2005-11-11
Good Morning Treasured Readers,
One of the great things about the Scriptures is that they not only discuss theological topics, but they also give us some practical "how-to's" about how to live the life of righteousness to which God has called us. This is beautifully expressed in EPH 4: 13-14, "And so we shall come together in the oneness of our faith and in our knowledge of the Son of God; we shall become mature people, reaching to the very height of Christ's full stature. Then we shall no longer be children, carried by the waves and blown about by the shifting wind of the teaching of deceitful people, who lead others into error by the tricks they invent." MT 6 takes us some very important topics in our lives, ones that mattered enough to Christ that He discussed them in this part of His Sermon on the Mount.
These topics are: charity-keeping private what and when we donate to worthy causes [MT 6: 2, 3b-4]; prayer-never use meaningless words [MT 6: 6-7], the Lord's Prayer [MT 6: 9-13], learn to forgive others as God forgave us [MT 6: 14-15; fasting-fast privately without hypocrisy, and God will reward you for this [MT 6: 16-18]; riches in heaven [MT 6: 19-21]; the light of the Body, having "sound eyes" [MT 6: 22-23]; God and possessions [MT 6: 23-24], God and money (mammon) [24], trusting God [26-27], God will provide, so don't worry [28-33]. We're going to take our time over these topics and get a chance to see not only what God wants us to do, but how He works in our lives. As a feature of these discussions, we now begin a new segment called "Making God-pleasing Changes."
The fact is that we were created to bring God pleasure, pleasure He richly deserves from us. IS 43: 7 tells us this. "They are My own people, and I created them to bring me glory." We know that Christ is the second personality of God, so we were created to give Him glory. God makes sure that we understand that by repeating it through Paul in his letter to the Ephesians. EPH 1: 4-5, "Even before the world was made, God had already chosen us to be His through our union with Christ, so that we would be holy and without fault before Him." If our God were anything other than what He is and Who He is, we might resent being created for His pleasure. But He is the God Who has brought all goodness into the world. Look at PS 31: 19, "How wonderful are the good things You keep for those who honor You! Everyone knows how good You are, how securely You protect those who trust You." PS 57: 2 expresses how true believers feel. "I will cry to the God of heaven Who does such wonders for me." Long ago when the Israelites were mostly farmers, the Psalmist wrote, in PS 85: 12-13, "Yes, the Lord will give what is good; and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before Him, and shall make his footsteps our pathway." What could be greater for reducing the darkness that Satan brought into this world than God's word? This is expressed in PS 119: 105, "Your word is a lamp unto my feet, a light for my path."
So, God brings goodness into this world, and the best of it is His very own second personality, Christ Himself. When God saw all the darkness Satan had brought upon us, it was already in His pre-creation plan that His Son would be the Source of salvation for mankind. I never have to apologize for my frequent references to JN 3: 16 and never tire of its beautiful and comforting words. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life." No greater love has ever been shown than that! As a true believer, I can see only reasons to honor God and none to defy or reject Him. Nor can we as true believers really take our direction from another source. 2 COR 5: 8-9 gives Paul's God-directed slant on living by faith. "We are full of courage and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and be at home with the Lord. More than anything else, however, we want to please Him, whether in our home or there." Truthfully, I think it will be easier for us to please Him there in heaven, but it is His will that we are "tent-dwellers" here on earth for however long He dictates. He knows what is in our best eternal interests, the same as he knows how many hairs there are on our heads. The best approach for is to trust in Him and allow Him, through the Holy Spirit, to direct our lives. All of this gives us the foundation for the words that Christ shares with us in MT 6, a reason to listen to them and make them a part of our lives. God wants us to seek approval from Him and not from other people. This is reflected in, RO 2: 28-29 and GA 1: 10. "After all, who is a real Jew, truly circumcised? It is not the man who is a Jew on the outside, whose circumcision is a physical thing. Rather, the real Jew is a person who is a Jew on the inside, that is, whose heart has been circumcised, and this is the work of God's Spirit, not of the written Law. Such a person receives his praise from God, not from man... Does this sound as if I'm trying to win man's approval? No indeed! What I want is God's approval! Am I trying to be popular with men? If I were still trying to do so, I would not be a servant of Christ." The truth is that God is choosing with our participation whether we will be in with the sheep or the goats [MT 25: 32]. We must decide whether we will listen and act on Christ's words or not. If we haven't made up our minds until now, there is no time like the present. We must remember that Christ will come "like a thief in the night" [1 THESS 5: 2] when we least expect it. I, for one, don't want to be like those virgins invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb who didn't fill their lamps with oil [MT 25: 1-13] and were caught unprepared.
PRAYER: O Most Heavenly Father, we are blessed every day by the faith You have given us, the faith that leads us to listen carefully to Christ's words and obey His commands. There are still those who reject Him out of their cultural heritage or because Satan has established a stronghold in their lives. I pray that each person reading this message will learn to look for opportunities to share the life-giving message of salvation and peace along with his love for You and Your beloved Son. Furthermore, I pray that he will not hold back due to fear of rejection or for any other reason in taking advantage of those opportunities to share God's love with others. We make one more request: one that matters greatly to us. We ask You to provide hearts willing to listen to this message, ones open to the Holy Spirit. We acknowledge that we need to heed Christ's words in our own lives, to demonstrate the peace that You give us, to respect the needs of those around us, and to understand that the Holy Spirit actually delivers faith to people's lives. We are only helpers in this process. Dearest Abba, we thank you in Christ's holy name for all the direction that You give us and for making our lives bearable in such a cruel and evil world. How can we not think of how You protected David when Saul was persecuting and pursuing him [1 SAM 21,for example]? You are our Jehovah Nissi [The Lord is my Banner], which means You go into battle with us leading us against the adversary to victory in Christ's name. We offer You our love, praise, worship, and thanks for all You are. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
Next week, I will begin discussing the issue of almsgiving [charity]. This has always been a touchy subject, especially in our materialistic society. However, we must remember that Christ's Sermon on the Mount was words meant not only for His time on earth, but for all time. In the meanwhile, we can eagerly await what the Lord has in store for those who endure in their faith in Him. 1 COR 2: 9 peaks our curiosity. "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him." We are given perspective on this in 2 COR 4: 18, "So we do not look at the trouble we can see right now; rather we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever." If we look back in mankind's history, we can see that God keeps every promise He makes. He does this in His own time, and we must wait patiently for that, all the while listening and obeying God's commands. We must be at work uncovering any sin still in our lives, knowing that God is there to help us in this task and to lead us to the Day of the Lord, that Day when He will bring us to our permanent home with Him. Mature believers know that God is with them every minute of every day. They worship Him by how they lead their lives. Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, tells us that worship takes many forms. It's not just coming together in a church to attend a service (although that's a part of it). We worship Him by our service to others, by our willingness to share the treasure of His words, and by the moral and ethical choices we make in our lives. Everyday, each of us is surrounded by His love, which is greater than any other found from any other source.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn