Hope Shared

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

How we thank God for you!  Because of you we have great joy as we enter God’s presence.  Night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.  May God our Father and our Lord Jesus bring us to you very soon.  And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.  

1 Thessalonians 3:9-12

Sharing our great hope in Jesus Christ with others is the main thrust of what we commonly call The Great Commission.  This was the job description Jesus gave to his followers on the day he ascended back to his Father in Heaven:

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:18-20

The “work” is really a privilege and joy.  In his letter to the Thessalonian believers Paul outlined that work in four “pillars” that hold our witness together:

Rejoicing

Apostle Paul said he thanked God for his relationship with the church at Thessalonica, and his joy was great because of their faith growing stronger. 

When the genuine joy of knowing Christ courses through your veins, sharing that blessed hope of Christ does not have to be manufactured with a memorized speech, or pamphlets; it speaks volumes of winsomeness.

Praying

Paul’s prayer life was night and day for the presence of God to grow strong in those with whom he had shared God’s love.  When you’ve taken the bold and vulnerable step of sharing the love of Christ with others, they will not slip from your mind.  You are vested in what God will do with them in His kingdom.

Hanging-out

Because of the interest in filling-in the gaps of faith many new believers might experience, you want to be with them to nurture faith at whatever point they are challenged.  Hanging-out with believers increases faith; growing joy is the wonderful result of that fellowship.

Blessing

Paul wasn’t reproducing “Paul” in these people; he was seeing the mystery of Christ in you, the hope of glory[1] manifested in those who had accepted Christ by faith, and were living under His Lordship.  His fatherly blessing was an act of love and prophetic hope…he was passing-along the faith once delivered to the saints[2].

For You Today 

Throughout my life many saints have poured-in strength and help as I’ve lived and grown.  Jesus said:  to whom much is given, much will be required.[3]  This speaks of our responsibility to pass along the joy with our prayers, presence, and always being a blessing – never an adversary – to those who need to know Christ.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Colossians 1:27

[2] Jude 1:3

[3] Luke 12:48

Have You Faith in Christ?

Tuesday, July 18, 2023

May God give you more and more mercy, peace, and love.  Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share.  But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to his holy people.  I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives.  The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.  Jude 2-4

John Wesley began his list of 22 questions to those who be his preachers in colonial America with this one:  Have you faith in Christ?  The point is derived from the first-century “fathers” of Christ’s church, that without a resounding YES answer to that question, pulpit, or pew is neither for you!  Without your total allegiance to Jesus Christ as Lord and Master, you do not belong to Him.  Apostle Paul backed that up in his letter to the believers at Rome:

…(And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)  Romans 8:9

Wisely, John Wesley put the Trinitarian doctrine at the head of what Methodists were to understand and embrace.  It still stands after more than two and a half centuries…most recently held (at least for the time being) in the United Methodist Book of Discipline as Article #1:

Of Faith in the Holy Trinity: there is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite wisdom and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible. And in unity of this Godhead there are three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity – the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.”

UMC Bishop Mike Lowry wrote about what Jude, the brother of Jesus said, comparing first century apostates with what’s going on today:

Disguised in the form of pluralism and tolerance we have embraced doctrinal indifference. With such an embrace has come the destructive chaos of cheap grace turned into “unrestrained immorality” which denies “our only master and Lord, Jesus Christ” (Jude 3)….Our modern failure in much of the church to hold to the historic theological core of the Christian faith erodes our very ability to speak to the moral anarchy of our times. For far too many, Christian theological and ethical commitments have been reduced to matters of opinion and political advocacy. It is past time to reclaim the heart of the gospel against the raging hedonism and selfishness of our age.[1]

Pluralism and tolerance are nice ways of saying “anything goes” – but that does not square with the tone, ethics, and commandments of the entire canon of Holy Scripture.  And may we be reminded that the tired, banal excuse which calls Old Testament law passe’, in favor of the New Testament love of Jesus is merely an excuse…that license to do whatever I want.  It is nothing less than the downward spiral of cheap grace!  Christ did not die so we can go on sinning and feel good (even proud) about sining – He died to give us victory over our urge to sin.

We know that our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin.  Romans 6:6

For You Today 

Our final word today is from Jesus' brother, Jude, a doxology of praise to the One who gives us this power

Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault.  All glory to him who alone is God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord.  All glory, majesty, power, and authority are his before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time!  Amen.  Jude 24-25

The question nearly begs itself….have you faith in Christ?

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO (read by author)

There are about 2,500 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.  

 

Title Image:  via Pixabay.com   Images without citation are in public domain.   Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Bishop Mike Lowry, A Fight for the Faith Delivered Once For All, (Firebrand, June 29, 2020)

 

The Gift of The Gospel

 ^[1]   

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

The crowd was listening to everything Jesus said.  And because he was nearing Jerusalem, he told them a story to correct the impression that the Kingdom of God would begin right away.  He said, “A nobleman was called away to a distant empire to be crowned king and then return.  Before he left, he called together ten of his servants and divided among them ten pounds of silver, saying, ‘Invest this for me while I am gone.’  But his people hated him and sent a delegation after him to say, ‘We do not want him to be our king.’  “After he was crowned king, he returned and called in the servants to whom he had given the money.  He wanted to find out what their profits were.  The first servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made ten times the original amount!’  “‘Well done!’ the king exclaimed.  ‘You are a good servant.  You have been faithful with the little I entrusted to you, so you will be governor of ten cities as your reward.’  “The next servant reported, ‘Master, I invested your money and made five times the original amount.’  “‘Well done!’ the king said. ‘You will be governor over five cities.’  “But the third servant brought back only the original amount of money and said, ‘Master, I hid your money and kept it safe.  I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with, taking what isn’t yours and harvesting crops you didn’t plant.’  “‘You wicked servant!’ the king roared.  ‘Your own words condemn you.  If you knew that I’m a hard man who takes what isn’t mine and harvests crops I didn’t plant,  why didn’t you deposit my money in the bank?  At least I could have gotten some interest on it.’  “Then, turning to the others standing nearby, the king ordered, ‘Take the money from this servant, and give it to the one who has ten pounds.’   “‘But, master,’ they said, ‘he already has ten pounds!’  “‘Yes,’ the king replied, ‘and to those who use well what they are given, even more will be given.  But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away.  And as for these enemies of mine who didn’t want me to be their king—bring them in and execute them right here in front of me.’”   Luke 19:11-27 ^(NLT)

One of the keys to undestanding Scripture is to be silent.  As we listen, Luke tells us right away that the reason for this parable is to help us put aside our ideas about timetables for the Kingdom of God…and just know that God has a timetable that will be met.

There are several important key issues covered in this parable:

     

       1.      There is judgment – the nobleman intended to come back and settle all accounts…and this applies to Jesus’ return to judge everyone.

       2.      We have been given a great gift (the Gospel “deposit”), the Good News of salvation!

       3.      We are commissioned to be stewards – we have a responsibility to share that Good News         of God’s loving offer of salvation.

       4.      Enemies of the Gospel will receive a severe punishment.

This parable is different from the Parable of Talents, where each servant is given differing gifts, according to ability.  Here the “gifts” are divided evenly, displaying how each believer is to be steward of the same gift, the salvation of God.

The accounting (in the time of judgment) will not be a matter of how much “profit” we brought in with that gift, but rather on our faithfulness to the charge to engage our world and its Godless culture with the truth of the Gospel.

In thinking about this we should reject the attitude and thinking of the third servant in the parable called to account for his stewardship; he offered an excuse:

I was afraid because you are a hard man to deal with

The phrase hard man to deal with, literally is translated bitter taste.  It speaks volumes about why people reject serving Christ.  In our self-centered, independence, we consider it an unacceptable bitter pill to swallow that anyone should be Lord over us.

And this is why there is an accounting, a judgment day; some people will joyfully serve Christ for the love of someone who would die in our place.  Some will not.

For You Today

Jesus is truly an acquired taste; only after accepting His Lordship over your life do you discover that it isn’t bitter at all having Him as king…it’s joy unspeakable and full of glory!

Share the Gospel today?  Sweet!

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[1] Title image: By Andrey Mironov, via Wikimedia Commons