Speaking God's Truth in Love

Speaking God's Truth in Love "Pointing Your Guns in the Right Direction"

Ephesians 6:12
12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

When we are hurt by someone it is only natural that we become angry with them.  We lose a lot of our precious time in life being angry and bitter at other people.  If you are honest with yourself there is probably someone in your life right now you are having a hard time forgiving. 

Just because it is natural doesn’t mean it’s the right thing.  Did you know the Bible tells us that being unforgiving can cause us to be tormented?  Let’s read about it together.

Matthew 18:21-35
21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?  Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
23 Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
24 And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
25 But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made.
26 The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, ‘Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’
27 Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
28 But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denari, and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, ‘Pay me what you owe!’
29 So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him saying, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.’
30 And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt.
31 So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done.
32 Then his master, after he had called him said to him, ‘You wicked servant!  I forgave you all that debt because you begged me.
33 Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’
34 And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him.
35 “So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”

To compare this debt in our time it would be 10,000 talents (20 million dollars) vs 100 deanari (54 dollars).  The parable is relatively self explanatory.  God forgave us a tremendous debt.  We are, literally, spiritually bankrupt and on our way to Hell, but out of  love for us, God gave His Son, Jesus, to pay our debt. 

Our sin debt could never be paid by our own good works, yet when someone trespasses against us we have a difficult time forgiving them.  Jesus goes on to say because we do not forgive people that hurt us, we might be turned over to the torturers or tormentors.  That is not a metaphor for sending us to Hell, it is a metaphor for living our lives here on earth being in torment because of our un-forgiveness.

Think about your own life, when you are bitter and angry at someone you lose sleep over it, you look for ways to get back at them, you spend a lot of your time thinking about your anger and how you’ve been hurt.  Friends, hate and bitterness will torment you!  

In order to defeat bitterness you must:

• Discern where it comes from.  Remember the verse that I started off with.  Our battle is not with flesh and blood.  We need to get past the bitterness and anger that we have with individuals and focus our anger on the real culprit.  The devil is at the root of all evil.  The devil is at work in a person’s life to cause evil to others, and he is at work in the victim’s life to continue to have hatred and bitterness.
• Direct your anger in the proper place.  Be motivated to be closer to God and understand what Jesus says about forgiveness and pray that He will work in your life to be forgiveness for you when you can’t forgive on your own.
• Declare Jesus’ name when hatred over takes you.  As Jesus said to Peter, “Get thee behind Me Satan.”  You can call out for Jesus to guard and guide your emotions and tell the Devil it’s time to get out of your life.  Pray in the name of Jesus for the devil to leave you alone. 

Be sure you point your guns at the one that is really hurting you. 

Speaking God's Truth in Love "High Anxiety"

John 14:1, 27
1 Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me.
27 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

Matthew 6:25, 27-28, 31, 34
25 Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on.  Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?
27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 So why do you worry about clothing?  Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they neither toil nor spin;
31 Therefore do not worry, saying ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things.

Philippians 4:6
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

All of these verses tell us not to worry.  So why do we worry so much?  The Bible tells us that we have a sin nature, and because we have a sin nature, it is natural for us to do things that are contrary to God’s perfect plan for us.  His command to us is don’t worry, yet we do worry, therefore our actions are contrary to His command.

Once again we have to remember in order to have victory over our sin nature we need to depend on something that is super natural.  In other words, the only way to defeat worry is to let God loose in our heart and mind to give us the peace that He has promised us. 

It takes knowledge of Scripture to defeat worry.  We need to be able to fall back on God’s Word when times look bleak and we are fearful about what tomorrow holds.  There is a saying that I like to recite, “I don’t know what tomorrow holds, but I know Who holds tomorrow.”  How true this is. 

I want you to take this verse of Scripture and imbed it into your memory for the times when life overwhelms you.

Psalm 139:16
Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.  And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.

God has known all about you from before you were born.  The things that you worry about are already in God’s hands and He has fashioned their end.  The knowledge of this should take a heavy burden off of all of us. 

I think that much of our worry is because of our relationship with the Savior.  Things go wrong in our lives, we have a crisis of massive proportion and we begin to worry because we aren’t close to the Savior.  Our guilt begins to set in, we worry because we haven’t been living right and we know it. We may not even know that is what we are thinking, but somewhere back in our conscience it’s there. 

Our problem is that we wander away from Jesus and it takes us awhile to get back to Him.  We have this idea that He has left the room and we have to work our way back to Him.  In reality He is watching over us at all times, never far away at all.  We are the ones that leave the room.  All you have to do is turn around (repent) and He is standing right there.  Here is His promise to us:

1^st John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.   

 If you want to have more peace and less worry than get your life right with Jesus.  He wants to be a super natural comfort to you.  Once you have come back to Him you can continue to live your life with less worry by being obedient to His Word.  Stay under His protective shield and feel His presence as He keeps you safe. 

This most powerful force in the universe is ready to protect you and keep you safe.  The key to your freedom from the worries of this world is your willingness to run safely into His outstretched arms.     

Speaking God's truth in Love "Godly Prosperity"

1 Corinthians 1:26
26 For you see your calling brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.

I am nauseated every time I accidently tune my radio to a station that is transmitting the fallacy of a prosperity preacher.  You know the type.  They spend their time telling unwitting souls that God is just itching to give you everything you desire.  All you have to do is trust him, and have enough faith and He will give you the abundant life.

There is never any balance in their message.  God is a God of love and He only wants the best for you.  Though the premise is true, the real argument lies in the definition of “best”.  So, let’s look at the prosperity doctrine from a logical point of view using characters from the New Testament as our example.

We will pick the men of Jesus’ inner circle, Peter, James and John.  There is little doubt that these 3 men were closer to Jesus than any others.  They were with Him on the Mount of Transfiguration; they were with Him in the garden as He prayed right before His crucifixion.  Let’s quickly look at how these men spent their last days after Jesus ascended into heaven.

• The man they called James, who was the brother of John and was nicknamed one of the Son’s of Thunder spent his last days in prison and was eventually be-headed by Herod in order to please the Jews (Acts chapter 12). 
• Then there was Pete, he was certainly prosperous and God really blessed him with lots of money and a big house and the most luxurious camel to drive.  Actually Peter spent his last days in prison before being crucified by government officials.  Tradition tells us that Peter was crucified upside down at his own wish because he didn’t feel worthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord.  
• After those to very wealthy men of the world we come to John.  He too was considered to be one of Jesus’ inner circle.  It was John they called the “beloved”, it was John, along with Peter, that ran to the tomb to find that Jesus had resurrected.  John was so prospered by God in his last days that he was exiled to an island called Patmos where he eventually died alone.    

Now all I’m saying is, if God’s purpose is to bless our socks off with material goods and pleasures then why did His closest friends die in such terrible conditions.  To add to these 3 men we can look at Jesus’ half brother, James.  He was flayed on a wheel by government officials who time and time again warned him to stop preaching, but couldn’t get him to shut up.  He was literally skinned slowly and tradition tells us that he kept on preaching even after they started removing his skin until finally the king told them to go ahead and kill him to shut him up.

Of course we can’t forget about the apostle Paul.  He is responsible for much of the New Testament and was clearly chosen by God to fulfill His purpose on earth.  Yet Paul wasn’t allowed to retire to a life of leisure.  Paul was imprisoned more than once; he was beaten, stoned, ship-wrecked and left for dead.  Finally he was beheaded by the order of Nero to shut him up and make an example of him to all Christians.

All I am asking of you is to be aware that we can make Scripture say just about anything we want if we pull certain verses out of context.  Always read the entire subject when studying the Bible and don’t stop at one or two verses.  Also remember to sift everything you read through a spiritual eye.  That simply means that before trying to put a worldly or material twist on Scripture, study to see the spiritual meaning.  For instance, if God wants us to have the abundant life, is He meaning abundant worldly goods or is he meaning He wants us to have an abundant spiritual life.

God promises to provide for our needs, He promises to never leave us or forsake us, but it’s a fallacy to believe that God promises you worldly prosperity.

Speaking God's Truth in Love "It's a Win, Win Situation!"

Philippians 1:21
21 For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

The apostle Paul was writing a letter to the church at Philippi when he made this statement.  Wouldn’t it be great if we could have this kind of attitude 24/7?  It would remove a lot of worry from our day to day lives if we could come away from every situation with the attitude, “If I live, Jesus will be right here with me, and if I die, I will be right there with Jesus.  We know this is the case, but when a crisis hits us it’s hard for us to see past the pain and worry and let Jesus wrap His arms around us and comfort us.

It’s a win, win situation.  The believer belongs to God and can never be separated from God.  He is watching over us and growing us to be more like him.  No matter what happens to us God never stops loving us or caring for us.  We may move away from God for a time, but He never moves away from us.  Since He cares for us nothing ever happens that He isn’t aware of or He doesn’t allow.  We may go through painful growing pains, but God is always right there with us.

Therefore, we should be able to take complete comfort in knowing that nothing is happening to us without His knowledge.  If we live it will be because God has allowed us to live, and He will keep on protecting us.  If we die, we will be with Him in paradise and will enjoy the comfort of seeing the Father face to face.  Now that is a winning attitude!

Enjoy being a child of God.  Wake up with the attitude that you can’t lose no matter what happens.  Make people wonder what it is that makes you smile so much.  When they ask you just tell them you smile because you are content in the Lord.  Nothing that happens to you can defeat you when God is on your side.

Romans 8:31 
31 What then shall we say to these things?  If God is for us, who can be against us?

Let me give you a little heads up.  I have read the entire story and I am here to tell you: 
We Win!  We Win!  Praise God, We Win!

 

Speaking God's Truth in Love "Moving On?"

James 1:22
But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Yesterday, after I wrote my blog I received a personal email from one of my loyal and valued readers.  The message went something like this, “Could you please move on brother Neil, I am convicted already.”  This, of course, is referring to the many days that I have spent writing about God’s command that we be witnesses for Him.  I understand the desire to move on.  Anyone that loves God wants to know more about the Scriptures.

It reminds me of an old joke from many years ago.  A young preacher took his first church and on the first Sunday he got up and preached a good message that everyone enjoyed.  The next Sunday he got up and preached the same message.  On the third Sunday he preached the message again.  After the services were over the head deacon and chairman of the search committee that brought the preacher to the church politely pulled the preacher aside and said, “You are a really good preacher and we are happy to have you, but you keep preaching the same message over and over again.  Can’t we move on now?”

The young preacher just smiled and said, “Well sir, I just thought I would preach this one until you get it right and then move on to another subject.”

I know how hard I have been pounding this subject.  The truth is being a witness for Christ is the most important part of our reason for being on this earth.  I have emphasized the subject only because of its importance.  There are literally thousands of subjects worth spending time on in Scripture, but none more important than witnessing.

What happens quite often though is that we preach, or write about a subject and people get convicted, but that is as far as it gets.  You see, it is one thing to be convicted, and quite another to perform an action to do something about it.  As pastor of a church I preached an average of 140 sermons each year.  Most of my sermons were listened to by people that would say a hardy amen or nod their heads in agreement while I was speaking.  However, to take something that you agree with, or feel convicted about, and then perform the actions it takes to change the way you live is much different.

I believe knowing to do better and not doing it may be worse than pleading ignorance about it.  God uses the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin.  If He convicts and we don’t heed the conviction and do something to change, doesn’t that magnify the problem? 

Many of you have read the words I write, but have you talked to anyone about becoming a believer in Christ this week or last week?  The proof is in the pudding.

I have to tell you, I was please to get a call yesterday from a pastor friend of mine who told me that my words had not fallen on deaf ears.  He came in contact with an unbeliever yesterday, witnessed to him and led him to Christ.  What a great thing to hear.

I will make a deal with all of you.  If you will find someone that is on their way to a sinners hell and tell them the good news of Jesus Christ then I will stop writing about witnessing.  Now I hope you hold up your end of the bargain.  I will.

Speaking God's Truth in Love "Are You A-Skeard?"

2^nd Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

Is this the way you believe?  Has God given you a spirit of power and love and a sound mind?  I’m going to go ahead and answer that one for most of us.  Not all of us, but most of us would have to answer, well……I know what it says, but………that’s just not my calling, or that’s the preacher’s job, or I’m afraid, or a multitude of other excuses. 

• A spirit of power would allow us to tell anyone and everyone about Jesus.  There would be no holding us back, there would be no fear of failure, and there would be boldness in our witness.    
• A spirit of love would compel us to try and reach everyone for the Savior.  If we have a spirit of love we will cry for those that do not know Jesus.  Think about it this way.  If a house across the street from your house was on fire and you knew that there were people asleep inside, you would do everything in your power to get them out.  You would beat their door down, scream at the top of your lungs, call them on the phone, wake up the neighbors; you wouldn’t stop until you could be sure that they were saved from the fire. 
• A spirit of a sound mind would reason through the Scriptures and know that we are here for a purpose.  And that purpose is not to simply take up space.  A person with the spirit of a sound mind will know that we are supposed to be witnessing machines.  Telling everyone we come in contact with about Jesus.  Even if the world labels us as fanatics it would be better to be labeled a fanatic then to be labeled lukewarm.

It’s time to believe what God promises and have faith in His power, learn to love other people in the same way that Jesus loves them, and realize that this witnessing thing is not an option, it’s a responsibility and a privilege.  If God is for us, who can be against us?  Amen! 

Speaking God's Truth in Love "Why"

Matthew 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

I seem to be spending a lot of time in Matthew 28.  The reason for this is because of its importance to us.  It is a question of priorities.  The last thing Jesus told the disciples before His exit back to Heaven was ‘Go’.  So the first thing we should have on our mind once we have believed in the Son of God is ‘to go’.  Go tell someone else about the love of Jesus, go see more people baptized, go make disciples, and go teach them to be followers.  That is the command.  Everything in the entire Bible culminates with Jesus Christ and His love for us and everything that culminates with Christ boils down to what we are told to do with it, ‘Go’. 

Today is Friday, outside of being at church this week and sharing your faith with another Christian while you were there, how many non-believers have you talked to about the love of Jesus this week?  Can you name one?  Have you ‘gone’ this week?  Have you tried to reproduce your spiritual self this week? 

The question then is why.  You know what Jesus expects of us.  You know that He loved you so much that He died for you.  So why aren’t we going?

You pastors need to ask yourself the same question.  Am I going?  Outside of preaching, have you shared your faith with a non-believer this week?  We really don’t expect our church members to ‘go’ if we don’t ‘go’ ourselves do we?  It’s probably not a good idea to complain about our flock if we aren’t leading the way.

We get depressed because our churches don’t grow, we get immersed in the everyday affairs of church life, we complain about the direction of our culture and our church, but are we leading in what is the most important thing our Lord asks us to do?  Do we really expect God to bless our ministry and our church if we aren’t obedient to the most important thing God has for us to do?

I am not pointing a finger at you without pointing 3 back at myself.  It is time for us to take inventory of our spiritual lives and become doers of the Word and not hearers only.  Look around you and see who you can share your faith with right now.  Make a list of people that you know that aren’t Christians.  When you read that list, tell yourself that those people are going to live for eternity separated from God unless they find the truth of Christ.  Then realize that it is your responsibility to be the one that ‘goes’ to tell them. 

Don’t just read this and agree with it in principle only.  Do something about it.  Go!

 

Speaking God's Truth in Love "Getting Back to the Basics"

Matthew 28:18-20
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

The more I study these verses the more I ask myself how we ever let our churches get to the state they are in today.  We know that in our own area at least two out of every three people we meet on the street, or at work, are unsaved, yet we seem to be encouraged when a church reports that they have been a part of an average of 1 or two salvations a month.

The Acts model of church was in a more difficult position to witness then we could ever imagine, but the Gospel spread like wildfire among the people and literally thousands were saved.  We would be hard pressed to say that times were different then.  That it was easier for them than it is for us.  They did everything on foot, they didn’t have any of the capabilities of communication that we have today, yet God brought a revolution to an area that was so dark the government killed Christians for entertainment.  The same government that killed Christians for entertainment miraculously became a Christian government.

I am convinced that we need to revisit the Acts New Testament model of church to dig deeper into what created this movement for Christ.  We need to ask the hard questions about our way of reaching the lost.  Questions like, why can’t we motivate the people in our pews to spread the Gospel to our lost world?  What will it take to see that 15 or 20 people saved in a year should be a cause for worry instead of something we are be proud of?

With people dying each day and leaving this world headed for an eternity separated from God, we go about our lives as if everything is fine and we are content to allow it to be business as usual.  The burden for lost souls has to begin with the leaders of our churches.  We have to change our mind-set before we can change the mind-set of those around us.  The Acts New Testament model church was not about the status quo, it was about, “The Lord adding to the church daily those who were being saved.” (Acts 2:47) 

I hope you will join me in praying that God will give our church leaders a true burden for lost souls.  Pray with me that we will be bold in learning to change our churches into Acts New Testament model churches.  That we will get away from the belief that we are winning the battle for lost souls and understand that God expects much more from us. 

Speaking God's Truth in Love "The Logic of Witnessing"

^1st Timothy 1:15
15 It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.

Did God send His Son to make my life easier?  Did God send His Son so that I could be successful and have abundant worldly possessions?  I don’t believe so.  I believe the Bible tells us that God sent His Son Jesus for one reason, to save sinners.  

We have health and wealth preachers, we have name it and claim it preachers, but look at what the apostle Paul wrote to his young protégé Timothy, “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving of full acceptance.” 

Since we know that the Bible is the inspired word of God (2^nd Timothy 3:16), we have to be careful not to twist its meaning, not to add our ideas or change its values.  Christ came to save sinners!

Now let’s see if we can add some good ole fashioned logic to what the Bible teaches us.

• God sent His Son to save sinners.
• In order for Jesus to accomplish that goal through God’s plan He had to suffer for our sins and die a terrible death on the cross.  That isn’t the way I would have accomplished it if I were God, but then I’m not God and God chose to reconcile us to Himself through His Son’s death on the cross. 
• Because Jesus loved us so much He was fully obedient to His Father and willingly accepted His fate on the cross in order to save us from our sin.
• Our sins were forgiven because of Jesus’ blood sacrifice.
• God raised Jesus from the dead in order that, through belief in Him, we may also have victory over death and spend eternity in Heaven.
• Since we have been given this great gift of eternal life through Jesus we are commanded to witness to others about His love.
• God uses our witness to save others from eternal damnation.
• The only way that people are brought to a saving faith in Jesus Christ is through our witness.

Therefore it is logical to believe; since God has commanded us to be witnesses for Him, and since it was through Jesus’ death that we are saved, we should make reaching out to non-believers our number one priority.

You and I have the responsibility to spread the Good News of Jesus to every person we come in contact with.  If that makes us fanatics for Christ then so what, we are fanatics for football, we are fanatics for movies and television and a thousand other things.  It is high time that we get our priorities in order.    

Speaking God's Truth in Love "Representing God"

2^nd Corinthians 5:18-21
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

I know there are parts of Scripture that are difficult to read, but the majority of the Bible is very easy to understand.  These verses here in 2^nd Corinthians are part of the easily understood Scripture.  Let’s look at them individually and let the Holy Spirit teach us a tremendous lesson. 

• The word reconcile is an accounting term.  It means that we change or adjust.  Most everyone at some time or another has reconciled their check book.  In other words, you bring it into balance.  You look at your bank statement and change your checkbook to match the actual balance that is in your account.  God has reconciled the believer to Himself.  He has changed our position of being out of balance with Him and brought us into a fellowship with Him.   
• He has used His Son Jesus to perform this reconciliation.  Through Jesus’ death on the cross He balanced our account with God.  Our sin puts us out of balance in such a tremendous way that we could never pay the sin debt ourselves.  We could never bring ourselves back into balance with God.  It took the perfect payment of Christ on the cross to bring our account into balance. 
• However, God didn’t just bring us into balance with Him through Jesus.  After we have believed He then gives us the responsibility to tell others the Good News.  Notice I use the word responsibility.  I use that word because that is truly what it is.  We each have the responsibility to allow God to work through us to be His representatives.  We are to represent the Good News of God to those around us who are out of balance with Him and need to be reconciled to Him. 

Last night I heard a wonderful word from God from one of the preachers in our association.  He asked us all to stop looking at the world we live in as an insurmountable problem, but to instead start looking at our world through the eyes of God and see the potential for His kingdom.  God isn’t through saving souls.  He isn’t through bringing people into balance with Him.  If He was, He would end this and bring on the next part of eternity.

There is a great work of reconciliation to be done here and God has given all of us the responsibility to represent Him in this work.  I have read the end of the book and God wins!  The truth is He will win every day through us if we will obey His command to be His representatives.