The fruit of the Spirit . . . Peace

Peace is next in the list of fruits of the Spirit. Eirene (eye-rain-ay) in Greek. Webster's describes peace as a state of tranquility, and describes tranquility the state of being free from agitation of mind or spirit. From "The Complete Word Study Dictionary" we find this: Characteristic of the New Testament is the view of peace as the present possession of the believer. So, what does all of that mean in real life? As long as you are being led by the Spirit, you have an unlimited source of peace. The Bible tells us that this peace goes beyond all of our understanding. I've been racking my brain trying to think of some example of this, and the only thing that really illustrates it fully is the way that many martyrs have died for the faith. Polycarp, the bishop or pastor of the church at Smyrna, one of the seven churches of Asia found in the book of Revelation, faced his death this way. The following is an excerpt from "Foxe's Book of Martyrs":

"The proconsul then urged him, saying, 'Swear, and I will release thee;--reproach Christ.'

Polycarp answered, 'Eighty and six years have I served him, and he never once wronged me; how then shall I blaspheme my King, Who hath saved me?' At the stake to which he was only tied, but not nailed as usual, as he assured them he should stand immovable, the flames, on their kindling the fagots, encircled his body, like an arch, without touching him;"

How does a man meet his death at perfect peace? It is the very peace that passes all understanding. Polycarp, an example to us all, was only one of countless martyrs, who died because they would not renounce Christ. How else could a man be so undaunted by his own execution, if not for the divine peace given to him by the Holy Spirit? Many unbelievers seeing these saints meet death with such peace were forever changed by the peace that they saw; because many of them became believers, and some became believers knowing that they would immediately meet the same fate. It is the peace that comes from knowing God. II Timothy 1:12

The fruit of the Spirit . . . Joy

So next we come to joy. Chara (ka-ra) in Greek means joy, rejoicing or gladness. I have noticed more often than not, when I meet new people, I have a good sense of who is a believer. Not based on any divine endowment of smarts on my part, but because there is an attractiveness to the person. I hope that you understand that by using the word "attractive", I mean it in a much greater sense than we generally use it today. Like a magnet attracts a piece of metal. It is the inner joy that makes the person stand out as someone who is different from most that we meet. Indeed, there is something different about them, we, the saved, see it as well as the lost.

Where do they get this stuff? Don't they have the same struggles that everyone else goes through? It doesn't make any sense, that guy should have an ulcer the size of Texas, but he's walking around with a smile on his face. He genuinely seems glad to see you. I don't know one in a hundred who behave this way. Exactly! There is something different about him, and it isn't what is on the outside, it is what is on the inside. Joy! It is the joy that comes from a life that is yielded to Christ and led by the Holy Spirit. It is one of the fruits that is hanging on the tree.

Listen, you can walk around all the time looking down your nose, determined to be displeased with everything. You aren't doing anyone any favors, most especially yourself. And as long as you look at the world this way, the only thing that you will find in others joy is sorrow. Let me tell you most kindly, to get you head screwed on straight. If you belong to Christ, then He intends for you to have joy to the fullest measure. When Christians have that joy, they are the best witnesses for Christ: anybody can teach them to be miserable; how many can teach them to have joy?

God bless you all.

The fruit of the Spirit . . . Love

The very first fruit that we come to is love. Many of you have probably heard the term agape (a-gah-pay) which is one of the Greek words that is translated love, or charity in the King James. What is unique about this word, is that it describes a love that gives of itself. It is the very benevolence or agape-love of God, that caused Him to give His own Son for us, while we were still sinners. So then, we see that the fruit of the Spirit is then a modeling in our own lives of the very things we see in God. For the agape-love to be demonstrated in our lives we must show the same type of benevolence that God showed to us. Think about the good Samaritan, he helped the man who had been beaten and robbed, and he did so at his own expense. He didn't first draw up a repayment plan, and say I will help you as soon as you sign this promissory note. He took the man and bandaged his wounds and provided a place for him to stay, for the simple reason that the man needed help.

I remember Brother Sankya told me about a poor family that visited with his family. He told me that his daughter gave their children some toys. When the family had departed, Brother Sankya told me that his daughter had begun to cry. Thinking that they were lamenting the loss of their toys, he started to scold them. Then he said, they told him that they were crying because they didn't have more to give, and then he told me that he started crying. That is love. That is what we all need in our lives, a love that gives simply because there is a need.

The fruit of the Spirit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. I tried to write them all from memory, but I didn't make it. So, it is probably a good time to refresh my study of them. To start off with, let's look at the word fruit. Jesus, while teaching His disciples, asked them a funny question, "Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?" Obviously, grapes are gathered from grape vines and figs from fig trees. What Jesus is speaking about is men, and their ability to present themselves as something that they are not. Then He goes on to say, "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit." Webster's defines fruit as a product of plant growth. Men can frankly say anything about themselves, but the evidence is not found in their words. The evidence is found in the product of their lives. That is why Jesus said, "Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them." So if someone tells you that they are an grape vine, yet all the while you see all thorns and no grapes, you know by their fruit what you are dealing with.

So then, we see that these particular fruits are associated with the Spirit. In other words, the product of a life that is indwelt by the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. What we are talking about are the things we should see in the life of a believer. In our dealing with others, it is quite simple: when you see these afore mentioned fruits you know that you are dealing with a Christian. This is important because there are many unbelievers who are completely versed in church speak. So while they know enough to keep their speech pleasing to those at church; the evidence in their life is very clear that they don't know God at all. Sad to say, but many unrealized opportunities for evangelism are sitting in the pews next to us. And just as important, we all have to, from time to time, examine the fruit that we are producing. We need to ask is the Spirit working in us to produce good fruit, or is the flesh reigning in us and producing bad fruit?

More tomorrow, God bless you all.

The Agenda

Much is said about sharing our faith, but not much is said about clearly presenting the gospel. Too many of us have been tricked into peddling a "Jesus can make you feel better" pill. In other words, Jesus is here to make you feel better about yourself, without really addressing the fact that without Christ we are lost, undone and hopeless. We are now taught to make friends with them, but to try to avoid anything that might scare them off. I am not saying that we should approach them in the manner of a rabid dog, but we should make friends with them in such a way that we remain honest with them. The "I'm OK, your OK" ideology doesn't help anybody; and in fact, it may do eternal harm. The fact is that none of us are OK. We are all sinners, and we all need God's mercy to keep us from His judgement.

Let's get something straight, you need to have an agenda. Throw politically correct out the window. Politically correct means one thing, "you can be anything you want to be, so long as it is not Christian." The Muslims have an agenda, the Godless ACLU has an agenda and Godless judges and legislators have an agenda; why shouldn't we as Christians have an agenda? I'll tell you why: it is a trick of the Devil to make us lay down our arms, so that we can not share a message that convicts of sin, and thereby showing the lost their need of a Savior. We are to be the ones influencing the ones around us, not the other way around. This is the agenda: befriend them, speak in plain terms that are apt to convict of sin and tell them about the love of God demonstrated in Christ. We are to be ambassadors of Christ, as if God were making His appeal through us for the sinner to be reconciled to Him. II Corinthians 5:17-21

The want to be brilliant

I often want, and it is my flesh that wants it, to be thought of as brilliant. I sadly, can see my self like the boy in the now infamous "Christmas Story," who before turning in his essay, imagines the joy and amazement with which his teacher and classmates receive his latest writings. Although I try to keep that plane tethered to the tarmac, once in a while, I see it taxiing down the runway.

You can take a page and write about anything, and if you do it often enough, you'll develop a style of writing. You can be as clever as you want, be coy or even silly. But when you endeavor to write about life in reference to Christ, all of our verbose nonsense has to be put away. You see, the trick to good Christian writing, is to put Christ in the center of it. All of our desires for adulation have to be put under subjection. That's why Paul said I beat my body into submission, so that I won't become a castaway after I have preached to others. Castaway, in the King James Version, what the potter throws out, cracked pots, useless vessels. So then, the only thing that remains brilliant in our writing is Christ.

The apostles' lot in life.

Lately, I've been thinking about the lifestyle of the apostles. I have been considering what they went through to be servants of Christ, and all they endured to be able to preach the gospel. They lived a life so different from anything we have known, or might aspire to. Really think about it: Paul got up about seven, went to Shoney's for breakfast, strolled into the office about nine, asked his secretary about his day's schedule, studied for his Sunday sermon from ten until twelve, went to lunch with a church member, got back around 1:30, looked at his Sunday School lesson for thirty minutes, counseled with a church member for an hour, and then decided the weather was so nice; he took the rest of the afternoon off to go play golf. Absolutely not, his life and the lives of the other apostles were nothing like that; yet sadly, that more than passes for our presenting our bodies a living sacrifice and our reasonable service. Let me tell you something, the man who penned those words made it clear that he had an appointment to keep; and it wasn't to condole with sister so and so from the church whose cat ran away. He said, we apostles are bringing up the rear of the parade: as those who are appointed unto death.

Paul said they were made a spectacle in front of men and angels. They were hungry and thirsty, clothed in rags as the NIV has it, roughly treated and homeless. We work with our hands, we bless and we speak kindly, and all the while we are reviled, persecuted and defamed. Think about what it would be like if someone showed up on Sunday morning beaten, hungry and wearing visibly tattered clothing. How many of us wouldn't at least say this in our hearts? "Please, get that mess out of here. You're welcome to come back on Monday or Tuesday and help yourself to some day old or week old bread and whatever tin cans we have rolling around in the church pantry." How many would flatly throw them out, thinking they were doing service to God by keeping things decent and in order? Who among us, would give them an honored place and serve them from our coffee and doughnuts? And who would trade places with them for Christ's sake?

Listen, we are talking about God working in us, and I am sorry to disappoint, but that doesn't mean penthouses and luxury cars. God working in us produces the marks of the cross. Our lives ought not to be lived from one cheeseburger to the next; and maybe when we get a little hungry, we'll see what God wants from us, instead of what we want from Him. God bless you all.
I Corinthians 4:7-17

Hiding our problems

We have to find a middle ground between being people of discretion, and bearing one another's burdens. All too often, I believe many of us (how's that for subjunctive?) err on the side of hiding too much. The thought of "being good church folk like us" compels us to go through life, creating the guise of a problem free existence. I was listening to a sermon from Alistair Begg, in which he said, "We make it very very difficult for people to be honest about their struggles in their Christian lives, when we present to people no struggles in our Christian life. It's just down right dishonest."

It is out of pride, that we want to go through life always appearing to younger Christians as some type of superhero of the faith. When we ought to be telling them the truth. And the truth is that you are going to get your nose bloodied, and it is going to be a fight. You are going to be hurt, embarrassed and humiliated. And your ego is going to be the continual and chief casualty in this war. You will eventually cry from the deepest part of you that you no longer want to go on. And all of this will become more dear to you than you can possibly imagine. Because you will realize, that all of those souls who went before endured the very same, to be able to bring the glorious gospel to you.

In closing let me quote and say amen to the words of C. T. Studd: "Let us not glide through this world and then slip quietly into heaven, without having blown the trumpet loud and long for our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. Let us see to it that the devil will hold a thanksgiving service in hell, when he gets the news of our departure from the field of battle."
God bless you all.

The Abbreviation of Worship and Why We No Longer Sing the Third Verse Part III

So, let's get to what we have been missing. Here are some of the third verses that we have been leaving out of our worship:

My sin -- O the bliss of this glorious thought --
My sin, not in part, but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more:
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
"It Is Well with My Soul"

And when I think that God, His Son not sparing,
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in--
That on the cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin!
"How Great Thou Art!"

His brow was pierced with many a thorn,
His hands by cruel nails were torn,
When from my guilt and grief, forlorn,
In love He lifted me.
"He Lifted Me"

In the old rugged cross,
stained with blood so divine,
A wondrous beauty I see;
For 'twas on that old cross
Jesus suffered and died
To pardon and sanctify me.
"The Old Rugged Cross"

O the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend,
When I kneel in prayer and with Thee, my God,
I commune as friend with friend.
"I Am Thine, O Lord"

I have to ask: Do we really want to quit singing these verses for any reason? I have spent the afternoon with old friends, that I would like to visit more often. Everyone of these verses touch my heart; because it is in the singing these verses, that we plumb the depths of our Savior's love. When we really think about the love of God shown to us in Christ; doesn't make you want to sing all the more? And to close, I give you this chorus, God bless you all.

How marvelous! How wonderful! And my song shall ever be:
How marvelous! How wonderful is my Savior's love for me!

The Abbreviation of Worship and Why We No Longer Sing the Third Verse Part II

Picking up where we left off. . . We go to church to meet with God, or we should. Think about this for a minute. When we go to church, we should be going to meet with God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, the Almighty, the Alpha and Omega, the Great I AM. When you set that next to our one hour a week, which has been cut to 49 minutes, because we had to stop on the way to church to get gas; we can see how pathetic our worship sometimes is. Like it or not, it is tantamount to saying, God bless us, even though we have handled Your Day so poorly, that we have barely remembered to be here at all. Before you think me too self righteous, I have been guilty of doing everything I have mentioned on this subject, and have been blessed accordingly.

Let us come to a right understanding: God is God! We bring nothing to the party, but filthy rags. It is the pinnacle of arrogance to think that we some how dignify or elevate the assembling of God's people with our mere presence. Look at the Pharisee and the publican. The publican who stood far off, who could not lift his eyes and cried to God from his heart went to his house justified. In other words, the publican met with the Great I AM; because, God was God and he was a sinner who recognized that he needed God's mercy. Meeting God on God's terms is what has always changed the lives of God's people.

More tomorrow, God bless you all.

The Abbreviation of Worship and Why We No Longer Sing the Third Verse

I've had the idea to write about this for some time, and now I think that time has come. It has been a bur under my saddle for years now. Whether or not I am the horse in the scenario, I don't know. It is the abbreviating of our worship. We hurry everyday of the week, and it seems to accelerate on Sunday. We come to worship, but keep an eye on the clock while we are there. Honestly what kind of worship happens, as we watch the clock with growing intensity as the noon hour approaches? But I digress, there are other things at the root of this abbreviated worship service. Namely, the elimination of the third verse of our hymns, or any adjacent verses that reduce the total number of verses to three.

To start with, let me just ask, Why? Why do we feel the need to cut our hymns down to three verses? I sat down with the intent of writing about the substance of these verses, which I will write about; but I have uncovered something I didn't anticipate when I started this. The ugly truth is that we have decided that we are going to worship our God from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Sunday; and for too many that statement is followed by "only." Whether we say it in word or in practice, we've said it. Never mind the fact that the whole day belongs to Him.

There is not only a conditional worship based on time constraints; there is a complete lack of preparation for worship. Let me prove it. Did you get gas on Saturday, or did you stop on the way to church? Did you have breakfast at home, or did you stop on the way to church? Have you ever started getting ready for church, only to find that what you were going to wear is still in the clothes hamper? That's called a lack of preparation. So, if we are running late for our prescribed time of worship, what hope of a worship experience do we truly have?

We want to sing more hymns in worship, so we start with five hymns. Then we find out that "we are going too long," so we cut the hymns down to three verses each. Then we start reducing the number of hymns to fit our schedule. I suppose there could be a reduction in preaching to accommodate more songs, but it is fairly unlikely. The point is, we are enslaved to the idea that if the song service goes over five minutes, and the preaching goes over five minutes; then the congregants have been wronged by the unjust taking of ten minutes of their time. By whose standard? I'll leave that for your homework.

More tomorrow, God bless you all.

Spring has Sprung

Winter is over, at least, so say the blooms on all of the trees. Everybody seems so happy, because now we have sunshine and warmer weather. The flowers are blooming, the grass is green and trees are putting on new leaves. Hope seems to have been reborn. The general consensus was that we just had to hold on until Spring arrived. Hold on for what? I don't know. But, there always seems to be a "hold on until" attached to why folks aren't doing anything productive. For everyone who has been "holding on until" Spring gets here: it's here. What are you going to do with it?

Ressurection Day

Why do you seek the living among the dead? Imagine, a tomb that was guarded by Roman soldiers. Roman soldiers, who paid with their lives when the failed in their responsibilities. "And the guards shook for fear of him." Matthew reports that the angel rolled the stone away and sat on it, and the soldiers were scared to death of him. What a question to ask his disciples. Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; for He is risen. And now I am alive, because He is alive. Thank God and Amen.

Catching Excellence

If you have read this blog, or know me; you know how much I love football. A few years back, I found an article in Parade Magazine about Bart Starr. In this article, he discusses the impact that Vince Lombardi had on him. I cut part of this article out and keep it in my Bible to this day. The following is taken from this article:

The new head coach of the Green Bay Packers, Vince Lombardi, was addressing the players, who had won only one of their 12 games in the previous year.
"He opened the session by thanking the Packers for allowing him to be their coach," Starr says. "That tells you something about the man. Then he quickly turned to us and said, 'Gentlemen, we are going to relentlessly chase perfection, knowing full well we will not catch it, because nothing is perfect. But we are going to relentlessly chase it, because in the process we will catch excellence.' He came right up on us, within a foot of us in the front row, and then he said, 'I am not remotely interested in just being good.'"

I use these words to constantly remind me that being good at something, isn't enough to make a difference. Take a look at the state of our nation, and tell me that 1 and 12 doesn't about sum it up. Christians, we have been lulled to sleep, and look at what we have woken up to. Every Godless libertine group that is out there has set their sights on erasing Christianity. Erasing, not trying to find away to coexist, they want to erase it from our history.

We need now more than ever, difference makers. We need Christians who relentlessly chase perfection. By perfection, I mean just that: Jesus said, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." Not because we are under a dictatorial mandate, but because we are keenly aware of the fact that we are carrying the name of Christ with us where ever we go. Excellent Christians make a difference on the world around them. Look at Lottie Moon and Charles Spurgeon, were they perfect? No. But they were excellent Christians. And they were excellent Christians, because the pursued perfection. I flatly do not accept that we as Christians can't do better than we are doing. We can, and we must! The need is too great and the time is too short. Read these words from Paul. Don't chase good, relentlessly chase perfection.