10/19/13

From Gary.... Significant insignificance
























Just a common ordinary bug; no big deal, right?  Yet, if several million of these land in a crop- goodbye crop!!!  Often-times, things that we think are unimportant (insignificant) are a big deal!!!  To illustrate this point, consider even a smaller bug- the ones in our intestines.  Without them, we couldn't survive.  So, just because something is small DOES NOT MEAN THAT IT SHOULD NOT BE GIVEN CONSIDERATION OR EVEN RESPECT!!!  Today, in the United States of America, many, many unborn children will be aborted!!!  Why? Convenience, mostly.  Children are a responsibility and a commitment and many people are simply too wrapped up in themselves to worry about another life. Why so many abortions?  Because people think that renaming a baby a fetus will somehow make it less human and insignificant.  But God doesn't think about human beings that way.  Consider the following famous passage from the book of Jeremiah...


Jeremiah, Chapter 1
 1 The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin:  2 to whom Yahweh’s word came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.  3 It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.  4 Now Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,  5 “Before I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came out of the womb, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.”  6 Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I don’t know how to speak; for I am a child.” 

  7  But Yahweh said to me, “Don’t say, ‘I am a child;’ for to whoever I shall send you, you shall go, and whatever I shall command you, you shall speak.  8 Don’t be afraid because of them; for I am with you to deliver you,” says Yahweh.  9 Then Yahweh stretched out his hand, and touched my mouth; and Yahweh said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.  10 Behold, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.”
God has a plan for each and every one of us.  We may not be an adult, or clever of speech or even brave, but God has used people like these in the past and will do so in the future.  In fact, you may be the run-of-the-mill, ordinary human being, but if God really wants you to do something- you will; whether you like it or not (remember the prophet Jonah).  Now, neither Jeremiah, Moses or Paul for that matter were special people, for they all had faults-- and God still used them.  Who are we to say that a helpless child in the womb could not be a blessing to the entire world?  The next time you learn that someone is going to abort their baby- remind them of these things!!!  You just might change something insignificant into their most significant person in the world- and save a life to boot!!!

From Ben Fronczek... Acts 26:1-8 Our Hope in God

Acts 26:1-8 Our Hope in God

Acts 26:1-8   Our Hope in God

Opening:  One of the greatest chapter in the NT is recorded in 1 Corinthians 13. Many refer it at to as Paul’s discourse on love. Now if one takes the time to look a little further into the text, Paul’s discussion there goes deeper than just love. Actually he is writing to those in the Corinthian church who seem to think that people who were blessed with certain miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit were more important than others in the church. Paul goes on to teach them that we are all important, and that love for one another is the most perfect way. As a matter of fact he goes on to tell them that some of those gifts will disappear while others  will always remain true and will never fail.

Read 1 Cor. 13:8-10 & 13  Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.” And then Vs. 13 “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

So Paul tells the Corinthians that those miraculous gifts of that time were only temporary, but the 3 gifts that would remain, is faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of course would be love… why?  Because it is the one virtue that would endure forever, even beyond this life.

Where would we be without our Christian faith, hope, and Love?
I cannot imagine. Those things that  we have faith in, and things that we hope for, and loving others, gives our Christian life meaning and purpose. These virtues define who we are as Christians. In today text we will read where the Apostle Paul talks about one of these virtues – his hope, as a matter of fact the hope that all believers have.

Background to our text:  Before Paul is shipped off to Rome where he would stand trial before Caesar, the new governor of Caesarea, Festus, the man who replaced the evil Felix asks King Agrippa, who was visiting Festus to sit and listen to Paul. Before sending Paul to Caesar, Festus wanted King Agrippa to help him come up with something he can put in a letter regarding why Paul was being sent to him in the first place. So in chapter 26 we have a copy of what Paul had to say as he addressed this king and his wife.   


There is a lot in this chapter we could talk about this morning, but today I would like to focus on something Paul says as he begins his defense; the very reason why he felt he was on trial. 

Paul said, “it is because of my hope in what God has promised our ancestors that I am on trial today…  (He said) King Agrippa, it is because of this hope that these Jews are accusing me.”

And what hope is he referring to? In the very next verse (26:8) he lets us know; “That God will raise the dead.”   And then in verses 22-23 he says, “God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen—  that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.”

The very hope of every Christian is, that one day… just as Jesus rose from the grave, we shall also rise to be with Him. Some had doubts during that time, even in the church, so Paul addressed this issue to encourage us and give us hope. 


Jesus came to give us life eternal, abundant life. And part of that comes from knowing and believing and having hope, in what is to come. Because Christ died and was then resurrected, together we share in that hope of resurrection as well !
The Apostle Peter also wrote of this hope    Read:  1 Peter  1:3-9  
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Peter said that we have been given a new birth into a living hope. It is a living hope because Jesus was resurrected and is NOW (present tense) now alive in heaven. And that hope should be alive in you! Today we see too many people in despair because they count on, or build their lives on the wrong things.  They put their faith in and hope in things that won’t last: wood hay and stubble; the things of this world. Jesus once said, “What good will it be if you gain the whole world yet loose your soul.” 

A philosopher in the early 1900’s, Bertrand Russell was an outspoken atheist. He even wrote a book called Why I Am Not A Christian. When Russell was 81 years old, he was interviewed on a BBC radio talk show. The interviewer asked him what he had to hang onto when death was obviously so close. Russell responded, “I have nothing to hang onto but grim, unyielding despair.” What an honest yet hopeless response. You see, when you live only for this life, and only for what it has to offer, and when you think that this is all there is, you can’t help but eventually fall into despair. But for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, there is hope. A living hope, because we anticipate a time when death and decay will no longer exist.

Paul wrote in Romans 8:18-19
“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed.”

In verse 19, that phrase “eager expectation” is a picturesque word that means “to stretch the neck in anticipation.” Have you ever waited for someone to come home on a plane? As the people come off the ramp you stretch and strain to see them as soon as possible. Paul says creation is in that type of existence, longing to see what God is going to do.

And the next thing that Paul goes on to say in that text is. (vv. 22-24)
“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all.”

Have you been there? When you ache or groan in this world of materialism, and pain, and frustration knowing what God has waiting for us in Glory?   If you are in Christ, you have this promise that there is something better. So as we groan, we remember our hope. Some day things will be better. That is our hope! And that hope can and should affect our present disposition. You see, this Biblical view points us to a hope that is greater than the world we live in. And, if we are in Christ, we have been infused with an eternal sense of hopefulness. So for the Christian, there is no such thing as a hopeless life. We may not like a particular situation we are in, or what’s going on in our life right now, but you should never be hopeless or without hope. 

Paul expands on this idea a little more in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. He writes,
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

So why does Paul and others talk about our hope in Christ?
1. Because we need to be encourages and reminded that this world is not our home..

2. Because I believe he knows that this hope will keep us from settling for the things of this world.

Scott Dudley put it this way: “Never in history have so many had so much for so long and been so depressed about it.”  Fulfilment doesn’t come from that stuff.  But when we adopt an eternal mindset, stuff looses its significance. When we recognize that the things of this world aren’t going to last forever, we realize that there is no complete sense of fulfillment in collecting stuff. When we place our hope in God and what He has to offer, we don’t try to satisfy our groanings with the things of this world. In hope, we anticipate that God will satisfy us in ways that cannot be understood in this lifetime.
3. I believe Paul knew that our hope can turn our eyes away from our present pain, or hardships to God’s glory.
The good news is that, in Christ, we live knowing that the pain of this world will give way to the painless reality of heaven. The promise from the Bible is that in that time Christ will take away our pain and will dry all our tears.  That hope can and should infuses us now with the ability to turn our eyes away from our pain to God’s glory.

The hope that we have in Christ is a great power. It will sustain us. It will comfort us and give us peace. It give the Christian a sense of purpose  and a reason to live for and serve God. As Paul found out some may even laugh at us and even try to persecute us for our belief. But be assured of this, those who know that they are in Christ Jesus will always have hope.

So hang in there everyone, and never forget the hope you have in Jesus!!!

From Jim McGuiggan... Settling For Less

 Settling For Less


Paul was a strange character. He careered off across half the world preaching ceaselessly about peace and freedom and seemed to have neither. Was there ever a man more driven? Was there ever a man who made himself a servant to so many? The truth is we know or know about thousands of men, women, boys and girls who were driven and joyfully discontent. They saw things and were seized by them and for love of them their whole lives were brought to heel in a holy obedience. The magic about such people is that their peace and freedom so out-strips our own that we don't recognise it as freedom and peace.
But in our more lucid moments we remember that true lovers find full freedom in their refusal to be free and that the most contented people are those who sell everything they have for a pearl of great price. Edmund Gosse got it right when he told about a swan that grew tired of the murky water and the narrow boundaries of the local pond, tired of the crumbs thrown to it and tired of the clinging reeds and the cramped space. (I've watched such swans in Ward Park, in a little pond not too far from where I lived for years.) Gosse's swan headed out for distant places where the waters were cold, where the wind was often a gale and where many of its free bothers and sisters already were. And having done that, Gosse says, it never regretted what it tossed away. It refused to settle for less. And so it is, he thought, with all those glad, mad people who are a vision to behold and about whom we write songs and poetry.
So sails the soul, and cannot rest,
Inglorious in the marsh of peace;
But leaves the good, to seek the best,
Though all its calms and comforts cease,—

Though what it seem'd to hold be lost,
Though that grow far which once was nigh—
By torturing hope in anguish tossed,
The awakened soul must sail or die.

It just isn't possible for all of us to be Pauls; we have neither the temperament nor the specific calling for it; but it's certainly possible by God's grace to have the mind of Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:5) that so shapes our hearts and minds that we can't be satisfied with cheaper and lesser views of life and what it's all about.
Having found [because he had been found by] Jesus Christ Paul took a new view of all the good and wonderful things in his life—they took on a new complexion. Though they remained fine things that others might well enjoy he now saw them as so much rubbish (Philippians 3:4-8). But that is only a relative or comparative remark and he says it only because he compares those things with Jesus Christ. And as Jesus looked at his own status of equality with God and didn't see it as something to be exploited (2:5-7, NRSV) and so emptied himself Paul saw his giftedness and privilege in the same way. He gladly suffered the loss of those things because he wanted to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Philippians 3:4-14).
Let me say it again: it isn't possible for each one of us to live out his or her life as Paul lived his out but within the parameters of a gloriously "ordinary" life there is a way of seeing life, a way of fleshing out the gospel of Jesus Christ; there's a spirit that defies the world spirit that says we're to be all belly and pelvis and no head or heart. Life can be lived in the spirit of Jesus in truth and vision and adventure—and it should be. Anything other and anything less is settling for less.

©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.

Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.

From Mark Copeland... The Mind Of Christ (Philippians 2:5-11)

                    "THE EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS"

                       The Mind Of Christ (2:5-11)

INTRODUCTION

1. In verses 1-4 of this second chapter, Paul wrote about "The Unity
   That Produces Joy", in which he described:
   a. The MOTIVATION for having this unity
   b. The NATURE of this unity
   c. The ATTITUDES necessary to have this unity

2. In describing the latter, he called upon the Philippians to:
   a. Do nothing through selfish ambition or conceit
   b. Have lowliness of mind in which they esteem others better than
      themselves
   c. Look out for the interests of others, and not only those of their
      own

3. In verse 5, Paul continues to exhort them to have "this mind" (the
   attitudes of verses 3-4), pointing out that this is also the "mind of
   Christ"

4. In the following verses (6-11), Paul elaborates on the "mind of
   Christ" (or the attitude of Christ), which will serve as the focus of
   this particular study...

[First, note that "The Mind Of Christ"...]

I. LACKED SELFISH AMBITION OR CONCEIT (6)

   A. PRIOR TO HIS INCARNATION...
      1. Jesus was "in the form of God"
         a. That is, "He existed as essentially one with God" (Vincent's
            Word Studies)
         b. This is in accord with what we read in Jn 1:1-3
      2. He was also "equal with God"
         a. Again notice Jn 1:1
         b. He certainly shared similar glory with the Father (Jn 17:5),
            something the Father refused to share with any created being
            (cf. Isa 42:8)

   B. YET CHRIST DID NOT CONSIDER SUCH EQUALITY "ROBBERY"...
      1. Literally, "a thing to be grasped"; that is, something to be
         laid hold of, and retained jealously
      2. The "glory" of equality with God which Christ enjoyed from
         eternity was not something He felt like He HAD to cling on to
      3. A true demonstration of a lack of selfish ambition and conceit
         on the part of our Lord!

   C. DO WE HAVE "THE MIND OF CHRIST"?
      1. Do we consider our "standing" before others (whatever that may
         be) something to be held on to?
      2. Do we consider ourselves more important than others, and
         consider that distinction something to be preserved at all
         costs?
      -- IF SO, THEN WE LACK "THE MIND OF CHRIST"!

[As we continue to read on in our text, we see also that "The Mind Of 
Christ"...]

II. LOOKED OUT FOR THE INTERESTS OF OTHERS (7-8)

   A. WHEN CHRIST BECAME FLESH...
      1. He "made Himself of no reputation"
         a. Some versions say "emptied Himself"
         b. He divested Himself of the "glory" He had with the Father 
            - cf. Jn 17:5
      2. He took upon Himself "the form of a servant"
         a. He did not come as a "king", "nobleman", etc.
         b. But as the lowly son of a simple carpenter
      3. He came "in the likeness of men"
         a. As such, He could experience their temptations and
            sufferings - He 2:14,17-18; 4:15; 5:7
         b. In other words, though deity, He was truly "man" (not some
            sort of "superman")
      4. He "humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death,
         even the death of the cross"
         a. Consider He 5:8
         b. Though in every way a man like you or me (while still the
            Son of God), He humbled Himself and obediently suffered and
            died on the cross!
      -- WHY DID JESUS DO ALL THIS?

   B. HE DID IT ALL FOR THE SAKE OF OTHERS!
      1. He became man, humbled himself as a man, was obedient, and then
         died on the cross...because it was in our own best interest!
      2. He did it, to bear OUR reproach - cf. Ro 15:1-3; Isa 53:4-6
      3. Yes, He was looking out for OUR interests!

   C. DO WE HAVE "THE MIND OF CHRIST"?
      1. We do, if we are looking out for the interests of others
      2. We do, if we are willing to humble ourselves, even sacrifice
         ourselves if it be in the best interests of others - cf. 1Jn 3:16

[Such is "The Mind Of Christ", one of humility and service to others; 
but it is also one that is...]

III. HIGHLY EXALTED BY GOD (9-11)

   A. IN THE CASE OF JESUS...
      1. He is a good example of the Scriptural maxim:  "He that humbles
         himself shall be exalted"
      2. For God has highly exalted Jesus in two ways:
         a. In the PRESENT - by giving Him "the name which is above
            every name" (the name by which men must be saved - Ac 4:12)
         b. In the FUTURE - that at His name "every knee should bow...
            that every tongue should confess" He is Lord! - Re 5:11-14

   B. BUT ALSO IN OUR CASE...
      1. Those who possess "The Mind Of Christ" will participate in that
         great future exaltation of Christ! - Ro 8:16-18; 2Th 1:10-12
      2. Isn't this a wonderful motivator for us to have "The Mind Of
         Christ"?

CONCLUSION

1. We have seen in this passage that "The Mind Of Christ" involves...
   a. Humility
   b. Obedience
   c. Sacrifice
   d. Great Reward

2. Do we possess "The Mind Of Christ"?  We should, for it is the "key"
   to:
   a. The unity that produces joy!
   b. One day sharing in "glory" together with Christ!

3. As Christians, let's be diligent to manifest "The Mind Of Christ" in
   our relationship to God and to each other

If you are not a Christian, why not begin possessing "The Mind of
Christ" by following His example of humble obedience to the Will of God?

Executable Outlines, Copyright © Mark A. Copeland, 2011