  Yet, in the end, crossing the finish line is more than worth it all.  Holding on for our blessing will have its rewards.  Yes, the hallow of Jacobs thigh withered.  That is it may cost us something, but how determined are we to receive blessings from God. 

Will we stay the course with Father and receive what He has for us?  We know that even if we receive nothing in this life, eternal fellowship with God is more than worth it. (yes?)

Hang in there.  Victory, or blessings, is within our grasp.  How serious are we about receiving what Father has for us?  Serve the Lord and trust the Lord!  We can’t even imagine what He has in store for us. 

Amen