Thursday, October 27, 2011

Romans 8:1 No Condemnation

Romans 8:1  “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (NASB)

Referred to as “The greatest verse in the Bible” by some, the truth revealed here is certainly central to the Gospel and essential to the Christian faith.  What a verse! 

Of course it isn’t fair to just jump right in to Romans 8 without pointing to the “Therefore”.  That single word at the beginning of the verse points to all that has gone before.  It has been a road pointing to the desperate need for a savior of all men.  Not just the gentiles but also the Jews, God’s chosen people.  Romans has pointed to man's ability to know God exists through His creation yet points to man’s rejection of the Creator.  Romans shows the way of knowing Christ as Savior and the redemption offered through Grace rather than works.  Leading up to Romans 8 we are presented with the struggle even Paul faces living out his salvation under Grace but in this sin stained body wrestling daily with the battle of spirit and flesh.

Only then comes the great news and assurance of Romans 8.  “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”.  So the verse is for those of us walking this earth and for those that have passed on “In Christ” only.  To be clear this is not a universal get out of jail card for the human race.  This assurance is limited. 

For those, “In Christ” the assurance is, “Now”.  Isn’t it significant to know that the assurance of Romans 8 is not something to wait for or hope for but is, “Now”?  I think so.  And what is “Now”“No condemnation” is what is “Now”.  So currently, in this present time, as we walk through this life troubled by the battle of spirit and flesh just referenced in Romans 7 we have this assurance of Romans 8.  There is no condemnation now.  I don’t have to wait for someone to remove my sin at some ceremony later.  Because of Christ Jesus my sin results in no condemnation right now.  That is a wonderful message to me.

Now there are plenty of warnings in earlier chapters of Romans about intentionally liberating Grace by sinning all to more.  Paul tells us this is absolutely wrong and misses the point.  The point is we will continue to sin because we are damaged goods.  We have a sin nature handed down from our father Adam.  Try and we might, we will continue to sin from time to time.  When we do, those sins are covered immediately by Grace through the work of Christ Jesus and we find ourselves in this state of “No condemnation”.  

Applied to our lives there should be great comfort in knowing we walk in Grace free from the burden of our sins.  We do not have to carry the guilt of our sins before the Lord.  When the Father looks at us he sees the Son; guiltless.  So we don't need to be kicking ourselves, that is what Satan wants.  He wins when we do that.  Hold your head up high and go do something for Jesus.


In closing, if this isn’t the greatest verse in the Bible, it certainly gives rise to explanation of the greatest gift, Jesus Christ our Lord.  AMEN!

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Proverbs 24:27 Priorities: Work then Build

Proverbs 24:27  “Prepare your work outside And make it ready for yourself in the field; Afterwards, then, build your house.” (NASB)

It’s been a busy week.  I’ve been off to a week of conferences and meetings.  I actually lugged two computers through airports to have the ability to do work unique to each machine and found the time commitment of the meetings themselves made the gesture mute.  So, the devotion took the back burner I’m afraid.  This morning though I’m up early and thinking about the busy-ness of business and thought I’d search Scripture on the issue of work.  Where else I reasoned than Proverbs to look?  So there I came to rest on something I had not expected but something rich none-the-less.

A proverb about work.

Solomon, the writer of Proverbs writes this little one liner putting work in perspective.  I believe and I confirmed it with two commentaries (Brown and Henry) that it is referring to the order of things or the priorities in life.  If you take a look around – priorities are way out of whack so perhaps getting things right might be in order. 

So what priorities are in need of keeping straight?  Simply put the priority of need vs. want.  In Solomon’s words he says, “Prepare your work outside And make it ready for yourself in the field”.  That is the first priority.  He is saying do your work of providing for your basic needs.  In that time they lived most often in tents, “In the field”.  So, the focus Solomon suggests is doing your work and provide for yourself as you live in the field in your tents. 

What comes next?  Priority two or the lower priority comes next.  That is to, “Afterwards, then, build your house”.  So, he’s saying that it is all well and good to aspire to the nice house but it is not a necessity.  You are fine living in the tent in the field until you are able to build the house.  In other words, the building of the house was the lower priority; not the necessity.
So what!  How does this apply to us?

I’d say this has incredible application to us and the society we live in.  We in fact tend to live the opposite of this Proverb.  We go out and get then wonder how if ever we will pay for things including houses.  Just look at the mess we’re in right now with both buyers and lenders doing deals on houses they could not afford.  The honorable of them are hopelessly upside down in their mortgages while the less honorable have walked away sometimes at the bank’s suggestion.  Frankly, it is because they did not follow this simple Proverb.  Work for it first, and then buy.

So am I saying not to take out a mortgage to purchase a home?  No, that’s not at all what I’m saying.  Certainly though to make a purchase with a balloon payment you have no means to pay simply hoping that the market will continue to increase so the home value will outpace the looming debt so you can sell or re-fi is just plain FOOLISH.  Yes, I know I’ve offended someone but it is the truth.  It is foolish and the Proverb tells us so.

But is this principle limited to work and housing?  No!  The application should go much deeper into our thinking and our behavior.  We should work first and buy second.  Many Americans have more than ten credit cards in their wallets and many are at their limits because they simply will not wait. 

Notice the Proverb does not condemn the building of the house; it simply puts it in order.  There is a time to build the house.  That is the message for us and frankly for the crowd that wants others to provide for their “Needs” which are really wants rather than working themselves.  Having the nicer things of life should come after they are earned.  There is nothing wrong with building the house but do the work first. AMEN!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Psalm 10:1-4 Occupy Wall Street?

Psalm 10:1-4  “Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?  In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted; Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.  For the wicked boasts of his heart's desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD.   The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him. All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God.’" (NASB)

Sharon and I have taken on teaching the discipleship class for the Jr. High and High School age kids on Sunday morning.  I’ve not taught from prepared curriculum before so I’m really just getting settled down into the routine of preparing for the lessons and ways of teaching the material as it has been prepared.  I have to admit it is good material and having a logical flow of thought and much of the homework done for me makes my life easier.  And I also get the benefit of insight of those who have done their homework in both preparing and then proofing the material.

So in preparing for tomorrow’s lesson and with thoughts of all the Facebook and news accounts of the Wall Street protests this one passage just shouted out to me.  It is an indictment indeed but I’m not sure that it is vindication for anyone involved.  Let’s take a look.

The writer opens with a question.  “Why do You stand afar off, O LORD?”.  Clearly the circumstances of the day are apparent to the writer that God is absent from current affairs.  A follow up question, “Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?”  So not only is God absent but the observation is that God is intentionally absent.  He is allowing the circumstances that have come to be continue on for the moment without His intervention; He is “Hiding” Himself.

Now something about the circumstances, “In pride the wicked hotly pursue the afflicted”.  So, those who are already afflicted are being pursued by wicked men.  Insult to injury might be another way to depict what these brutes are attempting to inflict on the downtrodden.  Hmm!  Then the psalmist prays an outcome on these wicked men, “Let them be caught in the plots which they have devised.”  Why?  “For the wicked boasts of his heart’s desire, And the greedy man curses and spurns the LORD.”  Now wait a minute.  So these wicked men are all in it for themselves rather than the LORD?  Yep, that sounds about right.  Pad the executive's salary then when they get caught and get driven out give them a big severance package.  Sad ... Let’s continue.

“The wicked, in the haughtiness of his countenance, does not seek Him.  All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God’”.  Now that is interesting.  The wicked man in his high and mighty selfish pride has the attitude that he doesn’t need God.  He “Does not seek Him”.  In fact, “All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God’”.

Now back up the truck!  While you can certainly read much of this Psalm as a clear indictment of the money hungry industrial elite,  the Wall Street crowd, if you will, who have demonstrated their blatant disregard for “The afflicted”, they are not alone in their guilt.  While money and power have become their idol in many cases the buck (pardon the pun) does not stop with them. 

While money and power stand as the idol of many of these wicked men who oppress the afflicted you have to take a hard look at the self-professed saviors of the afflicted.  This bunch who says we’re the government and we’re here to help seeks to replace God with a grand social experiment all controlled by them.  Ask them about their faith and you may get lip service but the proof is in the pudding.  When they establish man’s laws in direct conflict to God’s laws the evidence is clear.  “All his thoughts are, ‘There is no God’”. 

Then you have to ask about the motivation of this crowd that has gathered.  Are they really the oppressed?  Are they the afflicted?  Are they the God fearing among us?  I'm not seeing the evidence of that though I'm not about to cast judgement on the whole lot.  What I will say is that so long as God is hiding, nothing will be solved by occupying anything.  A friend posted a picture of Jesus turning over the tables of the money changers in the temple except the setting wasn't the temple.  It was Wall Street.  Well, Wall Street is not the temple of God but it may well be the temple of some.

The God of the Bible is real and we as individuals and as a people had better get on our knees and confess that very truth.  When we honor Him appropriately, the Lord will come from His hiding place and begin blessing us anew.  AMEN!

Friday, October 14, 2011

Philippians 4:6-8 Anxiety Cure

Philippians 4:6-8  “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” (NASB)

So, it’s 3:30 in the morning and I’m sitting in my hotel room after a week of meetings here at the “Happiest Place on Earth” and I’m writing my BLOG.  OK …  Most folks would be sleeping you’d say?  Well, it’s not like I just got in from a late night of carousing with the gang.  We did have a nice banquet to close out the meeting but then I turned in.  After some decent sleep I found myself thinking and actually wrestling with the events of the week and the meetings and decisions that need to come next.  Yep, right here at Disneyland, I was tossing and turning anxious about business decisions ahead.  After an hour or so of being fully aware that was going on, I gave up and got up.  I’ll BLOG then decide it is time to sleep or just pack up and drive back to Wasco.

As I came to clear thinking this Scripture came to mind.  “Be anxious for nothing” was the phrase that the Holy Spirit recalled to my memory.  It comes from Paul’s letter to the Philippians and comes in chapter 4 of 4 near the close of the letter.  I don’t know that you would call it a benediction but it is a portion of the closing remarks, the thoughts Paul wants left on the minds of the readers.  Thankfully, Paul doesn’t just give the admonition to not be anxious and drop it there; he gives some direction.

Paul adds, “But in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God”.  So, being anxious for nothing is not simply one of those self help techniques; a mind over matter deal.  No, “Be anxious for nothing” is the state of mind as we come to prayer and petition of the Lord.  And how are we to pray?  We are to offer our prayers and requests (supplications) with “Thanksgiving”.  With an attitude of thanksgiving we lift up our prayers and our requests to God and when we do, the promised result … “And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus”.  WOW!  So, if I’ll just stop a minute and with an attitude of thanksgiving give a little prayer to God about how things are and what’s on my mind, he’ll return to me more than I can possibly understand in the form of peace.

I feel better!

And now that I do, Paul gives me a little more … “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things”.

Shazamm!  Not only has Paul shown me the remedy for my anxiety but he’s shown me with what to fill the void.  Fill up my mind with good stuff and there simply won’t be room for all that crud anymore.  God’s Word is good! AMEN!

Friday, October 7, 2011

John 10:1-4 Sheep Know the Shepherd

John 10:1-4  "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber.  "But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.  "To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.  "When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.” (NASB)
 
Jesus often taught using parables to make His point.  As it is recorded, often His point was missed at first as the parables went right over the heads of those who were listening.  Perhaps because Scripture tells us that it is the Holy Spirit who teaches us (John 14:26), they still will in some cases.  The passage I turned to today is one of the parables of Jesus where He references His own ministry.  Let’s take a deeper look.

The parable references sheep and the sheep fold which is a common theme among His teaching.  Sheep are most often and I believe also in this case those who would believe in Jesus and upon doing so become Christians.  That coming to faith in Christ then is what this parable is about.  So how does it work?

First, there seem to be two kinds of people after the sheep.  The first described as, “He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way”.  Who is that you ask?  Well, who else wants your soul my friend?  This, “Thief and … robber” is Satan or those doing his work, perhaps the Jewish leaders in this context.  He is the one coming after the unsuspecting sheep to steal them away.

In contrast though, “But he who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep.  To him the doorkeeper opens”.  Jesus is the rightful one to come to His own flock. What comes next is the remarkable part I think, "And the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out”.  This friend is very important for us to understand.  It is Jesus who calls His own sheep from among the many.  He doesn’t steal what isn’t His.  He doesn’t come sneaking in where he doesn’t belong.  He comes in and He calls His own.  Don’t miss who initiates the action here it is a crucial point.  Jesus initiates the calling of His sheep.  He calls us to Him.

“When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice”.  Jesus calls His own sheep to follow and we do because we recognize Him as our Shepherd.  We hear His voice and we follow Him.

The bottom line then is that Satan wants to steal your soul like a wolf wants to poach from the flock.   But Jesus wants His own sheep and will call you who are His.  Those who belong to Him will recognize Him calling.  When you hear the Shepherd’s voice – follow.  AMEN!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Philippians 3:7-8 Our Best Work; Rubbish!

Philippians 3:7-8  “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,” (NASB)

Written by Paul the letter to the church in Philippi would have Mrs. Parker my high school English teacher having fits.  Talk about run on sentences.  There are no periods just a bunch of commas as Paul strings along this thought of how all of his best efforts are worthless in comparison to Christ.

Let’s take a closer look.  We have to roll it back a few verses to get a bit of a context and even understand Paul a bit.  Paul was a highly educated Jew in his day.  He was a Pharisee.  He writes, “Circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee” (Philippians 3:5) So, he’s giving us some of his credentials here.  He’s letting us know that among people and even among God’s chosen people the Jews, Paul is special having been educated in the Law and now ranked among the Pharisees.

Why is he telling us this?  Because he is giving us perspective.  He’s letting us know that among men and even among Jews if there were anyone to claim closeness to God it would be Paul.  He’s giving us this hypothetical in reference to his pre-conversion state as an unbelieving but God loving Jew.  He says in this state, “I myself might have confidence even in the flesh.  If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more:” (Philippians 3:5) So that is the setup for his credentials.  He is saying that those credentials give rise to his being able to claim confidence to a higher degree than most anyone else.  That is, should he believe it were appropriate.

And … clearly Paul does not believe that is appropriate.  His comparison here is to show that if he doesn’t believe it then no one else should either.  Paul says, “For we (followers of Christ) are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh,”  (Philippians 3:4)  So there, he comes out with it, all works apart from Christ as good as they may be when compared are worthless. 

And that is the point of the main passage today.  “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,” (Philippians 3:7-8)

All those accomplishments of Paul, those things he could in his flesh count as gain when put in proper perspective have no value at all.  In comparison to the gift of Christ our Savior and Redeemer who offers us eternal life with him when hell was our due, those efforts are but, “Rubbish”.  Amen!

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

James 4:13-15 Business Anyone?

(James 4:13-15)  "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.'  Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.  Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.'"

I’ve been silent on the BLOG for way too long now and for several reasons.  I have been busy, I had some health concerns and frankly I got out of the habit.  I named the BLOG “Periodic” as a hedge for the day when this might happen and sure enough it did.  Enough with the excuses….  

Since I’ve last written lots has happened.  One of the most significant is that I’ve changed jobs.  Not companies, jobs.  The opportunity for a new role and some responsibilities that I’ve been hoping for presented themselves and I went for it.  This I shared with you some time ago.  The aftermath has been a whirlwind and reminded me of the verse presented here today from James.  The essence is that you can make all the plans you like but the master planner is still the Lord.

James writes to those who say they are going to go engage in business somewhere and have a plan to make money.  This sounds very entrepreneurial and we as Americans can identify with what James is writing; we do this all the time.  We do it as business men, as business owners and even as volunteers working projects for “non-profits”.  We are all very familiar with making a plan to engage in an enterprise to, “Make a profit”.

James critique is not really against this aspect of the behavior.  What he’s chiding is the expectation and perhaps even the perspective.  He says, “You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow”.  That’s true isn’t it?  Do you know what is going to happen next despite your best planning?  No!  A customer of mine just lost his battle with cancer after making big plans for expansion of his farm management enterprise.  He was sick with the disease as he expanded the operation, unsure of the outcome.  But he knew he was sick and he knew there was a possibility the efforts of expansion and re-organization would not be something he would see to fruition.

How many of us have that perspective?  Not many I’m afraid.  Too many of us go about the business of business as that was the end of it, the purpose and meaning of it all.  Well, for the business perhaps that is true but for the person it is a lie from Satan himself.  While there is nothing wrong with going out and setting up a business and making a profit there is a right way to do it.  The first step in the right way is to understand, “You do not know what your life will be like tomorrow.  You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away”.  The right perspective understands that God alone is sovereign, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that”.  AMEN!