MEMBERS OF THE BODY OF CHRIST
What you and I have available to us today as Christians is fantastic. It is so fantastic that God had to hide the reality of what we have from the foundations of the World. In the Bible God calls it “the mystery”.
THE ORIGINAL SIN
In Genesis God shows us the workings of the Devil and Adam and Eve’s spiral downward to the sin against God that has put all of mankind into the terrible fix that we have been in over the centuries.
In the G
GOD FIRST
Everybody has a center of reference for believing outside of themselves. Some people’s reference is the television, others use the works of a philosopher or a psychologist, some people listen to their friends, family and pastors for a reference for believing. Other sources could be the newspaper, the internet, movies or the radio. Very seldom does a person use the Bible as a reference for believing. You should ask yourself why people aren’t using the Bible for a reference for believing. I would suggest that the Bible is THE center of reference for believing and that by not using the Bible as THE center of reference for believing that a person puts him/her self in a position of living below par, of having a life of extreme ups and downs and one frought with peril and ill results. To be a more than conqueror that it talks about in Romans chapter eight the Bible has to be the only center of reference outside the person seeking.
What I mean by a center of reference is a source of answers to questions that is true and that you can use as a template to compare other information or answers to. Doctrine would be a good word to help describe what a center of reference is.
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HOPE AND BELIEVING
Have you ever thought about the difference between hope and believing? God has and He used them in very specific ways in the Bible.
Hope is the anticipation or expectation of receiving something In the future. The reason that it would be something in the future is because it is not available now. If you say “ I hope that I can get a better job or I hope that I can get a different car you would be wrong in you choice of words because hope is something that is out of your hands. It is out of your control. If you hope for something then you have to wait for it. John hopes that Kenny brings dinner with him. However, if John were hungry and instead of waiting for Kenny, John cooks dinner then it would be John’s believing that got him dinner. Do you see the difference? Hope and believing work like this throughout the whole Bible.
AN UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCE
Had a great time the other day; my daughter and I went horseback riding down country roads. It was a warm and sunny day, the birds were singing and the flowers were putting on a show of color and fragrance for us. It was stupendous!
It was at about the halfway point that I noticed two houses that were vacant and starting to deteriorate. The gutters were falling off the weeds were high all around the house and a window was broken out of one of them. You know, when you’re out riding a horse for three or four hours there is not much for your mind to do, you butt yes, your mind, no. So, I had plenty of time to think about those houses and came to a terrible conclusion. The banks will let them and the millions like them rot to nothing! HA, you say, this guy is nuts! Perhaps but the fact remains that the banks will let the empty houses AND empty commercial buildings in this country decay, crumble and rot.
COME BOLDLY UNTO THE THRONE OF GRACE
uildings but one of the believing vs. unbelief. Let me ask you a question. Do you believe that the Bible IS the revealed word and will of God or are you just playing around? Is it so real that it is seated in your heart or is just mental assent? Do you want to enter into God’s rest and have God’s help or are you still happy with going it on your own? In Hebrews starting in chapter three God lays it out very clearly. The only way into God’s peace is by believing.
WHO IS FIRST IN YOUR LIFE
Let’s get our priorities straight. We always have a list of people that we are trying to please. My boss, my wife, my kids, my self, my pastor, my karate instructor, my piano teacher my God, my father, my mother, my teacher, etc., etc. the list could go on for hours. The hard part is who to please first and how to juggle pleasing everybody. I am here to say that that will probably not happen. To paraphrase a quote from P.T. Barnum, You can please all of the people some of the time and you can please some of the people all of the time but you can’t please all of the people all of the time. So, to avoid major heart burn in trying to figure out who to please when you should first get your priorities straight. Who is first in your life? By making that decision and remembering that – everything else will be easier.
JESUS CHRIST OUR SACRIFICIAL LAMB
The children of Israel had been in Egypt for four hundred years. Most of those years were spent in servitude (slavery) to the Egyptians. God told Abram (Abraham) that this would happen but God , also, told Abram that He would deliver Israel out of the hand of Egypt in Genesis chapter fifteen.
WHO IS OUR SUFFICIENCY?
With the economic crisis as severe as it is it is easy to look to any source for aid. That is what I started to get caught up in but, then I caught myself and remembered where my sufficiency comes from and who my sufficiency is as well as the sufficiency of the United States of America.
GOD IS STILL ON THE THRONE
Many Christian ministers are telling their congregations that this world crisis the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. I don’t know about that. I do know that God knows. I can guess, but, that wouldn’t do you or me any good. What difference does it make, honestly? If you are one of those people that are out of work or struggling to make ends meet does it give you any comfort to know that this terrible time in history is a fulfillment of prophesy? I don’t feel warm and fuzzy when I hear that stuff. What we need is direction and consolation and courage. The words “take heart” come to mind
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