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timewithgod.blog-city.com — November 2008
1 John 3 -- Assurances And Reminders
I see here both commands to us because we are Christians and assurances for us THAT we ARE Christians. It's almost as if John is convincing these early Christians (and us) that they aren't dreaming -- they really are children of God.But
I see here both commands to us because we are Christians and assurances for us THAT we ARE Christians. It's almost as if John is convincing these early Christians (and us) that they aren't dreaming -- they really are children of God.
But as God's children, we have a duty to be like Him and like Jesus Christ, our adopted Brother and Savior. As God's children, we represent Him in this world and therefore we should look like Him to the world. Since sin, according to my commentary, is "placing one's own will above the will of God, and opposition to a Living Person who has the right to be obeyed, we would not look like His representatives by continual lives of sin. In verse 6, John says, "Anyone who lives in Christ does NOT go on sinning." My commentary says, "John is not here speaking about isolated acts of sin, but rather continued, habitual, characteristic behavior... When a person sins habitually, it is conclusive that he was never regenerated. The believer does not have the sin habit. He does not continue in sin. The reason is that 'His seed remains in him.' .... His eternal security is a guarantee he will not go on sinning. He cannot sin habitually because he has been born of God. This divine relationship precludes the possibility of continuance in sin as a lifestyle."
That ought to assure us that we are His children even when we do fail and sin against Him. So what then should we do once we are assured of our position? "Our lives should be a continual giving out on behalf of other believers." We talked about it last night at youth. It's not simply giving, but sacrificing for other believers. We make sure there are actions to back up our words. When we abide in Him, we see others as He sees them, and His love for us causes us to want to love others in the same way. This is not something an unbeliever can do, according to my commentary.
Abiding speaks of "close, vital intimacy with the Savior ... we make His will our own will. By the Holy Spirit, He fills us with the knowledge of His will. In such a condition, we would not ask for anything outside the will of God."
Father, thanks for the assurances, along with the reminders of what I'm to be doing in this world as Your representative. Keep my heart close to You and abide in me. Make Your will my own.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 John 4 -- Channels, Not Terminals
John seems to verbally create one of those amazing monkey's fist knots as he speaks of God's love for us and how it translates into our lives. He continually wraps his arguments back upon themselves, making a verbal argument that is bot
John seems to verbally create one of those amazing monkey's fist knots as he speaks of God's love for us and how it translates into our lives. He continually wraps his arguments back upon themselves, making a verbal argument that is both imposing and impossible to defeat.
My commentary used several illustrations to help us understand some of what John is saying:
"We are never intended to be terminals of God's blessings, but channels only. God's love is given to us, not that we might hoard it for ourselves, but that it might be poured out through us to others."
About God abiding in us and us in Him:
"No closer relationship is possible than for a person to abide in God and to have God abiding in him. It is hard for us to visualize such a relationship." Here are three examples that are pretty easy to understand:
1) A poker in a fire
2) A sponge in the water
3) A balloon in the air
The poker is in the fire, and the fire is in the poker, for example.
"In each case, the object is in the element and the element is in the object."
That's about the best we can do to describe God abiding in us.
John also tells us that "we don't love the Lord a bit more than we love the humblest of His followers," and shows us how very important it is for us to show God's love to the world by loving all believers. My commentary said, "As spokes get nearer to the center of the wheel, they get nearer to one another. Thus, as we get closer to the Lord, the more we will love our fellow believers."
Father, please help me to be able to love those believers who are hard to love, who have offended me at some point in time or who are not like me. I want to experience all the more You abiding in me, and I know that my love for others must match more closely to Your love for them, if it is to ever happen.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
1 John 5 -- God's Alchemy - Changing Dirt Into Gold
John draws a picture that starts and ends with faith. He says that our faith results in our divine birth. The combination of the two produce love for God in us. Those three together lead us to be able to love our fellow Christians,
John draws a picture that starts and ends with faith. He says that our faith results in our divine birth. The combination of the two produce love for God in us. Those three together lead us to be able to love our fellow Christians, warts and all. And what the world might view as a strange alchemy of the four leads us to obedience to God's commands, since we are now "thinking like God", viewing people through His eyes.
John says that at this point, it isn't burdensome to keep God's commands, because our nature has changed, making them the very things we LOVE to do. After all, God has His very best planned for us, so following His commands leads to His very best. And as my commentary said, these are "the things in which our new nature takes a wholehearted DELIGHT."
Wanting now to please God, we are given the knowledge that "whoever is born of God does not sin." My commentary said, "One who has the divine nature does not go on practicing sin." I thought of my son Joseph practicing his clarinet. At first, the squeaks and honks sounded like sunrise on a guinea farm (as my old band director was fond of saying). But as Joseph practiced, he began to home in on a tone, and then a note, and now a song -- getting better at it each time. That's exactly what we don't want to find happening in our lives -- getting better and better at sin. So we don't practice it.
Father, thank You for reminding me that the Christian life is not a one-time event, but a process in which You are continually at work making us holy. Help me not to thwart Your work by practicing rebellion against You.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
2 John 1-13 -- Careful What You Let In The Door
Again, in a second letter, John writes warning these new Christians about having anything to do with false teachers.He commands Christians to love each other, and then defines love as "living the way God commanded us to live." Then he
Again, in a second letter, John writes warning these new Christians about having anything to do with false teachers.
He commands Christians to love each other, and then defines love as "living the way God commanded us to live." Then he also says that "anyone who goes beyond Christ's teaching and does not continue to follow only his teaching does NOT have God." The warning about these people who transgress or "go beyond the allowed bounds" as my commentary defines it, is this: "If you welcome such a person, you share in that evil work. It also said, "These people are enemies of Christ. To show them hospitality is to take sides with those who are against our Savior."
In yesterday's Abilene Reporter News, there was a story about a woman who is the pastor of a gay church in Abilene. She was bemoaning the passage of Prop. 8 in California -- a constitutional amendment that would halt gay marriages. The group she was addressing was the Abilene Interfaith Council. The group was meeting in an Episcopal church, and online I found that they had even held a forum at McMurry University!
Hearing John's words, and understanding what the Bible has to say about the whole subject, it would seem that the church and the university would be in direct violation of the teachings in this chapter!
The sidebar in my Bible talks about Satan and says, "The best way to keep the enemy out is to keep Christ in! The sheep need not be terrified by the wolf; they have but to stay close to the shepherd."
It would seem that having this woman address the group in a church or at a religious university would be about the same as having a known and unrepentant adulterer or murderer speaking in these places.
It would seem that the Deceiver is not a thing of the past, and as Solomon said, "There is nothing new under the sun."
Father, please open our eyes as a nation. Please give us wisdom in our churches not to allow Satan to parade his captives in front of us. Keep us, Your sheep, close to our Shepherd instead. Do not permit us to go beyond the allowed bounds of Your Word.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
3 John 1-15 Which One Are YOU?
The Bible never shies away from the truth, even about some not-so-wonderful happenings in one of the early Christian churches. John contrasted two men who couldn't have been better opposites.Gaius was just happy to serve, and he delighted i
The Bible never shies away from the truth, even about some not-so-wonderful happenings in one of the early Christian churches. John contrasted two men who couldn't have been better opposites.
Gaius was just happy to serve, and he delighted in opening his home to visiting preachers traveling through the area, whether he knew them or not.
Over the years, I've watched as various families housed preachers who'd come to our church for revivals. I've enjoyed keeping leaders of youth revivals and Disciple Nows before becoming a host home for kids participating in them. I've never felt it to be an imposition at all, and I still have several strong friends as a result.
At the same time, I've listened as other families have both stated excuses for why they wouldn't help in such a way, and accused those housing and feeding the preachers of trying to "schmooze" up to them!
John saw the same thing happening even back then! A man named Diotrephes had placed himself as a virtual dictator over the church Gaius attended. He'd even gone so far as to intercept letters from John to the church! My commentary said, "He had an exaggerated view of his own importance .... His sin was pride of place, an inflated ego, and a violent jealousy for what he regarded as his own rights -- which he doubtless defended as the autonomy of the local church. He'd forgotten that Christ is the Head of the church."
Such people are alive and well today, even in our own church, unfortunately. I have suffered heartbreaks from the comments of people who were never identified to me, who suggested that my goal was to "run the church". My only reply was that I didn't realize that so many of the dirty, "crawl-space" things I'd been helping with constituted "running" a church.
How sad that there are still those today who would be a Diotrephes rather than a Gaius, believing wrongly that they are somehow "protecting the church" when they could be projecting the church into the community.
Father, help us all to be like Gaius, whether in hospitality or simply servanthood. Let us feel honor in doing the menial, and to live out sermons in our lives rather than attempting to lord it over others. For those like Diotrephes, please soften their hearts and show them Your truth so that they, too, can experience the joy of service.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Amos 1 & 2 Careful That You Don't GET What You Deserve
When God speaks, He expects us to listen and obey. As Amos heard God's words and spoke them to the people, they probably cheered at first. After all, they were hearing God roaring like a lion, going after their enemies. They wer
When God speaks, He expects us to listen and obey. As Amos heard God's words and spoke them to the people, they probably cheered at first. After all, they were hearing God roaring like a lion, going after their enemies. They were agreeing with what God was saying about them and I'm sure they were thrilled each time they heard Him say, "I will punish them."
Only it doesn't stop there. Suddenly they hear, "This is what the Lord says: 'For the many crimes of Judah....' "
"Judah??!!?? Wait a minute, God! That's US!!!!" they probably cried. They probably had to rewind to catch the sins He'd enumerated, because they'd been so stunned that they'd missed them. "They'd rejected the teachings of the Lord and did not keep His commands."
I wonder if they claimed, "But God, we're Your chosen people. You can't do that to US!! What would people think?"
Perhaps they'd see that He's a just God who doesn't play favorites with disobedience. To be sure, Amos even announced God's judgment on the northern kingdom of Israel, too. Their sins were even worse, and punishment was coming. They had ruined His Holy Name, it said. God even took time to detail everything He'd done for them, despite their rebellion over time. It exposed them as an ungrateful people who lived to disobey.
By listing Judah and Israel with all of those Gentile nations, God was pointing out that they had indeed forfeited all special recognition that He might have given them, my commentary said. What an embarrassment!
It's a solemn warning to us today as well. For instance, we cannot claim to be a Christian nation and allow the things we allow in the name of personal freedom. In the same way, in our individual lives, we must hear God and obey Him. We cannot ignore His voice and what He's telling us to do. We do so at our peril. We won't lose our salvation, but we will lose our witness and our fellowship with Him. And that amounts to mocking God. When we do, we should expect to get what we deserve.
Father, I pray that You will be longsuffering and show mercy and forgiveness to us. Thank You for Your grace, given through Your Son Jesus. Please allow Your love for us to sink deeply into our hearts and cause us to desire to obey You. Give us the "want-to" we need to be Your chosen ones.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Amos 3 & 4 -- Letting Go Of Our Grip In Order To Embrace
The seriousness of a child of God continuing in sin -- in open, willful rebellion -- really comes out here. God says, "I have chosen ONLY YOU out of all the families of the earth, so I will punish you for all your sins." My comm
The seriousness of a child of God continuing in sin -- in open, willful rebellion -- really comes out here. God says, "I have chosen ONLY YOU out of all the families of the earth, so I will punish you for all your sins." My commentary said, "Because they were chosen, their sin was all the more serious."
Israel was so blinded by their continual sin that God felt it necessary to give seven cause-and-effect examples that would hopefully lead them to an "a-ha!" moment about what was causing their punishments. But that still didn't do it, and God was prompted to say, "The people don't know how to do what is right."
God had warned and warned them, and He finally said, "Just as surely as I am a holy God, the time will come when....." That promise should have caused them to sit up and take notice, but it didn't.
God listed eight "plagues" He'd sent on Israel, trying to get them to repent. Five times, He laments, "But still you did not come back to Me." He was pursuing them, doing mighty things to get them back, but they saw it only as punishment. They never saw that their SINS were the cause.
Once again, God spoke fateful words: "So this is what I will do to you, Israel; because I will do this to you, GET READY TO MEET YOUR GOD."
Those are scary words when we are out of His will. They remind me of the sermon, Sinners In The Hands Of An Angry God. Jesus' parable about the bridesmaids who hadn't prepared for the bridegroom's return and missed their opportunity came to mind here. The opportunity missed was repentance and restored fellowship with God.
My Bible's sidebar had a sentence that cut to the chase: "You change your life by changing your heart."
Father, I know that I find myself resistant to change, too. I almost have an "entitlement mentality" about pet sins. It's tough to admit that 90% obedience equals 100% disobedience, because a selfish part of me wants to withhold that last 10%, almost as if I'm afraid that in giving you all, I might somehow lose me. That's not at all what You intend, I know. You desire nothing but Your absolute best for me. Help me to desire that, too. Pry my fingers loose from anything I hold back from You, so that rather than holding on to what is not of You, I can EMBRACE Your best for me with BOTH arms.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Amos 5 & 6 -- Ready To Have Your Socks Knocked Off?
God continues to cry out to a people who actually see themselves as religious, who believe in their hearts that their lives of ease, their security, and their fame mean that God is favoring them, when their lives are far from where He wants them to b
God continues to cry out to a people who actually see themselves as religious, who believe in their hearts that their lives of ease, their security, and their fame mean that God is favoring them, when their lives are far from where He wants them to be.
Twice He says, "Come to Me and live," for He knows that the way they are living will only bring spiritual death.
They think that they've successfully hidden their sins from God by their "righteous behavior" at church. But God says, "I know your many crimes, your terrible sins." And because their lives were so corrupt, He was rejecting their offerings, whether they consisted of what they brought to church or what they did in church: "I completely hate your feasts; I cannot stand your religious meetings. If you offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I won't accept them. You bring your best fellowship offerings....but I will ignore them. Take the noise of your sons away from Me! I won't listen to the music of your harps."
And lest they think that they can somehow claim that, over time they've been holy and that holiness should count for something, He springs a surprise on them, saying in effect that He knows what they've done over time as well. He says, "You didn't bring me sacrifices and offerings while you traveled in the desert for 40 years. You have carried with you your KING, the god Sakkuth, and Kaiwan YOUR IDOL, and the star gods you have made."
They thought they were being so sneaky and discreet, smuggling Egyptian idols into the Promised Land. They'd carried them with them ALL THAT TIME, thinking God wouldn't know, even as He was taking them into the Promised Land!
And now, they appear to be trying to bribe God with their offerings, their songs, and their "religious" actions. But when God says, "I hate your (fill in the blank) " the words should rock us to our cores.
Father, I can be so much like them still today! You tell me plainly in Your word the things You hate and abhor. And like these Israelites, I find myself stubbornly and foolishly clinging to pet sins, just as they did their idols. And as worshipful as I might feel in church, whether while I'm teaching, playing the keyboard, singing, or listening to a sermon, You say here that it means nothing to You if I fail to live the standard of righteousness that You demand of Your children. That message soaks in and tears down my strong, defensive walls, and reaches into the core of my being. Once again the lines of that Sanctus Real song appear in my mind, about cleaning my spiritual house. Help me to throw out everything, Father. Don't let me jealously hold onto anything from before that You hate and abhor. Start me fresh again.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
Amos 7-9 Getting It Straight
God listened .... for awhile. A disaster was coming upon Israel and Amos prayed, "Lord God, forgive us." Verse 3 says, "So the Lord changed His mind."Once again, God sent another disaster. And once again Amos cri
God listened .... for awhile. A disaster was coming upon Israel and Amos prayed, "Lord God, forgive us." Verse 3 says, "So the Lord changed His mind."
Once again, God sent another disaster. And once again Amos cried out, "Lord God, stop!" "So the Lord changed His mind about this too."
Then the Lord appeared to Amos, standing beside a straight wall with a plumb line in His hand. He said, "See, I will put a plumb line among My people Israel to show how crooked they are. I will not look the other way any longer."
This brought to mind something I once experienced. I was climbing the old north water tower (that was taken down last week in Hamlin) to get some pictures. It's a 100' climb to the catwalk above the point where the legs connect to the tank itself, so the climb up the latter took quite a few minutes. Near the top, the ladder had to angle away from the leg I'd been climbing to come up through the catwalk.
The initial part of the climb went smoothly, and despite the slight angle of the leg (leaning inward as it rose) I felt like I was climbing straight up. Once I reached the point where the ladder detached from the leg and headed up the to catwalk, though, I'd become so accustomed to the angle as being straight up that, once I made the transition to the ladder, the new angle felt as if I were leaning backwards or outwards, and this caused me to want to hang on for dear life as I climbed the last few feet. I was really climbing straight up THEN at a 90 degree angle to the ground. It was the fact that I'd climbed for so long at a different angle that I was being fooled.
That's what I saw in God's word this morning. God was telling them, "You've climbed for so long using your plumb line that you actually believe that yours is correct. But it's NOT! I am the only judge of that, and you are way off!"
God did what He promised. He put a Plumb Line among His people. His name is Jesus. And the way He lived reveals just how warped our view of living had become.
He still serves as our plumb line, and God uses Him every day to show us how far from perfect we are.
On another note, my sidebar by Tony Campolo spoke of how "a prophet's vision can replace people's numbness with energy .... [He must] evoke a vision of an alternative to the dominant system. The prophet must generate hope for something that lies beyond the present order .... The possibility of a glorious "might be" can enable us to live in ways that appear dangerous to the custodians of the status quo..... Out of sorrow for the death of the old can come a new dynamism to us."
Just as the transition from the leg of the water tower to the ladder appeared dangerous -- not because it actually was, but because it was different than what I'd come to expect, God's call for us to change our lives and live differently isn't dangerous. It's the right thing to DO.
Father, help me not to become so used to life as I know it that I grow numb to what I'm doing and how I'm living out Your word. Help me to see the real possibilities You hold out for me. Dispel my apathy and overcome my fatigue of trying. Give me hope that I can and will adjust my life fully to Your plumb line.
Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford
Gary Ford
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