Some bounce from job to job and deal to deal looking for their big break. Others keep their head down and work with what they have. The former often end up empty while the latter prosper. Be thankful and get busy with what you have now.
Some bounce from job to job and deal to deal looking for their big break. Others keep their head down and work with what they have. The former often end up empty while the latter prosper. Be thankful and get busy with what you have now.
Why head out into the darkness without a light to shine the way? Every morning we face a new day. Perhaps we think that the experiences of the days behind us will inform our direction forward, but who knows what a new day holds? Only the Lord. Stop stumbling and groping through life, blindly facing another day. Let God’s Word light your path.
Don’t be like the antelope that wandered from the herd only to be eaten by a lion. Stay alert and stay together! Don’t be tempted to isolate yourself in times of trouble. The Church is the body of Christ and we need each other. Begin your week worshiping together and gather during the week in one another’s homes, devoting yourselves to the Word, the fellowship, the breaking of bread and to prayer. Stay with the “herd” and stand firm together against the evil one.
Do you seek to be of “one mind,” unified with your fellow believers? Or do you constantly need to “speak your mind,” letting others know what displeases you? Seeking to be of one mind does not mean that you have no opinion, but it does mean that you seek to understand the other with an attitude of sympathy, love, tenderheartedness, and humility. This attitude leads to oneness for it actually cares about unity in the body and mutual understanding. Living together in this way will not eliminate conflict, but it will lead to handling conflict rightly, so that unity is increased, rather than broken. What is your goal? Is it to have your own way? Or is it to keep the family of believers unified in following Jesus?
When the oneness of our marital relationship is hindered, so is our prayer life. When husbands mistreat their wives (or vice versa) it affects their spiritual life as well. This should not surprise us for God has made us relational beings. And as such, a stone of disunity cast in one relationship, troubles the waters in another. Be reconciled to one another and live together in harmony, and watch your prayer life come alive again.
The Church is not a place, but a people. We have not built it, we are being built into it. While God builds the Church, we are to be the Church. For we are all “holy priests,” offering worship to God through meditation of Christ, the Cornerstone and Great High Priest.
Psalm 119 is the longest in the Psalms. For those who remember “Bible drills,” it lies near the middle of the Bible. It is an acrostic poem based on the 22-letter Hebrew alphabet and a meditation on the Scriptures themselves. In this verse, the Psalmist prays that God would open his eyes to understand the “wonderful truths” of God’s Word. This should be the prayer that every believer prays before opening the Word, because it is not just any book, it is God’s book. And therefore, God’s illumination is needed. Do you pray for God’s help before reading God’s Word?
God revealed His purpose for describing a future temple to Ezekiel (referred to here as “Son of man”). Ezekiel’s temple has never been built. Solomon built the first, which was destroyed by the Babylonians, as Ezekiel’s prophecy predicted. Zerubbabel built the second, which was enlarged by Herod the Great, but destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD. Ezekiel’s temple is sometimes called the “Third Temple,” or the “Millennial Temple.” Depending on one’s eschatology, some would see it as describing a spiritual temple fulfilled by the church. Others would see a literal fulfillment in the last days or during the Millennial kingdom. Regardless, Ezekiel was to describe it, so that the people of Israel would be “ashamed of all their sins.” Shame is an appropriate response to sin. Yet, there is a hardening of the heart which reduces shame to a dull tickling and then a complete denial. Ezekiel was to describe God’s future temple and returning glory, so that their hearts would feel shame, turning to God in repentance for forgiveness and salvation.
We may blame conflict on the external circumstances caused by another, but James said that the war actually originated within us. One of the early learnings that ministers discover is that “hurt people, hurt people.” Those who have hurts on the inside, act out of those hurts to hurt others. Then, there are those whose own self-love causes them to see offense at every turn, of which they keep record, and plan retaliation. Jealousy, greed, covetousness, these sinful desires and others like them, also cause wars within that lead to fights without. Christ is the only answer for peace on earth. Because true peace begins in the heart. What resides in your heart today? Peace or war?
At first glance, this statement about faith seems to contradict Romans 3:28 which clearly upholds that faith alone pleases God. Yet, James and Paul are not in conflict. Paul is concerned that some would make works and law-keeping the means for justification. He rightly proclaims that faith in Christ’s finished work is the only means for our justification. Faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone is Paul’s teaching. But if Paul corrects those who think their own works will be sufficient for salvation, James corrects those who would offer mere lip service to their faith without any fruit verifying its authenticity. Paul is concerned with what true faith believes, while James is concerned with what true faith does after it believes. Faith alone grafts us onto the Vine that we might live, but fruit-bearing shows that we do live.