The Child of God and the Word of God

The apostle Paul chastised the believers at Corinth for not being mature enough to receive the meatier teachings of God: “But I, brothers, could not address you as spiritual people, but as people of the flesh, as infants in Christ. 2 I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not ready for it. And even now you are not yet ready, 3 for you are still of the flesh” (1 Cor 3:1-3). I’m not sure that many Christians would fair much better than the Corinthians. So many things have crowded into our schedule that there is little time left for meditating, memorizing, reading, and studying the word of God.

Let me offer a couple of tips for busy people who want to be in God’s word. First, consider redeeming your driving time by listening to the Bible. You can purchase the entire Bible on CD. It’s a little expensive, but a great investment. If you can’t afford to make a large investment, you can buy individuals CD’s of the Bible at the Dollar Tree for $1. If you have an iPod, there is a free daily podcast of Bible readings (http://thebiblepodcast.org/podcast/). Second, consider making a schedule for Bible reading. If you planned 10 minutes a day, by the end of the first week you would have completed more than a hour of Bible reading. Who can’t spare 10 minutes? And yet what an improvement 1 hour of Bible reading would be to the devotional life of some believers.

Most importantly, if God is to be a priority in your life—which is a necessity if you are to worship God—then consider marking off a significant amount of time each week to be in His word. I want to encourage you to read Psalm 119. David had a passion for the word of God and in this Psalm it comes through with great beauty and clarity. Each time I read it, I am refreshed and given a renewed desire to be in God’s word. If you will take time this week to read and reflect on this passage, it may be the start of a personal revival in your life and you more deeply commit yourself to enjoying God’s word.

The Cost of Compromise

Caught between choosing what is right and choosing what is popular, the temptation to compromise can be overwhelming. In the sterile environment of a class, it is easy to take a firm position on ethical and moral issues. At the dinner table, surrounded by supportive family and friends, boldness comes easy. And perhaps nothing is easier than chastising someone on television, who lives on the other side of the continent and who we will never meet. In all of these situations, we may be a stalwart of uncompromising morality, a fierce defender of the faith, a bastille of all that is good and true.
However, it is the moment is which we have something to loose that we are tempted to waiver. When our best friend commits the same sin, that just last week we crucified some celebrity for, the cost of taking a stand stares us in the face. Then we realize (maybe for the first time) that commitment to the Lord requires sacrifice. In the post-modern age where the only acceptable absolute is that there is no absolutes-which is of course self-contradicting, but let’s not confuse its adherents with the facts—it is extremely unpopular to take a stand on anything. If we oppose the homosexual lifestyle, then we are homophobes. If we teach that Jesus is the only way to heaven, then we are closed minded and intolerant toward other religions. Of course, in America, when we hear the cry for religious tolerance, it means that all faiths, except evangelical Christianity, are to be accepted, which is of course a form of intolerance, which leads us to ask how can the tolerant practice intolerance in order to further tolerance—but again I am, perhaps unfairly, appealing to reason and common sense which apparently are irrelevant to some of the prevailing ideas of our day and time.
Many things may be uncertain today, but persecution for holding an unwavering commitment to God’s truth is as certain as death and taxes. Hold to the faith regardless of your crowd and you may loose your job, your position, future opportunities, income, and in some cases your life—hence, the appeal of compromise. But compromise only provides temporary relief from the tension between the ways of God and the ways of the world, and like a lie that must be maintained with new lies, compromise quickly grows into a reoccurring necessity, for some it will becomes a lifestyle.
Yet, no matter what the cost of taking a stand maybe in any given scenario, it pales in comparison to the cost of compromise. When we compromise what we believe we loose respect and credibility among those who share our convictions. We disappoint the Lord, and may even forfeit some opportunity that would have been available to us, had we been a person of character and integrity. And last, but not least, we lose self-respect and dignity, and the way the economy is going these days that is all some of us have left.
It is difficult to take a stand when so much is at stake to lose, but what profit is it if you gain the whole world and yet forfeit your own soul? Character is never forged in a rose garden, but in the fire of life’s difficulties. The only way to truly know what is inside of a person is to see what comes out when they are under pressure. The next time you face the temptation to compromise, consider the consequences.

An Age of Disbelief

Peter’s sermon in Acts 2 demonstrates his convictions about the death and resurrection of Jesus. Today, many people doubt the resurrection. Even some “supposedly” Christian scholars produce materials which question the resurrection. ABC in particular seems to have dedicated a primetime slot each Easter season to some type of documentary which mocks Christianity and questions the resurrection. However, Paul told the church at Corinth: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (1 Cor 15:17).
It is important for believers to understand that all of the Christian faith hinges on the resurrection of Jesus. Peter and the early witnesses believed it and we must believe it in order to be saved. For those of you who may still have doubts, let me present a couple of facts for you to consider. First, no one has ever been able to produce a body. The empty tomb stands as an important piece of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. Second, for those who argue that the body was stolen, let me ask you a couple of questions. How did a group of uneducated fisherman manage to steal the body of Jesus from underneath the noses of several highly trained Roman guards? What grave robbers do you know that take the time to undress the body and neatly fold the garments to leave behind? Third, it is incredible to believe that if the disciples were involved in a mass hoax to deceive people into believing that Jesus had been raised from the dead that not one of them would have succumbed to the pressure of fear and intimidation the Jews and later Romans placed upon them. How many people are willing to die for a lie? And yet all of the apostles went to their graves proclaiming the resurrection of Christ. Fourth, the Jewish leaders could not disprove the resurrection of Jesus in their own day. Fifth, two skeptics, James and Paul, were converted by the truth of Jesus’ resurrection and become great Christian leaders in their day.
The list of evidence for the resurrection could consume volumes. I am only giving a handful of truths to ask you to think about and consider. Although Christians today are often portrayed as narrow-minded idiots, I submit to you that it would take a narrow-minded idiot to dismiss the evidence for the resurrection. If Christ be not raised, we have no faith, but praise be to God, Christ is raised!

Recommended Resources on Speaking in Tongues

Many people have written about speaking in tongues. However, the best research I have read comes from John MacArthur. I want to recommend two items that he has available. One is a study guide from a sermon he preached on Acts 2:5-13. It is available free to download online at: http://www.gty.org/Resources/Print/studyguides/1704.

The second resource is a book he published entitled, Charismatic Chaos. I have ordered a copy for our church library, but to my knowledge it is not yet come in. You can purchase a copy of the book online at: http://www.amazon.com/Charismatic-Chaos-Dr-John-MacArthur/dp/0310575729/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-1897890-1154309?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1191854430&sr=8-1. The current price is $5.99. Full bibliography: John MacArthur, Charismatic Chaos (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992).

**Disclaimer: Please understand that I am recommending these resources because they contain very valuable research. I do not agree with John MacArthur at every point, so if you are offended by something he has written please don't assume that I agree with him on that point and focus your anger at me. Why then would I recommend someone else's resources? Because when I was growing up my pastor once told me, "Kevin, any good mule in Sevier County has enough sense when it comes to a briar in a bale of hay to push the briar aside and keep feasting on the hay." There's a lot of good hay to feast on in these resources, if only we have the sense God gave a mule.

Does God Work in Different Ways? (Sermon: Acts 2:5-13)

The Bible tells us that God does not change (James 1:17). The book of Hebrews tells us that: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). However, can God remain the same and yet work in different ways at different times in history? Hebrews points out that God speaks in different ways at different times: “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world (Hebrews 1:1-2).

We must remember that a change in the way God is working does not necessitate a change in His character or nature. The way in which a father interacts with his son will change drastically from the time that child is a preschooler to the time that he is six-teen. Yet, the change in the way the father interacts is not a reflection of a change in the father’s character, but of a change in the circumstances of his son. In the same way, believer’s today do not sacrifice lambs—not because God has changed His mind about the need for sacrifice, but because Jesus fulfilled that need when He died on the cross (1 Cor. 5:7). God walked and fellowshipped in the garden with Adam, yet no one after the fall experienced this relationship. Why? As a result of the fall, the circumstances of the relationship between God and man changed.

What does this mean for us today? It first of all means that we should not view everything we see taking place in scripture as normative for today. In particular, we should not expect the miracles that God did as signs to establish the credibility of the early believers and apostles to be taking place today. Does this mean that God is no longer working? Absolutely not! It simply means that God is working in a certain manner, because of where we stand in history. God has always been at work, today is no exception.

Learning What's Really Important (Sermon: Ecc. 3:9-15)

The first church I ever served full-time, tasked me with visiting the shut-ins and the sick. As a result, I constantly faced death. I watched families say good-bye to their loved ones for the last time. I listened as people recounted their lives that were now spent. As a young man just out of college, it was all a lot to process and deal with. I learned a lot during this time and I was forced to grow up fast. Still, in the midst of all of my dismay at the harsh reality of death and dying, I learned a value lesson about perspective.

The seniors that I spent my time with viewed life through different glasses than anyone I knew my own age. We were all concerned with what our salaries would be, what type of car we could afford to drive, how nice our house would be—in a nutshell we thought about success as defined by a greedy materialistic world. Those that were dying seemed to think about only two things: their relationship with God and their family. As I prepared to preach some of their funerals, I realized that although I had spent hours visiting with them, listening to their stories, and asking questions, I didn’t even know what many of them did for a living. I didn’t know where they had previously lived, what kind of cars they had driven, or even what social circles they had ran in. But I could tell you the shoe size of some of their grandchildren. I knew when they had joined the church and when their children had been saved. I knew these things not because I asked, but because in every instance, these were the things that were dear to those that were dying—the things they most wanted to talk about. These were the only things that mattered at this point in their life; aren’t these the only things that matter at any point in our life.

If only we could gain the perspective of these wise veterans of life, while we were young. Someone once said: “wisdom is learning from the mistakes of others.” Have you ever said to yourself, “I wish I knew then what I know now?” I want to ask you to consider that maybe if we listen to those who have gone before us, we can know now some of what we will know then.