Philippians 1:22

” But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour: yet what I shall choose I wot not.”

I think I would take Paul’s resume any day.  Consider all that he accomplished in his lifetime.  He was very successful in two careers.

The first was working for the Pharisees.  He studied their laws and became well versed in the Old Testament traditions and values.  He knew the law inside and out.   As the Christian church grew, the Pharisees saw the threat it brought to their control of the people, so they asked Saul (his name at the time) to start prosecuting Christians and bring them in to prison.  He stood over Stephen as they stoned the disciple to death.  Then they sent Him to Damascus to root out Christians and bring them to justice.

But on the way to Damascus, the course of history changed forever.  Paul was confronted by Jesus:

Acts 9:3-9

³ And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:

⁴ And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

⁵ And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

⁶ And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

⁷ And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.

⁸ And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.

⁹ And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

 

Paul’s sight was restored, but now he had a new vision.  He knew the law, and he knew it pointed to Jesus Christ as the Messiah.  He started preaching the gospel and was called to take it not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles, and the church was born through his travels. What an amazing resume.

But Paul looks at this resume as an afterthought.  Heaven is his goal, and he wants to do more and more.  It is not enough.  He must keep going.  And he also knows that he is not the one who will determine when his mission will end.  That is up to God, so he will keep preaching.

 

Lord, help me never to grown complacent with what I have done for you in the past.  Renew my zeal and revive my heart every day.  Give me fresh revelation to write your songs and poems,  that they may be a blessing to those who read them.  Help me to hear your voice when you speak to me.  May I always have a desire to reach one more soul for your kingdom.

When God Laughs

Psalm 2 is intriguing because it contrasts the believer with the heathen,and tells us what God will do with each.  And it sure does turn out good for us!  Let’s read.  1 Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

Boy, do we see this in our society today.  Riots, demonstrations, anti-God sentiments – they abound in our world. And we see the ungodly chasing after worthless things continually.  I think the enemy of our souls wants to keep them busy with these things so they won’t think about their wretched estate.

² The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed, saying,

³ Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us.

I think most who read this blog will acknowledge that Christians are under attack, and our first amendment rights are being swallowed up more and more.  It was prayer in schools first, but it has gotten much worse.  Pastors can’t share their political viewpoint from the pulpit, christian symbols are being removed all over the place, no prayer at commencements –  the list is endless.  The kings are breaking the bands that hold the church together, and casting them from their own lives.

⁴ He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh: the Lord shall have them in derision , and sore displeasure

What a wonderful statement – God laughs at all this.  He is not worried about it like I am/  Truth is He has already given me the answer on how to overcome this onslaught.  2 Chronicles 7:14: If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. 

The trouble is, I don’t want to do it!  I have a strong desire to  be more humble,  I don’t take near enough time to pray and seek His face, and I have turned from most of my wicked ways -m some things just hang onto me still.  How about you?  God  is just waiting for us to do our part.

⁶ Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

⁷ I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.

⁸ Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.

⁹ Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.

These are great promises that God will deliver us from our enemies.  He has put His King in place, and is ready to give us the heathen and break them from any authority over us.

¹⁰ Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.

¹¹ Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

¹² Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

The last admonition in this Psalm is a strong one.  We must be wise and serve the Lord with fear.  Not an afraid fear, but fear as a sign of reverence.  We must put our trust in Him if we expect to be blessed.  After all, He is the one true God, and He is in complete control.

After spending some time reflecting on this Psalm, I realize more than ever that my duty is to do what God has asked, nothing more.  I fall short there.  I know the word, yet I don;t live it as I should.  Lord, I pray you will help me do those things that will bring about a change not just in my life, but in this country, and around the world

“For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”

Here it is in a nutshell.  From Paul’s perspective, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain.  He was not going to change course no matter what anyone said or did to him.  He would proclaim the gospel any way He could, whether that ne travelling to villages, writing letters, or standing in the judgment halls.  He had a mission, and he knew it was true.  There was no reason to back down, or soften the message, or stop proclaiming it.  The was alive, Christ would be magnified.  What’s the worst they could do to him.  Kill him?  Well, then he gains heaven, an even better place.  So he would go on, undeterred by any obstacle, proclaiming the truth of the word without watering it down for anybody.

I see in today’s churches a watered down gospel.  We have taken the whole truth and broken it down so we just give a little truth and think we can get by with that.  Or we leave justice out of the picture and just preach grace.  The gospel of salvation through Christ alone is mentioned little, and instead it’s like Christ just gave His life and saved everyone, so you don’t have to do anything to gain heaven.  Little is said of striving for holiness or a closer walk with God day to day.  And the result is that we are seeing churches in decline and sin growing stronger in our society.

As an evangelist myself, I have to make sure I am not watering down the gospel.  Yes, it is a positive message about a great sacrifice made on our behalf, but it is also a warning to all who do not accept Christ as Savior.  There is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun.  Jesus himself spoke more on hell than heaven, yet today’s church is starting to question if there even is a hell.  The pulpits have become soft, just challenging the people a little but not ruffling. any feathers.  Church members are too easily offended because they have not been hardened by the true meat of the word.

Let’s start preaching the gospel again.  Accept Jesus Christ sacrifice for your sin, and gain heaven.  Reject Him, and you’ll find hell.  And once you do accept Christ, you must follow Him, not go your own way. It’s time to start making real disciples of men.

 

Lord, help me to preach the gospel as you intended it to e preached.  There is a heaven to gain, and a hell to shun.  Help me to never forget to give that altar call for souls to come and be saved.  Help me to give a powerful invitation to the alter.  Help me to use the right words, at the right time, to the right people, so souls will be saved.  And help me to tell those who don’t accept Christ that they are in danger of hell fire.  Then help me be a disciple maker, showing others how to live for you, so that the kingdom of heaven will grow on this earth.

A Stark Contrast

Today we find out what happens to those who do not follow thee Lord.  The last two days we have looked at Psalm 1 and learned how God would desire us to conduct our lives, and the blessing that we would  derive from following those instructions.  And it is not real complicated.  Walk in godly counsel, stay away from associating with sinners as a lifestyle, and don’t nbe negative – live a positive life.  The result will be that you are blessed by the water of the word on a regular basis, and whatever you do, God will prosper it.

The ungodly, or those who do not do what God asks of them, face a life that gives them little hope.  First, David tells us they are like chaff in the wind.  Now I have never separated chaff and wheat, but I understand that it must be done to make the wheat marketable.  The chaff is the waste product, and is not useful.  In ‘David’s day, they would pound the wheat to get the chaff out, and then they would toss the grains  up into a  light breeze and let any remaining chaff blow away.

So there are two things here, neither of which I am interested in being a part of.  First, the chaff is just blowing in the wind.  No solid life, no foundation, no direction.  It goes wherever the wind takes it.  It has no control nor hope for any future.  The second is that it is just waste and not good for anything.   Lord, help me never to fall into that category.

In verse 5 we see David say that these ungodly will not stand  when judgment day comes.  They will fall before the Lord, and that fall will be mighty.  Revalation 20:12-15 bears this out

² And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

¹³ And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

¹⁴ And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

¹⁵ And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

He also writes that these sinners will not stand in the congregation of the righteous.  They will not partake of the blessings of the righteous, and will not at all be treated the same.  Those who think that both sinner and saint are going to be in heaven need to pay close attention to these words   Jesus did die for every soul  on earth – that iis true.  But one must accept the gift of His salvation in a personal way to be saved.  Romans 10:9-10 bears this out:

⁹ That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

¹⁰ For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Lastly, David sums up the psalm very neatly.  God knows the righteous, bu the ungodly shall perish.  What a stark contrast!  As for me, I will follow Christ!

 

 

Well Watered

I live in Iowa, a big farming state.  Through the years, farmers have cleared more and more of the land to increase the amount of corn and soybeans they produce.  As a result Iowa leads the nation every year in both soybean and corn production.  Our farmers take great pride in that fact, and work hard it keep t that way!

One of the results of clearing all that land is hard to miss.  In most places, you can see exactly where the rivers run!  This is because that is where the trees are.  They line up along both sides of the river.  They grow tall and strong because they are well watered by those rivers.

This brings us back to Psalm 1, verse 3.  Yesterday we looked at the Recipe for success in verses 1 and 2.  Today in verse 3, we look at the resulting blessing that coke sour way when we follow through with that recipe.

Psalm 1:3

³ And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

What a wonderful blessing this verse is.  We can know that if we follow God’s direction, given in verses 1 and 2, that this verse will then be applied to our lives.And what do these blessings mean to me?

First, I will bring forth fruit in due season.  I take this two ways.  First, the fruit of the Spirit will be alive and working in my life. We fing these fruit in Galatians 5:22-23:

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

²³ Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

When I live my life full of this fruit, then I will also be fruitful in winning souls to Christ.  This is a double blessing.

Second, My leaf shall not wither.  This is a promise of health and long life in my mind.  I trust Him to heal me from any disease or sickness, and extend my years until He decides to take me home.  There is no fear of death, or an early demise.  he is in control.

Third, everything I do will prosper.  It is up to me to be out there doing something.  I can’t expect God to prosper me if II sit around and do nothing.  And that prosperity might not be seen by me.  I write poetry, and post it on my website and on Facebook.. I have no idea who it touches, and if there are some who are saved or blessed by the words God gives me.  I just make sure I post them.  The word tells me that His word, coming out of my mouth, will not return void (IS 55:11).  Hallelujah!

So my duty is to do verses 1 and 2, and God will take care of verse 3.  Lord, help me every day to get this done!