Distracted, Deceived Souls

Distracted, Deceived Souls

The good brother who had last week’s closing prayer here where I preach absolutely nailed it when he alluded to the fact that there is something far worse, far more dangerous, and far more deadly than the Coronavirus going on out there… and that is those poor lost souls who are dying daily, and facing their eternity, without ever being in a right relationship with the Lord God almighty. AMEN!  However, I’m sure that most people you might come in contact with – and sadly, this includes a good number of Christians as well – will probably in some form or fashion, express their own personal expending of far more time, talk, energy, and interest consumed with Coronavirus-related matters, rather than with making sure that they and everyone else around them is ready to meet God – no matter when and what they may inevitably die of. How does this happen? Especially with Christians? And especially in light of the far greater, far more deadly, and far more long-lasting and devastating results of the latter?

distracted souls

There are those out there whose problems are bigger than a virus.

First off, we must remember that Satan is not only the master of deception, but that he is also the master of distraction. Before he could deceive Eve, he first had to distract her. This he did by getting her focus and attention off of all of the other trees of the garden which God had so richly blessed she and Adam with (Gen. 3:1-5). Once the distraction was successful, the deception was inevitable.

This truth is likely why God warned Isaiah not to be distracted and caught up in what the people of his day feared and were caught up in: “For the Lord spoke thus to me with His strong hand upon me, and warned me not to walk in the way of this people, saying: ‘Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the Lord of hosts, Him you shall honor as holy. Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary…’” (Isa. 8:11-14a ESV). Remember: “Once distraction is successful, deception is inevitable.”

The same holds true today. I believe this is one reason why Jesus and His divinely-inspired first-century writers repeatedly addressed just exactly how deadly allowing Satan to thus distract us truly is. Jesus, in the parable of the sower, explained how “He who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world… choke the word” (Matt 13:22).

The Apostle Paul commanded: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col. 3:1-2); and, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom. 12:2). As he wrote to Timothy, and by extension, to every “good soldier of Jesus Christ … no one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier” (2 Tim. 2:3-4). Writing to His beloved Philippian brethren, he said: “Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy–meditate on these things. The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you” (Phil 4:8-9).

The thing that you and I must understand is that in our world there is always going to be a “crisis” of some sort going on. Whether it is viral, financial, political, psychological, or some other, there is always going to be a “crisis of the day” – something that the unbelieving world around us is always going to be distracted by, consumed with, and/or far too worried about, to ever take the time to seriously focus on God, His word, and their eternity… and the news media is going to make absolutely sure that they dissect and dramatize every divinely-distracting detail and morsel of it. After all, without a crisis to report, their criteria for existence ceases to exist.

Consider: Do you perhaps recall the pre-Coronavirus crisis that had everybody so up in arms only about eight short months ago? Church shootings. Before that, it was something else… and something else before that… just as there will also be some other “crisis” to “worry” about and be consumed with eight months from now… and eight months after that… and etc., on into the future. It just simply never ends. And Satan makes sure it doesn’t. Because “Once distraction is successful, deception, as well as death and destruction, are all, also inevitable.”

The eternally-deadly danger for all of us as Christians, comes the moment we ever forget that; should we ever begin to incrementally get so caught up in and sidetracked by whatever the current “crisis of the day” is, that we start to continually forget or neglect that which is most important; should we, like Martha, become so distracted with other things, that we forget the only thing, that should ever really matter – loving, listening to, and being comforted and encouraged by our beloved Lord and Savior’s word (Lk. 10:38-42).

Brethren; do your Lord, yourself, and those you love around you a huge and heavenly favor: Do not allow the “always-a-crisis” events of the current day’s news, to continually consume, distract, and/or draw you away from the incredibly encouraging and uplifting good news of the word of God. Here’s an experiment to try: Turn off the bad news of man for just one, short week, and turn to the pages of the good news of God during that same time period instead. The world and its news won’t change all that much during that time, but you and your peace of mind surely will (Jn. 16:33; Phil 4:8-9). God bless!

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HABLEMOS DE LA OFRENDA COMO ACTO DE ADORACIÓN

HABLEMOS DE LA OFRENDA COMO ACTO DE ADORACIÓN

Existen muchos caminos que pudimos haber tomado para abordar este tema en cuestión. Sin embargo el propósito es; como dijo el hermano Guy N. Woods hace varios años, sea lógico, preciso y breve. Mucho debate ha sido librado por algunos sobre el propósito de la ofrenda, unos cuantos más como los miembros  de la iglesia de Cristo así mismos llamados “Anticonstitucionales” insisten en uso exclusivo y limitado para los santos, mientras que para otros es simplemente un acto de caridad que se nos inculcó de niños.

Ofrendade adoración

La ofrenda mandada en el Nuevo Testamento como acto de adoración.

Es precisamente en esa delgada línea donde se forma digamos que: “mal entendidos” ya que existen congregaciones donde específicamente la ofrenda se aparta como: “ofrenda de niños”. Obviamente que no hay nada de malo con los niños, ni tampoco que ellos aprendan a dar, la dificultad se encuentra en el entendimiento que tengan los adultos de la ofrenda mandada en el Nuevo Testamento como acto de adoración.

En tiempos de Pandemia mundial es probable y casi seguro que cientos de congregaciones se han reunido virtualmente. Sin embargo esto ha dado lugar a algunos males, incluido la negligencia en no ofrendar. Es fácil hacerlo físicamente, pero otra cosa muy distinta es no hacerlo desde la comodidad del hogar y una vez la Iglesia regrese a la modalidad adecuada que es la reunión física pues, simplemente es asunto olvidado o como dicen por ahí “borrón y cuenta nueva”.

Sin lugar a dudas el pasaje más citado en el N.T para el tema es 1 Cor.16. Es la convicción de quién escribe que el contexto de este capítulo 16 ha sido expresamente olvidado. La Biblia de Génova en su primera edición en 1599 es el primer ejemplar en inglés en dividir los versículos y capítulos  añadiendo encabezados y paralelos a los ejemplares  de la palabra de Dios como “Biblias de estudios”. Aunque nos han servido de mucho, es preciso recordar que originalmente fue redactada en forma de carta sin divisiones. Sin embargo, aunque en la actualidad pareciera que no hay relación, existe una fuerte conexión entre el 15 y el 16 de Primera a Corintios. Es probable que todos estemos de acuerdo en que no existe otro capítulo por excelencia sobre la Resurrección que desplace a Corintios 15. La Iglesia del siglo primero se reunía el primer día de la semana para conmemorar a su Señor resucitado. Es apropiado hablar de la Resurrección e inmediatamente (en este caso un capítulo después) hablar sobre la ofrenda. Precisamente no existe ofrenda más grande ni existirá jamás, como la que hizo el Padre  celestial al ofrecer a su hijo por amor a nosotros(Jn.3:16). No es que le sobraba un hijo, ni tampoco es que le salió en el momento, fue algo muy bien planeado y  hecho con el amor más grande que pueda existir. Es por esa razón que los cristianos genuinos al dar la ofrenda el primer día de la semana optan por tomar la misma actitud que tuvo el Padre eterno, cuando eso hacemos el monto no es relevante. Es trágico cuando los miembros de la iglesia dan por “tradición” o por “compromiso” y olvidan que las ofrendas deben de ser un acto de adoración en la tremenda apreciación que los pecadores justificados tienen por su Señor resucitado. Por esa razón un niño aunque precioso a los ojos del Señor  (Mt.19:14-16), no puede “dar la ofrenda” puesto que aún no entiende la devoción que tienen cuántos  han sido  salvados del infierno eterno por la sangre de Jesucristo.

Es correcto la idea que expresa el hermano Wayne Jackson con respecto a este tema tan delicado, él dice:

Otro elemento clave en este asunto es el hecho fundamental de que el derramamiento de culto, bajo el régimen divino, no es ni opcional ni arbitrario. Más bien, es obligatorio y prescrito. Por “prescrito” queremos decir que antes de que uno siquiera comience a expresar su reverencia a Dios, debe consultar los documentos en los que “está escrito” en cuanto a cómo se debe rendir la adoración.Creemos que cualquier estudiante honesto de la Biblia debe admitir que dar (ofrenda), como acto de adoración, debe estar de acuerdo con las pautas establecidas en el Nuevo Testamento. Cualquier cosa menos que esto resulte en un error grave. (Wayne Jackson, El dar como expresión de adoración).

El hecho de que sea un mandamiento no significa que no se pueda o deba hacer con devoción o derramar nuestro ser al hacerlo. Exactamente igual que cuando cantamos y oramos o cualquiera de los otros actos de adoración.

Me temo por mucho, que hemos dedicado mucho tiempo en la exégesis de 1 Corintios 16 discutiendo con “avanzados argumentos teológicos” cada palabra contenida en esos primeros tres versículos. No es que esté mal dedicar tiempo al estudio de cada palabra por individual, para nada pero es preciso no olvidar la parte práctica de la ofrenda como elemento importante de nuestra adoración. El hermano V.P. Black lo expresa de manera estupenda cuando escribe:

“Es muy común escuchar a alguien decir: “Bueno yo no doy como debería” parece ser que a él no le importa mucho lo que está diciendo. Hermano déjame decirte algo , si usted no está dando como debería, es mejor que comience INMEDIATAMENTE o lo más pronto que puedas”.  (V.P. Black Rust as a Witness Pg.60).

Ser negligente con la ofrenda es un pecado del cual daremos cuenta el día del Juicio como todo lo demás(2Co.5:10). Guardar la ofrenda en tiempos de pandemia es tan importante como enviarla a la congregación correspondiente. Es verdad que ha sido fácil para muchos miembros adorar en línea con otras congregaciones y se tiende a descuidar la responsabilidad que cada uno de nosotros  tenemos con la Iglesia local.

Para concluir de una manera positiva permítame animarle a experimentar el gozo tan inmenso que existe en dar. Por algo el Señor Jesús dijo “que es mejor dar que recibir” (Hechos 20:35) lo dice alguien quién; créame cuando le digo ¡dio bastante! y por bastante me refiero a “si mismo”. La adoración que ofrecemos cada primer día de la semana consiste de inicio a fin en “dar”, tal como lo dice Romanos 12:1-3 cuando usa la frase “culto racional”. Darnos por completos a nosotros mismos es un estilo de vida, quiero decir algo que se practica 365 días a la semana, pero cuando llega el primer día de cada semana estén donde estén los Cristianos de todo el mundo y de todos los tiempos entienden lo especial que ese día significa para todos los redimidos por el cordero quien dice de sí mismo “…estuve muerto; mas he aquí que vivo por los siglos de los siglos, amén. Y tengo las llaves de la muerte y del Hades.” (Apc.1:18)

REFERENCIAS 

Jackson, Wayne. “Giving as an Expression of Worship.” ChristianCourier.com. Access date: August 29, 2020. https://www.christiancourier.com/articles/918-giving-as-an-expression-of-worship.

Black. P. V. “Rust as a Witness. Plateau, Alabama 1966. Pág. 60.

 

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Labor Day

Labor Day

Monday is Labor Day. Originally, Labor Day was designed to celebrate the American worker. It was the brainchild of Peter J. Maguire, a trade unionist in the late 1800s when laborers had little voice in their own working conditions. Maguire dedicated his life to improving working conditions for hourly workers. He proposed Labor Day in 1882.

Labor Day Work

Labor with the Lord as the focus of your effort.

Oddly enough, Labor Day was not about labor, per se, but about the rights of the American worker to be free from oppressive conditions of labor. How many freely give themselves to be slaves under the yoke of labor today, and for what reasons? Many work their entire lives morning, noon, and night, missing the best of what life has to offer—family, friends, God—all to “ensure” that they have a few years of pursuing their own agenda before death. Some never make it. Those that do wonder why they didn’t slow down years ago.

The Jews of Jesus’ day also yoked themselves to a similar bondage. They required such strict observation of the Sabbath day there was more fear of violating their traditions than enjoying what God had given. Jesus replied to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). We could say something similar regarding labor: Labor was made for man, and not man for labor. Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 2:11 regarding a life given to work and work alone, “Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done And on the labor in which I had toiled;And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind. There was no profit under the sun.” Work cannot satisfy our desire to be someone, only God can. Without Him, labor has no meaning.

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Premature Persuasion and His Divine Plan

Premature Persuasion and His Divine Plan

The Lord’s plan for the salvation of the world when fully understood will lead to the salvation of the lost. It is so vital that those of us who are Christians fully understand this plan, or we will sometimes hinder the conversion of the lost soul we are trying to win. Let me urge every member of the church to think soberly of His Divine plan.

Divine salvation

Will you follow the plan?

That plan involves the proclamation of the gospel to one who is lost. Look at how Paul sums up the heart of the gospel in 1 Corinthians 15:2-4. Keep this in the context as you read it. “Brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, and in which you stand, and by which you are saved…that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again, the third day according to the Scriptures…” We are to preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15), but preaching the gospel involves this message about Jesus.

Sometimes we miss it. We think because of the essentiality of baptism that we begin by encouraging them to be baptized. We so easily say, “Why don’t you get baptized. What are you waiting on?” There is a time when this should be said, but it rarely should be the opening remarks we have with others who visit our services. We mean well, but it is premature.

Look at Acts chapter two. The words of this sermon were spoken as the Holy Spirit gave this message using the apostles’ mouths (Acts 2:4). These Jews already knew a lot about baptism for the remission of sins because of the preaching of John the Baptist (Mark 1:4). Yet the Lord did not begin with words encouraging them to be baptized. Read it carefully. It began with the proclamation of His death, burial and resurrection. The subject of baptism was not the starting place, yet too often this is where we begin.

In Acts 8, Philip preached about Christ, about His name (nature and authority) and His kingdom (Acts 8:5, 12).  When they believed this, then they were taught to be baptized. Later in the same chapter Philip taught the Ethiopian, but Philip did not say to him, “Here is water, don’t you think you should be baptized?” Think about this.

Must the essentiality of baptism be taught? Absolutely. But it is not where we begin. Study Acts carefully. To try to persuade others to be baptized prematurely sends the wrong message. They must first realize they are lost. They must see that we are urging them to become part of the eternal kingdom of God. If we start with baptism, we have failed to follow His plan. Sometimes we hinder obedience by prematurely saying to others they should be baptized. It must be said, but not said prematurely!  Pray about this. It is His work and His plan.

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Members in Isolation

Members in Isolation

It is a simple, well-known, and time worn illustration… but the clear Biblical truth it should bring to our minds is just as strong, relevant, and unflinching as ever. It is, in fact, a truth made even more scary in light of the current pandemic… You’re sitting around a campfire and someone takes a stick and separates one of the red-hot, glowing embers, from the group of similarly on-fire embers surrounding it; subsequently removing it to a place in the sand all by itself. What happens? You can watch as the lone ember quickly loses its fire and goes out, becoming nothing more than just another burnt-out element of the deepening darkness all around it. It is only if it is relocated back into the presence of it’s other on-fire and still light-giving counterparts – before it goes totally out – that it is able to regain any semblance of its former fire and light-giving glow. (Isn’t it interesting that all you have to add to the word “embers,” is an “m,” in order to get “members…?”)

ember members

Are you isolated members?

The same is true for separated Christians. This is why personal, face-to-face, spiritually intimate fellowship with one another is, and always has been, one of the four, foundational, and all-consuming pillars of the Lord’s church (Acts 2:42).  Such fellowship is vital both to and for everyone, from the very first moment they repent and are baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and are thus added to the Lord’s church (Acts 2:38-47). This is why the Apostle Paul additionally and repeatedly emphasized that same Biblical truth with the illustration of how the members of the body of Christ need to constantly be, pull, work, worship, and fellowship together, just the same as all of the individual parts and members of a human body must do for the ongoing benefit of not only the entire body,but for the benefit of each and every one of its individual parts or members as well (Rom. 12:4-5; 1 Cor. 12:12-27; Eph. 4:11-16).  This is also why we need to be made so intrinsically aware of the eternally-life threatening danger that we are all individually in at this very moment!

Now please understand; I am in no way whatsoever – not for one micro-millisecond – suggesting, in any way, shape, or form, that those with legitimate and life-threatening health issues and concerns which also keep them house-bound and prevent them from venturing out into other places of public exposure such as work, school, shopping, recreating and/or etc., return to the in-house assemblies and fellowship of the church against their consciences, concerns, and convictions – not at all. (Although I do, at the same time, believe that the Bible very clearly teaches that if, on the other hand, one is regularly and routinely willing to risk far, far more in pursuit ofthe worldly and physical than they are in pursuit of the eternal and spiritual, that they really need to stop and honestly re-examine their priorities. However, that is not the point of this article.)

The point of this article is, however, to sound the warning loud and clear, and to seek to make every single member of the body of Christ just as fully and truly aware of the extremely vulnerable and terribly dangerous position our eternal souls have all been plunged into by our current isolation and separation from one another as I possibly can (Ez. 3:17-21, 33:1-6). At one elders and deacons meeting I know of, back when this thing first began and congregational services had been temporarily suspended and then began again on a very limited basis, a question was asked along the lines of, “Who feels as if they have grown spiritually stronger since we all stopped meeting together?” Not one, single, solitary hand went up… and those were some of the strongest and most mature Christians in the congregation. But don’t take their word for it. Think about your own, personal, Christian growth and service since mid-March. Have you grown stronger, or weaker as a result of your congregation’s being separated? Have you opened your Bible and studied and learned more, or less, since Sunday morning Bible classes and evening worship services were cancelled in many places approximately five months ago? Have you personally reached out and sought to share the gospel even more with others since this current pandemic-induced separation began? Or, have you done so even less than before, without the constant personal encouragement and admonition to do so?

The bottom line is this. We simply cannot all be physically together, in personal, face-to-face, work, worship, and fellowship right now. And in our personally isolated and separated state, Satan, like a roaring lion licking his chops, is more than likely ‘drooling,’ seeking to have a field day picking us off and devouring us one by one; knowing that our vulnerability has likely never been higher, and that there are fewer of us than ever thus able to cover one another’s back, because we are so spread out and hence seldom, if ever, together. His eternal-soul-consuming mission remains the same; although our ability to all be physically together to help protect, strengthen, and encourage one another has been severely diminished.

Therefore, we must each make it our total life and death mission – our absolute top priority – to determine to fight for our eternal lives like never before; to not only maintain, but to heartily grow, strengthen, and to fight to the death to defend our personal relationship with Jesus, as well as our love and fellowship for and with one another, on a daily basis.

This all begins with a very clear understanding of our currently separated and therefore isolation-induced and incredible vulnerability… something which Satan is probably going to seek with all his might to try to get some to forget,or at the very least,to get them to deny, the second they click out of this article… if he hasn’t already.

Make no mistake… their will be casualties. Make sure starting today, there is no doubt…that you won’t be one of them.

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