Walking With Jesus

The Meaning of Ministry

“And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus – the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” (Acts 20:22-24 NLT)

What does the term “ministry” mean to you? How would you define it? To what emotion(s) does it give rise in your spirit? Too often believers immediately think of those who do church ministry as a profession – preachers, Pastors, ministers, but to do that is to miss the point of much of the New Testament.

Yes, of course, there is a place for those called to paid, professional ministry; however, that is a very small percentage of the Body of Christ. The fact is EVERY believer is called to ministry, that’s why the gifts of the Spirit are for ALL believers. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 12:7: “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.” Helping others is essentially what ministry is.

The word most commonly used in the New Testament for “ministry” is a word that means “service.” Ministers are “servers,” those who serve others. That’s the reality in our relationship with the Lord Jesus. Yes, of course, we serve Him, but we serve Him as His slave, not because He forces us, but because through His blood shed on our behalf, He has purchased us.

Paul clarifies this in Ephesians 1:14 when he writes: “The Spirit is God’s guarantee that He will give us the inheritance He promised and that He has purchased us to be His own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify Him.” If you are filled with God’s Spirit, you have been purchased by the Savior’s blood and you owe your life and allegiance to Him.

We may think we’re serving out of the goodness of our own heart, but to believe that is to misunderstand the meaning of ministry. Ministry flows out of a heart owned by the Lord Jesus, who not only calls us to ministry, He fuels our service through the presence and power of His Spirit. Why do you think the Lord gave us His Spirit?

Corky Calhoun helps us see this more clearly when he writes: “Our Ministry is always measured by the presence of Christ, and our proximity to those who desperately need him.” The presence of Christ IS the Holy Spirit’s presence in and with us. If the Holy Spirit isn’t leading, guiding, equipping, and encouraging us to praise and honor Jesus for all He accomplishes through us, we’re wasting our time and effort.

If all we desire is self-praise, a good feeling, or a pat on our back, we should get a job at the car wash and do a great job that will give us great feelings about ourselves. With our reflection in every car, we can breathe a sigh of relief that we’re really making a difference in our world.

Obviously, I hope you know I’m being facetious, but the truth is, we too often are more self-motivated in our ministries than Spirit-motivated. The meaning of ministry is derived from devotion to Jesus, a desire to exalt, honor, bless and please Him. He is the reason for our service, so all praise and honor go only to Him. Yes, of course, we want to help people, but our help should be designed to point them to Jesus, not just to us.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Romans 7 “Christian” (Part 2)

“Don’t be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey Him. Don’t participate in the things these people do. For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light! For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. (Ephesians 5:6-9 NLT)

Our goal as a believer is to live above sin, to be as much like Jesus as we can be WITH THE SPIRIT’S EMPOWERMENT! We can never be good enough to earn our salvation. We can never overcome sin, death, and the grave except by the Spirit’s enabling. It’s only and always by the Spirit of God, by the empowerment of God’s Spirit, not ours.

That being said, to believe we can sin without thought of consequence and still go to heaven is a lie from Satan. It is absolutely not what the Bible teaches. Paul clearly instructs in the verses above: “for the anger of God will fall on all who disobey Him.” God does not take our habitual sin lightly.

We must change our mindset to understand that every sin is willful and must be forgiven. Yes, of course, the forgiveness of every sin we will ever commit has been appropriated on the Cross, but there is no forgiveness for a sin that isn’t acknowledged and for which forgiveness has not been asked. John reminds us in 1 John 1:9: “But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all wickedness.”

In Romans 7 Paul was describing His inability to walk without sin without the empowerment of the Spirit, He was not making an excuse for a believer to live like the devil. Sin may be habitual because we haven’t learned how to allow the Spirit to free us from it, but the Cross breaks the back of every sin when we confess and choose to forsake it. But how?

Sin is a choice, a decision we make. Sin is not a reflex or involuntary act. It may seem that way when we allow sin to rule and control us, but that’s Satan, not God. The Spirit of God within every believer is our resource of strength to break the power of sin and Satan and to walk in the light of our new life in Christ. But here’s the truth: the Holy Spirit is a gentleman and will not force us against our will to obey Him. He is available and will help us when we ask for His help, but we must ask.

What might that look like? It looks like asking, as the Psalmist asked in Psalm 139:23-24: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.” If you’ll ask in faith He will answer, but you must be willing to submit to the Lord’s authority in your life, obey His directives, and seek with all that is within you to walk in confidence the Holy Spirit WILL enable you to change.

We CANNOT AND WILL NOT accomplish long term results in the energy of the flesh. We cannot live a sin free life without the Holy Spirit’s empowerment. But understand, this is not a one-and-done proposition. It’s a life-long battle that each of us will fight as long as we have air in our lungs. Yes, it gets easier, but we can never let our guard down.

We can’t relax in our self-sufficiency. There is no such thing in the Christian Faith, only God-sufficiency and God-dependency. It’s all about trust and confidence in HIM, not in ourselves. The fact is, the “Christian” Paul was describing in Romans 7 isn’t a Christian at all, I believe that was his point. There is no such thing as a carnal Christian, they are contradictory terms. To be carnal minded is to NOT be a Christian and to be a Christian is to NOT be carnal minded.

Food for thought

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Romans 7 “Christian”

“And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.” (Romans 7:18-20 NLT)

For centuries we have looked at these verses and have seen in them the excuse we think we want to profess Christ but still live like the devil. “What’s the use? I can’t help myself. I’m a sinner and I can’t help but sin.” Do you want to know the irony? All of that is exactly right. It’s all true, it’s just not complete.

If all we had was Romans 7 we would be helpless and hopeless, but gratefully, the Lord also gave us Romans 8 which says: “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus. And because you belong to Him, the power of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.”

What does that mean? Does it mean we can continue to sin at will without fear of punishment and still have a home in heaven? No, not at all. It means the sin we’re powerless to overcome in the strength of our flesh, the Holy Spirit will empower us to overcome in HIS strength, but we have to ask and obey.

It means we have a choice. Yes, of course, in the energy of the flesh I am powerless to withstand the assaults of the enemy, but because I now “belong to Christ Jesus,” I have an Advocate, someone to stand by my side, someone to empower me and enable me to do what in my flesh I was powerless to do.

Because of what Christ did on the Cross, because of His payment for our sin, we can be forgiven, cleansed and freed from the penalty of our sin, but that doesn’t give us permission to continue to walk in them. The power of sin’s hold on us has been broken, so, the same faith that brought us to redemption must now be activated to lead us in the journey of sanctification.

Does that mean we’ll never sin? No, but it does mean we don’t have to sin. We may still choose to disobey and make wrong choices that result in sin, but it’s a choice we make. To believe sin has to be our default behavior is to misunderstand salvation and the gift of God’s grace. Why would the Lord’s desire be for us to be like Him – pure, sinless, perfect, if He was okay with us continuing to wallow in sin, impurity, and debauchery.

Please read Paul’s words in Ephesians 5 carefully when he writes: “Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered Himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes – these are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the Kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is an idolater, worshipping the things of this world.” There’s more, you can click on the highlighted link above to read the rest of the chapter.

Paul’s message is clear: sin has consequences, here and in eternity. It makes no sense to believe the Lord would die for our forgiveness and not give us a means of living a redeemed and forgiven life. He DID, and that’s the point Paul is making in Romans 7 and 8 and in many other places in his writings.

There’s too much here, let’s pick it up in tomorrow’s post.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Let Your Friends Carry You through Hard Times

*These powerful words from Pastor Rick Warren are a follow up to Ron Hutchcraft’s article yesterday. We may not always realize how powerfully the enemy uses heartache to pull us away from the Lord and how helpful meaningful, loving friendships can be. Let these words bless you. Blessings, Ed 😊

“By helping each other with your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2 NCV)

When you go through major disappointments in life, it’s natural to want to pull back and isolate yourself. You might even want to keep your losses, failures, mistakes, and crises a secret—to withdraw and handle it all yourself. But this is a terrible idea!

When you go through disappointment, that’s when you need your friends the most. God doesn’t intend for you to handle pain and stress by yourself. It’s healthiest to accept help from others.

Photo by RDNE Stock project on Pexels.com

We were wired for each other. We need each other. We’re relational beings. The Living Bible paraphrase records one of the first things God said in the Garden of Eden: “It isn’t good for man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18). We’re made to be in relationships.

And The Message paraphrase says, “When desperate people give up on God Almighty, their friends, at least, should stick with them” (Job 6:14).

There may be times in your life when the pain is so deep that you say, “I don’t even believe in God right now!” That’s when you need to have friends who come alongside you and encourage you in your faith.

You might even say, “I don’t have any faith left. I’m full of doubt.” That’s when you need your friends to step in and say, “That’s okay. We’ll believe for you. We’ll trust God for you in this.”

The Bible says, “By helping each other with your troubles, you truly obey the law of Christ”(Galatians 6:2 NCV). What is the law of Christ? It’s this: Love your neighbor as yourself. The Bible commands us to help each other. So every time you help somebody who’s going through pain, you are fulfilling the law of Christ.

Trying to handle trouble by yourself will only make you more tired and stressed. You need to accept the help of others and let your friends carry you through it, knowing that God is with you all the way. He is at work in your circumstances, even when you can’t see what he’s doing.

Talk It Over

Who supports you through your losses and disappointments? Who do you support through hard times?
How can a small group of Christian friends provide the kind of support you need when you’re in trouble?
What have you learned about God through the support of your Christian friends?

A Shattered Heart, A Certain Hope

*Please read these words of Ron Hutchcraft carefully and with your eye of faith. Let them speak hope and life into your weary soul. Blessings, Ed 😊

I’d done my whole adult life with my Karen, the only woman I ever needed. Suddenly, I had to figure out how to do the rest of my life without her. That Sunday night, we sat in the bleachers at our local football stadium and we watched our grandson graduate from high school as valedictorian and he gave a faith-filled valedictory message. Monday afternoon, she was gone. Wrapped in this huddle of sobs with our three adult children, I just choked out the words, “It hurts so bad.” It really does.

After some time, I’d walk into our living room, I’d still instinctively look for that beautiful hair. I called it her “crown of glory” as she sat in her favorite blue chair. I would go to make that oatmeal that she loved for breakfast. I turn to tell her about a conversation or situation and to hear her trademark laugh over my dumb jokes.

Our four-year-old grandson said it all the first time he ran into our living room and saw her chair empty. He just ran back to his mommy and said, “Mommy, you were right. She’s not here.” No, she’s not, and she won’t be again. I probably shed more tears in those weeks than I’ve shed the rest of my life. But I have a story to tell. Actually, it’s the Story that I’ve tried to tell folks my whole adult life. And suddenly I was living its ultimate validation.

Everything I’ve ever believed, everything I’ve ever taught about my Jesus is true! Everything that my death-crushing Savior promised, I can tell you, He delivers in the darkest, most devastating days of my life!

He said of those who have put their total trust in His death on the cross for their sins, and this is in our word for today from the Word of God in John 14:19. He said, “Because I live, you will live also.” Because Karen’s Savior is alive, so is this woman I love.

In God’s own words, we have “a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3). I’m not talking about some “cross your fingers” hope. This is living hope. Hope is a Person – Jesus. He trampled death as He blasted out of His grave on Easter morning.

The hope that is holding my heart together is as sure as our hope that spring will follow a seemingly endless winter. Spring is a sure thing. So is heaven for those who’ve pinned all their hopes on the One who died so we could go there. As much as I love Karen, she is now with the One who loves her the most.

This amazing Jesus has got my Karen. And He’s got me. I can tell you that by the peace that has lasted across the years now. That peace, along with that certain hope of a forever spring after this cold winter, is a powerful counterbalance on that scale that is so weighed down by grief. Through all my darkest hours, through my loneliest moments, the peace has never been shaken.

Oh, this Jesus I’ve talked about, that I’ve written about, I’ve believed in all these years has come closer and become more real to me than ever before. He promised He would be, as the Bible says, “close to the brokenhearted” (Psalm 34:18). He really, really is. When you walk through the valley of the shadow, you’ve got to have Jesus to go there. And when you walk across that final frontier beyond our death, you’ve got to know you belong to Jesus.

If you’re not sure of that, would you please make this the day you get that settled? Tell Him, “Jesus, what you died for was me. I am yours. You’re alive! I want you to live in me.” Check out our website – you can find there how to be sure you belong to Him. That website is ANewStory.com.

Look, I’m in the biggest storm of my life – the Cat 5 hurricane, the EF-5 tornado. Jesus is my safe room. Is He yours? He’s stronger than the storm. The Bible says, “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure” (Hebrews 6:19).

And my friend, The Anchor holds.

Feeling Entitled?

“Since we have planted spiritual seed among you, aren’t we entitled to a harvest of physical food and drink? If you support others who preach to you, shouldn’t we have an even greater right to be supported? But we have never used this right. We would rather put up with anything than be an obstacle to the Good News about Christ.” (1 Corinthians 9:11-12 NLT)

In these verses Paul explains to the Corinthian believers that he had the same right to receive their support as the others who preached to and taught them, but he was also quick to let them know, though he was entitled to their support, he’d rather trust the Lord than be beholden to them.

Paul can be admired and commended for his stance, but the plot thickens because we’re too often tempted to believe because other humans are in our “debt” for our service or kindness, so is God, but that’s never the case. Jesus was God’s perfect Son, but never did He approach God with the attitude: “You owe Me!”

If ever He could have played that proverbial “card” it would have been in the garden prior to His betrayal, but even then, His concern wasn’t to get His way, but to follow God’s. We must learn from Christ’s attitude the humble posture that helps us understand the Lord is NEVER under obligation to give us anything. Yes, of course, He wants to make His riches available to us, but as His gift, not to be bartered by our goodness.

Thom Rainer helps us see this more clearly when he writes: “Anyone who believes they are entitled to something from God, know the adversary has put that thought in you, not the Holy Spirit.” Entitlement is a very slippery slope. When we begin to believe God owes us anything, there are only two places that can end – anger and disillusionment with God or, ideally and hopefully, the realization that God is a great and good giver, but His gifts are always given by grace – always free and undeserved.

So, how do we deal with friends, relatives, and others we’re seeking to reach for the Lord, but their minds are blocked because they see themselves as good and deserving, expecting God to reward them for their goodness? The first place to begin is in prayer. The Lord knows everything about everything, including every thought of every person.

He understands clearly why they believe as they do, but He’s not rattled or disturbed. He will give us wisdom to address how they perceive themselves. They obviously were taught, perhaps as a child, they are good and deserving of good things in their lives. Which is positive and right, but when it creates in us the expectation that for any reason God owes us, it creates in us a barrier to His grace that can only be dismantled through believing prayer.

While it’s not an often quoted or preached text, I love Luke 17:7-9 where Jesus says: “When a servant comes in from plowing or taking care of sheep, does his master say, ‘Come in and eat with me’? No, he says, ‘Prepare my meal, put on your apron and serve me while I eat, Then you can eat later.’ And does the master thank the servant for doing what he was told to do? Of course not. In the same way, when you obey Me you should say, ‘We are unworthy servants who have simply done our duty.’”

Children of the wealthy may feel entitled, but it’s never for those of us who know, love, and serve the Creator, Owner, Sustainer, and Ruler of the universe. We owe Him everything, including our own souls. He is the One who is entitled to everything from us, never the other way around.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

The Significance and Incredible Legacy of Nicaea

By: John Stonestreet and Dr. Glenn Sunshine

*Please read this informative and timely message from The Colson Center. It helps us clarify why right Theology is so vital in our understanding, not only of the times in which we live, but how to order our lives around a right understanding of and focus on God’s Word. Blessings, Ed 😊

In May, 1,700 years ago, was one of the most significant and consequential events in all of Church history. Across the Bosporus Straight from Constantinople, in Nicaea, a Council met to settle a question plaguing the Church: Who, precisely, is Jesus? Their work shaped the future of Christian theology.

In the first few centuries after Christ’s resurrection, Jesus was understood in a variety of ways. Only the Gnostics doubted His humanity, arguing that Jesus was a purely spiritual being who only seemed human.

Others suggested that Jesus was an angel or archangel, or specifically the Angel of the Lord mentioned in the Old Testament. By the third century, the church accepted the deity of Christ while seeing him as subordinate in some way to the Father. In 318 or 319, the nature of that subordination was the source of controversy between Arius, a priest in Alexandria, and Alexander I, the patriarch of Alexandria.

Alexander argued that Christ was eternally begotten of the Father’s substance and thus equal to the Father and without a beginning. Arius countered, “If the Father begat the Son, then he who was begotten had a beginning in existence, and from this it follows there was a time when the Son was not.”

According to Arius, the Son was not eternally begotten of the Father. Rather, He was made from nothing and thus not equal to the Father. Jesus, Arius taught, was the first created being through whom everything else was made.

The quarrel between Arius and Alexander became a heated controversy across the Church, with incredible implications for theology and worship. In Rome, the task of mediating religious conflicts fell to the emperor. To settle this weighty matter, Emperor Constantine I called the bishops to Nicaea in 325.

The Council sided with the position that reflected the longstanding understanding of the Church and Holy Scripture. Alexander’s position aligned with passages such as John 1:1, “the Word was God,” as well as Jesus’ claims in John 10, that “I and the Father are one,” and John 14:9, that “whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

Thus The Council chose the word homoousios to describe who Jesus is in relationship with the Father and to emphasize His deity. Though they are of the same substance, the Council clarified that, as begotten of the Father, Jesus is not the same as the Father. The creed produced by the Council, which is recited in churches around the world to this day, described Christ as “begotten, not made, of one being (or of one substance) with the Father.”

The Nicaean Creed is among the most consequential documents in Church history. It remains the articulation of orthodox Christology, though Arianism did not die out until the sixth century. The Council’s decisions also made significant contributions to theological clarity about the Trinity, another perplexity the Church had to define. Later councils would reflect on and refine the statements out of Nicaea. The First Council of Constantinople strengthened its statements on the Holy Spirit, and the Council of Chalcedon further worked out the relationship of the human and divine natures of Christ, united in a single person.

While the doctrines articulated by these Councils are complex and nuanced, they have played the essential role of affirming and clarifying the many biblical claims about God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This clarity is just as important today because of the various groups and individuals who claim to be Christians but hold unorthodox and heretical views about Jesus. The Jehovah’s Witnesses embrace a form of Arianism, claiming Christ is the Archangel Michael and the first created being. Mormons reject the eternal generation of the Son and see Christ as one of many children of the Father, including Satan.

In fact, Arianism remains alive and well among evangelicals. In 2022, a survey conducted by Ligonier Ministries and Lifeway Research found that 73% of evangelicals agreed with the statement, “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.” This widespread ignorance (and even outright rejection) of Church history and the Creeds among many Christians, and the lack of interest in theological seriousness and formation among many churches, has consequences.

Thank God for Nicaea and for the courage and insight He gave those leaders to clarify the nature and work of Christ. What was accomplished by the Council continues to be of great importance for the Church. May we be as committed to knowing and teaching good theology in our churches today as they were then.

Where Faith Begins

“Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good reputation.” (Hebrews 11:1-2 NLT)

How do you define faith? Think about that for a few minutes. To me faith is ______________! What did you come up with? It’s interesting to me that the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines faith as “allegiance to duty or a person; loyalty; belief and trust in God; confidence; a system of religious beliefs.”

While some of those definitions help in a broad sense, to me they fail to grasp the significance of personal trust, dependence, reliance, that conveys absolute confidence in a personal, intimate Friend. My faith in my wife goes much deeper than mere confidence that she will remain faithful to me, in terms of our exclusive love relationship.

Faith, in my understanding, defines the perimeters of our whole relationship, whether it’s with a spouse, friend, employer, or God. Faith determines our level of confidence, not only in the person with whom we have a relationship, but in our own ability to carry out our part in that relationship. For example. Let’s say I’m building a friendship with a new neighbor.

They’ve just moved in so we know very little if anything about them. Since we’ve developed no trust, can we immediately share with them personal information about our finances, our health, or any other personal information that could be misconstrued? Personally, I’m very reserved with sharing detailed information about myself with almost anyone, especially a stranger. But the point is, faith will guide the development of any relationship.

When it comes to the Lord, how does faith help us? Faith has to do with belief. What I believe about anyone is going to have a bearing on how I relate to them and whether or not I even want a relationship with them. If someone lies to me or speaks negatively about me behind my back, I’m very likely not going to pursue a relationship with them.

Similarly, because God has a proven track record of faithfulness, kindness, generosity, love, and goodness, my heart should be inclined to open to His authority and leadership in my life. George Muller gives us insight when he writes: “Faith begins where man’s power ends.”

In my mind a huge element in building our faith in God is trust. Geoge Muller’s trust was so great that as a caregiver for many orphans, he would have them sit down for a meal with nothing to give them to eat, except his absolute confidence that God would provide. Inevitably there would be a knock on his door and a baker, dairyman, grocer, or friend would be there to provide more than enough to feed the hungry kids.

When we learn to have that kind of unwavering confidence in our Savior, we’ll finally understand the real basis of what faith is and we’ll find that many of the things with which we wrestle in the energy of the flesh will be evaporated in the power of the Spirit through our unflinching faith, our undeniable confidence in the unwavering trust we have in our perfect Savior.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Regret

“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10 NLT)

One of the strongest enemies of my heart is regret. “If onlys” flood my mind at times and seek to rob me of joy, contentment and satisfaction in my walk with the Lord. Yes, of course, we’ve all failed to be all we could be for the Lord, and the truth is, if we’d known when we first started what we now know, we’d still have messed up. It’s part of the deal. Failure isn’t the problem, it’s that we fail to learn from our failure and move beyond it.

Satan finds our weakness and he just keeps hammering us. We sin, collapse in failure and regret, repent, promise God we’re done with that, then two hours or two days later we do the same thing. But why? The issue of sin is our mind. What we think about comes about. If we’re focused on that sin that we strongly hate and soooooooo want to avoid, guess what? We’re NOT going to avoid it. Why not? Because it’s all we think about.

Photo by Juan Pablo Serrano on Pexels.com

We’ve got to give something else priority in our mind, but what? It’s interesting that the disciples never asked the Lord to teach them to preach, to effectively communicate God’s Truth like Jesus was so able to do. They asked Him to teach them to pray. Which, of course, begs the question: What is prayer?

Prayer, as I have learned to understand it, is disciplining my mind to think God’s thoughts. What does that mean? Where do we find God’s thoughts? In God’s Word, the Bible. We must learn to read, ponder, and apply God’s words. For example. I’m reading the Psalms through again now and I’m seeing things I’ve never seen before. In Psalm 1 it says: “Oh, the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked, or stand around with mockers. But they delight in the law of the Lord, MEDITATING ON IT DAY AND NIGHT. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all they do.”

How would you like to live like that? But how? By following its instruction. Pay attention to who you spend your time with. Delve into God’s Word. Ponder it, Think about it. Begin setting aside 15-20 minutes a day and let it grow from there. Have a pen and paper available and take notes. Memorize key verses by putting them on small cards with the verse written on one side and the reference on the other. Fill you mind with God’s words so you can draw from them when you’re tempted.

It’s also helpful to sing godly songs. Sometimes just remembering the titles can thrill me. I’m old, so older songs come to mind, like “We Shall Behold Me” always grips my heart. There are many others, but that’s not the point, remember songs that will thrill your heart and turn your mind to Jesus and what He’s done for you.

Take a phrase from Scripture like “I will never leave you.” Think about what that means, not only in the literal sense, but how it applies to you in this season of your life. Jesus will never leave you… in your temptation, in your pain, in your quest to learn, in your efforts to witness for Him, in whatever direction the Lord leads your mind, grasp it, enjoy it, cherish it and walk faithfully in it.

Keeping our focus on Jesus and all He’s done and is doing in, through, and on our behalf will prevent us from wallowing in shame and regret.

Your mind will grow based on what you feed it.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊

Friendship

“You adulterers! Don’t’ you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.” (James 4:4-6 NLT)

What would you say is the basis of a strong relationship? Think of your five closest friends? Who are they? How did you meet? What do they have in common? What holds you together? How well do you know them? Could you call them at 2:00 a.m. and they’d come running? Who do you go to for counsel? If you have a financial problem, who do you turn to? How about a physical problem? Relational? Emotional? Spiritual?

What comprises friendship with the world? Is Paul here speaking of actual friends or is he referring to the core of how we think? The center of our desires? What motivates, inspires, encourages, and stirs us to action? What is the underlying conviction we hold that determines where we draw the proverbial line?

Is Jesus your friend? How do you know? How do you measure friendship with Jesus? With anyone? Would you lay down your literal life for Jesus? If someone held a gun to your head and said: “Deny Jesus or I’ll blow your head off!” Would you buckle or go to heaven without a head? Why even ask these questions?

Every day we move closer to or further away from the Lord, and a major factor in which way we go is the presence of people with whom we’re most frequently exposed. Family, especially when we’re young, is a major influence on us. Statistically, if a person grows up in a non-Christian environment, according to some studies, only about 6% of adults will ever make a commitment to Christ. 83% come to the Lord between the ages of 4-14 years of age.

Beyond family, close friends are a tremendous influence on us, as children and as adults. We have drinking “buddies,” we go to parties where alcohol, drugs, and sex are available. The only pornographic movie I ever saw was at the invitation of a “friend,” but I had no clue what I was going to see.

We wonder why our commitment to Christ is so lax and ineffective when we very often have no strong ties to anyone who really loves and serves Jesus. Even our friends from church are too often lacking in spiritual disciplines. Too many rarely read God’s Word, pray, or are a part of a Christian men’s or women’s group. Our primary base of “friends” is too often our work or bowling/golfing/drinking buddies or maybe a neighbor.

Here’s the bottom line: to grow in our life in Christ we have to be committed, not only to a growing, Christ-centered church, we’ve got to nurture Christ-centered friendships. We have to have people in our lives who will hold us accountable to develop and keep our spiritual disciplines, where we spend our time and how, and who we’re helping develop in their walk with Christ.

One of the most effective ways to stay close to Christ is to be discipling someone else. Like the Apostle Paul, ask others to follow you as you follow Christ. And I know this can be intimidating, but you don’t need to be a college graduate to lead a first grader, you only need to be a second grader. You don’t need to know everything, just more than they know, assuming, of course, you have someone pouring into you.

Food for thought.

Blessings, Ed 😊