Yes or No?

1 Peter 2: 21 - 22

²¹ For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

²² He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.

How would you say you’re doing at following the example of Jesus?

Let’s try this test, shall we? Check them off, as you go along…

Are you forgiving those who persecute you?                       YES      NO

Are you loving your  enemies?                                                    YES      NO

Are you praying for your enemies?                                           YES      NO

Are you verbalizing your faith?                                                   YES      NO

Are you studying the Word, to an approved status?         YES      NO

Are you giving your tithes & offerings?                                   YES      NO

Are you actively abiding in Christ?                                             YES      NO

Are you an imitator of Christ?                                                      YES      NO

If you love Him, are you keeping His commandments?    YES      NO

Are you trusting Him with all your heart?                               YES      NO

Would you say you have the mind of Christ?                        YES      NO

Have you taken up His yoke, yet                                                YES      NO

That should be enough to consider for a while…

Respect and Esteem

1 Thessalonians 5: 12 - 13

¹² We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, ¹³ and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work.

John MacArthur said and I quote regarding the role of the Pastor/Shepherd:

“There are always people eager to falsely accuse a man of God. They may do so because they resent his calling, reject his teaching,

resist biblical authority, resent virtue, or are jealous of the Lord’s blessing on his life.”

I’ve been around people who wish to make accusations against the Pastor.

We sometimes just pass it off as not being a big deal, but many don’t consider it sinful, when it actually is.

The devil himself, uses false accusations to bring destruction to the ministry of the church.

Private forms of accusations are really considered whispering, which God really does hate.

There’s a right way of going about bringing correction to a Pastor, but most people don’t practice it.

God takes attacks on His man, very seriously.

Paul is telling the church at Thessalonica, that Shepherds must be respected and esteemed.

Do you respect your Pastor? Do you esteem his work of handling the Word of God?

I wonder what might happen, if we held ourselves responsible, to the level we hold our Pastors to?

The wicked one is always looking to stir up confusion, that in the end harms the community of Christ.

How might you help your Pastor, so his work of bringing about the Word of God, doesn’t become laborious

Devoted prayer!

Acts 1: 14   ESV

¹⁴ All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer…

In the early church, these were kind of earth shaking moments.

Jesus has just ascended, and the disciples were making a choice to replace the betrayer, Judas.

But one thing that brought them peace and agreement, was prayer.

They devoted themselves to prayer.

When things turn tipsy topsy in your life, do you devote yourself to prayer?

You’d be surprised at what people turn to, when things get spiritually crazy.

I realize that when things get chaotic, it’s hard enough to keep up on our daily devotions, let alone pray.

Life serves up so many excuses, not to take prayer seriously.

A church that prays its way out of a tail spin, won’t crash into a big pile into the ground.

The church that prays together, will actually stay together, no matter how few that congregation becomes.

We need daily reminders to stay devoted to prayer and the study of God’s Word.

Do you need to be reminded today, that God is just waiting to hear from you this morning?

So what’s it going to be for you? A tail spin, or intercession from within?

The choice is yours to make, but I’d encourage you to chose wisely.

Excuse me for rushing out so quickly, but I’ve got some brothers to meet this morning at church for prayer…

Destructive Talk!

James 4: 11

¹¹ Do not speak evil against one another, brothers. The one who speaks against a brother or judges his brother, speaks evil against the law and judges the law.

But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.

Not many people know this, but the definition of defamation in the State of Wisconsin is… “defamation is a statement that”…

·         is false…

·         is communicated to a third person…

·         tends to harm the reputation of the another as to lower the person in the estimation of the community or deters others from associating or dealing with the person…

People that can prove they’ve been defamed, have the lawful ability to sue another person for damages.

When I saw the definition, I fully realized that I have been guilty of breaking this law.

Have you ever defamed another person? Have you ever broken this law?

Have you ever tried willfully to defame another person’s reputation?

Maybe we should be more concerned with defaming the name of God.

Maybe it’s His law, that we should adhere to.

This is a very destructive sin, and I know confessed followers of Jesus, who are guilty of defaming other people.

The defamer is not a humble person at all. They have every intent of executing destruction.

Maybe what my Mom taught me as a little boy, is true enough today.

If we can’t say anything nice about another person, maybe we should actually think twice about speaking

Is it Possible?

Proverbs 18: 12 KJV

¹² Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honour is humility.

Do you know that the enemy can poison even the thoughts of any follower of Christ?

Most people don’t even realize this, but that’s what the enemies flaming darts can accomplish.

A person like this, doesn’t even know the attack is coming, or has taken place.

Once deceived, this person doesn’t even realize the cause, and they don’t know enough to even oppose it.

This is a very dangerous place to be.

The most well intentioned Christian, can be deceived in the most subtle way.

The enemies plan isn’t just to take down the single person, but he means to take out a whole battalion if possible.

Is it entirely possible to consider, that you  might not be walking in the spirit?

This kind of person doesn’t even realize it, until it’s too late.

We should purpose ourselves to study our thoughts and feelings, so we know for sure where they are coming from.

There are times when the devil will cause our spirit to become hard, stubborn, narrow, and even disobedient.

If right now you’re thinking about someone else this could affect, you might not be operating within the spirit of humility.

Maybe before you consider someone else’s haughty spirit, you might want to look under your own hood, first.

Is it  possible the enemy concentrated on you, and you might not even realize it?

How is your Review?

Romans 12: 10  ESV

¹⁰ Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor.

Whenever I buy something from Amazon, they look for me to offer a review of the product I purchase.

People do that with authors of books that certain people write.

I was surprised to see how many people don’t like some of the authors I like.

Joyce Meyers and Francis Chan and David Platt and others, really take a review beating by some people.

Actually, I happen to like the teaching of those people, and I also like John Hagee’s material too.

I wonder though, when a person prepares to write a review, do they take into account the person’s/authors true character?

When people take reviews written from other folks as Gospel, without ever once taking the time to really get to know the person writing the review, or even bothering to read the book by the author.

Some people take those scathing thoughts, and go out on the warpath. If someone were to write a review about you, what would they write?

Would they take the time to authentically get to know you?

I thought the Body of Christ was supposed to offer brotherly affection to one another.

Who have you outdone lately, in showing honor to?

A friend of mine wrote a book a number of years ago, and people have really beaten him up over it.

The one thing that none of them have ever considered doing, was to get to know this guy in a personal way, or read his book cover to cover.

It’s amazing all the so called “experts” there, who have never taken the time to sit with my friend, and get to know him in a personal way.

I guess at the end of the day, it’s really their eternal loss, and his eternal spiritual gain…

Misunderstandings!

1 Corinthians 3: 3  NLT

You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn’t that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren’t you living like people of the world?

I don’t know about you, but there sure seems like there are a lot of politics in the church today.

Dietrich Bonheoffer once said: "Politics are not the task of a Christian."

That doesn’t mean we can’t have good, concrete discussions in the church, but sometimes discussions get out of hand.

Even Jesus went through some trials, and the people in the church were the culprits.

Sometimes we forget that, don’t we?

It was for my sins, and for your sins, that Jesus was punished and condemned.

If you had been an observer in the crowd that day, would you have turned on Jesus too?

No sense trying to dodge that question. I think we all know what the real answer is.

The God of the Bible has higher thoughts than our thoughts.

Our limited understanding is so often classified as misunderstanding, of God’s purposes and plans.

Who have you misunderstood lately in your church?

I assume you’ve gone to them personally, and tried to work things out, haven’t you?

Maybe the reason we’re not seeing people saved in the church we attend, is that we’re acting too much like the world.

Maybe there’s too much quarreling going on, and not enough praying in agreement…