Lord, hear our prayer:
Lord, we praise you for your greatness which gives us courage and your mercy which fills us with hope; for your truth which enlarges our understanding of you and your purposes, and for your glory which enriches our worship. We praise you that when we feel lost, uncertain and afraid your mighty presence shows us the way and when we are empty you supply joy, courage and life in abundance. We praise you, our Creator, Sustainer and Lord.
Amen.
Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.
“Your faith has saved you.” – Luke 7:50.
Whosoever will go to heaven must have a faith of his own. In Gideon’s camp, every soldier had his own pitcher; among Solomon’s men of valor, every one wore his own sword: and these were they that got the victories. The five wise virgins had every one oil in her lamp; and only these went in with the bridegroom. Another’s eating of dainty meat makes thee none the fatter.
~ T. ADAMS
Thursday October 12, 2023
Genesis 5:24
Enoch walked with God.
The test of a man’s religious life and character is not what he does in the exceptional moments of life, but what he does in the ordinary times, when there is nothing tremendous or exciting on. The worth of a man is revealed in his attitude to ordinary things when he is not before the footlights. (Compare John 1:36). It is a painful business to get through into the stride of God, it means getting your ‘second wind’ spiritually. In learning to walk with God there is always the difficulty of getting into His stride; but when we have got into it, the only characteristic that manifests itself is the life of God. The individual man is lost sight of in his personal union with God, and the stride and the power of God alone are manifested.
It is difficult to get into stride with God, because when we start walking with Him we find He has outstripped us before we have taken three steps. He has different ways of doing things, and we have to be trained and disciplined into His ways. It was said of Jesus-“He shall not fail nor be discouraged,” because He never worked from His own individual standpoint but always from the standpoint of His Father, and we have to learn to do the same. Spiritual truth is learned by atmosphere, not by intellectual reasoning. God’s Spirit alters the atmosphere of our way of looking at things, and things begin to be possible which never were possible before. Getting into the stride of God means nothing less than union with Himself. It takes a long time to get there, but keep at it. Don’t give in because the pain is bad just now, get on with it, and before long you will find you have a new vision and a new purpose.
On the Southern road between Atlanta and Birmingham, an engine of a passenger train jumped the track just before it ran on to a high trestle. The engineer slapped on his emergency brakes and reversed his engine. The engine, with the train, ran out on the trestle. The engine was so neatly balanced that I am told a man could have pushed it off to the gorge below. If it had gone six inches further, it would have gone over and pulled the train with it. It looked like a marvelous providential intervention.
One of the leading officials of the road told me afterwards that he went to the engineer and asked what explanation he could give why the engine did not go over. He replied: “I don’t know whether you are a Christian or not; I am. I never go on a run without committing my train and my life into the hands of God, and when I saw the danger on that occasion I put on the emergency brakes, reversed the engine and turned my face to God and called for help. I believe it was the hand of God that saved us from a most horrible wreck.”
~ James R. Stuart
Gossip kills churches. And gossip is always painful, especially when disguised as concern. A request to “pray for so-and-so because of this thing they did” is not asking for prayer; it’s gossiping. If you know some personal detail about someone’s mishap, don’t share it with everyone—take it to God. Entire leadership structures have been wrongfully destroyed because of rumors starting this way.
Paul warns against rumors when he says, “Do not accept an accusation against an elder except on the evidence of two or three witnesses” (1 Timothy 5:19). How often have we heard something and been so influenced by it that we accuse someone on the basis of that rumor? Hearing something may make it feel factual, but it’s circumstantial at best.
Although Paul is cautious, he has no tolerance for leaders who sin repeatedly, especially those sinning directly against the community. He tells Timothy to “reprove those who sin in the presence of all, in order that the rest also may experience fear” (1 Timothy 5:20). The fear Paul means is a good kind; it keeps people from sinning. It’s not just a fear of getting caught, but an understanding that there are ramifications for the abuse of power or lack of godly conduct.
Paul is not creating a legalistic system here; instead, he is focusing on making people feel what God feels when they sin. They shouldn’t be consumed with guilt, but they should feel enough shame in their actions to realize that they need grace—that they need to step out of a leadership position if they misuse their power. Paul doesn’t demand that these people be cast out of the community. He requires that such leaders be reconciled to the faith community and be made an example so that others don’t do the same.
Paul’s entire framework is based on his assumption that leaders will be godly; he provided details for determining that standard earlier (for example, 1 Timothy 3:1–12). Leaders who fall short must be held accountable. And above all, leaders must be chosen wisely. If they live and conduct themselves in line with God’s work, they will have no need to fear accusations against them.
A reporter in San Bernardino, California arranged for a man to lie in the gutter on a busy street. Hundreds of people passed the man but not one stopped to help him or even show sympathy!
Newspapers across the country a few years ago told how thirty-eight people watched a man stalk a young lady and finally attack her—and none of the spectators even picked up a phone to call the police!
A couple of teenagers in Detroit discovered a woman in a telephone booth who had suffered a heart attack. They carried her to a nearby house and rang the bell, asking for help. The only reply they received was, “Get off my porch—and take her with you!”
A Kentucky doctor was driving down the highway to visit a patient when he saw an accident take place. He stopped and gave aid to the injured and then made his visit. One of the drivers he helped sued him!
Is it possible to be a “Good Samaritan” today? Must everybody harden his heart in order to protect himself? Perhaps “sacrifice and service” are ancient virtues that somehow do not fit into our so-called modern civilization. It is worth noting that even in Paul’s day mutual concern was not a popular virtue. The Christians at Rome were not too interested in the problems at Philippi; Paul could not find one person among them willing to go to Philippi (Philippians 2:19–21). Times have not changed too much.
In this paragraph, Paul is still discussing the submissive mind. He has given us a description of the submissive mind in the example of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:1–11). He has explained the dynamics of the submissive mind in his own experience (Philippians 2:12–18). Now he introduces us to two of his helpers in the ministry, Timothy and Epaphroditus, and he does this for a reason. He knows that his readers will be prone to say, “It is impossible for us to follow such examples as Christ and Paul! After all, Jesus is the very Son of God, and Paul is a chosen apostle who has had great spiritual experiences!” For this reason, Paul introduces us to two “ordinary saints,” men who were not apostles or spectacular miracle workers. He wants us to know that the submissive mind is not a luxury enjoyed by a chosen few; it is a necessity for Christian joy, and an opportunity for all believers.
Please read Philippians 2:19-24 for background to this section.
Paul probably met Timothy on his first missionary journey, at which time, perhaps, the youth had been converted. Apparently, Timothy’s mother and grandmother had been converted first (2 Timothy 1:3–5). He was the son of a Jewish mother and Gentile father, but Paul always considered the young man his own “beloved son” in the faith (2 Timothy 1:2). When Paul returned to Derbe and Lystra while on his second journey, he enlisted young Timothy as one of his fellow laborers (Acts 16:1–4). In one sense, Timothy replaced John Mark, whom Paul had refused to take along on the journey because of Mark’s previous abandonment of the cause (Acts 13:13; 15:36–41).
In Timothy’s experience, we learn that the submissive mind is not something that suddenly, automatically appears in the life of the believer. Timothy had to develop and cultivate the “mind of Christ.” It was not natural for him to be a servant; but, as he walked with the Lord and worked with Paul, he became the kind of servant that Paul could trust and God could bless.
Lord, hear our prayer:
Father, most holy Lord, Christ comes with his light to deal with our darkness and he comes with his strength to embrace our weakness. He comes with his love to transform our commitment and he comes with his mercy to heal our wounds. He comes with his holiness and with his sovereignty, he comes with his joy and with his glory and empowers us to worship you in Spirit and in truth. Father, receive our praises, for we bring them in the name of Christ Jesus, our Lord.
Amen.
Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.
He [Jesus] . . . continued all night in prayer to God. – Luke 6:12.
We never read that Joshua’s hand was weary with wielding the sword, but Moses’ hand was weary with holding the rod. The more spiritual the duty, the more apt we are to tire of it. We could stand and preach all day; but we could not pray all day. We could go forth to seek the sick all day, but we could not be in our closets all day one half so easily. To spend a night with God in prayer would be far more difficult than to spend a night with man in preaching. Oh! take care, take care, Church of Christ, that thou dost not cease thy prayers!
~ C. H. SPURGEON
Wednesday October 11, 2023
Romans 8:27
He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He
makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
The Holy Spirit becomes to the consecrated heart the Spirit of intercession. We have two Advocates. We have an Advocate with the Father, who prays for us at God’s right hand; but the Holy Spirit is the Advocate within, who prays in us, inspiring our petitions and presenting them, through Christ, to God.
We need this Advocate. We know not what to pray for, and we know not how to pray as we ought, but He breathes in the holy heart the desires that we may not always understand, the groanings which we could not utter.
But God understands, and He, with a loving Father’s heart, is always searching our hearts to find the Spirit’s prayer, and to answer it. He finds many a prayer there that we have not discovered, and answers many a cry that we never understood. And when we reach our home and read the records of life, we shall better know and appreciate the infinite love of that Divine Friend, who has watched within as the Spirit of prayer, and breathed out our every need to the heart of God.
A sergeant-major, converted some time ago in a Salvation Army hut while on duty in the Middle East, had charge of the locomotive which ran between Cairo and Haifa. After his conversion he made it a practice, before starting on each journey, to pray for the safety of the train and of his passengers. On one journey the engine suddenly stopped, for no apparent reason. A civil engineer on the train, as well as the engine staff tried in vain to discover the cause of the breakdown which took place at 3 o’clock on a wet morning.
As dawn approached, two workmen came running further down the line with the news that a rainstorm had made a hole in the permanent way large enough to engulf the whole train had it proceeded. “What luck!” the passengers said. But the driver quietly gave his witness and spoke of the prayer he offered for their safety every time he took his place on the foot-plate.
Strangely enough, as it seemed to the passengers, the engine started without a hitch when the track had been repaired after a fourteen-hour holdup.
~ Alliance Weekly
Some things in the Bible are downright surprising, including several passages in Paul’s letters. Sometimes his words are so personal or they’re addressed to such a specific person our group, that it’s hard to understand why that particular passage is there. But God uses people to do His work, and whatever they show or teach us sets a precedent—like how to deal with difficult people, or how to best help the poor.
Some sections of Paul’s letters are rarely read aloud in church; we simply can’t figure out how to apply them. What application can you draw from a long list of people, or from the very specific details of how to evaluate a widow in need in your community (1 Timothy 5)? What if there are no widows in your community? Do you just move on?
1 Timothy 5:10–17 sets a good precedent for us as Christians, and it can serve as a standard for applying other passages. We don’t know precisely why Paul told Timothy not to help widows “less than sixty years of age,” but we do know that he was setting criteria for evaluating and helping the poor (1 Timothy 5:9). Other than children and previously freed slaves, widows were the most impoverished members of society in biblical times.
Paul provides further criteria that would prevent a handout-based culture, and would also require a widow to have truly been transformed by Jesus’ teachings (1 Timothy 5:10). Helping the poor isn’t enough—they need spiritual help, too. Paul also cautions against those who abuse the system (1 Timothy 5:11–13), acknowledging that it can actually cause more harm than good when the church helps them.
As the Church, we want to help. But there have been times when we have done more harm than good—both locally and globally, particularly in the developing world—by failing to understanding the power struggles at play in any given situation. This should not stop us from helping; instead, it should encourage us to be both fiscally wise and culturally educated before providing funds. Understanding what people are really going through and how to truly help them is nearly as important as giving.
Scripture References: Genesis 4:12-24
From last lesson: It is sometimes, though not always, possible to escape some of the consequences of sin: we can change our attitude and possibly our lifestyle so as to lessen the depths of our life that is exposed to others, or we can accustom and harden ourselves to a very second-rate kind of life.
We can teach ourselves to share no remorse, to salve the quickening conscience until it stings us no more. We can teach ourselves to live without much love in our homes or in our connections with those outside; we can learn to be satisfied if we can pay our way and make the time pass and be outwardly like other people; we can build a little empire we can claim as our own, and be content to be on only very friendly terms with only the select few inside our circle, and we can actually be quite satisfied if we can defend ourselves against the rest of mankind.
We can certainly forget the great commandment, that we should love one another. We can always find much in the world to comfort, to lull, to soothe sorrowful but wholesome remembrances; much to aid us in an easy treatment of the curse; we can embrace much to shed superficial brightness on a life darkened and debased by sin, much to hush up the sad echoes that whisper from the darkness of vanity we have left behind us, much that assures us we have nothing to do but forget our old sins and busily occupy ourselves with new duties. It becomes easier and easier in the light of making ourselves busy, to dull the pain, lull the sting of a guilty conscience.
Cain’s true legacy is actually one of no remorse, of ignored guilt and justification in the face of any accusations, especially that of God and His Holy Spirit. One of the Holy Spirit’s manifestations is to convict us. Not like guilt does, with stinging and sharpness, not in sentencing us to judgment, for that is for Jesus one day, but rather the conviction the Holy Spirit applies, is convincing, convincing us of our sin, of our weakness and of our inability to save ourselves aside from Jesus Christ. He convinces us in a firm but loving way that we need Jesus. The Holy Spirit worked outwardly under the Old Covenant. Today, He works within us under the New Covenant. You can sear and harden your conscience, but you cannot quiet the Spirit’s still-small voice. To do so, is to reject Him and the truth and liberty He desires to lead us into. I’m sure Cain could have repented and been reconciled to God, but his sin, his legacy, is the outright rejection of God and His redemption.
So, in closing, let it be said that no man of true spiritual discernment and no man such as the likes of David would ever say, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgotten;” but rather, the spiritual heart would cry out, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered . . . to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit” (Psalm 32:1-2).
By all means we can all make a fresh start, a new beginning, but let it be in our own broken heart, in a spirit humility and contriteness, with remorse, repenting of our wrong deeds and frankly acknowledging our guilt and finding rest and settlement for our soul in reconciliation with God. God is willing, for He truly desires that none should perish! (2 Peter 3:9).
O LORD, God, may you be praised forever and ever! Yours, O LORD, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O LORD, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things. Wealth and honor come from you alone, for you rule over everything. Power and might are in your hand, and at your discretion people are made great and given strength.
O God, we thank you and praise your glorious name! But who am I, and who are my people, that we could give anything worthwhile to you? Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us! We are here for only a moment, visitors and strangers in the land. Our days on earth are like a passing shadow, gone so soon without a trace.
O LORD our God, we know, that you examine our hearts and rejoice when you find integrity there. You know when have done all with good motives, and you know when your people offer their gifts and services willingly and joyously. O Lord, see to it that our love for you never changes. Give us, your children, the wholehearted desire to obey all your commands, laws, and decrees, and to do everything for your glory, with joy and thanksgiving.
All you people, give praise to the Lord, your God! Amen!
Taken from parts of 1 Chronicles 29:10-20.
Lord, hear our prayer:
Lord, we praise you not simply for Jesus’ example of true humanity, but also for the way he enables us to be the people he meant us to be. We praise you not only because he is Son of God, but also because he has made it possible for us to become your children. Father, we praise you that Christ still breaks into our hearts to make them new and enters our lives to make them whole. In Jesus we give you glory and praise.
Amen.
Thinking, praying, reading, studying the Bible – when we do these things, we are reflecting on the Word of God. To reflect is to contemplate and/or consider, and God wants us to deeply reflect on His Word so that we can better understand Him.
Then He got into one of the boats, which was Simon’s. – Luke 5:3.
Do you envy this fisherman who lent his boat to Jesus? He offers us the same honor; He begs us to do Him the same favor; He comes to each of us and asks us to let Him have our daily occupation as His preaching place—the office and workshop, the counter, the desk, the mother’s work in the home, the servant’s work in the house—this is the pulpit He seeks. Will you let Him have it to-day?
~ MARK GUY PEARSE
Tuesday October 10, 2023
2 Corinthians 13:5
Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.
Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—
unless indeed you are disqualified.
“Examine:” that is a scholastic idea. A boy has been to school a certain time, and his master puts him through his paces—questions him, to see whether he has made any progress,—whether he knows anything. Christian, catechize your heart; question it, to see whether it has been growing in grace; question it, to see if it knows anything of vital godliness or not. Examine it: pass your heart through a stern examination as to what it does know and what it does not know, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. Again: it is a military idea. “Examine yourselves,” or renew yourselves. Go through the rank and file of your actions, and examine all your motives. Just as the captain on review-day is not content with merely surveying the men from a distance, but must look at all their equipment, so look well to yourselves; examine yourselves with the most scrupulous care. And once again, this is a legal idea. “Examine yourselves.” You have seen the witness in the box, when the lawyer has been examining him, or, as we have it, cross-examining him. Now, mark: never was there a rogue less trustworthy or more deceitful than your own heart, and as when you are cross-examining a dishonest person—you set traps for him to try and find him out in a lie, so do with your own heart. Question it backward and forward, this way and that way; for if there be a loophole for escape, if there be any pretense for self-deception, rest assured your treacherous heart will be ready enough to avail itself of it. And yet once more: this is a traveler’s idea. I find in the original Greek, it has this meaning: “Go right through yourselves.”
Newscaster Paul Harvey told radio listeners the following remarkable story from World War II:
From the island of Guam one of our mighty bombers took off for Kokura, Japan, with another deadly cargo. The sleek B-29 turned and circled above the cloud that covered the target for half an hour, three-quarters of an hour, 55 minutes, until the gas supply reached the danger point. It seemed a shame to be right over the primary target and then have to pass it up, but there was no choice. With one more look back, the crew headed for the secondary target. Upon arrival, they found the sky clear. “Bombs away!”—the B-29 headed for home.
Weeks later, an officer received information from military intelligence that chilled his heart. Thousands of Allied prisoners of war, the biggest concentration of Americans in enemy hands, had been moved to Kokura a week before the suspended bombing!
“Thank God,” breathed the officer, “thank God for that cloud.”
The city which was hidden from the bomber was a prison camp and thousands of Americans are now alive who would have died but for that cloud which rolled in from a sunlit sea. The secondary target that day was Nagasaki, and the missile intended for Kokura was the world’s second atomic bomb!
In most Western cultures today, we’ve lost our connection with the elderly. With one grandparent living halfway across the country and the others having died before I was born, I wasn’t around older people until I met my wife and her family. Unlike me, my wife had the privilege of knowing her great-grandparents. She has a strong sense of tradition and respect for the elderly, as well as a deep desire to help them in all aspects of life, and she has been able to teach me to do the same. Paul is dealing with a similar experience in his first letter to Timothy.
Paul says to Timothy, “Do not rebuke an older man, but appeal to him as a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, with all purity. Honor widows who are truly widows” (1 Timothy 5:1–3). By “honor,” Paul means showing a deep sense of concern and an earnest, regular desire to help them financially and with their daily needs. What Paul says is revolutionary for his time. It wasn’t that the elderly were disrespected culturally, but they weren’t sought out as teachers and people to help. Paul commanded not just equality in this scenario, but assistance and compassion. Widows, who were of the lowest rank of society, were to be loved as equals. And older men, at the higher rank, were to be respected for their understanding.
We don’t make these connections as readily in Western society. Instead, we see someone’s need as something to pray for, not to act on. And we see older men’s perspectives as simply “old guard” rather than a legitimate opinion we should take into consideration. Paul doesn’t say older people are always right, just as our fathers are not always right, but he does encourage Timothy to show them the respect they deserve “as a father.” Paul’s outline for honor was as powerful then as it is now.
Scripture References: Genesis 4:12-24
As the freshness of the world’s youthful ways and the beauties of a new world were disclosed to Cain, and by their bright and peaceful friendliness, I’m sure the bitterness of his spirit was allayed to a degree, and as the mysteries and dangers of the new regions excited him and called his thoughts away from the past, some of the old delight in life may have been returned to him. I can imagine that in many of the lonely hours the recollection of his crime would return and with it all the horrors of the guilt which would drive rest and peace from his soul, and I’m sure it render him the most wretched of men. But busied as he was with his new enterprises and explorations, there is little doubt that he would find, as it is still found in this day and age, that it is not impossible to banish such dreary thoughts and to continue to live in the measure of contentment which many enjoy who are as far from God as Cain was. It is amazing how easy it is to relieve guilt by busy-ness.
As we read of his brief history, it’s not difficult to detect the spirit that he must have carried with himself, and the attitude that he gave to his descendants of mankind. The facts recorded about Cain are few but they are significant. He had a son, he built a city; and he gave to both the name Enoch, which means “initiation,” or “beginning,” as if he were making a statement of justification in his heart. I can imagine Cain saying to himself:
“What’s so great the harm after all in cutting short one line from Abel? I can begin another and find a new starting point for the mankind. I am driven out cursed as a vagabond, but a vagabond I don’t have to be; I will make for myself a place in which to settle, and I will fence it round with walls and fortifications so that no one will be able to assault me.”
In this actual settling of Cain, however, we don’t witness any symptom of his ceasing to be a vagabond, but rather, the greatest evidence that now he was becoming content with being a fugitive from God and that he had cut himself off from hope. His heart had found rest and had found it apart from God. In his city he would make a fresh beginning for himself and for mankind. He would put the past squarely behind him, without looking back. Here he abandoned all clinging memories of former things, of his old home, and of the God that was worshipped there. It does appear he had enough sense not to call his city by his own name, and thus to invite men to consider his past or to trace back anything to his old life. He seems to have cut all his past from himself; his crime, as well as his God, and all that was in his past was to be no more to him or to his new comrades. He would make a clean start and so that men might be led to expect a great future he called his city, Enoch, a Beginning.
But it is one thing to forgive ourselves and strive to forget our past, it is quite another thing to have God’s forgiveness. It is one thing to reconcile ourselves to the curse that runs through our life, another thing to be reconciled to God and in so doing, defeat the curse. It is sometimes, though not always, possible to escape some of the consequences of sin: we can change our attitude and possibly our lifestyle so as to lessen the depths of our life that is exposed to others, or we can accustom and harden ourselves to a very second-rate kind of life.
Lord, hear our prayer:
Father, we praise you that our faith is not in a good man who lived and died long ago; nor do we put our trust in one who has simply left us an example of greatness. We praise you that our faith is in Christ, the one who lived, died and was raised again and is with us everywhere. We praise you, not only for his goodness, but for his perfect obedience to your will. In the name of Christ who redeems us completely.
Amen.
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