What is Your Motivation?

What is Your Motivation?

What is your motivation when making decisions involving the Body of Christ, His Church?  If you are looking for a new preacher what questions are asked in deciding what to put in an ad seeking a preacher?  Are they about his appearance or education?  Are they about his spiritual knowldege?  Are you most concerned about how youth will percieve him?

What is your motivation when engaged in presenting the Lord’s Supper?  Is the focus on stirring emotion among the Christians partaking?  or is it upon the body and blood of the Lord?

When the congregation sings, is the focus upon the tempo, musical notes, and how the music sounds to the human ear?  Or is the focus upon humbling offering God the fruit of the lips?

Are you concerned more with the community seeing the good you are doing or spreading the good itself?  Is appearance or recognition your motivation?

Remember, God sees and knows your heart.  Is your heart wanting to Glorify Him? Great!  However, he will not be pleased if your actions do not operate in accordance with His Word.

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A Good Name

A Good Name

“A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches, and loving favour rather than silver and gold.” (Proverbs 22:1 KJV)Good Name

It is better to have a “good name” among men than to have great riches. Respect as a man of integrity is better than fear as a man of wealth. No one respects a wealthy but unethical man, but they may fear him because of the power and influence his money brings. A man without ethics is a man without the loving favor of God. Take Bill Cosby for example. In the past his name was synonymous with wholesomeness and his reputation was squeaky clean. Now that this false image has faded away there is no amount of money that he could pay to have his reputation restored to what it once was. Even if he were to repent and try and do better, his reputation among men will never be what it once was.

Having a “good name” with God, or enjoying  His loving favor is something that all the silver and all the gold on Earth still could not buy. One becomes the recipient of God’s loving favor (grace) when he has submitted to God and become obedient to His Word. One will continue in that grace as long as he continues to follow God. Unlike when one ruins their “good name” among men, when one has turned away from God’s loving favor and subsequently repented – they will be back in God’s loving favor completely.

Read Matthew 16:24-28; Isaiah 1:16-20

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Why Should You Value the Bible?

Why Should You Value the Bible?

This Locusts and wild Honey Lesson raises the topic of why should you value the Bible.

Christians, you may have a great number of reasons would apply great worth to the Bible.  Certainly, we can all likely point to an aspect of our life that has been improved because of scripture.  I know that I am not the man I once was because the scriptures have molded me into something better.  Oh the stories we could tell and the joy that would be in them.

Those who are not Christians you may have a lot of questions about God.  You cannot see Him.  You cannot Hear Him.  It is said He is your creator.  People say He has given you life.  Evidently, everything you see around you is His.  Does this not cause you to want to seek Him out,  to understand who He is, what He wants, and what your very purpose is upon this earth?  Can you place a value upon that?  The Bible offers this very thing.

 

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Just Be a Really Good Person? Really?

“Just Be a Good Person”? Really?

Have you ever heard someone say, “As long as I am a good person, God will accept me”? But, what does it mean to be a “good person?” Does it mean to do good and avoid bad deeds?Doesn’t everyone do some good deeds and some bad deeds? Is anyone innocent from sin? Someone will reply, “I will do more good than bad to be a ‘good person.’” How do you know that you have done more good than bad? Do you know all your deeds? Do you know all the consequences of your deeds? What if doing one bad deed outweighs all the good deeds that you do due to consequences that you did not consider? How can you judge yourself to have been a “good person”?Good Person

The truth is, “There is none who does good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12). This is because, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Committing one sin means we come short, and nothing we do makes up for that shortcoming. Good deeds don’t cancel bad ones. There is no Karma. You can’t make up for lost time, and there is no going back.

Does that mean we should all just give up? Yes! We should give up on self-righteousness and start trusting in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote, “Yet indeed I also count all things loss . . . that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Philippians 3:8-9). How do I do that? “He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9).

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Proverbs 21:2 – Hero of Our Own Story

Proverbs 21:2 – Hero of Our Own Story

“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the LORD pondereth the hearts.” (Proverbs 21:2 KJV)Hero Man

A strange thing occurs to me, and it think it is true that many people imagine themselves as the hero of their own story. They have come to believe or have deluded themselves into justifying their every action. We live in a world that tells us, “If it feels right in your heart, then it is right for you.” This makes right and wrong strictly subjective to the mood or emotions of the man, or the circumstances in which he finds himself. With a Biblically trained conscience, our heart can safely guide us through life insomuch as we continuously examine our selves in its light on a regular basis.

When man believes that his subjective emotions or feelings can safely guide him through life, he is sorely mistaken and is in great spiritual jeopardy. Just remember what happened during the period of the Judges when, “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” We may attempt to justify our actions before man and we may even delude ourselves into believing we are in the right, but God knows the heart. On the day of judgment, He will weigh our heart and balance it against what He has revealed in His Word.

Read Judges 17:6; 21:25; John 12:48-50; 2 Corinthians 13:5

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