YOU BEFORE ME

The New Testament is full of references to the point that we are to put others ahead of ourselves.  We will look at this principle a little closer in this blog entry.

John the Baptist gave us a good example of this attitude when he realized that Jesus had to be put ahead of himself.  He was asked if he was the Christ, or Elijah, or the Prophet.  His answer in John 1 was "I baptize with water, but there stands One among you whom you do not know.  It is He who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose."

There is a very powerful passage in Romans 12 that reads like this: "For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.  For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another......Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another...."

In Philippians 2, "Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord,  of one mind.  Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.  Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others."

We see the servant attitude throughout the teaching of the NT; Jesus taught us this many times, but certainly with the washing of His apostle's feet.  The Christian must live this attitude to be a true follower of Jesus.

Thank you for reading again.  May God bless you.

Vision Into Heaven

The Bible is amazing in many ways.  I couldn't name all the ways, wouldn't even try.  Certainly it is amazing in that it is the only book ever written that gives all the answers to life: where we came from and where we are going....and why; and who created it all, and sustains it all.  But for sure, the Bible is the only Book ever written that gives a glimpse into heaven.

If we want to see what heaven is really like, the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation does that.  And there are a number of places in the book of Revelation where we could look; but I love the 4th and 5th chapters, and we will center our focus there in this blog.  Remember that the book must be read in an apocalyptic way.  It was not intended to be literal.  There are physical descriptions throughout that are trying to give us some idea of what spiritual looks like.  But heaven is not a physical place.

Chapter 4 centers on God Himself.  There are 4 living creatures around the throne, saying without ever stopping: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."  Then "twenty four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and worship Him who lives for ever and ever.  They lay their crowns before the throne and say: "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for You created all things, and by Your will they were created and have their being."  In this chapter it is all about God; and we see worship going on continually.

Chapter 5 talks about Jesus.  He is described as a "Lamb, looking as if it had been slain..."  And 4 living creatures and 24 elders "sang a new song: 'You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with your blood You purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.  You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.' "

"Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand.  They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.  In a loud voice they sang: ' Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!' "

And when we read all of this, realizing that we are looking right into heaven, looking right into this glorious scene, we must say "Wow!"  No other book gives us this kind of look into heaven, gives us the hope of salvation, a future life with our God.  Wow!

Take the time to read all of chapters 4 and 5 and you will again be amazed.  Thanks for reading.

The Church is the Bride of Christ

There is a great deal in the New Testament about individual commitment, individual responsibility for our actions.  But there is a lot also said about the collective, the church.  The term "church" in the Bible simply means a collective, a group, a congregation.  But in Bible terms it refers to God's group.  For sure, it is not the physical building, but rather the people, the followers of Jesus; and as followers, we are described as His children.

There are many places where the church is described as the bride of Christ.  We see this in Revelation 19 and 21.  There is symbolism given for Christ as the bridegroom and the church as the Bride.  And there is great love between the two.

Ephesians 5:25-27 says:  "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."  The verses following this show the great love that Jesus had for the church, giving up His life for it.  This is powerful symbolism showing the comparison of a groom to his bride like Jesus to the church.

C.S. Lewis, a leading Christian writer in the 20th century, wrote these words in his "Membership" (The weight of Glory): "No Christian and, indeed, no historian could accept the epigram which defines religion as 'what a man does with his solitude.'  It was one of the Wesleys, I think, who said that the New Testament knows nothing of solitary religion.  We are forbidden to neglect the assembling of ourselves together.  Christianity is already institutional in the earliest of its documents.  The church is the Bride of Christ.  We are members of one another."

Thus we see the importance of the collective.  Yes, we will be saved by the grace of God and by the actions of our individual selves.  But we must realize the importance of our part in the collective, the church.  After all, Jesus gave His life for it.

Enough for today.  Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

The Race

The Bible talks about our journey here on earth as a race, a challenging effort to succeed and accomplish and to finish.  We will look at a few of the references in this week's blog entry.

Hebrews 12:1 starts:  "...let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross...."

1Corinthians 9:24, "Do you not know that in a race all of the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air.  No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."

But Ecclesiastes 9:11 shows us that this is not about a physical race:  "Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift..."  Solomon goes on to stress the importance of wisdom over speed. 

And finally, we read in Philippians 4:13:  "I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

We know that success in this life is not about physical prowess or winning races.  But the Bible gives us guidance in winning the race of life.  And we must continually remind ourselves that this life is about bringing glory to God....so that we can have the life eternal.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great week!

Strangers..........

We are to be as strangers in this world.....That is to say, we are not to be conformed to this world, to our society, to the mores of our society, but rather to be strangers to it.  There are a lot of passages that relate to this subject in the Bible, but we will look at a couple.

I Peter chapter 1 gives us some detail on the matter.  Note the wording:

"Therefore, prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.  As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.  But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written, be holy for I am holy."

Then it says: "Since you call on a Father who judges each man's work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear."  We are to be strangers to this unholy world.

We see a similar thought pattern in Hebrews 11 where the teaching is about Abraham.  It says of him: "By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents.....for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose object and builder is God."

This is the lesson that we must learn.  There are no real foundations in this life.  Sometimes we live good lives, in good homes with real foundations...and substance; but there is no substance here.  Life is like a vapor we learn in James.  It may seem stable today, but will be gone tomorrow.  We must live like strangers, like sojourners, like tent-dwellers, realizing that this life is temporary and brief.  This is how the great Abraham lived, like Jesus lived.....how we must live.  And, of course, I am not speaking literally, but figuratively.  It is a state of mind, a desire to move from this life to the greatest city, the greatest place of all....with God...and our Lord Jesus.

Thanks for reading again.  May God bless you!

The Secret of Life

I have said a number of times to people who were not Christians that I know the secret of life.  I know where we came from, I know why we exist and I know where we are going.  This may sound boastful; but if so, it is only boasting in the Lord.  Every follower of God, every person who has studied the teachings in the Bible, has available to him the secret of life.  The New Testament sometimes calls it the mystery.  Knowing this great mystery is a wonderful thing and should be shared........so here it is:

Over and over again in the Old Testament, the Lord said, ".....I AM the Lord!"  He would say, "I am doing this so you will know that I AM the Lord!" or something similar.  The importance of this statement to us cannot be overstated.  Some 88 times in the OT alone this is said. (e.g., Exodus 6:7, 7:5, 7:17, 8:22, 10:2, 14:4, 14:18, 16:12, 29:46, Deuteronomy 29:6, 1Kings 20:13, etc).

In the NT, Jesus said many times, "I AM........."  For example, "I AM the bread of life;"  I AM the good shepherd:"  I AM the way, the truth, the life..."  The point here is that God always is.  It is not "was" or "will be," but "is."  And the main point is that it is about Him, not us, but HIM.

Solomon summed it up well in the book of Ecclesiastes.  All through the book he talked of the vanity, the uselessness of the things that we typically consider important, like work, money, comforts, recreation.  Then he says in the final verses: "Let us hear the conclusion of the matter.  Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.  For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil." 

Again, the main point of all this is that our lives must be about serving Him.  It is about God.....not us.  It is not about this life, the comforts, the happiness, or the length of life.  It is about the eternal life he offers.  Regardless of what our life here is, there is real life to each of us if we "fear God and keep His commandments."  That is the whole duty of man. 

This is the secret of life....the answer to the mystery of life.  Let us take heed.......

Thanks for reading!  Have a great week........and feel the love.  

"Acting Like Mere men"

It is interesting to look at 1 Corinthians to see all of the problems that the Christians were facing there.  It is true that the environment at Corinth at this time was quite vile.  People were doing whatever they felt like doing...and worshiping idols as well.  This was an attitude that was creeping into the church, affecting the spirituality of the Christians there.  While there were many problems cited in the letter, we will focus on the brief statement recorded in Chapter 3:

"Brothers, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly--mere infants in Christ.  I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it.  Indeed, you are still not ready.  You are still worldly.  For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly?  Are you not acting like mere men?  For when one says, 'I follow Paul,' and another, 'I follow Apollos,' are you not mere men?  What, after all, is Apollos?  and what is Paul?  Only servants..."

There are several lessons that we can derive from this passage:

1. Obviously, we need to not be following after men.  The New Testament, and certainly the teaching of 1Corinthians,  is clear on this point.  The Lord never intended that we Christians should splinter....and disagree.....and denominate (perhaps a new word but not a new concept).

2.We need to mature.  There is a danger in being immature...to the point of having to feed on "milk" instead of meat.  Paul wanted Christians to grow up, to be mature, strong.

3. We must avoid thinking like the world.  We must think in spiritual ways.  We must put God first, realizing the brevity of this life and the importance of eternity.

These thoughts seem obvious, but they are much harder to put into practice.  Let us all learn to do all to God's glory....not our own.

Have a great week...a blessed week!