Philippians 4:13 Reclaiming an old forgotten promise

 A long time ago, but still within my lifetime, there was one verse, a promise, that Christians would say all the time, and they meant it.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  Philippians 4:13

And then they stopped. 

A few may still say it, but I think the older Christians smile knowingly and attribute it to youthful exuberance.

Maybe the fact that the word ‘Christ’ doesn’t appear in the earlier manuscripts had something to do with that.  All these modern Bible versions don’t have it anymore.   I quoted from the King James Bible, which was common when I was growing up, but now they’re hard to find.  Without the word ‘Christ,’ the verse doesn’t have the same ring to it.

I think, though, it probably had more to do with Bible teachers and pastors who limited the meaning to the previous verses, where Paul learned how to do this and learned how to do that, and so Paul was merely saying that, yep, God taught me how to do all these things.

But I think they are mistaken.  I see it as Paul saying, heck, I can that and anything else through the power that I have from God, or, through the One who strengthens me.  Or, through Christ who strengthens me.

It reminds me of another thing that happened a long time ago, but again still within my lifetime: the charismatic movement.  I would call that a revival, but people who know better simply regard it as emotional enthusiasm.  It was spreading across denominational lines, and not just Protestant ones.

But then the Bible teachers and pastors started telling everybody that it was a wrong interpretation, and everybody said, oh, okay.  And that quieted that down real quick.

And all this reminds me of something else that happened.  Way before my lifetime.

Joshua led the people of God into the Promised Land and achieved great victories in conquering the land.  But then Joshua died, and those of his generation, and those of the next generation didn’t follow in the footsteps of Joshua and the elders.  First they didn’t drive out their enemies, and then they couldn’t.

I’m suggesting that people started seeing that verse differently, because they weren’t seeing earth-shaking works of God, or even smaller things, and a wave of general disappointment and lower expectations spread over the people of God. 

So how do we get that back?  Not only these higher expectations of God but God actually doing greater things?

Like when David killed Goliath, basically it was one person starting something.  After David killed Goliath, other people saw that it could be done, and they did it too.  People need to see it happening somewhere else first to believe it can happen here.  And should happen.here.  It takes people who want more from God than just what they are seeing and who won’t settle for anything less. 

Frankly, I have no easy, quick answers. 

This has happened a number of times before in the Bible, and then it rarely lasted more than a generation.    

Every generation has to ask and answer the question for themselves.

I say it has to be true, otherwise much of the Bible doesn’t apply to us, and we don’t know ahead of time which parts do.

What do you say?

Proverbs 8:11 Making the Right Choices

Life is about choices. 

This becomes clearer the older I get.  Not that I’m getting old.

I am finding increasingly that there are more things I want to do than there is time to do them.

More books to read, movies to watch, people to stay in touch with, places to go, events to attend, activities to go to, even church ones.

Then I read a passage like this: Proverbs 8:11  For wisdom is better than jewels; and all desirable things cannot compare with her.

Well, how do I get wisdom?  How much time will that take?

It starts with an attitude.

The verse before that says:  Proverbs 8:10  Take my instruction and not silver, and knowledge rather than choicest gold.

The Hebrew word here for instruction is מוּסָר (myu-sar'), a very common word in Proverbs which deals with the whole idea of “discipline (of the moral nature), chastening, correction.”

Many of you will see this immediately as a something undesirable, like God is standing over you to judge you, condemn you, and constantly find fault with you. 

Think of it rather as a coach whose goal is your excellence. 

The base of any moral instruction, or training in wisdom, is the Bible.  That reveals the will of God in its broadest and greatest details.  As you increase your knowledge and understanding of that, that will give you a framework for that instruction.  Like the instruction manual that will tell you how to assemble all the various pieces (of your life) sitting in front of you.

But you still need that attitude.  That attitude that desires growth and understanding more than all the trinkets and flashy and things of this life.  And it will take time to learn the Bible.  Spend time every day.  Quality time.  Where you can think about you’re reading and after you’re done.

 

Exodus 14:15,16 Open and Closed Doors

Exodus 14:15  Then the LORD said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the sons of Israel to go forward.

Christians often speak of open and closed doors when talking about God leading them in their lives. 

Would you consider the Red Sea in your path as a closed door?

I suspect looking for open and closed doors for guidance is too much like looking at the circumstances rather than at God, not unlike when Peter tried walking on water and only failed when he looked at the wind and the waves more than at Jesus.  Matthew 14:28-31

The story here is from the Israelite history after the people were brought out of slavery in Egypt en route to a Promised Land.

The Bible is very clear that God was clearly leading them every step of the way.  And more than once, the place they were led to was clearly lacking in something important.  In this case, that important lacking thing was a way of escape. 

My question is: when you come to a closed door, how do you know whether to look for another door or to open the one in front of you?  That may require a miracle, but God has been known to do those from time to time.  Not randomly but as a part of the growth process He has for His people. 

The first clue as to what to do next depends on how you got to where you are in the first place.  Are you conscious of God’s leading on your life? 

The Bible says that “all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”  Romans 8:14   And, of course, that old familiar Proverbs 3:5,6, where it says that God will make your path straight, or clear, obvious.

So when you come to that closed door, He will continue to lead you if you are paying attention.  Don’t let that closed door tell you what to do until you talk it over with God.

 

 

Matthew 28:18-20 The Great Controversy

I call this the great controversy, but not because everybody is talking about it.  They aren’t.  Nobody is talking about it except a few denominations that nobody pays attention to.

I call it the controversy great, because it involves what we call the Great Commission.  And if we get this part wrong, then I would say that we are making what I would call a GREAT mistake.

And I call it a controversy, because probably most people would disagree with this article, but I suspect they hadn’t really thought about it before either.

The controversy involves baptism.

The great commission is found in various forms in the different gospels and Acts, but let me mention two and focus on one. 

Mark 16:15,16 says: And He [Jesus] said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.  He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has not believed shall be condemned.

We all know of course of verses like John 3:16, where baptism isn’t mentioned.  Yes, salvation is by faith and faith alone.  Nobody is disputing that. 

The point I do want to make is that I believe God puts an emphasis on baptism that we don’t, and whether or not we fully understand all the reasons why, we should put the same emphasis on it that He does.

The second passage is Matthew 28:18-20: And Jesus came up and spoke to them [the disciples], saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

The command is to make disciples of all the nations.  This is done by doing two things: first baptizing people and then teaching them to keep everything that Jesus had commanded the disciples. 

Baptism is the first step.  Not one way down the road. 

On the day of Pentecost, the first day that the apostles got to start their work, the crowd asked Peter what they needed to do to respond to his message.  He said to repent and be baptized.  Acts 2:38

In Acts chapter 8, Philip had gone to Samaria to preach the gospel, and when the people believed the message that Philip gave, they were all baptized.  Acts 8:12

Later in the same chapter, Philip was preaching the gospel to a man he met in the desert.  They passed some water, and the man asked to be baptized.  Acts 8:36

In Acts 16, a jailor believed on Jesus in the middle of the night, and Paul baptized him and his family then and there.  Acts 16:33

In Acts 19, Paul met a group of new believers who needed some direction, which Paul promptly gave and then he baptized them.   Acts 19:5

Yes, there are some times when baptism isn’t mentioned when the gospel was preached and people responded, but I think it’s more likely that it was regarded as not necessary to mention that rather than that their practice of baptizing was more haphazard.

There are two Bible passages that make more sense now when we see baptism as an introduction to the Christian life rather than a later event.

I Corinthians 12:12,13 says: 12  For even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Many Bible teachers say that this baptism by the Spirit into the body of Christ is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, mentioned in the gospels and Acts, but in those passages, Jesus is the one doing the baptizing, and the Spirit is what He is pouring out onto believers.  In Corinthians, the Spirit is the one doing the baptizing, and He is incorporating believers into the body of Christ. 

Someone might ask: but what if a person wasn’t baptized?  Are they then not a member of the Body of Christ?  I would say that if you are a Christian and haven’t been baptized, then I would think that you have some explaining to do, and not to me.

Another passage like this is Romans 6:1-4, which reads: 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2  May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?  3  Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?  4  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Those who were baptized into Christ were baptized into His death.  Is Paul talking about something that automatically happens to believers when they accept Christ, or does a physical act actually affect spiritual realities?

I think if you were to ask Paul a question like this, he might first give you a strange look and then verbally chastise you like you had never heard before.  He would think you are mocking God and making light of His commands.  That question would probably never have come up to him, because they never would have imagined a Christian who wasn’t baptized.

I think a lot of Christians will read this and think, what’s the big deal?  What was the big deal about the Israelites walking around Jericho for seven days?  When we do things that God says only when we understand why completely, we will miss the will of God.  And that’s not how you want to live the Christian life.

 

 

I Chronicles 20:1 Are you haunted by your past?

 Are you haunted by your past?  Have you done things that were wrong, things that you are ashamed of, things that get in the way of your life with God?  They don’t have to be criminal or evil, but they stand up in your past and define who you are now, at least in your own mind. 

Maybe you feel unworthy before God.  Of course, we’re all unworthy of God’s grace.  We can believe that we will go to heaven when we die, but what you have done has put like a red flag on your life, and your future seems severely limited.  You don’t see how God can really bless you in your life.    

King David did something like that in his life.  Christians seem to put the highest weight on sexual sins, though those are the ones that are often done in the heat of emotions that we don’t know how to get rid of apart from the thing itself.

David had a sexual sin.  A spontaneous act done in the heat of emotion.

But what was really bad was what he did to cover it up.  He had the women’s husband set up to be killed.

God confronted David.  Not after his sexual sin with Bathsheba, but after he had her husband killed in battle and she had come to live with him.

Then we come to our verse: But David stayed in Jerusalem.  I Chronicles 20:1

Most Christians know that just as there are 4 gospels that tell of the life of Jesus, there are two sets of books that relate the history of the kings of Israel.

The story of what happened when David stayed in Jerusalem is told in 2 chapters in 2 Samuel, but here it is told in 5 words, 3 in Hebrew.

The fact that the writer of Chronicles even mentions that David stayed in Jerusalem shows that the writer was well aware of what happened then but chose not to mention it.  Both books of Chronicles are very long books, but the whole matter wasn’t important to him.  And he lets you know of that by mentioning that David stayed in Jerusalem.

If all this happened today, we would demand that David step down as king, at least.  That matter never even came up.

Psalm 51 was written by David with reference to this whole matter.  David confessed his sins, and he found forgiveness.  Because David’s sins were well known, God didn’t sweep everything under the rug, so to speak, as though nothing had happened.  David was fully restored to God, but he experienced turmoil in his kingdom that would suggest to people that God wasn’t merely overlooking David’s sins. 

But God did restore David’s relationship with Himself, and David could experience the joy in God that he had had before.  The life of David shows that there is life after sin, life after failure, life after intense feelings of guilt. 

Confess your sins to God, and the Bible says that God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  (I John 1:9)  If this is your problem, read psalm 51 until you find your joy in God again.   Psalm 32 is another psalm that was probably written at this time as well.  Read David’s responses and see them as your own. 

God was not surprised by what happened in your past.  Paul the Apostle considered himself the chief of sinners even long after he began doing mighty things in God’s Name.  (I Timothy 1:15)  He never forgot the things he had done against the Church in the past. 

It’s time to put this all to rest.  If David and Paul can be at peace with God in spite of their past, then we can too.

 

Numbers 13:27,28 All God’s Promised Lands Have Giants

Never say that God doesn’t have a sense of humor.  It may not be laugh-out-loud funny, but I’m sure the people involved in this story wondered, “What kind of a joke is this?”

The Jewish people were slaves in the land of Egypt.  God sent Moses to deliver them out of slavery to bring them to a new land flowing with milk and honey.  It took some convincing for Pharaoh to let them go, but it also convinced the Jews that this was the real deal and that they should follow Moses to this new land. 

It took about two years to travel a distance that could have taken a few weeks, but the time finally arrived.

They sent out spies to go into the land and report on it.  And they did.  And, yes, the land was certainly a land of milk and honey.  But it was already taken.  What were they thinking?  That there could be such a land that nobody knew about?  And not only that, these people were giants.  No, not all of them, but there were several races of giants at that time.  And their cities were all well-fortified.  The spies felt like grasshoppers in their sight.

Two out of the 12 spies disagreed.  They said that with God’s help, surely, they could overcome and conquer the land.  This story has made me suspicious of committees and taking votes ever since.

It took two years for them to reach the Promised Land, because God wanted them to learn His laws and statutes before they got there.  He also wanted them to see His care for them and to learn to be comfortable with Him.

So the people were now faced with a choice.  The land was every bit as good as promised, but taking it looked impossible.  I have to say this reminds me of those people who say we have to trust the scientists.  The scientists would have said here that they could not take the land.  It was physically and militarily impossible.  Science does not and cannot figure God into its calculations. 

And this is the most basic concept of the Christian life.  Faith.  Faith in God that He would do what He said He would do.  We believe that He will save us by believing in Christ, but we have no outside circumstances that might make that seem unrealistic or untrue.  But sometimes those unrealistic, impossible circumstances appear, and we have to decide what to do with them.

Peter could walk on water for a brief time until he looked more at the wind and the waves than at Jesus who told him to come.  Elisha’s servant was afraid when they were surrounded by an enemy army until his eyes were opened to the forces of God that were around them.

So what would you have done?  Ten spies said that they could not take the land.  Two said they could.  They had seen God take care of them for two years now, daily providing their food.  They saw all the fire and fury on Mount Sinai when God appeared to them to give them His laws.  They saw His pillar of fire and pillar of smoke that led them everywhere they went. 

But they were afraid and said that we can’t do this.  We were better off in Egypt.  We shouldn’t have left. 

And God said to them, You won’t enter this land, but your children will.  You will spend the rest of your lives wandering in this wilderness. 

I titled this lesson, All God’s Promised Lands Have Giants.  At some point in your Christian life, you will face circumstances that will look impossible.  And you will have to make a choice, and that choice will affect the rest of your life. 

In this case, there was no second chance.  But that was a nation and not an individual.  It’s harder to change a nation than a person.

I made choices years ago that I wasn’t sure I would ever get out from under.  I still don’t know. 

Many Christians are content to live ho-hum Christian lives.  They may never even see a situation like this or wouldn’t know if they did.  After all, David was the only one out of the entire Israelite army who dared to face Goliath.  I’m guessing the odds wouldn’t be much different today.