“Wait’ll You Hear My Plan!”

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“I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps” (Jeremiah 10:23).

George Müller was a 19th century preacher whose dream was to be a missionary to the Jews.  At first, he wanted to preach Jesus to the Jews in Poland. But soon, George became obsessed with the idea of taking the gospel back to the Jews in Israel and ultimately restoring the Lord’s church in Jerusalem.  It was all George could think about. It seemed like a noble plan—a plan that would honor God.

In June 1828 he was offered an appointment by the London Society for promoting Christianity among the Jews.  He went to London in March 1829 to prepare himself for missionary service.

However, George found that some of the London Society’s rules were unacceptable and he left there to preach at a small country church for £55 a year. He married Mary Groves, who gave up a job that paid £1,500 a year to be an unpaid preacher’s wife.

George and Mary adopted a principle for which they are still known today: Trust in God alone, through prayer, is all one needs for all purposes in material as well as in spiritual things.

He would not accept a salary and never appealed to the congregation for funds.  He simply put a wooden box at the door of the sanctuary and told the church to give as they had been blessed. He also made a resolution to never incur debt for any personal or church-related expenses and to never set aside money for the future. 

It became obvious that George’s original dream of doing mission work to the Jews just wasn’t what God had in mind for him. He moved back to Bristol and helped out with a church there, also establishing a Christian school and a Scriptural Knowledge Institution. He also noticed the large number of homeless children—orphans left to fend for themselves—living in the streets. He started with only a few orphan children, but it wasn’t long before Müller’s work grew to immense proportions. 

Soon he was tending to the needs of no less than two thousand orphan children—feeding, clothing, educating, training and caring for them in five enormous houses. The cost of these houses was £115,000, all of which was voluntarily contributed. No direct appeals were ever made for money. The only appeal George made was to God in prayer.

By the time George died in 1898 at the age of 92, it was estimated that he and his wife had cared for more than 10,000 children.  And the schools he helped establish educated more than 120,000 children—many of them orphans.

Now, why do I relate this story to you today? It’s simply to illustrate how sometimes we make plans—maybe grandiose plans—designed to honor God and glorify Him.  And somehow those plans just don’t work out. Maybe it’s a lack of manpower … or a lack of zeal … or maybe someone higher up said ‘no’ to your plan. Maybe the one higher up was God. It just wasn’t His will.

Being told ‘no’ can make us bitter or angry or discouraged or even jealous. Heaven knows I’ve had some things kicked back at me in more than a few elders’ meetings. When we’re told ‘no’, well, that just hurts!

We have lots of examples in the Bible of folks who thought they had a pretty good idea and God shot it down. How many great ideas did the disciples have that Jesus said ‘no’ to?  I think of James and John requesting seats next to Jesus when he came into his kingdom. I think of Peter, who wanted to build three tabernacles at the transfiguration. I think of Paul, who really believed he was going to Spain on a mission trip supported by the church in Rome. These all seemed like great ideas! God-exalting ideas!

But none of them were the will of God.

This week, we will look at a great idea David had.  He was sitting in his palace thinking of how good God had been to him and he wanted to do something good for God. “Here I am sitting in a palace made of fine cedar, constructed by fine craftsmen.  And the Ark of God is sitting outside in a tent!  I’m going to build God a house!”

Great plan! Wonderful intentions! This will exalt and glorify God!

But God said, “No, David. You will not build a house for me.”

How do you think David felt? His BIG IDEA had been shot down.  Did he get angry at God? Did he go off into the corner to pout? Did he get discouraged?

Nope.  He humbled himself … and he prayed. “God, you are the Sovereign Lord. And whatever you say is okay by me.”

We can learn so much from David, can’t we? He is truly a man after God’s own heart. 

Sunday morning, we will look at four considerations as we ask the question: Are our good plans also God’s plans?

Please pray and read 2 Samuel 7 on Sunday morning to prepare your heart for worship.  See you then!

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jeremiah 29:11).

It’s not about me

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No really; it’s not.

It’s not about you either.

In Acts 6:1-7 (please hover over the link and read it again), we find one group of Christians complaining about another group of Christians because the widows of group 1 are being neglected. That was a valid complaint, and it was wise of the apostles to agree that as important as it is to take care of widows — indeed what “pure religion” is (James 1:27) — it’s not what Jesus called them to do (not directly anyway). Thus, they appointed 7 men to perform this ministry.

This brings to mind several questions we can ask about the modern-day church:

  • How many “works of service” are there? (I suggest there are too many to list.)
  • How many of us are true “servants”? I know I have room for growth in this area, and I’m not just talking about visible service to or for other members of the church. I mean any act of kindness, no matter how large or small, for anyone. Jesus Himself said that’s why he came to earth — to serve (Matthew 20:28) and to give his life as a ransom for many.
  • How many times do 1 or 2 or a handful of individuals within a congregation do most of the works of service? Sure, many times others would get involved if they only knew about the need, but it does seem that often much of the work gets done by only a few.
  • Am I observant enough to know when something needs done? Only I can answer that question for me, but you can answer it for you. Do you notice?

It’s not about earning my way into heaven, or somehow tipping the balance so I’ve got more good than bad on the scales. No one’s suggesting that. It’s all about looking out for the needs of others — and caring for them the way Jesus did. After all, it’s not about me. It’s about Him.

Divide and Conquer

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On May 6, 2012 Jim preached a great sermon and I thank him for that. The topic was from Romans 14 and Romans 15:1-7 and was about not judging and thus dividing us. Tonight my mom is sending out invitations to Churches for the Ladies Day and she said there were usually at least 2 Churches in each city.

I know that here we have a Church that meets in the school right next to our building. I counted at least 14 churches in the area around Buda. WHAT HAS HAPPENED? What has happened is people say “WE don’t like this little thing you do, so WE are going to pack up and leave and set up on OUR own.

Awhile ago Patrick Mead did a sermon series called Identity. In it he mentioned a document called the Declaration and Address written by Thomas Campbell. Thomas Campbell started 1 of the 6 streams that formed the particular group that is today the Church of Christ. The Declaration and Address is by no means a creed; it is simply a document describing what we should do to spread the Word. It is in three parts, The Declaration, Address, and Appendix. I am going to share with you a small section of the Address.

“That the Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the Scriptures. That although the Church of Christ upon earth must necessarily exist in particular and distinct societies, locally separate one from another, yet there ought to be no schisms, no uncharitable divisions among them. And for this purpose they ought all to walk by the same rule and to be perfectly joined together in the same mind.”

We are getting away from our roots. The word in the Bible, ekklesia which is translated church actually means community. In Mathew 16:15-18 Jesus said “Go preach the Good News to all creation”, not “Bunker down in a building and fight and squabble over every little thing”. I can just imagine Satan saying, “Hey lets divide them and make them weaker by obsessing them with little pet peeves that annoy them.” It always happens sooner or later. Think of Israel, they remembered the laws, but forgot the savior coming to free them from the endless cycle of the law.

So I have decided to put out my own declaration. That we CANNOT spread the word the best we can if we squabble and fight among ourselves over petty things that just annoy us. We NEED to reach out to the Churches around us and say “Hey lets all join together in Jesus Christ to spread the Word”.

I don’t mean like Dallas (super church) style, I mean that we need to communicate; we need to fellowship with each other. If there is a disagreement then we should call a meeting between the people that think 1 thing and the people that think another. Then look at scripture and decide who is right, or in some cases just say “Scripture doesn’t address this, so it is a matter of opinion.”

As Mr. Jim talked about in his sermon, someone might be clapping and look over and see someone not clapping and think to himself, “Well that’s just a stodgy old geezer.” Maybe that person could be meditating and contemplating the meaning of the song. Then that person might look over at the person who is clapping and think, “Liberal punk.” Maybe that person is just trying to praise God with all his might. We should not say, “Because I don’t like what you do you are automatically a sinner.” It is wrong to press your beliefs on people. So no matter if you don’t like their carpet or their singing. We should fellowship together, we should commune together like the word ekklesia really means. It means community, it means to be together, not separated.

We should talk to the other churches about doing group stuff. Like the upcoming Ladies Day. As I said at the beginning my Mom was sending out invitations to a lot of churches. We need to do more stuff like it. Do more things that we can invite other people and churches to, and not have just our little circle that does stuff. We need to reach out and say, “ENOUGH, ENOUGH hiding away in our little corner, ENOUGH calling people sinners because we don’t like what they do, ENOUGH of all the yelling and the fighting over trivial things that are merely a matter of preference. Enough is enough, time to reach out and say lets make some time when we can do stuff together. Maybe things like, LTC or VBS, or maybe just a group get-together to sing and praise the Lord. We just need to do something. God made us to be in a community, we should not waste it.

Names of God — Jehovah-Tsidkenu

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“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety. This is the name by which he will be called: The LORD Our Righteousness.” (Jeremiah 23:5-6)

You ever feel like if Judgment Day were a test and if your good outweighed your bad, you’d be declared righteous? I think we all have that secret hope to a degree at some point in our Christian maturity, but the fact is there’s no way I’ll ever be righteous on the basis of my own merit. You either. Remember what the apostle Paul wrote to the Romans?

But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:21-24)

Some things worth highlighting in this passage.

  1. Righteousness is “apart from the law” — there is no amount of “good” we can do that will get us into Heaven.
  2. That said though, there is nothing in this passage, or any other, that promotes the idea that there is nothing we “have to do” in order to be saved. Some say you must “ask Jesus into your heart” — that is something you do. Not a meritorious work, but something you do. Others say you must be baptized — that is something you do. Again, not a meritorious work, but something you do. I happen to belong to this second camp, but either way, there is still something we “must do” — not in order to merit salvation, but in order to accept salvation.
  3. “Righteousness…comes through faith…to all who believe.” I don’t have time in this post to fully address this, but I didn’t want to ignore it. Faith is more than mental assent, and always requires obedience. Always has; always will.
  4. “All…fall short of the glory of God.” This pretty well speaks for itself.
  5. “All…are…justified freely by his grace through…Christ Jesus.” Finally, we get to the point of this. No matter how bad a sinner I am, once I turn to Jesus, I am justified by His righteousness, not mine.

That is indeed the point of Jeremiah’s prophecy, and of Paul’s declaration — Jesus is The LORD Our Righteousness. Jehovah-Tsidkenu.

(This concludes our series on Names of God. My prayer is that these articles have glorified Him and encouraged you.)

A Mother of a Blog

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25Strength and dignity are her clothing,
 and she laughs at the time to come.
26 She opens her mouth with wisdom,
 and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
27 She looks well to the ways of her household
 and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and call her blessed;
 her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many women have done excellently,
 but you surpass them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
 but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised (Proverbs 31:25-30).

For the fifth year in a row, my mother is coming to hear her son preach on Mother’s Day. She couldn’t be prouder. After all, it was what she always expected of me. 

I preached my first sermon on a Wednesday night at age 14 in my home town congregation and my mother couldn’t wait to call all the family back in Abilene. And those were the days when no one called long distance unless somebody had died.

I majored in Mass Communications at Abilene Christian, but I’m pretty sure my mom prayed every night that I would change my major to Bible and decide to preach. It took 30 years for me to finally come around. “Oh well,” my mom would say, “better late than never.”

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, some were just downright sinful mistakes. But my mother always believed the best of me. She believed I could do no wrong.

I was talking with one of you (a former school teacher) the other day and something you said has suddenly come back to me. You said, “We’re generally pretty good at judging people’s character—until it comes to our own children.” That’s true, isn’t it? We love our kids. We battle for our kids. And we would die for our kids… no matter what they do.

I ran across this and it’s really true for me. 

“If I Only Was the Fellow”

By Will S. Adkin

While walking down a crowded
City street the other day,
I heard a little urchin
To a comrade turn and say,
“Say, Chimney, lemme tell youse,
I’d be happy as a clam
If I only was de feller dat
Me mudder t’inks I am.

 

“She t’inks I am a wonder,
And she knows her little lad
Could never mix wit’ nuttin’
Dat was ugly, mean or bad.

“Oh, lots o’ times I sit and t’ink
How nice, ‘twould be, gee whiz!
If a feller was de feller
Dat his mudder t’inks he is.”

 

My friend, be yours a life of toil
Or undiluted joy
You can learn a wholesome lesson
From that small, untutored boy.

 

Don’t aim to be an earthly saint,
With eyes fixed on a star:
Just try to be the fellow that
Your mother thinks you are.

I wish I could be who my mom thinks I am. It’s something to shoot for.

Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice (Proverbs 23:25).

To all the mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers and mothers-to-be, Happy Mothers Day!

But What About Him?

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Fish cooking on a campfireQuick question: What was Jesus doing after his resurrection in the time we don’t read about (in John 20 and elsewhere). He appears to women in the garden, then the apostles minus Thomas that same day. Eight days later he appears to them again with Thomas included. He appears to the men on the road and to his apostles on the shore. Paul says that he also appeared to 500 people at the same time. But in the 40 days before his ascension what was he doing? Why was he hopping all around the countryside? Was he here on earth the whole time or did he have other tasks at hand? I have no answers, only questions and not very important ones at that.

Now on to something a bit more important. In John 21, as the apostles sat around the campfire that morning I imagine that they were thinking a lot about the past few weeks (and years). Why had they been following this man? What is their purpose now? What is it that God is asking them to do? I often ask the same questions of myself.

Jesus is beginning to tell them their purpose and God’s will. He had actually been revealing this all along, but maybe it’s finally starting to sink in. He tells Peter what his purpose is to be: “Feed my sheep.” He then told Peter that this wasn’t going to be a cakewalk (you know, walk in a circle to music, stop on a spot, win a cake). Peter doesn’t like something about what Jesus says (imagine that). Perhaps “feeding sheep” wasn’t his idea of fun. Or maybe he understood too well the part about him dying in a not so nice way. And so he does what we often do and deflects the conversation to John. “What about him?” And Jesus does what he often does and refuses to answer the question.

I can relate to this so well. Often one of my boys will react to reminders to do their chores by saying “but he is not doing his chores.” I remind them to let me worry about that, they are to obey. Peter’s job will be to feed sheep. Jesus doesn’t tell Peter what he has in store for John. It is not Peter’s responsibility to make sure John does his job or walks the line. Peter is responsible for Peter. Peter is accountable to Jesus. John is responsible for John. John is accountable to Jesus. Matthew (me, not Levi) is responsible for Matthew. Matthew is accountable to Jesus.

Whenever I look around and see what others are doing or not doing right or wrong and ask “But what about them?” I am not fulfilling my own purpose, my own calling, my own assigned task. Notice how just a little while later (Acts 3), Peter and John are a dynamic duo, upsetting the status quo of the religious elites just as their mentor did? They each had their assignments, their own strengths, and through their common purpose they decided to work together to accomplish that purpose. When I take responsibility for my own calling and work together with others living out their calling, what great things can we accomplish for the kingdom of God? What great things can we not accomplish?

Names of God — Jehovah-Shammah

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And the name of the city from that time on will be: the LORD is there. (Ezekiel 48:35)

The New Jerusalem.

What picture does that create in your mind? Some people picture beauty; some picture happiness and praise; some picture no sorrow or pain. One thing’s for certain though — the LORD will be there, just as Ezekiel prophesied. He is the source of all beauty and all happiness, and deserving of all praise. Naturally then, where these things are eternally, there He is.

What a great day it will be when we see the LORD face to face, and know that He will be there eternally, and us with Him!

What was it though, Jesus promised shortly before he ascended into Heaven?

And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. (Matthew 28:20)

My friends, today is the day “the LORD is there”. He will be there in the New Jerusalem for sure, but He is here today. With us — in our struggles, in our joy, in our failure, in our triumph. Emmanuel. God With Us.

What better assurance can you ask for?

Do They See What God Wants Them To See?

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For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men (Romans 14:17-18).

It seems that our Beacon Ministry is off to a pretty good start. Brother Calvin told us last week that about 50 percent of the houses within a mile of the building have been knocked and people are being invited to “come and see”. 

One sister sent me an email with a really good question, “When they come, what will they see?”

When I was in the radio business, we had a saying: Don’t promote until the product is right. It would be silly to put up billboards, send out a direct mail piece and give away a grand on Thousand Dollar Thursday if we were playing the wrong songs and our disc jockeys talked too much.

We worked hard to be great before we invited people to listen.

How does that apply to churches? What changes should we make to ensure that when people come, they will have an experience that makes them want to come back?

Well, who can argue with the virtues Paul calls the church in Rome to have—righteousness, peace, and joy? These three virtues are not obtained by human effort. Yes, it is necessary to have a passion for these godly qualities, but the source of these qualities is the Holy Spirit who is alive in us.

God’s nature is the source of all righteousness, peace, and joy. And these virtues are made real in us through the indwelling Spirit. As we ask the Spirit to reign in us, our character is transformed to be more like Jesus.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18 says, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. 

Brothers and sisters, we must yearn for the Holy Spirit to transform us to be more like Christ, and trust that the Spirit’s influence will shine in our lives through the virtues of righteousness, peace, and joy.

Jesus says it this way in John 13:35, “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

That’s what God wants people to see when they come–a group of people who are trying to walk in righteousness, who get along with each other and are filled with the joy of the Lord as we lay down our lives for one another in love. Please pray that God will bless us with these virtues. 

Father, don’t let me be distracted by silly things like food or drink. Instead, feed me spiritually and emotionally with the presence of your Holy Spirit within me. Father, I pray that Your righteousness, peace, joy and love will be apparent in my life as I seek to honor Christ and as I yield myself to the power of your Spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me
All His wonderful passion and purity
Oh, Thou Spirit divine, all my nature refine
Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me

It Is Finished!

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tetelestai -- the debt has been paidAt the age of 33, most people are saying about their life, “It is beginning.” There is so much to do… so many places to go… At 33, we have a great many years ahead of us… or do we? For Jesus, at age 33, as He hung on a cross, having paid the price for the world’s sins, He declared, “It is finished!” (John 19:30).

Note, however, that He did not say, “I am finished!” This was not a cry of defeat, but a shout of victory. In the original Greek text, this phrase is one word of ten letters – “Tetelestai” – which literally means: “It is finished, it stands finished, and it always will be finished.” That one word is used for many things:

  1. It was A Word Used By Artists.
    When a painter had completed his work, he would step back and say, “It is finished!” But, isn’t that what Jesus did? Jesus came to give us a full portrayal of what God is like. He was God in the flesh, come to make Himself known to us (John 1:1, 14; Hebrews 1:1-3).
  2. It was A Word Used By Servants.
    A master would tell his servant to go and do something, and when the servant had completed the task, he would come back and say, “I have finished the work that you gave me to do.” Jesus had been sent by the Father to complete a task. He spoke of this in Mark 10:45. He fulfilled His appointed task through His suffering on the cross for our sins. Having suffered for the sins of the world, He could declare, “It is finished.”
  3. It was A Word Used By Merchants.
    To merchants, it referred to the paying of a debt. If you purchased something, the merchant would take your money and then would give you a receipt of payment. The receipt would say, “paid in full.” It is finished!

    As sinners who were in debt to God for an amount we could never pay, we were in need of someone to pay the debt for us. In Christ, God took it upon Himself to pay for us what we owed to Him, thus making it possible for us, through acceptance of the payment He has made on our behalf to receive a full pardon!

No wonder the Bible refers to eternal life as a gift (Romans 6:23; Ephesians 2:8-9)! Because it is a gift, it is free. But also because it is a gift, it must be received. To receive the gift is a choice we make. No one makes it for us.

When Jesus said “It is finished”, His task was complete. He made the payment for our sin. Now it is totally up to us to accept it. Read Romans 6:3-4 and Mark 16:15-16. Read the stories of conversion in the book of Acts. Learn how the early followers accepted the payment Jesus made and go that way yourself. May God help us all to follow the Way of Jesus!

Names of God — Jehovah-Shalom

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22When Gideon realized that it was the angel of the LORD, he exclaimed, “Ah, Sovereign LORD! I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face!” 23But the LORD said to him, “Peace! Do not be afraid. You are not going to die.” 24So Gideon built an altar to the LORD there and called it The LORD is Peace. To this day it stands in Ophrah of the Abiezrites. (Judges 6:22-24)

I think Gideon gets a bad rap from us too often. He tested God not only once, but twice. The nerve! Actually I’m not convinced most of us would have done things any differently. We know where Gideon’s heart was though. When he saw Jesus face-to-face* he was terrified! He knew no one can see God and live (Exodus 33:20). We’re told the LORD calmed his fears and gave him peace.

God can provide the same peace to you that He provided to Gideon. Have you experienced the peace that transcends all understanding (Philippians 4:7)?

What fear can the Lord calm for you today? Why not let him restore your soul (Psalm 23:3)?

*In the Old Testament, the Being known as THE angel of the LORD is understood to be Jesus. See our other post on this subject.