Practical teachings from the Bible for every day living.
There are multitudes of situations on planet earth that can rob a person of the joy they should be experiencing in life. Joy is absolutely a part of the Christian endeavor. It is one of the fruits of the spirit according to Gal. 5:22. But, how important is it? And, how can we establish this fruit of the spirit in our everyday life? How does it grow and develop?
Have you ever heard a person testify that when they got saved, the first thing they noticed after they were born-again, was an incredible love they had for people? Or how about those who said that they felt overflowing joy? I was not one of those people. I did not feel any more love for people or anymore joy after I was saved than before I was saved. What was extremely noticeable, though, was the issue of self-control (2Tim. 1:7). There were things that I was trying to control while I was unsaved but found an incredible inability to do so. As soon as I said yes to Jesus I was able to say ‘NO’ to ungodly behaviors that controlled me. ‘NO’ now meant something. It would stick. Before, I would say NO and it would not stick no matter how hard I tried. When I used to hear about people feeling depth of love and joy in their born experience, it actually confused me. I almost thought at times, maybe my experience was defective somehow it was not all that it should have been. Little did I realize how interconnected all of this was. In today’s post, we are going to hone in on the joy component. We are going to look at laughing your way to maturity.
The earth is a fear filled place. It is right that believers are being led to write books about it. It is right for preachers to preach on it. It is right for you to have an arsenal of books and tapes on it, to help you combat it. It is right for you to mark out in your Bible or to have lists of scriptures that help you in this fight. At all costs we must get rid of this label. It must be eliminated from your life.
There are many broken-hearted, bruised people on planet earth. In the gospels, they are referred to as bruised reeds, and smoking flax (Matt. 12:20). These are people that have soul-damage. Whether or not you realize it, you run across these people and deal with them all the time! The start of their answer is forgiveness, for that will connect them to the anointing resident in the love of God.
Lord Joseph Duveen, American head of the art firm that bore his name, planned in 1915 to send one of his experts to England to examine some ancient pottery. He booked passage on the Lusitania. Then the German Embassy issued a warning that the liner might be torpedoed. Duveen wanted to call off the trip. “I can’t take the risk of your being killed,” he said to his young employee. “Don’t worry,” said the man, “I’m a strong swimmer, and when I read what was happening in the Atlantic, I began hardening myself by spending time every day in a tub of ice water. At first I could sit only a few minutes, but this morning, I stayed in that tub nearly two hours.” Naturally, Duveen laughed. It sounded preposterous. But his expert sailed, and the Lusitania was torpedoed. The young man was rescued after nearly five hours in the chilly ocean, still in excellent condition. Just as this young man did, so Christians should condition themselves by practicing devotional discipline, behavioral discipline, and discipline in doing good.[1] Let’s look at the subject of discipline in today’s post.
Irreverence for God is a problem not often addressed in modern church circles. A.W. Tozer addressed it by saying,
We are inclined to irreverence I have a difficult time excusing our careless and irreverent attitudes concerning our Lord and Savior. I feel strongly that worshiping Christians should never be guilty of using a theological word or expression in a popular or careless sense unless we explain what we are doing. It is only proper when we speak of the glory of God the Son to actually refer to that uniqueness of His person and character that excites our admiration and wonder. 1
In today’s post, we are going to look at this irreverence issue primarily from the book of first Samuel.
Today, we are going to talk about a word that you really cannot talk enough about and that is the word ‘righteousness’. Righteousness is a BIG, HUGE Bible word. But there is some confusion that exists about what this word actually is. Some confuse it with holiness but they are two entirely different things. By examining the Word of God on the subject, we can come to a relevant and personal understanding of this big Bible word.
God is a God of encouragement not discouragement. He is God of the ‘can do’ not the God of the ‘can’t be done’. Your interactions with Him will bring comfort and encouragement. If you are being discouraged, you are listening to the wrong voice. What is discouragement really and how can we gain the victory against this enemy.
The Bible has much to say about properly reverencing the Lord. The term used in the scriptures is ‘the fear of the Lord. Richard Stockton, (October 1, 1730–February 28, 1781), a signer of the Declaration of Independence mentioned the fear of the Lord in his last will and testament, ‘ As my children will have frequent occasion of perusing this instrument, and may probably be peculiarly impressed with the last words of their father, I think proper here, not only to subscribe to the entire belief of the great leading doctrine of the Christian religion … but also in the heart of a father’s affection, to charge and exhort them to remember “that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”1. Let’s take a look at three things we can do to walk in the fear of the Lord.
There are many people who have no sense of mission. Individuals who walk every day on a path that leads to nowhere. People who have no sense of what their purpose is on planet earth. People who are just existing from day to day whose whole purpose in life is getting to the weekend. Can this be corrected? Can we find a sense of mission in life? Yes, thank God, we can.
Years ago there was a series on TV called “John Doe”. John Doe is about this person who wakes up on a desert island and has no idea who is. He suffers from retrograde amnesia. He has no clue about his past but he finds that has an extraordinary encyclopedic knowledge of everything else. If you name any town in the United States, he can tell you the population to the exact number. He can tell who the mayor was in that town, what year he was born and how much his tax return was the previous year to the exact dollar. He knows all about science; he knows all about plant life; he knows all about mechanics etc. and he uses this extraordinary encyclopedic knowledge of everything to help solve crimes. But all the while he is helping other people, he is trying to find out about his past. John Doe knows everything about everything except WHO HE IS. That is what this post is about – it is about the John Doe’s in the body of Christ, many of them know a lot – they know Bible stories – they can quote Bible verses – they have been church and Sunday School their whole lives. They know all this ‘churchy-anity’ but have no heavenly clue who they are and why God left them on this desert island called earth. This post is about Christians who know that they are on their way to heaven but have no idea why they are here on earth.
America is a land of Liberty. But it is also a land of labels. We label everything and everybody. When you have to fill out an application you have to answer the race question. The government wants to know, what kind of label do we put on you? Black, White, Hispanic, Asian or other. You can’t do anything without being labeled. Even our families and our parents through ignorance have inadvertently placed labels on us as we grew up. Some of these labels were pretty destructive and hindered our development. People in society, in the habit of labeling, placed negative labels on your life which you accepted. How do we overcome all the labeling and grow into the person God meant for us to be?