WISDOM WEDNESDAY

Vol. 1 Issue 10 - 4-27-22

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

- II Peter 3:18

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Greetings Church,


It is so amazing that we welcomed little Kinsley Joan into this world just a month ago. Now she is one month old and we are puzzled over where the time has gone. Yet in that time the world continues to move toward the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When we find ourselves thinking about the passing of time we often take the tack that somehow we have to control it. That somehow we must be able to use it more wisely and thus control its passing and impact. When you have young children or grandchildren in your life you realize quickly that life is made up of many so called interruptions or as some would call them God moments.

Let us be mindful of our understanding of time concerning our value and our submission to our sovereign God. We looked recently at James 4:13-16 and I would encourage you to read it again. But I want to make note as a reminder of what it says in verse 14 about us. "What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." The question and answer puts into perspective our lives and what we boast in or pursue for our own sake, if we are to understand this in context. In the grand scheme of things James sets us in the realm of eternity. So as we live in light of eternity we gain understanding that our lives here on earth are but a mist, a vapor in proper perspective. Therefore, we are to use our lives, our time in a manner that is in submission to the Lord and His will, not our dreams, wants and desires. This thought, as is evident by the piercing in your heart or stomach, goes against all that we are taught to pursue in this world. The reason for this is that those who follow Christ are not of this world, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light." (I Peter 2:9)

So, if we are a mist, then how are we to live? How are we to use the time we have? The Apostle Paul calls us to, "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 5:1,2) Later in verses 15,16 he says, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil." When you put the two together and there is much in between that helps to understand what being an imitator is all about, we see that an imitator uses time wisely. The ESV doesn't translate it as redeem the time as if we must buy it back to use over again. The time given is to be used wisely or making the most of your time or making the most of every opportunity. The use then is focused upon using our time to be faithful imitators of God. If that is the focus, which I believe it is, then we must see all the details of our day as an opportunity to imitate God. We must walk in love. We must give ourselves to others. We must offer our lives as living sacrifices.

Notice that there are two motivating factors in these verses. The first is the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Jesus loved us by giving himself up. By laying down His life for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. As we imitate the Lord, Jesus is our example to follow. We must not follow others if they are not following Christ. We must not elevate another as our ultimate example of one who imitates God. The example can only be Jesus.

The second motivator brings us to another expression of time, "because the days are evil." The days were evil just as much then as they are now. The focus is not upon the evil times and finding despair but to focus upon being empowered to be ever more faithful to be imitators of God in the midst of evil. For it is in those times that our faith is tested to be genuine. Paul says to look carefully. To pay attention to how we are living. To walk in love, as Christ loved us. To live our lives as those who pay attention to how we love the Lord in the dailiness of our lives. To be wise not unwise, for "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight."(Proverbs 9:10)

So, when life seems to be filled with many interruptions. Remember, that even then we are to be imitators of God and walk in His love and be wise in how we use the time given for that moment for His glory.

Blessings,
PBS

 

WISDOM WEDNESDAY

Vol. 1 Issue 9 - 4-20-22

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

- II Peter 3:18

Greetings Church,

This past Sunday was a pivotal event in the life of our church and every church that calls itself Christian. The resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ powerfully authenticates the work done on the cross. The incarnate Son of God laid down His life for us and took it up again, all to the glory of the Father.

As I have been thinking about this reality and the reality of many factors in my life, I have come to realize the powerful privilege I have to be living in these times. Watching my grandchildren grow into little people and then young adults is such a powerful responsibility. This watching reminds me of our spiritual heritage in the scriptures. The Apostle Peter used a very familiar line of reasoning when preaching in Solomon's Portico when he said, "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses." (Acts 3:13-15)

Peter builds upon a common foundation for all listening to him to consider. That foundation is that God established a relationship with the fathers of the faith, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Men who lived their lives imperfectly yet longing to express their faith through those lives. Men God used to safeguard a people unto Himself. Men God molded and shaped as instruments of His grace. As each day passes I find myself longing to be used as such in the lives of my grandchildren. When I see the joy in their faces, the hope of what their lives will become and the wonder of how God will bring that all about, I find myself wanting to be more faithful to Jesus. To be laying a foundational heritage that is built upon Christ and His Word.

Peter also makes it clear that he and John are witnesses of the events he speaks about. Witnesses who have eyewitness testimony unto the person and work of Jesus Christ. Witnesses who are emboldened by the power of the Holy Spirit that came upon them at Pentecost. Witnesses who were willing to share the wonder and love of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. Each time I whisper into a grandchild's ear I love you, I feel the love of the Father whispering the same into mine. For my love for them is firmly rooted in His love for me. This love is something no one can take from me. "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus the Lord." (Romans 8:38-39)

What a joy to know with such confidence that my love is secure in God's love. What a joy to pass on to the next generation that same love I have experienced. What a joy to ponder the many lives to be lived beyond mine, if the Lord tarries, that will hear of that great love because of a simple whisper of love into the ear of a child.

It is my prayer that each of us consider how we should build a faithful heritage to pass on to the next generation as we await the return of our Lord. We wait with security because His word is faithful and true. His word never returns to Him empty or void. His Word is the very Son of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May we all find in our daily walk the wonderful privilege it is to be loved by God and to share that love with the world. May we be as bold as Peter and John in the midst of confronting those who were part of God's plan to put Jesus to death, to offer to this world in which we live the love of Christ to their longing hearts. May we be known by our faithful heritage that we are not just church goers but followers of Jesus.

Blessings,

PBS

 

WISDOM WEDNESDAY                                                         

Vol. 1 Issue 8 - 4-13-22

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 

- II Peter 3:18

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Greetings Church,

Depending on your church and liturgical background this week has spiritual and historical significance. We call this week Holy Week as it leads up from the triumphal procession through to the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The week has much to teach us of how Jesus taught and prepared His disciples for the task He gives them to be His witnesses to the world. It thus gives us encouragement to contemplate how we should prepare to share Jesus to our world.

Over the years I have taught several times on Christ's seven statements from the cross and would like to do so again. Here they are in what is considered their chronological order:

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Luke 23:34

And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Luke 23:43

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”

John 19:26

And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Mark 15:34

After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.”

John 19:28

When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

John 19:30

Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!” And having said this he breathed his last.

Luke 23:46

I would encourage you to read them again and again to begin the process of discernment concerning the Lord's purpose in laying down His life for you and me. Several things leap to my heart. First the focused attention to accomplishing the Father's will, to see the task to its glorious conclusion. Second, to extend the hope of forgiveness to those who had no understanding of their need for it. Thirdly, to live in anticipation for the reception of faith in the paradise of the Lord, the wonderful life of living in the promised presence of Christ. Fourthly, to experience the pain and suffering He endured for the payment for our sin as He took what we deserve to death and yet was victorious over death. Lastly, to let the love and trust Christ had and has in what the Father was doing through Him for us.

All these things and many more can be gleaned from these passages. Passages spoken from a position of being brutally put to death to satisfy a guilty world yet powerfully displaying the ultimate sacrifice for that world. We have the wonderful privilege of knowing these truths and sharing them with our world in our lifetime. May this Easter bolster our faith and faithfulness to tell the wondrous story of redemption through faith in Jesus.

Blessings,

PBS

WISDOM WEDNESDAY 

Vol. 1 Issue 7 - 4-6-22

"But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ." 

- II Peter 3:18

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Greetings Church,

If we take a moment to reflect upon our lives we would find that we all have or will experience all the stressors of living in a fallen world. The reality of sin which so easily entangles is something we often let our minds forget about. Not because we are forgiven but because we think we can in our own strength live above an awareness of sin in our own lives and thus in the world in which we live.

Reflecting upon these past three years I have grown dramatically in my faith. I have laid to rest both of my parents. I have welcomed more grandchildren into our family. I have begun to look closely at how I will live the rest of my days. Yet, in doing so I must find the Word to be central in that evaluation.

I have often quoted James 4:17 in a call to faithfulness for those who I have shepherded, "So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin." The goal was to encourage those who needed a nudge to realize the need for follow through to do so. But as I read the text in context I have realized it is more than just a nudge. It is a need to understand the sovereignty of God in every detail of our lives. To see with eyes of amazement the joy of His salvation and His purpose for us daily and for all eternity.

Listen to James 4:13-16, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit' - yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.' As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."

First we see an invitation to consider the planning of our time. James speaks to the heart of those who plan things on their own accord and not in the Lord's. A recent conversation with Dale helped to keep in perspective the decisions we make. He was asked a question and he responded that he needed time to pray about it. How often we find ourselves jumping into decisions whether great or small without the Lord's counsel.

Secondly, we are to keep ourselves humble before a majestic God, "What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." v14b It doesn't say we have little value but that our time here on earth is limited in the scope of eternity. If we are just a mist, how misty are we going to be? How will we use our time wisely? How will each day have its greatest value? How will we redeem the day for the Lord's glory?

Thirdly, we are to realize the greatest worth in our lives is to do the will of the Lord and to seek it faithfully. Knowing the will of the Lord begins with time in the Word, bathing it in prayer that we would understand and apply it. The will of God is clearly displayed in the Bible even if we have to spend much time searching its pages. Pouring over the scriptures always brings out the best in us as it changes our hearts and transforms our lives. In "rightly handling the word of truth" - II Timothy 2:15, we will begin to see the right things we need to do.

Finally, we are to live for today and make God led plans for tomorrow. With all the stress we endure we can find today overwhelmingly focused upon tomorrow. Jesus said, "Sufficient for the day is its own trouble" - Matthew 6:34. Let us purpose, to live each day to the fullness that God has designed for us and we will find our lives accomplishing all the good, the right things daily.

Blessings,
PBS