Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.
I heard a story once about a man who had a terrible temper… especially on the freeway. He almost made a hobby of shaking his fist and calling epithets after every car he passed, judging everyone’s driving to be inferior to his own. Then he met Jesus. As a matter of fact, he met Jesus so well, he ended up becoming a pastor. Running into an old friend who had ridden with him many times prior to his conversion, the friend asked if the Lord had helped him get his temper under control, especially behind the wheel. "Not entirely," he answered. "But I don’t want to be a bad witness for the Lord, so now I hold my fist UNDER the dashboard when I shake it!"
Well, now, that’s not exactly what the Lord meant - but at least he was giving it a shot! And at least he was becoming more concerned about his witness for Christ than he was for his own short-tempered ways. I’m sure that it wasn’t long after that when he learned to grin and bear it on the freeway, and finally, to really smile and wave – returning a blessing for an insult.
That’s what we are all asked to do - give back good for evil. It isn’t easy, but it’s do-able. Trust me. Better yet, trust Jesus.
Through fellowship with Jesus, the Apostle John was changed from a blustering, physical, possibly mean-tempered person who had a very high opinion of himself (Mark 3:17, Luke 9:54, Mark 10:35-37) into the humble, loving, kind, gentle soul who penned the books of John, 1 & 2 John, and Revelation, and came to be known as "the one whom Jesus loved".
Through fellowship with Jesus, the Apostle Paul went from the greatest persecutor of Christians to one of Jesus’ greatest warriors… a man filled with humility and with the Spirit of God who wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament (Acts 7:58; 9:1-2; 9:20-22; Philippians 3:7-14).
Through fellowship with Jesus, Peter was transformed from a cowardly, wishy-washy individual who spent an inordinate amount of time with his foot in his mouth, to the leader of the early church who was crucified for his faith in Jesus (Matthew 16:21-23; John 18:10-11; Matthew 26:33, 73-75; Acts 3).
Think back. Can you remember your life before the Lord? Can you remember who you were inside? Have you seen changes happening in you since you accepted Jesus’ free gift of salvation and allowed Him to become Lord of your life? Are there changes "in progress" now?
Make a list of the things you are aware of that God has changed in you. Then thank Him in prayer for each of them, because each change makes you more like Jesus.
Through fellowship with Jesus, the Apostle John was changed from a blustering, physical, possibly mean-tempered person who had a very high opinion of himself (Mark 3:17, Luke 9:54, Mark 10:35-37) into the humble, loving, kind, gentle soul who penned the books of John, 1 & 2 John, and Revelation, and came to be known as "the one whom Jesus loved".
Through fellowship with Jesus, the Apostle Paul went from the greatest persecutor of Christians to one of Jesus’ greatest warriors… a man filled with humility and with the Spirit of God who wrote 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament (Acts 7:58; 9:1-2; 9:20-22; Philippians 3:7-14).
Through fellowship with Jesus, Peter was transformed from a cowardly, wishy-washy individual who spent an inordinate amount of time with his foot in his mouth, to the leader of the early church who was crucified for his faith in Jesus (Matthew 16:21-23; John 18:10-11; Matthew 26:33, 73-75; Acts 3).
Think back. Can you remember your life before the Lord? Can you remember who you were inside? Have you seen changes happening in you since you accepted Jesus’ free gift of salvation and allowed Him to become Lord of your life? Are there changes "in progress" now?
Make a list of the things you are aware of that God has changed in you. Then thank Him in prayer for each of them, because each change makes you more like Jesus.
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
To say a person is religious could mean all sorts of things - you can be religious about your exercise program, religious about keeping your house clean, religious about your daily schedule, religious about changing the oil in your car every 3,000 miles… but what is religion in God’s eyes?
Religion – the kind God wants us to have – has nothing to do with an organization or denomination… or anything whatsoever to do with what is written over the door to the place where you worship. Religion, in God’s eyes, is a relationship… a relationship with Jesus. If you are deeply involved in that relationship, you will meet the two conditions our Father places on pure and faultless religion; to be concerned about others and to be concerned about yourself. Concern for others goes back to love… the love our Lord taught us to have for others. James mentions widows and orphans, and I truly believe this should include divorcees and their children. But our concern for others should not be limited. Our concern should be directed at all our brothers and sisters and what we can do to help them, both in good times and in times of distress.
When a new person comes into your church, how sensitive are you to him or her? Is she newly widowed? Is he going through a divorce? Do her children need to be around a Christian man once in a while? Would his daughters benefit from the influence of a woman of God?
And what about your activities outside of church? What kinds of magazines and books are lying around your house? What kind of movies and TV shows do you watch? Whether we want to admit it or not, everything we read, see, and hear affects the way we think. Our minds are so malleable that it has been proven that anyone (and yes, this means you!) can be brainwashed! We’re subjected to minor “brainwashing” every time we watch an ad on TV or listen to a radio jingle. The writers and producers of those ads have one thought in mind when creating them – to influence your mind enough so that you will buy that product. And what about television programming? Sometime – especially if you have cable or satellite television – get a notebook and scan through the channels, making a tally sheet of programs that you would allow your children to watch and those that you would not. Don’t just check late night programming – look at what’s on at 4:00 or 6:00 or 7:00. You’ll be amazed at how large the tally of “unacceptable” programs is. And the only reason the list has grown that large is because people are watching those programs… people whose minds have been slowly anesthetized to the point that things which would have shocked and repulsed them ten years ago seem okay today. That’s brainwashing.
The Bible warns us over and over again to be careful not to be corrupted by the world. Has your mind been anesthetized? What kind of input will your mind have today?
Start today to practice pure and faultless religion… make sure you care for others, and care for yourself.
If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
It’s Friday morning. You overslept, burned your finger on the stove, and couldn’t find any clean underwear. It’s already been a tough week, with one thing after another going wrong. On the way to work, traffic snarls slow you down even more, making you late to work. When you walk in, your boss growls at you for being late… and your desk looks like you haven’t been there for weeks, with work piled impossibly high. At lunch, the regular group is sitting around the lunchroom, bad-mouthing everyone they can think of. When they start in on the boss, someone who - at this point - you’d just as soon smack as look at, what comes out of your mouth? How’s your witness?
Second scenario… you’ve decided to join an organization where you can participate in activities that benefit the community, plus gain some “status” when it comes to your profession. However, when you get to the first meeting, you’re told that you will have to go through an “initiation,” and as the initiation begins, the words you’re told to say are in direct conflict with God’s Word. What do you do?
Thinking of the first scenario, controlling our tongues is – according to God’s Word - the most difficult thing for Christians to do. We can learn to overcome all sorts of other temptations, but that little sucker just gets away from us sometimes! For such a tiny piece of muscle, it has a tremendous amount of power. It can build up, and it can destroy. We use it both to praise God and to curse man, who is made in the image of God (James 3:5-10 NIV). It has been compared to a sword and a serpent (Psalm 57:4; 140:3 NIV). But it also can bring healing and be the tree of life (Proverbs 12:18; 15:4 NIV).
In Matthew 12:36-37 NIV, Jesus said, ”But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." This is important to remember the next time you want to share some gossip or tell an off-color joke. And it’s also important to remember any time we’re required to make an oath or any statement which goes against God’s Word. In either case, what we say reflects who we are… "…out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks." (Matthew 12:34 NIV)
Pay attention to what you are saying. Your speech is one of the most important parts of your witness. No matter where you are, at home, at work, at play, at church, or in any organization or group you decide to join… your tongue reveals what is in your heart.
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.
By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because heconsidered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.
Do you have children? Do you love them? Of course! Do you discipline them? Hopefully… Why? Because they are your children… whether naturally or by adoption, they are your children. You love them. You want the best for them. You know that no child comes into the world knowing how to be good… so you discipline them. If you did not love them, you would not discipline them. You would not care whether your child does right or wrong. It would matter little to you what direction your child takes in life. That child would be of little importance to you.
In the same way, God disciplines you and me. When we get off track, He "spanks" us. When we head off in a direction that is away from Him, He gets control of us. Some of us are easy. One little "pop", and we jump back on track, wanting to do what is right in God’s sight. Others of us are more hard-headed… more self-willed. For us, it takes more "pops"… sometimes even a metaphorical baseball bat between the eyes to get our attention. If the baseball bat doesn’t work, He uses whatever it takes to get our attention. Sometimes, because of our own stubbornness, that attention-getter is tragedy… because - no matter what it takes - God’s will for you and me is that we be dedicated to Him above all else. He will use whatever method it takes to get us focused on Him. If necessary, He will let us fall all the way to the bottom so that the only direction we are able to look is up.
Whatever trials come into your life, consider first whether those trials may be discipline from God. If they are, then thank God for them… because if you do not receive God’s discipline, you are an illegitimate child. You do not belong to Him. I cannot think of anything more devastating or lonely or hopeless than being a child of the world rather than a child of God.
Have you been adopted yet? If not, what are you waiting for?
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From J.R.:
“For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” 2 Timothy 4:3-4
Back in the ‘70’s, there was a popular country song called “Rose Colored Glasses”. Part of the lyrics were, “These rose colored glasses that I’m looking through show only the beauty, but they hide all the truth.” As Christians, we should be warned by 2 Timothy, as well as these lyrics, because what you see is not always what you get. The truth is the most important thing for us to hold onto, each and every day.
Most of you already know that 12 days ago, I had a heart attack. When they got me to the ER of the hospital, I found myself in a room, surrounded by at least 20 doctors – all of them specialists. They had me hooked to a myriad of different devices and monitors, and it occurred to me that with all this incredible technology that surrounded me the only thing that technology could do was tell me that I was dying. It had no answers, and had no ability to change the situation, other than to simply tell – in degrees – what was wrong with my body and where it was failing.
The chief cardiologist, Dr. Hargrove, stepped over to the side of my bed, and he gave me the plain truth. He said, “J.R., you are having a heart attack. Time is critical, and I don’t have time to explain everything to you. I need you to trust me and sign this paper so that we can do what we know how to do to save your life.”
As you can probably guess, I didn’t hesitate. And the moment I lifted the pen off the paper, all 20 of the people in the room with me immediately went to work doing what they knew without doubt would correct all the problems with my heart. That was the last thing I remember until I woke up in my room. The truth of the situation was that I was dying… these doctors could save me. They needed my permission and my trust.
Mankind is dying all over this world. We have all the things we need to tell us if this is truth, but until all of us who have been called on by the Lord put to work those special gifts and talents that God has given us, all that continues to happen is that mankind continues to die without Jesus. So, as you go through this coming week, think about these things…
Don’t be fooled by things simply because they look good to you. Remember the rose-colored glasses. Study God’s word so when the time comes and you’re called upon, you’ll know the truth. And when the man that is dying reaches out and gives his permission, you’ll be able to share that truth with him and see his soul redeemed. Nothing any of us have to do is more important. Nothing any of us can do is more important than sharing the Gospel with those who are lost.
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
Remember that old word… lollygagging? I used to hear it all the time when I was small. I can still hear my grandfather’s voice saying, "Stop that lollygagging around and get moving!"
We all have a tendency to slack up. We mean well, but….
***You mean to have a daily quiet time with the Lord, but you overslept yesterday and again today and, well, there just wasn’t time.
***You mean to be more responsible about paying your bills, but it’s just so hard to budget and, well, you do have a right to have a little fun, don’t you? After all it is your money!
***You fully intend to get more involved at church, so you take on a new position of service and really go gangbusters for a few weeks. But you aren’t getting too many pats on the back for all your effort, and besides, you do have personal and work responsibilities…. so you slack off on your church work.
***And then sometimes, we just quit. Ours is an age of instant gratification. So quitting is fashionable. Putting up with continual frustration is hard. Quitting is easy. If you can’t get along with your boss, just quit. If you can’t get along with your spouse, just get a divorce. If you can’t learn to play tennis in two lessons, you obviously don’t have the knack, so quit. What a sad philosophy! What a pitiful, boring way to live! What a wasted life filled with a long list of failures… Yes, failures. Because that’s what quitting equals… failure.
Without determination… without conviction… without stick-to-it-iveness… without discipline… without responsibility… life is nothing. Without challenge, life is like baby food. Without drive, life is a bore.
Read the words of Paul to Timothy, and pray you will have the determination to make them yours one day — "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith."
Stop lollygagging around and get moving!