Why, oh why, Would Jesus Leave Heaven?

There is no way to express just how much God wants every person to be in heaven.  The fact that He worked for 4,000 years to get everything ready to announce His plan on Pentecost shows the love He has for the lost.  So, instead of just quoting John 3:16 from rote memory, take time to read every word of this well-known verse.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”     It is this story of love which prompts mankind to become Christians, but the story does not end when one becomes His child.  He has surrounded the lost with His family, where, in worship, we teach and admonish each other in singing (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16).  He has designed worship around a table of remembrance, which, as we remember Christ’s suffering, makes us to be “neither barren nor unfruitful” (2 Pet. 1:8, 9).  The nature of preaching is to bring edification, exhortation and comfort (1 Cor. 14:3). Is there any aspect of worship which is not characterized by bringing about spiritual growth? God really wants the lost to be saved and has designed a perfect plan to insure that those who are saved remain faithful.

Take time to see the implication that God really wants every person to be in heaven.

When God lived among us, He longed for the salvation of those who mocked Him, spat in His face, struck Him, scourged Him and abused Him beyond our ability to imagine the cruelty of man.  Yet, His dying prayer was for their salvation.  He could have railed against them, rebuked their hypocrisy, asked for God’s vengeance, but His prayer came again and again, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” If God longed for such vile men to be His eternal companions, there can be no doubt that He really wants every person to be saved.

The implication of this truth is to look inward to ask the question, “Just how much do I want the world to be saved?”  Are there those we meet whom we immediately dismiss as potential family members, thinking that they would never change? Are there times when we get so busy or frustrated we fail to “see souls”?  Have we ever prayed for the lost that God might forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing?  When we discover that His purpose in life was to “seek and save that which is lost” (Luke 19:10), do we think about what our purpose in life might be?  When we think that Jesus left the glories of heaven to live for more than thirty years on this wretched planet, do we ever consider getting out of our comfort zone to find the lost?

He really wants all men to be saved!  Do you?

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Make Sure You Find the Road to Heaven

I am amazed at how the Global Positioning System, more popularly known as GPS, has saturated our society.  By using a complex system of orbiting satellites, the precise location of any place, person or moving vehicle can be pinpointed.  Parents can now know where their teens are spending their time and employers can know where the company vehicles are being driven.  The applications seem endless.  The best known application is a devise used in automobiles to help any driver find the best way to his destination.

I have been thinking of how many of us, in our journey to heaven, need a spiritual GPS and the attributes such a GPS should have.

There is a need for a spiritual GPS. Mankind does not instinctively know the way to heaven.  Jeremiah affirmed this almost three thousand years ago.  “O Lord, I know the way of a man is not in himself; it is not  in man who walks to direct his own steps” (Jer. 10:23). That way cannot be discerned instinctively, by feelings or human wisdom, for Solomon said, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Prov. 16:25).

There is a need for an infallible spiritual GPS. One of the problems with those devices found in our cars is that sometimes they simply cannot always be trusted.  Sometimes they get confused, or they confuse us, and we wind up far from the place we intended to go.  This tends to make us trust them less and less.  Our spiritual GPS must be trustworthy!

There is a need for a timeless, infallible spiritual GPS. The problem with the current GPS systems being used in our cars is that they cannot fully anticipate changes that come about.  The names of roads sometimes change or new roads are being built.  This is why the manufacturers periodically offer updated maps.  Our spiritual GPS should be one that works all the time, every time, from any place on this earth and which never needs updating.

That timeless, infallible spiritual GPS does exist. Because there is only one road for us to travel (John 14:6), God has given us our GPS which works all the time, every time, from every place on the earth. It’s not a modern invention, for it has been around for two thousand years!  It fulfills our need.  It is infallible and can be trusted to clearly show the way we should travel on our journey.  It is timeless.  Though our culture changes, the road remains the same.  There is no need for constant updates, for it anticipated every problem which might arise and has been programmed to insure we can always find our way.

What is that GPS?  Think about it for a moment.  It is God’s Perfect Scriptures!  Follow it and the journey is so easy!

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The Key to David’s Spirituality and Ours

I marvel at how often the book of Psalms talks about meditating on the word of God. Most of those psalms were written by David, the man God describes as having a heart like God Himself. Perhaps the key to our own spiritual growth is found in doing what David did to have a godly heart. The goal in our life should be to insure that the words of our lips come from a heart which has the words of God engraved on it.

Take time to consider the following places where the psalmist speaks of meditating on the Bible:  “In His law he mediates day and night . . .  Let the words of my mouth and the mediation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight. . . . I meditate on You in the night watches. . . . I will also mediate on all Your work, and talk of Your deeds. . . . I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. . . . Your servant meditates on Your statutes. . . . So shall I meditate on Your wonderful works. . . . And I will meditate on your statutes. . . . But I will meditate on Your precepts. . . . Oh, how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. . . . For your testimonies are my meditation. . . . I meditate on all Your works. . . . I meditate on the glorious splendor of Your majesty” (1:2; 19:14; 63:6; 77:12; 119:15, 23, 27, 48, 78, 97, 99, 148; 143:5; 145:5).

How can we imagine that David would not have taken time to follow the instructions of Moses? “Also it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, that he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, from the one before the priests, the Levites. And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God and be careful to observe all the words of this law and these statutes, that his heart may not be lifted above his brethren, that he may not turn aside from the commandment to the right hand or to the left, and that he may prolong his days in his kingdom, he and his children in the midst of Israel”  (Deut. 17:18-20).         In your imagination, watch the thirty year old King David ascend to the throne. See him every day reading his own handwritten copy of the scriptures. See him, as he reads, taking time to stop and meditate on the words he has just read. Herein lies the key to great spiritual growth. Would to God that elders, preachers, parents and every Christian would reflect every day on the verses which address their God-given responsibility!

When David became king, how much of the Bible had been written?  Obviously, the books of Moses and the books of Job, Joshua and Judges, but what others? David’s Bible had less than ten books of the Bible. Can you imagine his joy if he had had your Bible of 66 books! Where is your joy in meditation?

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Throwing Out the ???? with the Bathwater?

It may be because I do it too often, but I just enjoy hearing when others take a rather well known expression and get confused about the precise wording. Most have heard the expression about throwing out the baby with the bathwater. It probably originated many years ago when a baby would be bathed in a basin and after bathing the baby, the parents literally would take that water and through it outside. The obvious meaning is that one should not ignore the value of any cherished item and get rid of of it because of the “bathwater” that surrounds it.

Recently I heard someone change this expression in a prayer when he said, “Lord, help us not to throw out the word with the bathwater.” At first I was confused, but then I saw precisely what the brother meant it in the prayer he prayed so fervently. How often has our religious world failed to examine truth because all they could see was the “bathwater.”

Some throw out baptism with the “bathwater of works.” How anyone fails to see the emphasis the Bible places on baptism is beyond my comprehension. How could God make it any simpler as to the “he . . . who will be saved” than He did in Mark 16:16? “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” How could those who read Acts 2 fail to see the instructions given about salvation to those who had crucified Jesus? When they cried out seeking forgiveness, they were told, “Repent and let everyone of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). How could one ever conclude that baptism has nothing to do with salvation when Peter said that as Noah was saved by water, “Baptism now saves us” (1 Pet. 3:20-21).

Yet some dismiss the force of these verses by saying, “Baptism cannot necessary for salvation for we are not saved by works.” Have they never considered that since these verses affirm the absolute necessity of baptism for salvation and the remission of sins, the problem may lie in their misunderstanding of the kind of works the Bible forbids. The misunderstanding of one truth has allowed them to “throw out the word with the bathwater.”

There are so many other illustrations of this principle. Some dismissed the church because of “bathwater of hypocrites” who attend. Some dismiss truth because they do not like the one who is teaching it. Truth is too valuable to dismiss it when God has made it so plain.

At the end of the brother’s prayer I said, “Amen.” God help us to never throw out the word with the bathwater!

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Who Said: “You are the Christ”?

Do you recognize these words? Do you know who said them?  “I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”  The words sound familiar, but these are not the words of Peter when he answered Jesus’ question, “But who do you say that I am” (Matt. 16:13).  Would it help if I mentioned that the words were spoken by a woman, whose brother had been dead for four days?  She was one of two surviving sisters, but which one?

The faith in this woman’s heart is remarkable. There were many in the first century who did not believe in the resurrection, but she did.  The Jewish sect which believed in the resurrection were the Pharisees (Acts 23:8).  Josephus says that there were about 6,000 Pharisees (Antiquities xvii, 2, 4).  She did not believe in the resurrection because she was a Pharisee, but she believed in the resurrection because she believed in Jesus!

Her opening words to Jesus as He arrived at the house were, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”  She knew the Lord.  She knew His compassion.  She knew His power.  She knew that the hope for the all of the dead and grieving rested upon the Lord.

She continued her greetings by saying, “Even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”  A key word in this statement is the word “now.”  She does specifically ask for her brother’s resurrection.  She knew that on the last day he would be raised.  Her words do not show a lack of faith but a submissive spirit to whatever God’s plans were.

The pain of dealing with the death of her brother was tempered by a firm assurance that on the last day her brother would be raised.  This is how faith that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, impacts the lives of believers. While the present is filled with despair, the hope for the future is based in the trust one has in His words.

It is significant that this woman’s faith was shared by her sister.  The fact they used the same words is strong evidence that they had discussed the matter.  The sister’s opening words to Jesus were, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” It is so important to reaffirm our faith to others when we face trials.

What impact does your faith in Jesus have in your life? Do you know the Lord, His compassion and His power?  As you look to the future, is it filled with hope?

Do you know this woman?  Her name is Martha.

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