Why does God tell His followers to stop dwelling on the past? Often, we reminisce just to savor the great memories or linger over hurts; in one case, revisiting our successes, in the other, figuring a way we could have avoided errors. Aren’t our mistakes instructive in some way? Possibly so, if we’re delving back to relive a victory or stave off a defeat, but He doesn’t want us to fixate on yesterday.He has a plan for our lives, and that plan involves pushing forward, opening the door, stepping through, and embracing the challenge.Best of all, He promises to go with us.
CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
By WARD PIMLEY
Pastor, Journalist, Author
“Do not say, ‘Why is it that the former days were better than these?’ For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this.” – Ecclesiastes 7:10 NASB
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” – Isaiah 43:18 NIV
“Brothers, I do not consider myself as having laid hold of it yet, but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what liesahead.” – Philippians 3:13 LSB
WHY DOES GOD tell us not to dwell on the past? Why does He encourage us, even command us, throughout Scripture, to focus on the “new things,” to be open to where He wants us to go? [1]
[1] This Meditation is a revision of a previous post from July 10, 2020, with the same name. This version also contains a second part, a revision of a post from July 02, 2020.
Part 1: It’s Always Groundhog Day
THIS IS A VERY important issue for me – and possibly for you, as well – and one where I often come up short … very short … very often.
I constantly revisit the past and wonder how I could have handled events differently if I had known the Lord then. Of course, I would have been a different person, with a different mindset, a different heart, and with different priorities.
Also, I would have sought advice from different people — definitely, my pastor and probably a youth leader – neither of which I did.
Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’” – Luke 9:62 ESV
I was not very good at taking direction from adults because I did not trust their judgment. My own judgment was willful and purposeful, but, because of my youth, without much experience behind it. I thought I knew more than I actually did; and, as a result, I made more mistakes than I should have.
Yes, I suffered for those mistakes.
Yet God exhorts me to put aside those idle speculations and live the life He is offering me, as His child, to serve the Kingdom and to be a blessing to those He places in my path.
Part 2: Can We Accept Forgiveness?
THE ISSUE IS CLEAR. I see three factors: One, our sin; two, God’s eagerness to forgive our sin, and three, our unwillingness to forgive ourselves.
We hold onto the moment, lamenting lost opportunities, wrong paths taken, selfish actions, bad decisions.
We see the evil in our hearts play itself out in our lives, and we long to rewrite the story. We see the people we have hurt, the innocent lives of children who trusted us, their eyes beckoning us to change course and come back; the broken heart of a spouse whose dreams of a future with us were dashed on the rocks of our self-centeredness. “
We see the evil in our hearts play itself out in our lives, and we long to rewrite the story. We see the people we have hurt, the innocent lives of children who trusted us, their eyes beckoning us to change course and come back; the broken heart of a spouse whose dreams of a future with us were dashed on the rocks of our self-centeredness.
The disappointed note in our employer’s voice as he who had recruited us, encouraged us, and enticed us to work by his side, in sadful resignation, lets us go, finding it preferable to work unburdened by our weight.
My failures during turbulent years when my first marriage broke apart were so devastating to me, I could not bear the pain I felt. Not only did my actions hurt my wife (the mother of my children), but I denied my children the full time and attention of their father when they needed me most.
I still hurt with the memory of those years, but with my life turned over to Jesus Christ, He has helped me heal from the worst of it and start living a productive life. Perhaps it that even today, as I stand before you and preach the Gospel, that this is what God was preparing me for.
He certainly has given me a humility to relate to those who are suffering, and, for better or worse, some life stories to share that fit the occasion.
Part 3: Is There a New Story?
GOD ASSURES US He has written the story, and if we would drop the baggage of our past, we could join Him in this new adventure He has planned for us.
Recently, I had breakfast with a former neighbor who recently moved to Arkansas with his wife, who had been offered a promising job.
He told me he was not sure what he would be doing in his new surroundings, where God would be calling him, but he ~ being a man of great faith ~ said he believes God will let him know the place He has planned for him when he’s ready to accept the opportunity.
SOLOMON, the wisest man to live, tells us not to lean on our own understanding but to trust in God’s direction. (Prov. 3:5-6)
KING DAVID says God’s light illuminates the path before us, showing us where we need to go. (Psalms 119:105)
THE APOSTLE PAUL reminds us that through Christ, we are crucified to our sinful pasts, and with Him living in our hearts, we are open to the challenges and adventures that God has waiting for us. (Gals. 2:20)
THE LORD JESUS admonishes us by saying those who put their hand to the plow and keep looking back, not forward, are “not fit” for the Kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)
SOME MIGHT SAY if we ignore the past, we’ll fail to learn from it. We can see the truth in that statement, but God is telling us something more. He is pointing out the difference between learning from our errors and dwelling on them.
Once He has forgiven us, we need to leave the spot of sin and not build memorials to our past. Otherwise, we’re saying that Christ’s work on the Cross was not sufficient to complete God’s plan, when God said, quite emphatically, that it was sufficient.
He wants us to believe that and embrace it.
Remember, Jesus told us that He came to give us life “abundantly” — a full-throttled life experience full of community with Him and each other (John 10:10), unlike the life promised us by the devil – who only approaches us to steal joy from us or suck the life out of us.
When we dwell in the past, God says, we’re demonstrating our lack of faith in His good provision, and we’re missing the new opportunities He has planned for us.
Part 4: Can We Trust God?
INSTEAD OF FOCUSING on the past, God exhorts us to refocus our attention on what life is offering us in the present, right here today, and on the future … because that’s where He longs to take us.
LEARN from the Past FOCUS on the Present PREPARE for the Future
Jesus said God is always working (John 5:17), and He wants us to join Him in that effort to spread the Good News to everyone.
Here are a few of His reminders:
“Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 CSB
“Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.” Isaiah 43:19 CSB
“Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6:4 LSB
“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:14 NKJV
“And he who was seated on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, ‘Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.’” Revelation 21:5 ESV
FINAL WORDS
SAVOR THE MESSAGE. FEEL THE LOVE. CLAIM THE BLESSING.
Remember: Scripture is God talking to us. To you and to me.
It is our job to listen, to trust, and to obey.
I leave you with two more verses to consider.
Decide which vision you want for yourself. Hint: One of them is forward looking, gratefully accepting the role God has carved out for us; the other one looks backward in regret, challenging God’s plan for us, ungrateful for His benevolence.
Vision 1: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV
Vision 2: “But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.” – Genesis 19:26 NIV
I know which one I choose: the first one. I want to keep chugging forward, unburdened by yesterday’s mistakes, sins, errors, and misjudgments.
I want to be open to where God is leading me, and wherever He plants me, there it is I want to blossom.
PRAYER
ALMIGHTY GOD, OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, Our Abba, our Daddy, Thank You for focusing our attention on our tendency to dwell on the past, wishing we could have a “redo” or “do over.”
We want to avoid the mistakes we’ve made that have taken us down the wrong paths. As we’ve come under Your umbrella as children of God, we want to take away the hurt we’ve caused others, people who counted on us, only to find we came up empty.
Lord, some of it is so painful we would give anything to *redo* the past, to avoid making the bad decisions our sinful natures led us to make, actions that brought ruin and heartache to our lives and to lives around us.
We cannot rewrite the script to benefit from wiser decisions, but through Your love and grace, You have given us each day a new beginning.
Help us, O Lord, to believe so fully in Your promises that we eagerly abandon the tendency to look back on our sins and hold onto the plow as it moves forward.
Lord, we want to be fit for the Kingdom, and we thank You for giving us that opportunity!
We lift this prayer in the majestic name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. AMEN
This sermon emphasizes the importance of humility, trust in God, vigilance against spiritual adversity, and the promise of divine glory after suffering. It encourages believers to cast their burdens on God, remain steadfast in faith, and find strength in shared human struggles while looking forward to eternal life with Christ.
A CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
By WARD PIMLEY
Pastor, Journalist, Author
BIBLICAL TEXT SOURCE
“Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” – 1 Peter 5:6-7 NKJV
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8 NKJV
“Resist him [the devil], steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. AMEN.” – 1 Peter 5:9-11 NKJV
PREAMBLE
GOD VALUES OUR HUMILITY. The reason? Because it is only when we are humble that we can learn and that we will turn to Him for strength and guidance. When we walk in our own pride, we arrogantly believe all of our achievements are because of our unique skills and abilities and that profit is our due.
When we are humble, we put aside our foolish pride and learn from the Creator, the One who fashioned us and knows us. Moreover, He loves us, so we can count on Him to give us good direction.
We all know this, but like Adam and Eve before us, we refuse to listen. How grateful we are, then, that we worship a God who is patient with us and more than willing to forgive us. AMEN!
PART 1. “Humble Yourself. God Resists the Proud.”
Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you at the proper time. – 1 Peter 5:6 CSB
God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. – 1 Peter 5:5b CSB (Prov. 3:34; James 4:6)
Proud people will be ruined, but the humble will be honored. – Proverbs 18:12 NCV
HUMILITY IS A PREREQUISITE TO LEARNING.
A woman often asks a man, “Are you teachable?”
She wants to know if the man in her life will honor her and consider her desires as well as his own. That is, will he listen to her?
Someone who is proud and boastful will not listen.
Someone who will not listen to instruction will not learn.
Someone who will not learn will not change.
Someone who will not change wil not grow.
Someone who will not grow will not improve.
That’s called “stubbornness,” and stubborness gets us nowhere! (Stubbornness is the opposite of determination. One is foolishness; the other is goal-oriented and purposeful.)
My guess is we al know someone very well who can be stubborn. Right? (Hint: Look in the mirror.)
God is tell us here, through the Apostle Peter, that He values our humility, not our pride.
Remember, it was Lucifer’s pride that got him kicked out of Heaven. We know him as Satan, the great devil.
Adam’s pride cost him Paradise, as he listened to his wife Eve’s invitation to eat the forbidden fruit instead of listening to God’s command not to eat the forbidden fruit.
Eve’s pride caused her to listen to a snake instead of listening to her husband’s instruction of what God had told him.
Bottom line: Neither Adam nor Eve listened to God.
Pride got in their way.
Sound familiar?
Somewhere in this message you probably find yourself. I know I do.
I’m not happy about that. I’m not eager to admit it, but I am very grateful that I worship a God who understands human weakness and is willing to forgive us.
That’s why we worship Him!
PART 2. “He Cares for You.”
Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. – 1 Peter 5:7 BSB
I CAN SEE this image so clearly. It repeats in my mind.
A man (or a woman) humbly comes to the foot of the cross and lays down his (or her) burdens, just as the Lord in Matthew 11 bids us do.
“Come to Me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
So, we kneel in prayer, asking God to show us mercy and take our cares away; and after we are done praying, and we are ready to leave, we pick up the bundle we had placed at Jesus’ feet, fling it over our shoulders, and walk away with it. Or, if it is too heavy for us to lift, we drag it along the ground.
Over and over and over again we do that. Why? Why are we so unwilling to part with our burdens, our heartaches, and our sorrow?
How many of us hold firmly onto past grievances, unwilling to forgive others – or ourselves – and we live in our pain, even glorifying our pain, honoring it, worshipping it. We want to share it with others. We want them to know every little detail of how we hurt, and how unfair life has been to us.
Unfortunately, for many of us, there are two things we will not do:
We will not blame ourselves.
We will not leave the burden with Jesus.
Now, you might say I’m exaggerating. Maybe, but if so, it is only to make a point. Our tendency is to walk for years with every heartache and defeat and misery. Yes, they will go away for a time, and we can dull the pain with various addictions (alcohol, drugs, sex, movies, exercise, family, work, busyness).
We feel lost without our pain. We often keep pain because we’re familiar with it. It’s like a smelly old jacket with paint stains and rips that we keep in the closet. It’s not a good style statement, but we’re used to it, and it’s a comfortable fit.
Jesus calls us to give our hurts and pains over to Him. He can take it from us and heal our souls.
Why does He call us?
Because, as our text says, He cares about us and wants to heal us.
Let’s leave our burdens at the cross.
PART 3. “Be Alert. Your Adversary Is Stalking You.”
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. – 1 Peter 5:8 ESV
DO YOU EVER feel you’re being watched? You don’t see the person watching you, but you can feel his or her presence.
You can just sense it. My wife and I sometimes look around and see our Puppy staring at us. The textbooks say she’s *lurking*. Shi Tzus lurk.
The Bible says Satan lurks.
He’s prowling around you, maybe this very moment, looking for a chance to devour you, to catch you off your stride, to knock you down. He never tries to help you up or encourage you or enlighten you – it’s always to visit some harm on you.
Peter tells us here to be “watchful,” anticipating his evil presence. Why is that? It’s so you can resist him better, so you can arm yourself with the armor of God sooner, so you can fling yourself into the waiting arms of Jesus Christ for protection beforesomeone hurts you or you hurt someone else.
Remember those nine (9) fruits or characteristics that comprise the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5)? It’s actually one fruit with nine parts:
LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL.
Those traits that comprise the one unit or fruit (singular) are prayers that God gives us to sustain during Satan’s attacks, during spiritual warfare, when our heart breaks, when we’re angry and frustrated, when we’re discouraged or hurt, or when we’re __ (fill in the blank here with your pain).
Being sober-minded means being clear-headed. It is the opposite of unfocused vision or distorted sound or tipsy walking or loose lips or impatient temperament.
It’s recognizing you have an enemy who wants to take you away from God, and he’ll use any temptation at his disposal to lure you into his lair. Those temptations, not surprisingly, are the ones that speak to you. He watches what tempts you, and then he uses those temptations to harm you.
Jesus warned us about him with these words: “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” – John 10:10 ESV
Somewhere in this message is you!
Yeah, that’s you! and it’s me. That’s why God put this verse in the Bible: It’s because He cares about us, and He longs to help us. He tells us what’s wrong with us so He can help us. He tells us to be watchful; to be careful; and to place our trust and confidence in Him.
Remember what we said earlier about people not listening? Those who don’t listen don’t learn, and those who don’t learn don’t change.
Non-listeners are non-learners. Don’t be a non-learner. Pay attention and trust God.
PART 4. “After Your Suffering, He Will Glorify You.”
Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. – 1 Peter 5:9 NKJV
BROTHER (SISTER) YOU are not alone. You are not unique.
Whatever you are going through right now, someone else also is going through it; another someone else already went through it; and yet another someone else is about to go through it.
You are an individual, and God knows your name, but the suffering and pain and hurts that you experience are common to all mankind. Sorry, you are not the only one. The world is not dumping on you. The world is broken. Our sin tarnished God’s perfect creation.
The Apostle Peter wrote this verse to encourage believers facing persecution and hardship. He wanted to assure his flock that God will not abandon those who suffer for their faith. You can be assured that God can use your life to show His grace to those around you, whether it be family or friends, staff or fellow residents.
Some people have it better than you do; some have it worse. All have something. Everyone suffers.
Suffering is part of the human condition, but those who believe in Jesus enjoy the promise of an eternity in Paradise with Him.
The Bible says (in Romans) that the universe is “groaning” until Jesus returns, when He will right all the world’s wrongs and govern justly.
This world is not our home. This world never will feel “just right” to us, even though some individual moments might feel comfortable. We spend our lives in discontent; always wishing for something we don’t have or lamenting something we do have.
We rarely just feel at ease.
The saving grace is that Jesus told us in advance (John 16:33) that we will have trials and tribulations in this world but to take heart. Why? He said, “Because I have overcome the world.”
This devil that bothers us has nothing on Jesus. He cannot harm Jesus. Yes, he will put Him on that cross, but then Jesus will rise from the dead and defeat Satan and death and evil and sin.
Listen to this admonition from the Book of James. James was the half-brother of Jesus. (That is, Mary was their mother; Joseph was James’ biological father but only Jesus’ legal father.)
This is what James said about trials and tribulations in this life:
“Consider it pure joy, my brothers [and sisters], when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” – JAMES 1:2-4 BSB
FINAL WORDS
OUR TRIALS MAKE us stronger.
Just like an oyster becomes a pearl through friction, we humans become stronger in our faith walk as we soldier through difficulty, trudging through one step at a time, ever onward, ever upward.
You have heard the secular expressions, often associated with sports or other competitive endeavors: No pain, no gain. You must give something to get something. You must hurt a little to reap the glory. You must struggle to learn, to grow, to mature, to become stronger.
Facing difficulties ~ and placing your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as you do so ~ will help you become a stronger man or woman in your faith walk, and you’ll draw closer to Jesus Christ in the process.
More important, Jesus promised (Matthew 28:20) to be with us every step of the way.
PRAYER
ABBA FATHER, GRACIOUS GOD – We thank You for Your gift to us of life – of temporal life on earth and the promise of eternal life in heaven.
We thank You, God, for giving us the gift of Jesus Christ dying on the cross, paying the price we could not satisfy for our sins, taking the wrath of God upon Himself to spare us from that terror.
O Lord, our God, bless each one of us, we pray, with guidance from the Holy Spirit so that we might be ambassadors for Christ, living out the gospel in our actions so that we can earn the right to share the gospel with our words – our testimony – our thanksgiving.
We lift this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus.
BENEDICTION
To Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 5:11 NKJV
Peace be to you all who are in Christ. 1 Peter 5:14 NASB
This message explores the enduring nature of God’s Word, emphasizing its eternal, universal, and unchanging relevance. It encourages believers to remain steadfast in faith, love one another, and live as witnesses to the truth through their rebirth in Christ. These points are made: God’s word is eternal and universal, His word must remain unaltered, and His word calls to unbelievers and transforms and sustains believers.
PREAMBLE
WORD PICTURE – Rome burning, Nero fiddling, Christians blamed. Result? Christians face brutal persecution and torture. Romans were suspicious of unbelieving Jews, believing Jews, and Gentile Christians. They, being pagans and worshipping many gods, saw the Jewish-Christian turmoil as an internal dispute within Judaism and forced the Jews (believers and unbelievers) to leave Rome. Later, they were allowed back in but by this time, there was a growing Gentile presence in the Christian church. Nero – who legend says wanted to reconfigure the city of Rome, let 70 percent of the city burn – and then scapegoated the Christians, blaming them for the fire, which they did not cause, severely torturing them and killing many.
A CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
By WARD PIMLEY
Pastor, Journalist, Author
“Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, And its flower falls away, But the word of the Lord endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.” – 1 Peter 1:22-25 NKJV
MESSAGE
THOSE WORDS from the Apostle Peter in our text source (above) that the *word of the Lord endures forever*, were written to First Century Christians around 65 A.D., about the time when both Peter and Paul would be martyred in Rome. His words were designed to bring comfort and peace to the troubled souls of believers.
The good news for us is that those words are as fresh and current today as if they had just been written by one of our national spiritual leaders — maybe Franklin Graham or Greg Laurie or John MacArthur.
SUMMARY:
God’s Word is eternal and universal. It applies to everyone for all time.
As such, it is relevant for our time, just as it is, without being added to or subtracted from. It needs no up-dating or revision.
As believers, our souls have been transformed into incorruptible seed.
We are urged to avoid false teaching and to keep our focus on God’s promise of a glorious future with Him. Keep your eye on the ball. Stay focused.
Know that Jesus has commissioned us to be His witnesses, telling the world what God has done for us.
THREE POINTS FOR US TO CONSIDER:
FIRST,God’s Word is eternal and universal.
SECOND, God’s Word is relevant to modern life.
THIRD, We, as His regenerated followers, are reborn and called to witness to the Truth.
1. FIRST – God’s Word is eternal and is universal in its application.
PETER WANTED TO ENCOURAGE believers to remain in their faith, to hold onto their confidence that God was with them, that He had not abandoned them, and that His promise of a glorious eternal vision for those who persevered remained rock solid.
This is critical to understand because, as we learned earlier, Peter was writing to a people who were being slaughtered and tortured for their faith, yet most of them had never seen the Lord Jesus in the flesh nor heard His voice.
Peter is saying that although you haven’t seen Him, you still believe in Him, even though you are facing torment because of your faith.
The careful student of the Bible can read God’s words, written through the prophets (OT) and apostles (NT) anywhere from 2,000 years ago to 3,500 years ago and read writing as fresh and valid as if they were written today in a sermon, lecture, podcast, email, or text message.
Read a psalm, for example, and then reflect on the fact that it probably was written 3,000 years ago, yet it expresses the very thought, or concern, or feeling that you and I had just yesterday … or this morning.
God’s Word is eternal and is universal in its application. It applies to everyone, whether they believe in Him or not, whether they’ve heard of Him or not. Scripture supports that claim.
When Peter is trying to shore up the faithful, he also addresses how they should conduct themselves as followers of Jesus Christ … and he highlights one characteristic above all – that of love.
They are to love one another, especially fellow believers. That love will radiate out to touch other lives and be a witness to the love God has for His creation. People shouldsee that love in us! Think about that a moment. People should see that love in us.
2. SECOND – Churches today often try to be relevant to the culture rather than focusing on the eternal and universal application of God’s Word.
WHEREAS PETER TOLD his audience they would face – and were facing – trials and tribulations, even persecution and death, many of our pulpits are preaching that with Jesus on your side, you can live “your best life” and find earthly success. Such a far different situation from that of Peter’s day.
Modern pulpits often water down the Gospel message by soft-pedaling God’s condemnation of sin, and by so doing, falsely tell the congregation that in the end, everyone will be saved.
Why? They say because a good and righteous God could not possibly send anyone to hell for their unforgiven sins, even though God says that’s the destination for those who do not believe. He said the one unforgivable sin is failure to believe.
“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Jeremiah 2:13 BSB
COMMENTARY: As the fountain of living water, or a flowing spring, God is the source of everlasting life (Jeremiah 17:13; Isaiah 55:1; Zechariah 13:1; John 4:10-14; 7:37-39).
In defiance of God as the source of life, Judah had dug her own wells (metaphorically speaking) in the earth and plastered their sides to hold in stale rainwater, only to see the plaster crack, the cisterns fail, and the water escape.
CONCLUSION: Such is the futility of false religion. Failure to believe the Truth is to believe a falsehood. So, if your pulpit is preaching a different Gospel, as Paul noted in his letter to the Galatians, then it is preaching a false gospel, not the true word of God.
QUESTION: ARE YOU PLACING YOUR faith and trust in God’s living water, or are you, like the ancient Jews in Judah, digging your own wells to trap stale rainwater and losing the water, to boot, because your cistern walls are cracked? That is, are you trying to find living water on your own, or are you relying on God’s living water?
QUESTION: ARE YOU WONDERING IF YOUcan believe the Bible’s instruction as being relevant for your lives today? If you have doubts, let me share a few verses that proclaim God’s faithfulness:
“No prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.” (2 Peter 1:20-21 NKJV)
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man (or woman) of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17 NKJV).
NEED MORE PROOF?
“The sum of your word is truth, and every one of your righteous rules endures forever.” – Psalm 119:160 ESV
“The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God endures forever.” – Isaiah 40:8 NIV
NOT CONVINCED YET?
“God is not a man, that he might lie, or a son of man, that he might change his mind. Does he speak and not act, or promise and not fulfill?” – Numbers 23:19 CSB
“The heart of your law is truth, and all your righteous judgments are eternal.” – Psalm 119:16 GNT
Fine, you say, you’re quoting apostles, prophets, and a king, but what about Jesus? What did He say about God’s Word?
Well, here’s the Master’s voice:
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.” – Matthew 24:35 BSB
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” – John 14:6 NKJV
“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” – John 17:17 NIV
“You say that I am a king,” Jesus answered. “For this reason, I was born and have come into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.” – John 18:37 BSB
The Bible makes a truth claim for itself … that it is the True Word of God …. and then it backs up that truth claim through (1) fulfilled prophecy, (2) archeological findings, (3) the historical record, and 4) changed lives.
Has your life been changed? Have you been changed by believing in God’s Word?
3. THIRD. Through rebirth and regeneration, we are called to witness to the Truth.
THAT MEANS THAT, through God’s grace, we are called to avoid the temptation of following the world’s pattern at the expense of the Word of God. We become new beings, and we hunger for, follow, obey, and witness to the Truth, not a falsehood designed to make us popular or accepted by the world. The world’s truth, to the extent that it varies from, or conflicts with, God’s Truth, is a falsehood.
Besides assuring persecuted believers that God’s Word is eternal and universal (our First Point), and that God’s Word is relevant and must not be reshaped or watered down to make it palatable to today’s culture (our Second Point), Peter (in our Third Point) assured his listeners that through their conversion, their belief in Jesus Christ, they were reborn with incorruptible seed and so should live out their lives in faithful service to the truth of God’s Word.
God’s Word is truth, eternal and universal; thus, it is relevant for our time just as it is, without alteration, and we are called to live out that Word as our personal testimony. Since we are reborn (reconstituted) through God’s Word as incorruptible seed, we’ll live forever and can do so, if we believe and persist in belief, with God.
From our passage ~ listen to these words, Church ~ Peter says that having been born again, you were reborn not of corruptible seed (the first birth) but incorruptible [seed] (the second birth), “through the word of God, which lives and abides forever.”
ABIDING TRUTHS:
> The Truth – both eternal and universal – is intrinsically relevant because, as the Bible tells us: “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” – Hebrews 4:12 ESV
> That means that which is truthful, correct, and faithful, is, in its very nature, in its very essence, by definition, *relevant* ~ for yesterday when it was written, as well as it is for today, for tomorrow, and forever throughout eternity. Our passage tells us, “Jesus’ words will never die.”
So, we see three themes recurring in our passage today: God’s word is eternal, universal, and truthful; as such, it is relevant to our times and for time to come; and, finally, through our rebirth, we also are eternal — we are reborn with incorruptible seed — and we are called by His grace to live as faithful servants of the Truth.
Those three points, taken individually and then combined into one biblical passage, is a “major hallelujah” moment for me! That’s how I want to live my life: believing the Truth every day!
Recognizing this message that God wrote through Peter’s pen should give every one of us the peace and assurance of salvation that God promises to those who love Him. Regardless of what we’re going through, what persecution or suffering we face, what difficulties mar our day, this passage gives us hope and sustains us.
That, my friends, is the liberating power of the Truth.
Jesus said it this way:
“So Jesus said to the Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – John 8:31-32 ESV
FINAL WORDS
HANG IN THERE, CHURCH! The trials and tribulations that beset all of us are part of our earthly journey. The pot of gold that awaits us – those of us who believe and persevere – is a heavenly existence in the presence of God. You can count on that!
Don’t you want to just focus on that point? Eternal, everlasting, incorruptible, life without end.
No disease. No accidents. No sadness. No rejection. No pain. No heartache.
Repeat these words with me and just feel them as we say them:
Life. Truth. Joy.
Peace. Health. Fellowship.
Worship. Love. Assurance.
Can you feel it? That’s Heaven, the future, but He also gives us a foretaste of that now in the peace that passes all understanding. That’s what’s awaiting you and me. That’s the vision Peter showed us in his letter. “Don’t give up,” he says. “God is faithful.”
“If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed,” Jesus said. “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” – John 8:32 NKJV
God paints a picture for us that is so compelling, it drives us to fall on our knees before Him (even if we do only in our minds) and worship Him.
We don’t have to say anything more than this: “Wow! Thank You, Lord Jesus!”
PRAYER
ADONAI, HOLY FATHER, GOD ALMIGHTY, ABBA, DADDY – In the blessed name of Jesus Christ, we thank You and we bless You for Your faithfulness to our needs. You know, O Lord, our failings, our weaknesses, our tendency to roam, and yet You bring us back to You. You hold onto us and call us Your own. We are unworthy, but we are grateful; we are sinful, but we are repentant; we are lost, but through Your grace, we are found. LORD, love us forever, and give us strength, we pray, to remain faithful. In Jesus’ name. AMEN.
God assures us through the Apostle Peter that He wants only good things for His children, but the primary goal of His calling on our lives is not to grant us our every wish for this life, although He often does, but to prepare us for glory, for an eternity with Him.
A CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
By WARD PIMLEY
Pastor, Journalist, Author
PREAMBLE
Do you ever get discouraged when you focus on your life and wonder just what God has in store for you?
Do you ever get mad at God when you think you’ve been left behind and there’s more to life than what you have?
Do you ever believe, if even for a moment, that someone else is living the life that should be yours?
If you answer “yes” to any of those questions, or even if you’re not sure what your answer is, then today’s message is for you.
Fasten your pew belts, church. We’re about to take a ride into one of God’s most enduring and encouraging promises.
MESSAGE
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials … yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls. – 1 Peter 1:6,8b-9 NKJV
1. LIFE’S DISAPPOINTMENTS
LIFE DOESN’T ALWAYS work out the way we want it to, does it?
We pray for something, dream about, prepare for it … and, often, our dream doesn’t materialize; or when it does… whether it’s our graduation, or marriage, or a great job, or a bigger house, or a new car … we find the novelty, the excitement, the thrill dies quickly.
Or, we find we miss a cue. We fail to take advantage of the opportunities life brings us, or we make the wrong choices, or we labor in our own delusion for years, thinking we’re on the right track, only to wake up one day and regret the path taken.
You know these expressions:
If I only knew then what I know now.
I I had it to do over again, I’d __.
The grass is always greener somewhere else.
Ve Gedt Too Soon Oldt Und Too Late Schmardt [Too soon old; Too late smart. (Pennsylvania Dutch)]
The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.
Youth is wasted on the young. (Attributed variously to George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde)
2. WHAT IT MEANS
WHAT IT ALL means is this: We humans are apt to live much of our lives mired in regret. For those of us who are more discerning, we draw comfort and inspiration from the Bible, where the Apostle Paul, addressing this issue, declared:
“My Christian friends, I do not think that I have reached that place yet. But this is what I do: I do not think about past things that have already happened. Instead, I try hard to reach the things that are in front of me.” – Philippians 3:13 EASY
LIFE LESSONS: (Spoiler Alert: Only the 3rd one works)
Get Back Up and Try Harder
Take Stock of the Situation and Adjust
Care for Our Soul – Find Our Peace and Guidance in God.
1. GET BACK UP
IN MY OWN LIFE, I have experienced many of life’s challenges; and when I’ve failed, I try to rescue myself and push on.
That helps to some extent, doesn’t it? It certainly gets us moving again, and that’s a good thing; but it’s limited in its utility. Why? Because our self-help strategies at best are a temporary solution to what could be a long-term or permanent situation.
Personal Example – Marriage #1
Lack of wisdom (could not identify our difficulties)
Lack of spiritual bond (no common core)
Lack of family support (our families opposed the marriage).
There’s a maxim, credited to Albert Einstein, that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
> Getting back up and trying harder doesn’t change the situation; it only makes us more determined to try the same solution, expecting a better outcome. Image of trying to break open a stuck door.<
2. TAKE STOCK
TAKING STOCK MEANS looking for a better solution. Engaging our minds. This actually is an improvement over Trying Harder because at least we are engaging our mind, not just our will.
Getting back up and trying harder can be repeated ad nauseam before we realize that doing the same thing leads to the same end. So, eventually, we look for a better solution. When there’s growth, it comes when— or if — we look *inward* for a solution, instead of *outward.*
Personal Example – Marriage #2
Lack of shared experience (different life histories)
Lack of shared expectations (which one of us was to make us happy)
Lack of purpose (no children, no shared house, no clear vision, no spiritual core).
Admittedly, these are “big ticket” items. Marriage decisions impact our lives for years as well as the lives of our children and, therefore, of our grandchildren. Get it wrong, and you can mess up a bunch of lives for a long time, even generations.
If we focus solely on ourselves (our needs, our wants, our desires), we continue to overlook the bigger picture. What is going on here and why? If we focus on God, then we have a source we can go to for understanding and for comfort.
At this point in my life that I am describing, I focused solely on myself and my wants. God had not entered the picture. [Well, actually, He had, but I wasn’t aware of it yet.]
When I faced my second divorce, and afterwards a series of aborted relationships, some of which (I thought at the time) could have led to marriage, it slowly dawned on me that there was a common element harming each of those relationships … ME!
I was the common element. In short, I was the problem. I wasn’t the only problem, but I was the only problem I could fix. As the comic strip character Pogo said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”
No matter how much I wanted to blame someone else, this was my problem. I was a contributing factor, and it was my responsibility to fix it. My character, who I was inside, was broken and needed healing. Until I recognized that and began to deal with it, I would never heal.
>Taking stock of our lives is an improvement, for sure, over trying harder because it requires us to begin thinking about why our lives aren’t turning out the way we want them to. Taking stock becomes more valuable as a fix-it tool if we are willing to look at ourselves — to look inward — as the possible problem.
>However, it still doesn’t resolve our difficulties unless we’re willing to get help from an outside source. We can’t do this all by ourselves.<
So, when trying harder doesn’t work, and taking stock of the situation doesn’t include all of the relevant elements (like our own involvement), then we need a whole attitude adjustment.
This is what I came to see. When we can accept that we might be culpable for our own mistakes, our own faulty judgment, then we can begin to make necessary changes that could lead to a different, and better, outcome.
It can be discouraging to realize your own culpability, but I believe it’s the first step we can take to improve our situations. We can’t change other people, and we might have limited ability to change our environment, but we have a whole host of possibilities at our command if we focus on changing ourselves.
That brings us to our third point:
3. CARE FOR YOUR SOUL
I BELIEVE GOD gives us that grace so we can take the steps necessary to make change. One of those steps we take could lead us directly to God’s throne – which most likely is His intent.
What does it mean to “fix” something? How do you know what’s broken and needs fixing? Where do you go for the answers? Who can you trust?
We easily can get stuck. Some people get stuck at the *try harder* phase, while I – and others like me – can park for years on the *take stock* phase, blaming everyone and everything but ourselves, rolling different ideas over and over, while failing to find the right key — the one that unlocks the door.
All of those who are unwilling to open their lives to the Lord’s hand will find diversions to deaden their pain: overwork, entertainment, exercise, gambling, substance abuse, adultery — each of which carries its own penalty. Each one of them causes harm to the person physically or emotionally or financially, yet we hold onto our “fix.”
When, finally, we are willing to look inward, to look at ourselves, at what we bring to the equation, we can — in humility — begin to find workable answers.
But since we’re on our third point — caring for our soul — we need to emphasize that *soul care* requires a personal relationship with the Lord. We cannot do that on our own.
Finding answers does not necessarily mean fixing or changing our situation; at least not right away. It might be limited to just fixing the way we react to a situation. Do we live in bitterness? Or do we live in God’s grace?
The Bible tells us not to blame God for our circumstances. He is not the cause of our problems, but He offers to be the solution.
He never promised us we would never suffer; He promised only that (1) He would suffer alongside us and (2) In the end, if we believe, our future will be in Heaven with Him.
God is more interested in our eternal state than He is in our temporal state, even though we, in our human frailty, mostly focus on the temporal.
“In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.” Job 1:22 BSB
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 ESV
“We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28 NKJV
Just like a picture puzzle, there’s only one piece in the box that will satisfy the demands of that empty space you’re looking at.
Only one.
3. RECOGNIZING SOLUTIONS
GOD CAN BE so good to us. In my case, His goodness led to yet a third marriage, but this time to a born-again Christian. This was – and is – a grace note to my life.
Personal Example – Marriage #3
God did not have to restore my home life to include a wife. A good wife was not part of God’s promise to me for some accomplishment on my part, although she certainly is a bonus prize.
Also, God did not present this woman to me, much as eons earlier He had presented Eve to Adam, until after I had made two important life changes:
(1) I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and
(2) I humbly told the Lord I would accept His plan for my life, even if His plan did not include remarriage.
Within hours after I made that prayer, God brought that woman to my attention.
I never really fixed anything for more than a brief time until I examined my soul.
I FOUND THE ANSWERS TO MY QUESTIONS IN THE ONLY PLACE WHERE I COULD FIND ANSWERS: JESUS CHRIST.
Don’t say “That’s just Christian Speak.” They always go there. No, folks, this is real. This is the real deal. Jesus Christ is the Answer to life’s baffling questions.
>Coming to faith in Jesus Christ was not an easy process for me, nor is it, really, for anyone because we’re called to submit our wills and our lives to Someone else. That can be very uncomfortable.<
That goes against our grain of self-determination.
We cling to that Free Will God gave us.
We don’t want to let go, even when letting go and letting God will lead us to a much better place than we can make on our own.
Even when we know it will, we’re often reluctant to trust God and take that fist step.
The Bible gives us encouragement and a warning:
ENCOURAGEMENT: “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” – John 15:5 CSB
WARNING: “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty. – Proverbs 27:12 NIV
The actual steps are simple … yet, unfortunately, so difficult to accept.
Admit you’re a sinner,
Accept that Jesus is THE GOD MAN and that He lived a perfect life and died a painful death to atone for your sins, and
Then receive Him into your heart to be both your Savior and Lord.
Now, once we’ve come to accept the Lord Jesus as the master and ruler of our lives, then the real joy of living begins … because:
We are called as His disciples and followers to be on mission.
We are called to tell others what God has done for us.
4. GOD’S MARVELOUS PROMISE
HOW DO WE do that? How do we live on mission for others?
These are three things you can do, and I’m preaching to myself here, too:
We can pray for others – is there anyone you are called to pray for?
We can smile and be pleasant — are you a pleasant person to be around?
We can befriend them – do you routinely consider the needs of others?
Our church says we ought to live out our lives in such a manner that we earn the right to tell others about Jesus. Our lives are our first message to the world.
Let’s be clear: Jesus already gave us the right to tell others about Him when we were saved and He commissioned us. With that behind us, we must live out the Gospel message so that our words will be in synch with our actions.
While humbling ourselves to accept Jesus can be difficult — we don’t like giving up control — we’ll never regret coming to faith, but we will regret not having come to faith sooner. The Bible clearly states the terrible fate that awaits those who never come to faith. Pride leads to destruction.
Pride is …
The original sin
The great crippler.
LET’S RECAP THIS:
Trying harder doesn’t work because it yields the same result.
Taking stock is a step toward improvement because we’re starting to think about our situation, but its utility depends on our analyzing all the important variables – including those pointing back to ourselves. In the end, it still depends on self-improvement, which is limited in its utility.
Surrendering our lives to the Author of life is the saving grace because now we’re “teachable” and under the tutelage of the Master. It’s the only solution that works.
CONCLUDING SCRIPTURE:
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials … yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls.”– 1 Peter 1:6, 8b-9 NKJV
SALVATION IS THE GREAT HOPE.
THAT HOPE IS WHAT GIVES US JOY, COMFORT, AND PEACE IN THIS WORLD.
FINAL WORD
Jesus’ grace is sufficient even when our faith is weak.
There is no need to despair.
There is no need to fear, nor be tormented by regrets, or constant wishful thinking.
Believe in Him. He always tells us that He is the answer to life’s questions.
This is a lesson for me to learn, too. Like many of you, I struggle with regret.
But whenever I focus on God – not on myself but on God – then my regrets float away, like a mist of smoke.
Whenever I focus on myself, those regrets come storming back.
IF YOU HAVEN’T turned your life over to God, or you’re not sure if you have, let’s take care of that now.
IF YOU’VE DRIFTED AWAY from the Lord, but want to reconnect, let’s take care of that now, too.
IF YOU HAVE turned your life over to God, let’s celebrate that and praise God for His goodness.
God keeps His promises. You will not lose your salvation.
Why? Because you did not earn it.
God gave it to you as a gift.
This gift results from His grace.
He wants to spend Eternity with you.
Together, we can pray prayers of
contrition,
reconciliation, and
praise.
PRAYER
Lord, I am a sinner. I need Your forgiveness and Your grace.
I believe Jesus is the Messiah, that He is Your Son, that He lived a perfect life and died on Calvary’s Cross for me, and that by believing in Him, I will be clothed in His righteousness, and You will forgive my transgressions and save even me.
Abba, Daddy, come into my heart today, and be both My Lord and My Savior.
For those of us who have given our lives to God, we thank You, O Lord, for Your grace, for the boundless gift of life that You have promised Your own.
Now draw us closer to You, O Lord, that we might walk as Jesus walked and talk as Jesus talked, all in Your name and for Your glory.
Lord, we honor You, we praise You, and we worship You. We lift this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
BENEDICTION
The word of the Lord as we end our worship and go into our mission field …
“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” –1 Peter 1:23 BSB
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.
Our test of faith as Christ followers is to believe that Jesus Christ is who He said He is, even though we have not seen Him.
Who did He say He is? The Son of Man. The Son of God. The Messiah. Our Redeemer. Our Savior.
“Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with an inexpressible and glorious joy, now that you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” – 1 Peter 1:8-9 BSB
CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
By WARD PIMLEY
PASTOR, JOURNALIST, AUTHOR
PREAMBLE
TRY TO PICTURE this scene: You are living 2,000 years ago in Israel, eagerly waiting for the Messiah to appear.
The scriptures foretold His arrival right down to describing his mother (a virgin), His birthplace (Bethlehem), and the time of His arrival (see Isaiah 7:14, Micah 5:2, Hosea 11:1). The scriptures also foretold the miracles He would do (Isaiah 35:5-6) and what His mission would be (Isaiah 61:1-2).
Right in front of you is a Man doing exactly what the Scriptures, what we now call the Old Testament, foretold, and yet your spiritual leaders – the Pharisees and the Sadducees – express their doubt and disapproval.
What are you to believe?
The Bible tells us that Jesus, the Messiah, would be “a man of sorrows,” and this Man certainly bore many sorrows, from rejection by His own people to the heartache of watching His believed creation make a mess of their lives.
Those people, like us today, must decide for themselves just who this Man was and is.
THE MESSIAH
SOMETIMES JESUS TOLD PEOPLE straight up who He was. Usually, He did not. He acted the role of the Coming One. The blind saw, the deaf heard, the lame leaped and danced, the mute spoke, and the dead returned to life. He forgave sins.
What He did not do was liberate Israel from Roman rule. That was not His mission nor His intent, and so the people, expecting an earthly Messiah, missed it. They missed what was right in front of them. They missed what they saw and what they heard.
He said, “I and My Father are One.” (John 10:30) He said men and women were to believe in Him for salvation (John 6:29) and that unless they ate of His flesh and drank of His blood, they would have no part of Him. (John 6:53-58)
WHAT HE DID
So, what actually did He do?
He calmed the storms, He walked on water, He turned water into wine, and He multiplied fish and loaves.
He rebuked the Pharisees, He stumped the Sadducees, He challenged His Jewish listeners with a tale of a Good Samaritan (not just a good man, but a good Samaritan man). That would have riled His Jewish listeners.
He curred a woman who had bled for 12 years and brought a 12-year-old girl back to life.
He touched lepers, curing the incurable. He touched dead bodies and restored them to life.
He honored women, He challenged men, He blessed children.
He fulfilled the Law and the Prophets and then He changed everything with a New Covenant at the Passover table in which He was both the officiating elder and the sacrificial Lamb.
He foretold His own death, and He choreographed His arrest. He was fully in charge during His multiple sham trials, His brutal whipping and beating, and even His being nailed to the Cross.
At the end, He forgave those who innocently persecuted Him; not those who should have known who He was but those who hadn’t been told.
He forgave a woman who cheated on her husband, revealed Himself to a woman who had been married five times and was now living with a sixth man, healed a young boy smitten by a demon, gave strength to the weak faith of the boy’s father, and restored to complete health a raving lunatic who had terrorized a whole town from his abode among the tombs.
He said He preceded Abraham; He would give no sign except the sign of Jonah; He sought baptism from John the Baptizer to fulfill the Scripture, and He endured 40 days and 40 nights of hunger and thirst in the wilderness while withstanding temptation from Satan.
He appeared to Abraham, encouraged Noah to build an Ark, challenged Joshua, patiently courted Gideon, forgave David, gave wisdom to Solomon, walked with Daniel in the Lion’s Den, and forced a giant fish to spit a repentant Jonah onto dry land.
He sent demon-filled pigs off a cliff; He rode into town on a donkey that had never known a rider; He allowed the multitude to worship Him, and He declared that even the very stones would cry out that He was the Messiah, the Son of the Most High God, at His command, if He let them.
The demons knew who He was, and they shuddered. They feared Him.
Mere man did not know who He was, and they condemned Him.
From the Cross, He promised salvation to the thief on His right and delivered the care of His mother into the hands of His most trusted disciple, John.
This. Is. Jesus.
YOUR TURN
WHAT IS YOUR RESPONSE to this message of hope?
How do you react to the message that the Messiah, God incarnate, has entered His creation as God-Man, born of a woman, lived a perfect life, became a sacrifice for our sins, and died, then was resurrected to sit down next to the Father’s throne for all of eternity?
Have you seen Him?
Have you heard Him speak?
Have you seen His miracles?
Do you know Him?
Church, if you’re paying even the least bit of attention to the world around you, you have seen Him every day.
You have seen Him in the glory and majesty of His creation, from the distant stars that shine at night to reports you have heard or read of the nano world visible only through the most powerful microscopes.
You know – as we have learned – He positioned the Earth in the right spot in the universe, tilting it at just the right angle, at the right distance from the right star, and the right distance from two neighboring planets that keep it in its proper orbit.
He made the universe expand at just the right rate to keep it from imploding. He protects us from harm with two mega-sized planets properly positioned for that task.
You have seen Him in the incredible instrument of our bodies that he fashioned, from eyelids, eyelashes, and tear ducts to bodily organs that take in nutrients and expel waste, from hands that can paint, draw, write, hammer, saw, bake, plant, and mold, to feet that can walk, skip, trot, climb, and run.
You have seen Him in brains that can imagine instruments and machinery that make our lives easier, from the wheel and shoelaces to buggy whips and calendars, from elevators and airplanes to computers and smart phones, from robots and rockets to sonnets and calculus; from Mozart to Beethoven and Plato to Aristotle; from Shakespeare and Bacon to Updike and Bellow, from Washington and Lafayette to Jefferson and Lincoln; from our mothers and fathers, to you and me.
SHARE THE WORD
HE CAME FIRST, as a Jew, to the Jews, then turned to the Greeks (Gentiles).
He said He would build His church on the solid rock, that even the gates of Hell could not – and would not – prevail against it.
He chose us – you and me – to tell this story to a fallen world.
Church, do you share that story with anyone?
Do you?
Do you say a word to anyone about what you’ve seen, what you’ve heard, what you’ve tasted, and what you’ve felt?
Do you share with others what you’ve sensed within, that voice of God speaking into your heart?
Do you share the Good News of the Savior’s love, of His sacrifice on the Cross, of the pain He endured from the Father’s wrath?
Do you tell your friends and family who He is? How about neighbors, fellow residents, co-workers?
Do strangers see His light in your eyes,
Hear His voice in your speech,
Feel His presence when you are with them?
Remember Jesus confronting Thomas, dubbed “doubting Thomas,” “Then Jesus said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.’”
In effect, Jesus was saying: “Thomas, Thomas, Thomas! You’ve been with me for three years! Do you not yet understand? Stop doubting and believe!”
When Thomas saw the holes and felt the piercing, he finally did believe.
“Thomas replied, ‘My Lord and my God!’ [Then] Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” – John 20:27-29 BSB
JESUS IS CALLING
JESUS CALLS US to have faith in Him, to believe in Him, in His message, in His teaching, in His healing, and most of all, in His being, who He is, the Son of God and the Son of Man.
The Messiah. The Holy One. The Sacrificial Lamb. The Expected One. The World’s Redeemer. The Christ of God.
JESUS IS THE GOD-MAN.
WE ARE TO BELIVE THAT AND SHARE THAT.
WITHOUT HAVING SEEN HIM.
Let me ask you this question: Who else has had such a claim on your life, whether seen or unseen?
Your mother? Your father? (Our parents were as flawed as you and I are).
Any military leaders or government officals come to mind?
How about church leaders?
Any athletes or entertainers or scientists or poets or writers or historians or doctors or chemists or astronauts or carpenters or laborers or gardeners … or anyone?
ANYONE?
If not, why is that? Once you know the answer – or even suspect you do – what will you do with that answer? Of course, you know what the answer should be – there is no one else who compares with Him.
The Bible says, “‘To whom then will you compare Me that I would be his equal?’ says the Holy One.” (Isaiah 40:25 NASB)
How will that knowledge change your life? Will it change your life? Will such awareness matter, or will you – as so many do – slough it off as just foolishness or as something that most assuredly can wait for another time?
They say: “I’m okay for now, Lord. You just go along and do your God thing. I’ll let you know if I need you.”
Church, you have been given all the information you’ll ever need to make the right decision about accepting or rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior – that means, having a reconstituted, reborn, personal relationship with Jesus.
How will you decide? Your eternity rests on the decision you make today. A praise song says it this way:
“Are you hurting and broken within? Overwhelmed by the weight of your sin? Jesus is calling. / Have you come to the end of yourself? Do you thirst for a drink from the well? Jesus is calling. / O, come to the altar. The Father’s arms are opened wide. Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.” [“O Come to the Altar,” Elevation Worship]
Church, Jesus is calling. He’s calling you, and He’s calling me.
Unlike Thomas, as faithful as that apostle proved to be, we do not have to see the nail holes in Jesus’ hands to believe they are there, nor do we need to place our fingers in His side where the Roman sword pierced Him to believe He was stabbed.
Here’s what the Bible says:
“Now faith is the assurance of what we hope for and the certainty of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 BSB
“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7 BSB
We can believe without seeing.
ANY WAY you look at it, Jesus was talking about us – about you and me. He is calling us to believe, even though we have not seen Him in bodily form.
Let’s answer His call – today – with a resounding
‘Yes, Lord, I believe!’
PRAYER
LORD, I confess my sins to You.
I am unworthy in my own flesh to be called Your son or daughter, but I believe that through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, You will hear my prayer, forgive my sins, and heal my heart.
Lord, even though I have not seen You in the flesh, I still believe.
Thank You for Your gift of life that You give freely to all who do believe.
Do you ever get discouraged when you focus on your life and wonder just what God has in store for you?
Do you ever get mad at God when you think you’ve been left behind and there’s more to life than what you have?
Do you ever believe, if even for a moment, that someone else is living the life that should be yours?
If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, or even if you’re not sure what your answer is, then today’s message is for you.
Fasten your seat belts, church. We’re about to take a ride into one of God’s most enduring and encouraging promises.
CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
By WARD PIMLEY
Pastor, Journalist, Author
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials … yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls. – 1 Peter 1:6, 8b-9 NKJV
SUMMARY SENTENCE: God assures us through the Apostle Peter that He wants only good things for His children, but the primary goal of His calling on our lives is not to grant us our every wish for this life, although He often does, but to prepare us for glory, for an eternity with Him.
1. LIFE’S DISAPPOINTMENTS
LIFE DOESN’T ALWAYS work out the way we want it to, does it?
We pray for something, dream about, prepare for it … and, often, our dream doesn’t materialize; or when it does… whether it’s our graduation, or marriage, or a great job, or a bigger house, or a new car … we find the novelty, the excitement, the thrill dies quickly.
Or, we miss a cue. We fail to take advantage of the opportunities life brings us, or we make the wrong choices, or we labor in our own delusion for years, thinking we’re on the right track, only to wake up one day and regret the path taken.
You know these expressions:
If I only knew then what I know now.
I I had it to do over again, I’d __.
The grass is always greener somewhere else.
Ve Gedt Too Soon Oldt Und Too Late Schmardt [Pennsylvania Dutch for ‘Too soon old; Too late smart.]
The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.
Youth is wasted on the young. [Attributed either to George Bernard Shaw or Oscar Wilde.]
Let’s take a look at what verses 6-9 of 1 Peter 1 have for us.
2. WHAT IT MEANS
WHAT IT ALL means is this: We humans are apt to live much of our lives mired in regret.
For those of us who are more discerning, we draw comfort and inspiration from the Bible, where the Apostle Paul, addressing this issue, declared:
“My Christian friends, I do not think that I have reached that place yet. But this is what I do: I do not think about past things that have already happened. Instead, I try hard to reach the things that are in front of me.” – Philippians 3:13 EASY
LIFE LESSONS: (Spoiler Alert: Only the 3rd one works)
Get Back Up and Try Harder
Take Stock of the Situation and Adjust
Care for Our Soul – Find Our Peace and Guidance in God.
1. GET BACK UP
IN MY OWN life, I have experienced many of life’s challenges; and when I’ve failed, I try to rescue myself and push on.
That helps to some extent, doesn’t it? It certainly gets us moving again, and that’s a good thing; but it’s limited in its utility. Why? Because our self-help strategies at best are a temporary solution to what could be a long-term or permanent situation.
Personal Example – Marriage #1
Lack of wisdom (could not identify our difficulties)
Lack of spiritual bond (no common core)
Lack of family support (our families opposed the marriage).
There’s a maxim, credited to Albert Eienstein, that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”
> Getting back up and trying harder does not change the situation; it only makes us more determined to try the same solution, expecting a better outcome. Imagine trying to break open a stuck door. Each time you thrust yourself at the stubborn door, you strike it harder, until, with a sore shoulder, you stop the effort. <
2. TAKE STOCK
TAKING STOCK MEANS looking for a better solution. Engaging our minds. This actually is an improvement over Trying Harder because at least we are engaging our mind, not just our will.
Getting back up and trying harder can be repeated ad nauseam before we realize that doing the same thing leads to the same end. So, eventually, we look for a better solution. When there’s growth, it comes when — or if — we look *inward* for a solution, instead of *outward.*
Personal Example – Marriage #2
Lack of shared experience (different life histories)
Lack of shared expectations (which one was to make us happy)
Lack of purpose (no children, no shared house, no clear vision, no spiritual core).
Admittedly, these are “big ticket” items. Marriage decisions impact our lives for years as well as the lives of our children and, therefore, of our grandchildren. Get it wrong, and you can mess up a bunch of lives for a long time, even generations.
If we focus solely on ourselves (our needs, our wants, our desires), we continue to overlook the bigger picture. What is going on here and why? If we focus on God, then we have a source we can go to for understanding and for comfort.
At this point in my life that I am describing, I focused solely on myself and my wants. God had not entered the picture. [Well, actually, He had, but I wasn’t aware of it yet.]
When I faced my second divorce, and afterwards a series of aborted relationships, some of which (I thought at the time) could have led to marriage, it slowly dawned on me that there was a common element harming each of those relationships … ME!
I was the common element. In short, I was the problem. I wasn’t the only problem, but I was the only problem I could fix. As the comic strip character Pogo said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us!”
No matter how much I wanted to blame someone else, this was my problem. I was a contributing factor, and it was my responsibility to fix it. My character, who I was inside, was broken and needed healing. Until I recognized that and began to deal with it, I would never heal.
>Taking stock of our lives is an improvement, for sure, over trying harder because it requires us to begin thinking about why our lives aren’t turning out the way we want them to. Taking stock becomes more valuable as a fix-it tool if we are willing to look at ourselves — to look inward — as the possible problem.
>However, it still doesn’t resolve our difficulties unless we’re willing to get help from an outside source. We can’t do this all by ourselves.<
So, when trying harder doesn’t work, and taking stock of the situation doesn’t include all of the relevant elements (like our own involvement), then we need a whole attitude adjustment.
This is what I came to see. When we can accept that we might be culpable for our own mistakes, our own faulty judgment, then we can begin to make necessary changes that could lead to a different, and better, outcome.
It can be discouraging to realize your own culpability, but I believe it’s the first step we can take to improve our situations. We can’t change other people, and we might have limited ability to change our environment, but we have a whole host of possibilities at our command if we focus on changing ourselves.
That brings us to our third point:
3. CARE FOR YOUR SOUL
I BELIEVE GOD gives us that grace so we can take the steps necessary to make change. One of those steps we take could lead us directly to God’s throne, which most likely is His intent.
What does it mean to “fix” something? How do you know what’s broken and needs fixing? Where do you go for the answers? Who can you trust?
We easily can get stuck. Some people get stuck at the *try harder* phase, while I – and others like me – can park for years on the *take stock* phase, blaming everyone and everything but ourselves, rolling different ideas over and over, while failing to find the right key — the one that unlocks the door.
All of those who are unwilling to open their lives to the Lord’s hand will find diversions to deaden their pain: overwork, entertainment, exercise, gambling, substance abuse, adultery — each of which carries its own penalty. Each one of them causes harm to the person physically or emotionally or financially, yet we hold onto our “fix.”
When, finally, we are willing to look inward, to look at ourselves, at what we bring to the equation, we can — in humility — begin to find workable answers. But since we’re on our third point — caring for our soul — we need to emphasize that *soul care* requires a personal relationship with the Lord. We cannot do that on our own.
Finding answers does not necessarily mean fixing or changing our situation; at least not right away. It might be limited to just fixing the way we react to a situation. Do we live in bitterness? Or do we live in God’s grace?
The Bible tells us not to blame God for our circumstances. He is not the cause of our problems, but He offers to be the solution.
He never promised us we would never suffer; He promised only that (1) He would suffer alongside us and (2) In the end, if we believe, our future will be in Heaven with Him.
God is more interested in our eternal state than He is in our temporal state, even though we, in our human frailty, mostly focus on the temporal.
“In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.” – Job 1:22 BSB
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” – John 16:33 ESV
“We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” – Romans 8:28 NKJV
Just like a picture puzzle, there’s only one piece in the box that will satisfy the demands of that empty space you’re looking at.
ONLY ONE.
3. RECOGNIZING SOLUTIONS
GOD CAN BE so good to us. In my case, His goodness led to yet a third marriage, but this time to a born-again Christian. This was – and is – a grace note to my life.
Personal Example – Marriage #3
God did not have to restore my home life to include a wife. A good wife was not part of God’s promise to me for some accomplishment on my part, although she certainly is a bonus prize.
Also, God did not present this woman to me, much as eons earlier He had presented Eve to Adam, until after I had made two important life changes:
(1) I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, and
(2) I humbly told Him I would accept His plan for my life, even if His plan did not include remarriage.
Within hours after I made that prayer, God brought that woman to my attention.
I never really fixed anything for more than a brief time until I examined my soul.
I FOUND THE ANSWERS TO MY QUESTIONS IN THE ONLY PLACE WHERE I COULD FIND ANSWERS: JESUS CHRIST.
Don’t say, “That’s just Christian Speak.” They always go there. No, folks, this is real. This is the real deal. Jesus Christ is the Answer to life’s baffling questions.
>Coming to faith in Jesus Christ was not an easy process for me, nor is it, really, for anyone because we’re called to submit our wills and our lives to Someone else. That can be very uncomfortable.<
That goes against our grain of self-determination.
We cling to that Free Will God gave us.
We don’t want to let go, even when letting go and letting God will lead us to a much better place than we can make on our own.
Even when we know it will, we’re often reluctant to trust God and take that fist step.
The Bible gives us encouragement and a warning:
ENCOURAGEMENT: “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without me.” – John 15:5 CSB
WARNING: “The prudent see danger and take refuge, but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.” – Proverbs 27:12 NIV
The actual steps are simple … yet, unfortunately, so difficult to accept.
Admit you’re a sinner,
Accept that Jesus is THE GOD MAN and that He lived a perfect life and died a painful death to atone for your sins, and
Then receive Him into your heart to be both your Savior and Lord.
Now, once we’ve come to accept the Lord Jesus as the master and ruler of our lives, then the real joy of living begins … because:
We are called as His disciples and followers to be on mission.
We are called to tell others what God has done for us.
4.GOD’S MARVELOUS PROMISE
HOW DO WE do that? How do we live on mission for others?
These are three things you can do, and I’m preaching to myself here, too:
We can pray for others – is there anyone you are called to pray for?
We can smile and be pleasant — are you a pleasant person to be around?
We can befriend them – do you routinely consider the needs of others?
Our church says we ought to live out our lives in such a manner that we earn the right to tell others about Jesus. Our lives are our first message to the world.
While humbling ourselves to accept Jesus can be difficult — we don’t like giving up control — we’ll never regret coming to faith, but we will regret not having come to faith sooner.
The Bible clearly states the terrible fate that awaits those who never come to faith. Pride leads to destruction.
Pride is …
The original sin
The great crippler.
LET’S RECAP THIS:
Trying harder doesn’t work because it yields the same result.
Taking stock is a step toward improvement because we’re starting to think about our situation, but its utility depends on our analyzing all the important variables – including those pointing back to ourselves. In the end, it still depends on self-improvement, which is limited in its utility.
Surrendering our lives to the Author of life is the saving grace because now we’re “teachable” and under the tutelage of the Master. It’s the only solution that works.
CONCLUDING SCRIPTURE: “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials … yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith – the salvation of your souls.” – 1 Peter 1:6, 8b-9 NKJV
SALVATION IS THE GREAT HOPE.
THAT HOPE IS WHAT GIVES US JOY, COMFORT, AND PEACE IN THIS WORLD.
FINAL WORD
JESUS’ GRACE is sufficient even when our faith is weak.
There is no need to despair.
There is no need to fear, nor be tormented by regrets, or constant wishful thinking.
Believe in Him. He always tells us that He is the answer to life’s questions.
This is a lesson for me to learn, too. Like many of you, I struggle with regret.
But whenever I focus on God – not on myself but on God – then my regrets float away, like a mist of smoke.
Whenever I focus on myself, those regrets come storming back.
IF YOU HAVEN’T turned your life over to God, or you’re not sure if you have, let’s take care of that now.
IF YOU’VE DRIFTED AWAY from the Lord, but want to reconnect, let’s take care of that now, too.
IF YOU HAVE turned your life over to God, let’s celebrate that and praise God for His goodness.
God keeps His promises. You will not lose your salvation.
Why? Because you did not earn it.
God gave it to you as a gift.
This gift results from His grace.
He wants to spend Eternity with you.
Together, we can pray prayers of contrition, reconciliation, and praise.
PRAYER
LORD, I AM A SINNER. I need Your forgiveness and Your grace. I believe Jesus is the Messiah, that He is Your Son, that He lived a perfect life and died on Calvary’s Cross for me, and that by believing in Him, I will be clothed in His righteousness, and You will forgive my transgressions and save even me.
ABBA, Daddy, come into my heart today, and be both My Lord and My Savior.
For those of us who have given our lives to God, we thank You, O Lord, for Your grace, for the boundless gift of life that You have promised Your own.
Now draw us closer to You, O Lord, that we might walk as Jesus walked and talk as Jesus talked, all in Your name and for Your glory.
Lord, we honor You, we praise You, and we worship You. We lift this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
BENEDICTION
HEAR THE WORD OF THE LORD AS WE END OUR WORSHIP AND GO FORTH …
“For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.” – 1 Peter 1:23 BSB
Serving God is both an honor and opportunity. Although He does not need us, He wants us. As forgiven and loved people, we must enter our mission fields, sharing Christ, testifying boldly, and using our gifts for His glory.
In our series on 1 Peter, we’re on 1 Peter 4. We’ve highlighted four messages within this chapter.
CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
By WARD PIMLEY
Pastor, Journalist, Author
“You won’t spend the rest of your lives chasing your own desires, but you will be anxious [eager] to do the will of God.” – 1 Peter 4:2 NLT
“As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.” – 1 Peter 4:10 BSB
1. CHANGED LIFESTYLE
“FOR YOU HAVE SPENT ENOUGH TIME IN THE PAST CARRYING OUT THE SAME DESIRES AS THE GENTILES: LIVING IN DEBAUCHERY, LUST, DRUNKENNESS, ORGIES, CAROUSING, AND DETESTABLE IDOLATRY. BECAUSE OF THIS, THEY CONSIDER IT STRANGE OF YOU NOT TO PLUNGE WITH THEM INTO THE SAME FLOOD OF RECKLESS INDISCRETION, AND THEY HEAP ABUSE ON YOU. BUT THEY WILL HAVE TO GIVE AN ACCOUNT TO HIM WHO IS READY TO JUDGE THE LIVING AND THE DEAD.” — 1 PETER 4:3-5 BSB
[DON’T GET HUNG-UP over the term “Gentiles” in this passage. Although that refers to those of us who are not Jewish, in this context it means “unbelievers,” those who have not accepted Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Son of God.]
I LOVE THIS VERSE. God, through His agent, the apostle Peter, is giving us a statement about our changed lives in Christ, how we used to engage in ribald behavior – the world calls it “fun” – but now we don’t.
We’re chaste. We’re sober. We’re not profligate with our money. We don’t take unnecessary risks. We don’t cuss. We don’t condemn *other* people for their *otherness*. We don’t judge them.
Our women don’t flirt with other’s women’s husbands; our men don’t lust after other men’s wives.
We show compassion. We’re patient. We’re encouraging. We’re eager to help. We praise, rather than condemn. We joke, but it’s kind, not harsh or belittling. We don’t shame someone.
We look out for the defenseless and the helpless and the hopeless. We cherish “the least of these.”
And, yeah, our friends notice.
Oh, how they notice! Some may be displeased; others might be jealous.
It’s with sadness that I share that I lost a good “drinking buddy” after I came to the Lord. We drank together during graduate school – so many, many years ago – and met many times in the years following graduation, until it became apparent that only one of us was going to drink alcohol, and one was not, and that killed the connection.
I had the opportunity to share my faith with my friend, and he asked me various pointed questions, until I said, “You’re placing a great deal of trust in my answers to your questions, when you should be searching for those answers yourself. They’re available to you. Just ask God.”
2. LOVING ONE ANOTHER
“ABOVE ALL, KEEP LOVING ONE ANOTHER EARNESTLY, SINCE LOVE COVERS A MULTITUDE OF SINS. SHOW HOSPITALITY TO ONE ANOTHER WITHOUT GRUMBLING.” – 1 PETER 4:8-9 ESV
IF GOD WERE to give me an opportunity to delete some words from His sacred text, I would be tempted to start with these. “Love one another earnestly” and “show hospitality … without grumbling” are “no goes” for me.
I stand convicted, being very guarded of both my heart and my home. I even hate to loan someone a pen. I watch it carefully; fearful I’ll need to chase the miscreant to retrieve it. What is it with pens, anyway?
In theory – in the abstract, devoid of real-life experience – I agree with those two commandments. I just find it difficult to do them.
Aren’t there commandments you find difficult to keep? I’m sure there are. We’re all alike, weak-willed and sin filled. That’s why we need Jesus!
So, let’s just pass over the difficult-to-obey commandments and go on to the Bible’s next passage. Maybe the next one will be easier for us.
Right? Wrong!
That’s not the right attitude. If I’m convicted by God’s Word, then I need to ask Him to fill my heart with the right spirit, that I will honor Him and His call on my life.
Let me read the passage again: “Keep loving one another earnestly. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.“
This passage calls on me to think about someone else’s comfort, someone else’s needs, someone else’s perspective, someone else’s feelings.
As Christians, we are called to refrain from asking: “What can you do for me?”; askinginstead, “What can I do for you?”
Yes, those commandments are difficult for me. Yet, I serve a Savior who laid down His life for me. Surely, I should be able to ask Him to grant me a heart to think, feel, and consider the needs, wishes, and wants of someone else.
Even if it means I lose a pen. Ouch!
3. SPIRITUAL GIFTS
“EACH ONE, AS A GOOD MANAGER OF GOD’S DIFFERENT GIFTS, MUST USE FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS THE SPECIAL GIFT HE HAS RECEIVED FROM GOD.” – 1 PETER 4:10 GNT
DO YOU EVER play that church game where we striate the various tasks we see on campus? We place this task above that one, and honor this gift over another one, and simply ignore what some folks have labored over, and then labor over stuff that no one else notices.
Hey, wind me up, and I’ll tell you how I often feel slighted because my ministry – the senior center ministry – takes place *off campus* and so no one sees what we do, and few – apparently few — are motivated to step alongside us for what must seem like a difficult ministry.
Many choose not to preach or sing or pray in a roomful of people whose best days are spent looking through the rearview mirror, whose minds drift off to a private world where loved ones were gathered, and everyone was active and joyful and full of life.
One of our pastors rightly called this ministry a “special ministry.” [Actually, all ministries are “special.”]
He said it takes a special heart to serve the underserved, but what he neglected to add – perhaps because he was not aware of it – is that the blessings received from doing this ministry are enormous, way out of scale to the effort put into the service.
Frankly and honestly, I’ve been surprised, myself, at the level of asymmetry between effort out and reward in.
We find most people are drawn to working with those who come after us because we feel we have something to share, to help them grow in their walk with the Lord; but how many feel called to minister to those who go ahead of us, to that place that beckons to us, “Come to me; you’re next.” A place where sickness and death await.
We have the privilege of ministering to a population that deeply appreciates us and what we do for them.
There is a gifting that God provides us as His followers. While we take evaluation tests to determine our giftedness, God can surprise us. He has His own metric to use, and it’s faultless.
When God plugs you into something, you can feel confident He has placed you in the right spot – just where He wants you and just where you are needed.
This verse also calls us to consider each of God’s giftings as valuable in His eyes. There is no striation in His plan. Preaching over painting? No. Teaching over Training? No. Evangelism over Encouraging? No. Singing over security? No. Cleaning over carpentry? No.
All spots – both volunteer and paid — are valuable in God’s sight, and all are blessed in serving the Lord and the Lord’s anointed.
If we are using our gifting to benefit the church body and the community outside our doors, then we are serving God according to His plan for us. There is no room for boasting. No room for comparisons. No room for envy. No room for friction. No room for complaining.
We are to be good managers and use our gifting to benefit others.
4. SUFFERING FOR CHRIST
“IF YOU ARE INSULTED FOR THE NAME OF CHRIST, YOU ARE BLESSED, BECAUSE THE SPIRIT OF GLORY AND OF GOD RESTS ON YOU.” – 1 PETER 4:17 LSB
“FOR IT IS TIME FOR JUDGMENT TO BEGIN WITH THE HOUSE OF GOD; AND IF IT BEGINS WITH US FIRST, WHAT WILL BE THE OUTCOME FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT OBEY THE GOSPEL OF GOD?” – 1 PETER 4:17 LSB
IF YOU’RE LIKE ME, and you are – because we’re alike – then you shiver whener you read in God’s Word that we’re called to suffer with Christ to join Him in glory, and we think – “Lord, maybe we just focus on the glory part there and soft-pedal the suffering part.”
But whether we are called, as Christ was called, to suffer bodily harm, torture, and death for the Gospel, or we just suffer the stares and whispering and cold shoulders of those who want to push us and our Gospel-peddling aside, we will suffer at some point.
We often express fear of antagonizing a neighbor or a co-worker – or even family members gathered around the Thanksgiving Day table – with our God talk, but today – even today – our brothers and sisters in many other countries are worshipping in secret or fearing a militia raid that will lead to the rape of the women, the crucifixion of the men, and the burning of the huts.
After the raping and looting comes the slaughter as men, women, and children are butchered, their bodies torn apart, the pieces left rotting in the hot sun.
For what crime? For worshipping the Lord as Christians.
And you’re worried about the cold shoulder and some whispering?
Really?
It saddens me even to talk of this, to present to you this unpleasant truth – too many self-proclaimed Christians live lives indistinguishable from the rest of the world and never breathe a word of their faith to anyone.
[Have you led anyone to Christ? More importantly, because you cannot control someone else’s response, have you tried? Have you? Is that commandment even important to you?]
God does not hold us responsible for someone else’s response to the Gospel message, but He does hold us responsible for trying – or failing to try.
When I meet Jesus in Heaven, I do not want to field a question like, “I died on the cross for you, son. What did you do for Me?”
Let’s refocus on today’s text source. “As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another.”
Can you just let those words simmer in you for a moment and blossom? You are God’s chosen child.
We are to share the gifts we were given with others. We are to do so in thanksgiving and with praise. All we have, and all we are, is part of the mosaic, the fellowship, the church.
We are the body; Christ is the Head.
Let us be faithful stewards.
FINAL WORDS
SERVING OUR LORD in whatever capacity He calls us should be seen as a great opportunity for us, just as it should be viewed as a great honor.
God wants us. God calls us. God chooses us. God looks for us. God forgives us. God loves us.
God does not need us, but He wants us.
He does not need us, but He wants us. (I know I repeated those words, but they bear repeating.)
CHURCH: As we leave fellowship this morning (afternoon), let us respond to God’s gifting in our lives with our love, our praise, and our worship.
Let us resolve to enter our personal mission field, ready, able, and willing to share the Gospel entrusted to us, to testify to the change that Jesus Christ has made in our lives, and to use our special gifting in service to King Jesus.
PRAYER
O LORD, OUR GOD, When we in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Your hands have made. We see the stars; we hear the rolling thunder, throughout the universe displayed.
And when we think of God, his Son not sparing, sent Him to die, we scarce can take it in. That on that cross, our burdens gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away our sin.
Lord, Your goodness, grace, and mercy are more than we can imagine. Your vision for us is so much better than what we’ve managed to hold onto.
We are so grateful, so thankful, for how You have rescued us from the mess we’ve gotten ourselves into, brushed off our dirt and grit, bathed us clean and fresh, and restored our souls in Your sight to righteousness.
In response, we can only fall to our knees (even if we do so only in our minds), and humbly sing Your praises and say, “Thank You, Lord Jesus! Thank You.”
We lift this prayer in the mighty name of our Savior, Jesus, the Christ of God.
PERHAPS NO SIN PATTERN divides the Christian community today more than does the sin of homosexuality, both gay and lesbian.
Most of us know someone who struggles with same-sex attraction, and many of us recoil when confronted with flagrant displays of gay or lesbian conduct.
Why is that? Is it because the sin pattern is so odious to us that we separate from it reflexively, or could it be that all of us have, even to a tiny degree, an inkling that we, too, could be tempted?
If we take the position – as does this column – that all sin patterns are tempting to mankind, whether it is cheating on a spouse or income taxes, telling fibs large or small, selfishly ignoring the pleas of the helpless around us, or even eating more sweets and carbs than our diet and doctor recommend, then we can readily see how someone’s homosexual lifestyle is more threatening to our self-esteem than any other sin pattern our neighbor can exhibit.
Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. — 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (NKJV)
Homosexuality threatens our very self-image of being either masculine (male) or feminine (female). Our neighbor cheating on his/her spouse or their income taxes would not necessarily be visible to us, nor would it likely challenge our self-image.
*****
HOMOSEXUALITY, HOWEVER, places a mirror before us that causes us to reflect on whether, even if in the tiniest, briefest moment, we, too, could be similarly tempted.
We might think: Are we any less masculine (or feminine) if even for that quick fleeting moment we sense a recognition of the temptation that lures our neighbor to pursue that sin pattern wholeheartedly?
What other sin pattern has that same impact on us?
Is that any different from the thought — again, fleeting and quickly dismissed — of taking an income tax deduction to which we’re not entitled or to grabbing extra pens and notepads from our employer when no one is around to observe?
Yet all of us would admit, even without pride, that we’re tempted to grab something that’s not ours, even if it’s just tooling down the highway above the speed limit.
The Bible is very clear that we are not to hold ourselves out to be better or more holy than someone else and not to judge their sin more harshly than we judge our own.
— ROMANS 2:1b
We disdain all forms of weakness, and we take pride in our ability to deny self. After all, that’s not only the moral position but also is part of what we consider being mature.
Who does not feel a bit healthier just by declining a second portion of pie and ice cream or a bit more noble when avoiding the opportunity to rifle through the office supplies?
Aren’t we more likely to point the accusing finger at those among us who, in our opinion, are less noble than we are because they succumbed to the temptation of grabbing that second desert, the fistful of roller pens, or the unsupported tax deduction?
*****
EVEN MORE SO, what is our instinctive response to those among us who give in to the temptation they feel, more so than we do, of same-sex attraction? Consider also, that once that sin is indulged in, it can overtake us and demand a lifestyle change to comport with our new community of like-minded sinners.
Personally, I am not aware of a fellowship community of tax cheats, adulterers, gamblers, drunks, and spouse abusers, but we all are aware of fellowship communities that attract those dealing with same-sex attraction.
There’s another difficulty with the sin of same-sex attraction. It can’t be hidden as well as other sins, most of which are done in the darkness and away from prying eyes. Homosexuality, on the other hand, is flagrant, in-your-face, ever present, and — with the new “pride” movement — aggressively persistent.
We all know sins that have grabbed a hold of us so strongly, and are so pernicious, that we think little of committing them, even while we know that God holds all sin as sin, from murder and armed robbery to telling “half-truths” to speeding on the open highway to eating another chocolate-chip cookie when the hostess isn’t looking.
Yes, you say, but capital murder is a worse crime than petit theft, but we’re not talking about crime – which is a violation of a human standard. We’re talking about sin, which is a violation of God’s standard. To His holy eyes, sin is sin.
To earn our spot in Heaven, we must be perfectas God is perfect. We aren’t, so we depend on Jesus’ cleansing blood. Since we’re allflawed and fall short of God’s glory, we ought not be the church scolds, pointing “naughty fingers” at others.
The Bible is very clear that we are not to hold ourselves out to be better or more holy than someone else and not to judge their sin more harshly than we judge our own.
“For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.” – Romans 2:1b ESV
The Bible also clearly states that we will be held accountable by the Creator not only for our actions but also for our words and even our thoughts. Jesus, in His Sermon on the Mount, told us it is not enough to avoid committing adultery, just thinking about it condemns us in God’s holy eyes.
*****
THE GLORY OF the cross is that Jesus left the comforts of Heaven and endured that excruciating punishment for us so that we would not have to suffer the punishment for our own sin.
The fact that all of us sin and fall short of God’s glory, that all of us are weak and sinful, that all of us war against God’s standards for our lives does not give any of us the self-proclaimed right to judge harshly someone else’s failures or lapses into persistent sin.
We are called to turn our lives over to God, and He has promised, in turn, to transform us into new creatures, washed in His blood. While we continue to sin, we increasingly become, as the Holy Spirit works through us and in us, more Christ-like.
We sin less often. We avoid sin patterns and a lifestyle based around the sin that grips us. We grieve more when we fail.
One person’s failure around homosexuality is as grievous to God as is another person’s lapses around his/her employer’s office supplies. In other words, to God, our neighbor giving in to same-sex attraction is an abomination against nature, but we, who commit other sins, stand just as condemned before a perfect God.
*****
THE BIBLE TELLS US we are to love our neighbor but not their sin, just as we naturally love our selves but, when redeemed, not our sin.
Can we acknowledge, then, the basic personhood of our failed neighbor, pray for his/her redemption, and avoid being stumbling blocks to their spiritual recovery?
We are called to speak the truth in love to our neighbor, just as our born-again neighbors are called to speak the truth to us. Lovingly calling out someone for their sin pattern covers a multitude of our own offenses and can bring a wandering believer back into the fold.
It also can lead to conviction for those who are struggling with sin but who are not yet believers in God’s grace and mercy.
None of that is possible for us if we are too busy condemning the wayward neighbor while excusing our own sin.
PRAYER
ALMIGHTY GOD, Father of all creation, we confess our sinful hearts and weak wills. You have told us our spirit is willing, but our flesh is weak, and that, unless we abide in You and You in us, we can do nothing worthwhile on our own.
We ask you humbly to forgive our sin and our judgment against our neighbor’s sin. Help us, we ask, to love our failed neighbor and teach them, when given the opportunity, God’s truth and to do so with grace and love.
Strengthen us, we pray, in our own walk with the Lord that we will be Your ambassadors, as salt and light, in word and in deed, as our Savior has commissioned us.
We lift our petition and our gratitude in Jesus’ beautiful name.
“But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess. Yet do it with courtesy and respect.” – 1 PETER 3:15-16a NET
CHRISTIAN MESSAGE
By WARD PIMLEY
Pastor, Journalist, Author
LET’S CREATE a little story together. Everyone loves a good story — right? — and God gives us the ability to craft our own.
Part 1 of 4. “Sharing Our Faith”
S0, LET’S ASSUME you’re talking with a good friend, maybe sharing coffee and some catching up, when your friend turns serious and asks you a sensitive question.
“Say, if you don’t mind my asking, there’s something different about you. I mean, you’ve always been friendly and joke around a lot, but there’s a peace about you I didn’t see before. Is there something going on I should know about?”
NARRATOR: That’s a nice comment, isn’t it? It’s so much better than, “What’s gotten under your skin? You’re so jumpy, so judgmental, so, I don’t know, angry or something.”
We pick up here: What do you do? Your friend has just teed up a nice compliment and wants to know how come you’re so relaxed, at peace with yourself, content – even while you’re facing some of the same battles you were before – lingering issues with your mother, a tense relationship at work, your oldest child struggling at school, your lawn turning into a weed factory.
Well, our text source gives us an answer, one we as believers and followers of Christ should look for and even ask God for: an opportunity to share our faith.
Do you do that? Do you ask for an opportunity to share your faith, or would you rather nobody ask you and just leave you alone?
In our text source, God is telling us through the apostle Peter to dedicate our lives to the Lord and be ready, at all times, to tell others “what God has done for us,” especially, he says, when we’re asked.
In other words, we should be living out the Gospel to earn the right to share the Gospel when given the opportunity.
One commentary tells us: “We must be ready to tell them with gentleness and respect, the story of how we came to be redeemed by God through faith in Christ. [I]t matters that we continue to do good so that even those who accuse us of wrongdoing will be ashamed.” – BibleRef.com (Got Questions Ministries)
Another commentary says: “Christians must be a strong witness for Jesus with their lives so that they have opportunity to be a strong witness for Jesus with their words.” – Pastor Tony Evans
That means our lives and our words should be in synch; they should back each other up. We don’t want to preach to others the love and forgiveness that Christ offers us when our own lives don’t reflect that same commitment.
Also, we don’t want our words of sarcasm, nit-picking, and complaint to prevent an opportunity to testify to God’s goodness.
Peter was writing to a population being persecuted for following Jesus, so their witness placed their physical safety in question.
We, fortunately, do not now face that same persecution, even while we might well face our own personal life battles.
Even so, our attitude, as we experience life and as people watch us, either gives a favorable witness for the Lord or detracts from it.
Part 2 of 4. “Everyone Suffers”
WE ALL SUFFER in some way. No one gets through life without some sorrow.
There’s another verse in 1 Peter 3 I want to draw to your attention:
“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit. – 1 Peter 3:18 NKJV
Once again, Jesus gives us the perfectmodel for how to face our life journey.
Who hasn’t said, at some point, “Was it fair for us that Adam’s sin has caused us to be born with sinful hearts,” even though the Bible clearly states that if we were in the place of Adam and Eve, we would have acted the same way.
In fact, we do. We willingly create our own diversion from God.
But let’s ask ourselves whether the redemption part of God’s story is unfair.
“Was it fair to Jesus that God had to send Him to leave the throne of Heaven, be born of a woman and placed in an animals’ feeding trough, live a sinless life, be harassed by religious and civic leaders, and then be sacrificed on the cross for our sins, not His own?”
God righted the scales, as it were, giving us Jesus to succeed where our forebear Adam failed. So, fairness has nothing to do with it.
Life isn’t fair. We know that. Some of us suffer more than do others; some of us suffer more earlier in our lives; others suffer more later in life.
Some of our suffering results from our own doing, our own (youthful) stupidity. Some of our suffering lingers; some of it is temporary. We may suffer more than once.
Pastor Rick Warren said we’re either going into trials, are in trials now, or are just emerging from trials, such that trials and tribulations are a common part of our lives.
They are the norm in life, not the exception.
That is why it is so important for us as Christ followers to live bathed in Christ’s grace.
One pastor I was privileged to know quite well exhibited tremendous grace while suffering from a fatal nerve condition that recently claimed his earthly life. He demonstrated the grace of God that marked his life and testimony. “God’s grace is sufficient for the day.”
That’s the kind of witness we should exhibit so that we might earn the right to share the gospel with someone. When that opportunity comes, we need to be ready to pounce.
Part 3 of 4. “Sharing Techniques”
HOW DO WE do it? How do we share the Gospel when God presents us with the opportunity? (What holds us back?)
What are the magic words we can use to share our personal life journey, from sinner to saint, brought about solely through the blood and grace of Jesus Christ?
Do you have a testimony? Do you have a before Christ to go with your after Christ experience? I sure do.
>This is how I lived before Christ entered my life; this is how He entered my life; these are the changes He has made in me. I’m not the man (or woman) I want to be, but I’m not the man (or woman) I used to be.<
Unless you were led by your parents to turn your life over to God before you entered the first grade, you have a before that wasn’t very pleasant. Jesus has remade you.
If you did turn your life over to God before first grade, then your testimony is one of praise, yet you might have some “Jonah moments” you could share.
If you’ve lived a pristine life, and believe you have nothing dramatic to share, then your testimony is to praise God Almighty! You could share how He kept you from falling away.
IMPORTANT: YOU DO NOT NEED TO KNOW ONE MORE BIBLE VERSE OR DOCTRINAL PRINCIPAL OR WORD OF WISDOM TO TESTIFY OF YOUR FAITH THAN YOU KNEW THE DAY YOU TURNED YOUR LIFE OVER TO JESUS CHRIST.
My sense, though, is that in this case you would not have the conversation we noted at the beginning, where a friend notices a profound change in your life.
Yes, God is not done with you yet, and He will not be until you enter Glory with Him, but He has been growing you and molding you from the mess your life was in when you turned it over to Him.
Part 4 of 4. “Explaining Prayer”
LET’S RETURN TO our story and take a lesson from our text source, that we should be ready to give a testimony whenever someone gives us the opportunity.
Our friend points out how different we are: more relaxed, more confident, more joyful. What do we say? What do you say?
This is the opportunity we should be praying for, and it should not fill us with dread. Instead, we ought to be able to relate something very simple, something like this:
“I turned my life over to Jesus Christ. I just admitted to Him what He knew already – that I am a sinner in need of God’s grace. I just poured out my heart to Him and sought His forgiveness.”
“I told Him I believe He is the Messiah, the Son of God and that He died on the cross to pay for my sins. I asked Him to come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior.“
[Doctrinally, we *receive* Him, not ask Him, but *receive* is a passive tense verb; it does not require an action on our part; while *ask* does.]
“Basically, that was it! When I prayed thatsimple prayer, I felt a burden lifted from my shoulders, and I was filled with a peace and joy I had never known before.“
[God is the acting agent who lifted the burden from my shoulders and filled my heart with a peace and joy I had not known before.]
“I don’t know why I waited as long as I did to seek God’s favor, but now I am grateful I did it. In fact, I am eternally grateful.“
At this point, you might want to add a concluding flourish, something like,
“If you ever want to discuss this further, just let me know. I’d love to share my faith with you. I’m just not going to push you.”
Or, you could say,
“What I did, you could, too. Of course, when you’re ready. If you’d like me to pray with you about this, I’d be more than happy to do so.”
You can see that in each of our examples we made it clear that any further discussion of this topic will be at the instigation and will of the other party.
Not us.
We arenot going to push our faith onto someone, just as God does not push Himself onto us. He lets us come to the decision on our own.
The second point to emphasize in this verse is that our discussion of faith issues with our friend must be done with love and gentleness; our text source says *courtesy and respect*. Other translations say *meekness and fear*, *gentleness and reverence*, and *courteously and respectfully*.
Regardless of the exact words your translation uses, we are to share the truth with love and grace – not highhanded, not judgmental, not condemning – just loving acceptance of our friend’s question.
Let’s close where we started, repeating our text source, but this time with a different translation, the Berean Standard Bible:
“But in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you the reason for the hope that is in you. But respond with gentleness and respect.” – 1 Peter 3:15 BSB
FINAL WORDS
HAVING THE OPPORTUNITY to share your faith – and praying that God will give you those opportunities – should be a way of life for each of us.
CLOSING QUESTION: I ask myself, “Is sharing my faith a way of life for me? Let me ask you: Is sharing your faith a way of life for you?
Living out the Gospel is not enough. Being a good person is not enough. Smiling often is not enough. Neither is saying “please” and “thank you,” although those are desirable traits.
We need to back up our actions, our lives, with words of affirmation; otherwise, we are stealing God’s glory and claiming it for our own.
Here’s how God says it:
“How then will they call on him in who they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’” – Romans 10:14-15 ESV
Instead of the word “preach,” we can easily substitute the word “share.” So, how will someone believe without hearing, and how will someone hear without someone sharing?
That person who shares could be you.
That someone that God has placed in your life could be waiting for you to share your testimony, your defense (or apologia) for the hope and joy you feel in your heart.
Just remember, when you do, share the Word with love and gentleness.
PRAYER
OUR HEAVENLY FATHER, our Abba, our Daddy – We are so grateful for the blessings you shower on us. We want to share our faith with others, as they express an interest in listening, so please help us prepare to share a brief testimony about our lives, to tell others what God has done for us. Then, mighty Lord and Savior, please give us the opportunity to share what God has done for us. Once we’ve prepared, give us the opening. In Jesus’ name. AMEN
This blog has been devoted to Christian meditations, but this is a first step in broadening its reach to topical issues.
These discussions will be based on biblical principles as our Christian faith should inform our positions and viewpoints.
So, here goes …
COMPETING VIEWS
EVERYONE IN THE WORLD knows of the recent “dust-up” between Israel and Iran and between Israel and Iran’s proxies — Houthis, Hamas, and Hezbollah — the three Hs.
The question is, from a Christian perspective, what should be the position of the United States? Should we as a country become involved in a military contribution on the side of Israel, and if so, to what extent?
Let’s examine two possibilities: First, that Jesus preached non-violence, leading us to avoid unnecessary use of armed force. This view would emphasize using the bully pulpit, combining the pulpit’s teaching side with its preaching side.
This view would exhaust all “soft” policy, which is “statecraft” or negotiation, before engaging in “hard” policy, which calls on military force as a last resort.
“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”– James 1:5 ESV “For the Lord gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.” – Proverbs 2:6 NKJV
The chief alternative considers the biblical response to evil. In the Old Testament, the Jews were to wipe out the natives in the Promised Land because God’s patience with them and their evil had worn out. He was imposing judgment on them.
In Revelation, we see Jesus will wipe away all evil with just the spoken word – His Word, not ours – as He rides on a white horse from Heaven to take His throne in Jerusalem to reign over the land in the Millennium.
The account of three battles in Revelation – Gog and Magog, Armageddon, and the final, unnamed battle, will spill tons of blood as God eradicates evil from the world.
God’s wrath is righteous anger, while ours often is self-centered and harmful to community.
So, how would we settle this discussion? Engage militarily or speak our truth into the storm?
SPEAKING BOLDLY
BOTH VIEWPOINTS have merit, but one point this column would make is that whichever course the church takes, it should speak boldly and without compromise.
How then can the church speak conflicting viewpoints boldly and without compromise?
All such questions can be answered via the same formula: walk with the Lord, seek His counsel, read His Word, pray to Him, and seek His face. As we draw closer to Him, He will draw closer to us and reveal His answer.
Let us as the church never chart any course without first seeking the Lord’s face and asking for His counsel. We should not ask Him to bless whatever it is we decide.
This column questions how many in the church universal are seeking His face, turning to Him for His answer rather than asking Him to bless their answer.
The view of this column is that the U.S. should make strong statements in support of Israel and its right to exist and that Israel is to own the land given to it by God. That includes Gaza, the Golan Heights, and Lebanon.
This column also believes the U.S. should bless Israel and support Israel through military might and that the bombing of Iran’s nuclear reactor sites was proper and in line with God’s declaration of support for the Jewish people.
SEEKING HIS FACE
MORE IMPORTANTLY than making a one-time decision is the process by which we continually seek God’s answers to our questions.
Let us as the church never chart any course ourselves without first seeking the Lord’s face and then asking Him to bless whatever it is we decide.
This column is clear that the U.S. took the right course in bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities and then seeking a peace settlement, but at no time does this column end the process of seeking God’s face.
We should always be humble, come together in prayer, learn from one another, and follow God’s lead as we understand it.
We might well find that as we do so, God will reveal more of His commandment to us such that we will mold our response in some way, much like sanding a block of wood makes the block more aesthetic, easier to handle, and more useful.
PRAYER
ALMIGHTY GOD, PRINCE OF PEACE,
You are both the Lion and the Lamb,
the conquering warrior and the humble sacrifice.
Lead us into making the right decisions in all matters of public policy, that we as a church may represent You in truth and honor, according to Your desires, not according to our own.
Lord, we bless You and thank You, we praise You and we worship You.
Ward's Words | BY WARD PIMLEY 