Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.
 
Elijah was one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament era. He continued to prophesy and preach at a time when the queen, Jezebel, was actively killing all prophets of Jehovah, when the king, Ahab, was actively leading the nation into Baal worship, and when the people seemed happy to accept this. Through Elijah, God imposed a three year drought on the land. Because of Elijah, the people knew God wasn’t happy. At the end of those three years, Elijah appears before Ahab and tells him to gather the nation at the summit of Mount Carmel, along with the prophets of Baal. This is recorded in 1 Kings 18.

As the people are gathered, Elijah addresses them. Vs. 21 “And Elijah came near to all the people and said, "How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word.” Elijah enjoins them to make a choice. It doesn’t make sense to worship both Baal and Jehovah; they contradict each other. Choose! He then issues a challenge, and we all know this story. He, alone, would build an altar to God. The 450 priests would build an altar to Baal. Each would put an offering upon their altar. The god who responded by sending fire to light the altar would be God. The people think this is a fine idea. Verses 25-29 tell of the Baal prophets’ attempt. They pray, shout, leap, cut themselves, etc, all to get their god to respond. In verse 27, Elijah mocks them mercilessly, but he does give them all day for their attempt. Finally, at the end of the day, Elijah readies his altar. He put the offering upon it and then douses it repeatedly with water. The offering, wood, and altar were all dripping wet. There was a moat about the altar that was full of water, too (vs. 30-35). Elijah then prays to God, vs. 36-37, and God responds by sending fire which burnt up the offering, wood, altar, and water surrounding the altar. Here is the response of the people: “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, ‘The LORD, he is God; the LORD, he is God.’” vs. 39. The people seem convinced. They aid Elijah in rounding up the prophets of Baal and slaughtering them. Elijah seems to have turned the heart of the nation back to God. It was a new day in Israel!

Except, of course, it wasn’t. Jezebel sends a message to Elijah promising his death(19:1-2). The nation seems to be going about things, business as usual. All of Elijah’s work hasn’t seemed to change anything. His elation turned to despair, and quickly. Fleeing Jezebel, Elijah runs to the wilderness south of Judah. As he lays down for rest, he prays to God for death. (vs. 3-5) This is actually quite understandable. He had devoted his life to serving God. He had hidden from Ahab and Jezebel’s army for years. He had worked a great work, a grand and enormous sign to the people in the effort to get the people to turn back to God and. . . nothing changed. Nothing changed! He began to feel like there was no point in continuing. Why shouldn’t he just quit?

Do you know how Elijah felt? Have you ever felt that way? Let me tell you, I get it, at least a little. A lady from church and I met once a week and spent hours each time walking through the neighborhoods near the building knocking on doors and inviting people to join our congregation in worship. We weren’t doing any serious evangelizing, just inviting people to services. We spent dozens of hours, knocked on hundreds of doors, and got no response from anyone. There was perhaps one family who worshiped with us three times because we knocked on their door, then the Air Force transferred them away. So we changed tactics. We invited Tom Hamilton to do a series of classes on what the Bible is all about and why we should care. We advertised it in several newspapers, on various neighborhood facebook pages and we also printed 1,000 door hangers advertising the event. Those were hung on every doorknob within a half mile of the building, and some farther away. We didn’t get a single response from the community. One can start to feel like there is no point in working for the Lord.

Or maybe your discouragement is in failures to overcome temptation. No matter how hard you try, no matter how much you pray or read the scriptures there is one temptation that you can’t seem to overcome. Instead, it overcomes you. Repeated failures can make you want to quit trying. “After all, I’m just going to fail anyway, I might as well give in.”

Or maybe I’m discouraged because the brethren aren’t acting correctly. Have you ever been doing all you know how to do for the Lord and then found out that the brethren, or some of them, are bad mouthing you for your efforts? “Oh that Lucas.  He thinks he’s a big-shot Christian, like a deacon or something.”(This hasn’t happened to me personally, but I know of people to whom it has happened.) When the people who are supposed to be supporting you the most are instead tearing you down, it can make you want to quit, as Elijah knew.

Or maybe it’s your relationship with your spouse or children that is discouraging. No matter how grand the gesture, nothing seems to get through to them. So, why should you bother?

As we follow Elijah’s story, we see that he isn’t allowed to die. Beginning in 1 Kings 19:5 we see that he is fed twice by an angel and then led to Mount Sinai. Once there, God asks him why he isn't in Israel, working. In verse 10, Elijah recounts his woes. He is told to stand at the mouth of the cave and he then sees a great wind, capable of breaking rocks. He experiences a powerful earthquake. He sees a fierce fire. God is in none of these breath-taking events. Elijah then hears a “still, small voice” and covers his face, because God is in the small voice. God then repeats His question to Elijah, who repeats his tale of woe. God then sends Elijah back to work.

The lesson for us is that God’s work isn’t accomplished in the grand events, but in the small, steady, continuous work. It’s not the big Gospel meetings that are going to evangelize the community, it is each individual Christian shining his light as he lives day by day. It is our “still, small voices” that daily reach dozens of lost souls and it is our voices which can eventually reach many of our neighbors and coworkers. But we have to keep at it, day by day. We can’t get discouraged and quit.

There is no magic pill for overcoming temptation. There is no heroic labor I can accomplish to be free from temptation for the rest of my life. I have to, day by day, decide to follow Jesus and overcome. I have to keep at it, little by little.

In our relationships the grand gesture might not get through, but the daily effort of being a good spouse or parent will. Maybe the three dozen roses didn’t make her happy, but what will work is doing the dishes and bathing the kids some of the time. Women (so I’ve heard) don’t want men to die for them in a grand gesture, they want men to live with them. Kids don’t respond as well to “quality time” as they do to quantity time. They know who has been with them, raising them on a daily basis. It is the still, small voice of daily effort that wins in the end.

The Christian life isn’t about doing one great thing and being done. It is daily, continuously doing the small things. It is being the light in your workplace. It is overcoming this temptation this time and worrying about the next one when it comes along. It is about keeping on keeping on. Christianity is a life-time walk, not a ten-minute sprint. If we just keep going, God will see our efforts prevail.

Phil. 3:11-14 …that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
 
Lucas Ward

I recently found this compilation on berksblog by Warren Berkley:

Henry Ward Beecher: “Let me speak in the language of heaven and call you Christians.”

Albert Barnes: “These divisions should be merged into the holy name Christian.”

Martin Luther: “I pray you leave my name alone. Do not call yourselves Lutherans, but Christians.”

John Wesley: “I wish the name Methodist might never be mentioned again, but lost in eternal oblivion.”

Charles Spurgeon: “I say of the Baptist name, let it perish, but let Christ’s name last forever. I look forward with pleasure to the day when there will not be a Baptist living.”

Peter, the Apostle: “Yet, if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God in this name,” (1 Pet. 4:16).

Paul, the Apostle: “Now, this I say, that every one of you says, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (1 Cor. 1:12-13).

Luke, the writer of Acts: “…And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch,” (Acts 11:26).

(Pulpit Helps, 7-89)  From Expository Files 4.3; March 199

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

It seems to be popular to make comments about the old church of Christ attitudes as though the last generation knew little of grace and faith and focused only on obedience, exact obedience.  I have made a few of those comments myself and can point to sermon outlines from 35 years ago where I endeavored to change such attitudes. However, when the comments become disparaging and self-serving (look how much better I am), then perhaps it is time to consider.
 
They grew up in tough economic times, faced tough spiritual battles to be allowed to exercise their faith in the way God commanded, and they did not express emotions as readily as today’s generations. They did not talk a lot about God’s grace for that was God’s business. Their business was to obey God.
 
That they did understand that obedience must proceed from faithful trust and was founded on God’s grace can best be understood by the songs they sang:
 
“True hearted whole hearted, faithful and loyal…..
“My faith looks up to thee……
“Looking to thee from day to day, trusting thy grace along the way….Sure of thy soul redeeming love….
“Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
“I know whom I have believed….
“He will give me grace and glory…where he leads me I will follow, I’ll go with him, with him all the way
“Faith is the victory….
“Is thy heart right with God?
“To Christ be loyal and be true in noble service prove your faith and your fidelity, the fervor of your love
“What a friend we have in Jesus….
“Purer in heart O God….
Take time to be holy….
“Only in thee….trusting, I’m cleansed from ev’ry stain, thou art my only plea….
 
And it was in those days and by one of those men that “Lord I believe” was written.
 
And, the list could go on and on.
 
 Because some treated service like a checklist and may not have expressed as much heart as some do today, please do not mark them all as empty. In fact, if a checklist religion was the spiritual ceiling for some, “who art thou that judges the servant of another?” (Rom 14).  More people should fear minding God’s business about God’s servants!
 
And, if all the expression of heart and trust and faith and grace today makes one careless toward obedience, then how is that one any better before God?
 
These were our parents and grandparents, our spiritual fathers in the faith.  Most knew more about the grace of God than many today who spout fancy words, but they just tended to their own business of serving faithfully.
 
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness (Rom 6:17-18).
 
 
Keith Ward
 

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.
 
I think most all church members are familiar with the story of the prophet Nathan confronting David after David’s sin with Bathsheba. (2 Sam. 12:1-7a) We know God sent Nathan to David. We know the story that Nathan told David about the rich man who stole the pet ewe from his poor neighbor rather than taking from his own multitudinous flock to feed his visitor. We know how David, in righteous anger, declared that rich man worthy of death and passed the sentence that the man would repay his poor neighbor fourfold. We know how Nathan then looked in David’s eye and said, “Thou art the man!” My question is, how excited do you think Nathan was to get out of bed that morning?

Think about who David was at the time that Nathan confronted him. He was the warrior hero of the nation and the scourge of all the surrounding nations. When David took over as king, Israel was in sad shape. The entire coastline and all the coastal plains were occupied by the Philistines, the Canaanites, and the Phoenicians. Syria had taken over most of what should have been Israel’s land north of the Sea of Galilee, and Moab, Ammon, and Edom occupied Trans-Jordan and large parts of Southern Israel. The Israelites occupied only the mountainous interior and were subject to constant raids by their neighbors. When David first became king (of Judah only for the first seven years) it seems that the Philistines considered him a vassal king. Then David defeated the Canaanites, the Moabites and Edomites. He conquered the then existing two Syrian kingdoms. He pushed the Philistines back into their five base cities and denied them any further expansion. David also received tribute from the Phoenicians (Tyre & Sidon) and the kingdom of Hamath. At the time of his sin with Bathsheba, David was completing his last major conquest (Ammon) which would ensure his kingdom’s security. He was at this time just over 50 years old. He was the revered hero of his nation. He had also already murdered Uriah to keep the secret of his sin with Bathsheba. So, do you think Nathan was at all worried about confronting him? If David had truly broken with God, Nathan likely wouldn’t survive the day. I think I’d be nervous.

While it is unlikely that we will ever have to confront a warlord about his adultery and murder, we are commanded to correct erring brothers: “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.” (Gal. 6:1) This obligation often makes us uncomfortable because we are nervous about how the brother or sister might react. Sometimes we avoid this duty because we don’t want to deal with the drama that might result. Maybe we are afraid this person won’t be our friend anymore. They will yell at us, hurt OUR feelings, and then things will be awkward forever after that. Regardless of all that, which are legitimate fears, the Bible makes it clear that confronting erring brothers is an obligation placed upon us by God. Rom. 15:14, 1 Thess. 5:14 and 2 Thess. 3:15 all show that part of our duty as Christians is to admonish one another.

Our obligation goes beyond just “getting on” each other. Among other passages, 1 Thess. 5:11 and Heb. 3:13 teach us that we should be exhorting each other. Heb. 10:24-25 tells us that the whole reason we are to attend church services is to “consider how to stir up one another to love and good works”. We should be thinking about each other and trying to find the best ways to encourage each other as we work our way to Heaven. And, as needed, we should be admonishing and confronting each other about sins we might become caught up in.

One other reason we shy away from this uncomfortable duty is the fear that if the erring brother is offended, he might leave the church. While that would be sad, if the brother is so caught up in his sin that he won’t repent, he needs to be removed from the church anyway. Paul discusses this exact scenario in 1 Cor. 5: “Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” (vs. 7-8) Just as God commanded Nathan to go to David, we are to go to our erring brethren and do our best to bring them back to the fold.

The other side of this story is, of course, David’s reaction. He didn’t become angry. He didn’t act affronted. He didn’t try to lie or cover it up. In 2 Sam. 12:13, he admitted his guilt. We know from other passages, notably Ps. 51, that this wasn’t a bare admittance of guilt, but the beginning of a true and deep repentance. Just as we can learn something from Nathan’s courage in confronting David about his sin, we can learn from David how to handle it if we are ever on the receiving end of the admonishment. The natural reaction to having a brother tell us he thinks we are in sin might be, “How dare you accuse me?!” But this should not be the reaction of a Christian whose primary motivation is to please God.

While the conversation will probably catch us off guard, and our first reaction might be to deny, these opportunities are the perfect chance to check up on ourselves. After all, 2 Cor. 13:5 does teach us to “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.” If your brother comes to you with a concern, think about it. Examine yourself and test yourself out. Your brother might be wrong. He might have misunderstood. He might even have poor motives in telling you. Weighed against the possibility of losing your eternal soul, however, none of that matters much. Consider carefully whatever he or she said to make sure you are still in the faith. After all, we are to “. . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12). If, upon contemplation, you discover that your brother is right and you are erring, repent and fix it. If you realize that your brother made a mistake in admonishing you, thank him for his concern. After all, it wasn’t easy for him to confront you. He was likely just as nervous, uncomfortable, and even scared as you would be if you were to have to confront him. He loved you enough to overcome that fear and come to you anyway. That kind of love is precious.

Like Nathan, we have obligations to confront erring brethren. Like David, we should listen, consider the admonishment, and if sinning, we need to admit it, repent, and move forward. In all this, our love for each other and for God should be the over-riding motivation.
 
Lucas Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

What do we pray for?  Typically, we pray for the sick, the elders, the success of the gospel, our country, some spiritually weak person.  But Paul shows a spiritual depth we should try to develop.  He prays for the Ephesians to “have the eyes of their hearts enlightened that they may know …the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe” How much power is that?  “The strength of his might which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him to sit in the heavenly places.” (Eph 1:15-20, selected). 

God first exercised this power when we were “dead in our trespasses and sins, sons of disobedience and children of wrath and lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind.  But God loved us and made us alive together with Christ and raised us up with him and made us to sit in the heavenly places.  For we are created in Christ Jesus” (Eph 2:1-10, selected)

The thought of being raised with Christ should remind us of our baptism, “Or are you ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him into death that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, even so we also might walk in newness of life.  For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we shall also be in the likeness of his resurrection; knowing this that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away, so that we should no longer be in bondage to sin; for he that has died is justified from sin” (Rom 6:3-7).  Though even more dead than the dust from which God made Adam, He saved us, made us alive.

In neither passage was the Holy Spirit encouraging sinners to be baptized.  He was encouraging Christians to allow God to keep acting through them by his great power to transform.  We take the Lord’s Supper each week to remember both Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection and our own with him.  We take the bread and remember his incarnation, the life he lived as a man, tempted, yet without sin.  And, we should consider our life that we are now committed to making like his.  We take the cup and remember his body on the cross, his dying, his blood (life) poured out as an offering for sin.  And, we should remember our death to sin.   We remember his resurrection without which his life and death are meaningless, and focus on the power that God works in us to create the new man in us. 

We cannot stay the same week after week, memorial after memorial, praying for God to accept us the way we were last week and the week before.  There is power beyond our own abilities for us to change, power beyond our imaginations to become like Jesus. 

 Paul again prayed, that they/we, “be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith to the end that we being rooted and grounded in love may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge” (Eph 3:16-19).

Motivating inmates to reach out for spirituality which they have never known is actually easy.  I tell them about the love, the love on the cross, the love to call us while we were dead in sin, the love of Christ named above that is with us and in us, and then I ask, “Don’t you want to be forever where that love is?” Many of them have never been loved, for real, never been loved by anyone, even their parents.  Some of us have the same doubts.   But, there is no doubting the love of Christ.

Finally, Paul prayed, “Now to him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us.”  What power is that which works in us?  That same power that raised Christ from the dead and made us new creatures.

 It is past time for us to stop telling ourselves and others that we are doing the best we can and that is all God requires.  Really, we probably know we are deceiving ourselves, but we are unwilling to face the mirror and change.  God requires that we grow and change according to the power he works in us through Christ. 

This is the commitment we make when we take the Lord’s Supper.
 
"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit.  " (2Cor 3:18).
 
Keith Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward

The last several of my entries have used the lives of people in the Bible as illustrations of eternal Biblical principles. I want to try that again, using a lesser known Biblical person. This man is so obscure that even some of the better read Bible students out there might not know much about him. His name was Abraham. *Wait for laughter to die down.*

Of course, we all know of Abraham. The father of the faithful. When we first meet Abraham (then called Abram) in Genesis 12, his faith is already at a legendary status. God tells him to leave all he knows to travel to a foreign land, which he as yet knows nothing about. Abraham then leaves! In leaving Ur, Abraham left a surprisingly modern city. There is archaeological evidence of indoor plumbing among other conveniences. When he left, he lived the rest of his life in a tent. A very nice, very plush, very comfortable tent, but a tent is still a tent. A house is much better. In leaving Haran, Abraham left his family and all he knew to be a stranger and live among strangers. Abraham’s faith in God and His promises was so strong that he willingly left all.

As strong as it was in the beginning, Abraham’s faith had room to grow. Many of the stories of his life over the next 25 years deal with his struggle to understand God’s plan and to even help it along. We first really see this in Gen. 15:1-4:

“After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: ‘Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.’ But Abram said, ‘O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’ And Abram said, ‘Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.’ And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: ‘This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir.’”

Notice that this isn’t a lack of faith, but rather a question that Abraham is asking God. God’s promise requires Abraham to have children. As of this point, he has had none. It was customary at that time for the chief steward of a wealthy man to inherit if the wealthy man had no heirs, and so far Abraham’s designated heir is Eliezer, his chief steward. Abraham doesn’t doubt God, but he can’t see how the promises are going to work out, so he asks. God tells him that his very own son, proceeding from his bowels is the literal translation, will be his heir. And so Abraham continues, some of his questions answered. In the next chapter, though, we see Abraham starting to try to help God’s plan along:

Gen. 16:1-4a. “Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived.”

It’s been 10 years of waiting. Ten years of living in a strange land, surrounded by strange people, because of faith in God’s promises, and yet nothing has happened. Maybe Abraham and Sarah were thinking that God was waiting on them to have the faith to step up and get the ball rolling. Who knows? What we do know is that Sarah was desperate. Desperate enough to try to capitalize on a custom of the time that said that any child born to a wife’s servant was legally the child of the wife. We see this illustrated in the competition between Leah and Rachel, the wives of Jacob, as each gave Jacob their servants to obtain children from. Not surprisingly, tension builds between Sarah and Hagar, but what I want to focus on is that Ishmael was born when Abraham was 86 (16:15-16). Abraham now has a son, his own son, issued from his own body. He thought things were now set up for God’s promises to commence. Thirteen years later, God again appears to Abraham, repeats the promises, institutes the covenant of circumcision and tells Abraham that Sarah will bear him a son. (17:15-16) Abraham then falls on his face laughing at what God has said! From a logical standpoint, this is understandable: Abraham was 99 years old and according to 18:11, Sarah had already undergone menopause. It made no sense that Abraham would have a child by Sarah. He just couldn’t understand how that could be. He believed in the promises of God, but he thought it made much more sense for those promises to flow through Ishmael. In fact, Abraham pleads to God for that to be the case: Gen 17:18 “And Abraham said to God, ‘Oh that Ishmael might live before you!’” God replies, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.” (vs 19). And so, about a year later, Isaac is born to Abraham by Sarah. (21:1-3)

The promised child finally arrived 25 years after the initial promises were made, but it seems that Abraham might still have been hedging his bets. Child mortality rates were high in those days and Abraham might well have been thinking that, if anything happened to Isaac, he still had Ishmael. There is an indication of this when Sarah demands that Hagar and Ishmael be sent away. She had seen Ishmael mocking Isaac and demanded that they be sent away so that Ishmael would not inherit with Isaac. Abraham doesn’t like this because if nothing else, Ishmael is his son. He doesn’t want to send him away any more than any father would want to send a son away, but from God’s response, there might have been more than just that: “But God said to Abraham, ‘Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’” (Gen. 21:12) The fact that God saw fit to reiterate that Abraham’s seed would go through Isaac seems to indicate that, just as Abraham tried to help along God’s plan by having Ishmael, he now was holding a back-up plan for God, just in case. He never doubted God’s promises, he just wanted to understand how the plan would unfold. He wanted to help nudge it along on his time-table, not God’s. He wanted the reassurance of a back-up plan. God has now stripped him of all these things. The next thing recorded is, of course, Abraham’s biggest test.

In Genesis 22, God tells Abraham to offer Isaac to Him as a sacrifice. What must have been buzzing around in Abraham’s brain? Not only would he have been suffering as any father under those circumstances, he would have been wondering about the promises. Ishmael is gone, sent away at God’s command. He has no other sons. God promised that the blessings would flow through Isaac. In this test, we see the culmination of Abraham’s faith. When Isaac asked his father where the lamb was for the offering they were on the way to make, Abraham answered, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” (Gen. 22:8) Essentially, Abraham turned it all over to God and trusted that God knew what He was doing. Yes, we know from Hebrews 11:19 that he thought God would resurrect Isaac after he sacrificed him, but, whatever Abraham’s guess was, he turned the solution of the problem over to God. He no longer needed to understand the plan. He no longer needed a back-up plan to reassure him. He just trusted God to handle things and turned it over to Him. "God will provide”.

That complete trust of God to handle things we can’t understand is the whole point I wanted to make with this. I could have started out by quoting Rom. 8:28 (“And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good”) and cited several other passages dealing with trust in God and had everyone reading this saying “Amen”, but it might not have had the punch of seeing Abraham go through the process of reaching that point. I could have gone to Heb. 12:7-11 and written about how God disciplines all His children so that the end result would be their attaining the “peaceable fruit of righteousness” and everyone would be nodding their heads, but then we leave the computer and enter the real world. Romans 8:28 sounds good until you are burying your first grandchild. Discipline for the ultimate fruit of righteousness sounds ok until you are watching your spouse slowly die from a wasting disease. When the career I thought I’d follow my whole life suddenly dries up and I find myself delivering pizza to make ends meet, how does that work for my good? It’s easy to read these passages and say “Amen” in church on Sunday. It is harder to remember them and understand how it works Monday-Saturday. The life story of Abraham shows us that we don’t have to understand it. We just have to believe. When Abraham was trying to understand God’s plan, when he tried to help it along, that’s when he got himself into trouble. It was only when Abraham stopped trying to understand and just trust in God to work His plan that God said to him, “now I know that you fear God”.

So, when the economy changes and I lose my house, how does that help me? How does it work for my good? I don’t know, but I believe that God has a plan and He is working it. When I get passed over for promotion, or even have my hours cut because I’m talking too much about God, how does that work for me? I don’t know, but I trust that God knows and He is working His plan. We are not promised answers in this life. We may never know why the horrible things that happen to us happen. We are told that God is in charge. That God knows what He is doing and He is working for our good. We just have to trust in Him. If we do, and cast our cares on Him, we are promised peace in this life.

Phil. 4:6-7 “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Lucas Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.

"You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me; and you are unwilling to come to Me so that you may have life.“ (John 5:39-40).
 
 These scribes and Pharisees were serious students of the OT and could quote extensive portions of it. Further, they could show proof-texts for all their positions. They were especially particular about worship and respect for God as regards the Sabbath.  But, with all their knowledge, they failed to see the Messiah of the Old Testament standing right before them. They knew what the scripture said and they were certain that Jesus was not it.

Before we point fingers, perhaps we should consider. We are very certain about the five acts of worship and can offer proof-texts on them all. And we are right. We are careful about how we spend the collection for the work of the church, and again, we are right to do so. But, did you know that if we consolidated all the passages that speak of the work and worship of the church we would have no more than 2 or 3 pages in the average Bible?  Shocking? Well, read on.
 
We search the scriptures and we are exceeding careful to do our worship correctly. We urge everyone to be in attendance to worship God. We debate over the proper actions of worship and in more recent history how to do the “work of the church.” By the latter, we mean how we are to spend the money collected on Sunday.
 
I keep telling my inmate church that the most important question, really the only question, is “What does it say?” Not, “What do you think it means?” Not, “What did you learn in the past?” But, “WHAT DOES IT SAY?”
And, the truth of the matter is that the New Testament says little about our together worship or the work of a local church. Read it!
 
Meanwhile, somewhere we have lost the beatitudes. When Jesus preached the kingdom of heaven, this is the whole of it: Poor in spirit, Mourn, Meek, Hunger and Thirst for righteousness, Merciful, Pure in heart, Peacemakers. If you are a Christian, these are who you are every day, everywhere. All the epistles restate and reemphasize these basic character traits. They tell us how to implement these in our lives. The majority of the rest of their words motivate us by telling of God’s love, mercy and grace. Whole books of the New Testament never mention the work and worship of the church.
 
And, when it comes to the final judgment scene, Jesus does not speak one word about what the church did, or one about whether we sang without instruments as we ought, instead, "For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ " (Matt 25:35-36).
So much of our religion centers around what we do at church. Certainly we should be correct in that. But, is that really what the New Testament says? Is that what Jesus and his apostles talked about?
 
It truly is a lot easier to be right about church than it is to get our lives in order:  when we drive, when we interact at work, when we post on social media, when we spend our time, energy and money on everything but what Jesus says in Matthew 5 and 25.
 
We search the scriptures because we know that in them we have life and they testify about so much that we leave undone.
 
For, He that would love life, And see good days, Let him refrain his tongue from evil, And his lips that they speak no guile: And let him turn away from evil, and do good; Let him seek peace, and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, And his ears unto their supplication: But the face of the Lord is upon them that do evil. (1Pet 3:1-12).

Finally, be ye all likeminded, compassionate, loving as brethren, tenderhearted, humbleminded: not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling; but contrariwise blessing; for hereunto were ye called, that ye should inherit a blessing.  (1Pet 3:8-9).
 
Keith Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.
 
Let's begin by stating the obvious: Solomon was very wise. Yet for today, we need to go through the exercise of showing just how wise he was so that we can draw some necessary conclusions from this later on.

In 1 Kings 3:5-14 God appears to Solomon and asks what he would like from God. Solomon declared that he was just a young boy who didn’t know how to be king to this large nation he had inherited and asks for wisdom, discerning, and understanding so he could be a good king. God was very pleased at this and promised to make Solomon wiser and more discerning than anyone before or after him. The last half of this chapter is an example of Solomon’s discernment. A familiar story to most of us. Two prostitutes who lived together had sons within days of each other. One rolled atop her child during the night and accidentally suffocated him. She then switched out the babies and claimed the living one as hers. Unsurprisingly, the mother of the living child knew which was hers and knew the dead child wasn’t hers. Also unsurprisingly, no one else could tell the children apart. Newborns tend to all look alike, and in a tribal society in which all are related if you go back far enough, and all had Semitic features, it wasn’t easy to tell one dark haired, dark eyed child from the others. This was a classic she said/she said scenario. None of the lower judges of the country could figure out how to handle this issue, so the matter came before Solomon. After Solomon heard the case, he almost mocks the ladies in vs 23. ‘One says this, the other says that!’ One can almost hear his exasperation. He then calls for a sword and orders the baby cut in half. I’ve recently heard a lot of nonsense about this, people accusing Solomon of being cruel and bloodthirsty. Solomon had no intention of killing the baby. He wanted to watch the two women as he gave the order. Sure enough, the true mother – who like all mothers would do anything to keep her child alive – began begging for the child to be turned over to the other woman as long as it was alive. The mother of the dead child had no such strong reaction and so Solomon solved the unsolvable case, figuring out which woman was the real mother. This display of discernment was so great that the last verse of this chapter tells us that all Israel feared the king because it was so obvious that the wisdom of God was upon him.

This is far from the only indications we get of Solomon’s wisdom and learning. 1 Kings 4:29-34 gives us some of the stats of his career. Solomon spoke over 3,000 proverbs, meaning we only have some of them recorded in the Bible. He wrote 1,005 songs, again meaning we only have a small portion of his work preserved. In addition to this, he gave discourses on what we would call botany and zoology. And just to beat a dead horse a little deader, the first ten verses of 1 Kings 10 record the visit of the Queen of Sheba. She had heard of Solomon’s wisdom and his works and decided that she wanted to see for herself. She came to visit and to test Solomon’s wisdom with hard questions, the kind of things that one mulls over in the dead of the night. Hard questions of the heart. In verse three we see that all her questions were answered. “. . .there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her.” She exclaimed in verse 7 that the unbelievable stories she had heard about him hadn’t even told the half of what he truly was. Think about that. How often does anything live up to the hype? Solomon far surpassed the hype.

I think it is fair to say that Solomon was incredibly wise and full of understanding.

So how do we explain 1 Kings 11:1-8? This tells us that Solomon loved many foreign women. Egyptian, Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women are listed in verse one. We are told he had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines (vs. 3). These women turned Solomon’s heart away from God. He began to follow the Ashtoreth and Milcolm, gods of Sidon and Ammon. He built temples and high places for other gods so his wives could worship their various idols (vs 4-8). Vs. 6 sums it up well: “So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and did not wholly follow the LORD, as David his father had done.”

Do you think Solomon knew he shouldn’t have married those women? Aside from the fact that the Law specifically forbade intermarrying with foreigners (Deut. 7:1-4), do you think Solomon was wise enough to recognize the dangers? Of course he was. Do you think he knew that building temples for other gods, even if he didn’t worship them, would anger God? Of course he did. Do you think he knew it was foolish to worship those idols he did follow? Of course he did! He was Solomon, the wisest man to ever live! He knew these things, but he sinned anyway. Sometimes knowledge of God’s word isn’t enough. Sometimes wisdom to know the right course to follow isn’t enough. Regardless of knowing the right thing to do, at some point I have to decide to do that right thing. I have to utilize the self-control to follow the wisest course. Knowledge and wisdom won’t help at all unless I decide to make use of my knowledge and wisdom.

Let me pause for a second to say that I am in no way denigrating knowledge and wisdom. These are needful things. After all, in 1 Kings 3:10 it says that God was pleased that Solomon had asked for wisdom and discernment. Hosea 4:6 tells us that knowledge of God is essential to salvation. Throughout the New Testament we are told to pursue knowledge and wisdom. For instance James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.”  Also Paul tells Timothy that in order to be approved, he had to be able to handle the word of truth. That takes both knowledge and wisdom, right? 2 Tim. 2:15 “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.” In 2 Peter 1 we find knowledge right in the middle of the list of “Christian virtues”. It is clear that knowledge of the truth and the wisdom to utilize it are pursuits that all Christians should participate in, yet the clear example of Solomon is that knowledge and wisdom alone aren’t enough. We all know of very capable Bible students who have left the Lord. Without racking my memory, I could tell you of an Elder who left his wife and the Lord. Also, one of the best adult Bible Class teachers I know left his wife and the Lord, though praise God he later repented and returned to each. I’m sure everyone reading this could add to these stories. So following God takes more than just knowledge.

First we need to know where true knowledge and wisdom originate: Prov. 1:7 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” and Prov. 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” If our knowledge and wisdom isn’t based in a fear of God, it isn’t going to help us much. For instance, there are professors of Biblical Studies throughout the Ivy Leagues who have dedicated their lives to studying the Bible and probably know more about it than 99% of Gospel preachers and yet they don’t believe in God. (This is totally mystifying to me.) Do you think their immense Biblical knowledge is going to help them much? Probably not as Heb. 11:6 says that in order to please God one must believe that He is. Unbelieving knowledge often leads to sinful pride. If we aren’t careful, this can even befall believers, as they come to rely on their knowledge rather than on God. This happened to Solomon, as seen in 1 Kings 11:9-13, 40. When he was rebuked by God and told another would rip most of the kingdom from him, Solomon had the temerity to try to kill Jeroboam and thus undo God’s plan. In his pride, he thought he could thwart God. So, as our knowledge of God increases, so must our humility before Him. James 4:7a, 10 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. . . Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

At base all knowledge, however pious, won’t help if we don’t have self-control. We sometimes pray for forgiveness for any sins we might be unaware of, and that’s fine, but let’s be honest for a moment. Most of the time we sin we know we are being tempted, we know that to give in would be a sin, and we decide to do it anyway. Our knowledge didn’t help us then, did it? Except to make us feel that much more guilty later. We need knowledge and wisdom, but we also need to decide to follow that wisdom and knowledge. We need the self-control to follow through on what we know. Unsurprisingly, this is discussed in the scriptures:

Isa. 1:16-17 “Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow's cause.”

God here tells His people to stop sinning. He doesn’t tell them to study more. He doesn’t give them strategies for better success at overcoming temptation. He just tells them to stop. “Cease to do evil.” It is a matter of deciding. To steal from Nike, “Just do it.” Paul also calls for determination:

1 Cor. 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.”

We are to be “steadfast, immovable.” Nothing should shake us from following God. Being immovable doesn’t take gigabytes of knowledge or even the wisdom of the sages. Being immovable just takes a decision and then some stubbornness. (So what’s my excuse?) We need to know God, decide to follow Him, and then be too stubborn to quit. If we follow that formula, we will win. Notice what Peter and James say about the Devil:

1 Peter 5:8-9 “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.”
James 4:7 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Yes, he is dangerous. Yes, he is trying to devour us. Yes, we can resist him. If we do, he will flee. Others are going through it too. Others are winning. So can we. We just have to decide.

I’m proud to be a part of a congregation that makes an effort to have in-depth Bible studies. That is important. However, paying attention in these classes twice a week and listening to two good sermons each week isn’t enough to keep me in the Way. At some point, I have to decide to follow God and to stand fast, immovable.

Lucas Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Keith Ward.
 
How do you measure?  For most of the world the answer is by the metric system.  Where I wish that America had switched to that simpler system in my Dad’s time, I do not want to learn a new system.  Even if done when I was in High School, my lifetime would have been one of confusion between English and Metric. 
 
Sometimes, I measure biblically.  Strings I need regularly for tying things in the garden need to be about a cubit and a handspan—the latter eyeballed.  It is so much easier to stretch the cord along my forearm than to carry about a ruler.  Rows are so many heel-to-toe feet apart.  If I set my mind, I can fall into the drill-field pattern of pacing and measure longer distances very closely—each pace is 2 ½ feet.
 
So, then, how do your measure your Christianity?  I am so many feet and inches tall?  But, how can I look at my life and determine how I measure up?  We know that we are to give all. “It may not take much of a man to be a Christian, but it takes all there is of him.” How should one assess where he stands?
 
The saying is, “Put your money where your mouth is.” So then, how do you spend your money?   Jesus said, "And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by how you use worldly wealth, so that when it runs out you will be welcomed into the eternal homes." (Luke 16:9 NET).  So, how are you doing according to this measure at making heavenly friends?  Certain amounts of everyone’s income are needed for food clothing and shelter.  Certainly we can over-commit in these areas with oversize houses and expensive clothing so that we cannot serve God to the extent we ought.  But, let's keep it simpler.  Out of the money not spent on necessities last year, how much went for pleasure and how much went to God (the latter is not limited to the collection basket on Sundays)?   Pro-rate big items like the TV in relation to their expected lifetime, cable TV bill, movies, vacations, fishing boats, game boys, eating out, etc.  Then add up all you gave on Sunday, all that you spent on Bibles, commentaries and other books to strengthen faith, all money given to the needy or to preachers.   Probably, for many churchgoers, this is not a happy assessment.
 
Or, we could look at it from the viewpoint of how we spend our time.  So much is given to sleep and so much to work.  If one works “as unto the Lord” this is God time.  But, what about the rest of our time?  Truly, time is all we have to give.  Even money is a function of how we spend our time.  So, again, after the necessaries, how much time was spent in pleasure, watching sports or movies, playing video games, vacations, relaxing with a best seller, etc?  Then, how much was spent in prayer, Bible study, reaching out to a co-worker or neighbor with a view to beginning a study, helping the poor, visiting the sick, reading to build our own faith, working to become a teacher, or better teacher, of the Bible?
 
God wants all of us.  Not just church time, all our time.  Certainly, godly fun is part of a godly life, but not only has much of fun become morally corrupting, we have lost all balance and give our pleasure too much of our time.
 
When do we make the time for these:
"Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.  For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?  When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you?  When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.’ " (Matt 25:34-40).

Keith Ward

Today's post is by guest writer Lucas Ward.  It is the last in his series on Proverbs.
 
In a world of situational ethics and the forced acceptance of all beliefs and lifestyles, does it really matter if I live a righteous life?  Is there really any kind of standard?  Who enforces it?  Are there really any consequences for not living righteously?  Again, Solomon weighs in, with at least 68 passages in Proverbs dealing with the idea of blessing for the righteous and punishment for the wicked.
 
Who enforces the standard?
Prov. 17:3  “The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold, and the LORD tests hearts.”
Prov. 15:3  “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” 
God is the judge.  He tests hearts like a goldsmith tests gold.  He sees everything, whether good or bad.
 
Is it really that important?
Prov. 23:15-18  "My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad.  My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right.  Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.  Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off."
Prov. 15:24  “The path of life leads upward for the prudent, that he may turn away from Sheol beneath.”
Prov. 19:16  “Whoever keeps the commandment keeps his life; he who despises his ways will die.”
If you continue in the fear of the Lord, you have a future.  (What's the alternative?  No future.)  The prudent life leads up, away from hell.  The commandment keeper also keeps his life.  Otherwise, he dies.  Is it that important?  Yeah, I'd say so. 
 
Yet, it's not only important because it averts destruction, but because God blesses the righteous.  You see, righteousness allows for hope.
Prov. 10:24, 28  What the wicked dreads will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted. . . . The hope of the righteous brings joy, but the expectation of the wicked will perish." 
While the wicked have nothing but dread, the righteous can confidently expect the joy of the Lord. 
Prov. 11:18  “The wicked earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward.”
Prov. 11:23  “The desire of the righteous ends only in good, the expectation of the wicked in wrath.”
Christians should never feel hopeless.  Because we are living righteous lives, we have a hope that can be counted on. We can wait for the sure reward.  God has also set up many other blessings for the righteous.  (Perhaps this is a good place to remind ourselves that proverbs are general statements that are generally true.  The temporal blessings all carry that caveat, the eternal ones do not.)
 
The righteous are established.
Prov. 10:25  “When the tempest passes, the wicked is no more, but the righteous is established forever.”
Prov. 10:30  “The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land.”
Prov. 12:7  “The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand.”
Prov. 12:19  “Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.”
The wicked often seem to get ahead, but their status rarely survives even in this world and when death comes, they are truly removed.  The righteous remains, and when death comes he is truly established.
 
The righteous are a blessing to their children.
Prov. 11:21  “Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished, but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered.”
Prov. 20:7  “The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him!”
The children of the righteous are blessed and delivered.  They are inherently better off than the children of the wicked.  How often does a kid get a second chance because of who his parents are?  Not the evil influence of powerful men, but a situation like this:  "This is Joe's kid.  Joe's a good guy.  I'm going to give his kid a second chance."  That happens, quite often.  Why?  Because the righteousness of the parent blesses the child.
 
The righteous are provided for.
Prov. 10:2-3  "Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit, but righteousness delivers from death.  The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked."
Prov. 13:25  “The righteous has enough to satisfy his appetite, but the belly of the wicked suffers want.” 
Have Christians ever starved?  Yes.  But the general truth is that, unless he needs them as modern day Jobs, God provides for His own.
 
Prov. 22:4  “The reward for humility and fear of the LORD is riches and honor and life.” 
Prov. 28:25  “A greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the LORD will be enriched.”
We are not proclaiming the Prosperity Gospel, but, generally speaking, if a man is righteous and follows the principles in Proverbs, he will do well for himself.
 
The righteous walk surely.
Prov. 10:9  “Whoever walks in integrity walks securely, but he who makes his ways crooked will be found out.”
Prov. 11:3  “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.”
Prov. 15:19  “The way of a sluggard is like a hedge of thorns, but the path of the upright is a level highway.”
Making decisions about how to live can be hard, but if we follow the principles of righteousness we can be sure of the path.  Our lives will be like a level highway that we can cruise.  Not that everything will be easy, but choosing the path and knowing where to go can be easy if we are guided by righteousness and integrity.
 
The righteous can rely upon God.
Prov. 14:26  “In the fear of the LORD one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge.”
Prov. 18:10  “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.”
Prov. 29:25  “The fear of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is safe.”
Prov. 21:21  “Whoever pursues righteousness and kindness will find life, righteousness, and honor.”
We can trust in the Lord and have a refuge.  He will be a strong tower to keep us safe and as we pursue righteousness, we will find life.  If we live in righteousness, we can count on the Lord for help and protection.
 
Finally, the righteous live.
Prov. 19:23  “The fear of the LORD leads to life, and whoever has it rests satisfied; he will not be visited by harm.”
Prov. 11:19  “Whoever is steadfast in righteousness will live, but he who pursues evil will die.”
Prov. 14:11  “The house of the wicked will be destroyed, but the tent of the upright will flourish.” 
These passages not only show the security of the righteous, but the end of the wicked: death.    We can be blessed by God for living righteously, or we can live in dread because of our wickedness and, ultimately, die. 
 
So, how do I live righteously?  A few quick passages:
Prov. 12:10  “Whoever is righteous has regard for the life of his beast, but the mercy of the wicked is cruel.”
Prov. 29:7  “A righteous man knows the rights of the poor; a wicked man does not understand such knowledge.”
A righteous man is kind even to animals and doesn't squash the rights of the poor.  Instead, he treats them as people too.
Prov. 13:5  “The righteous hates falsehood, but the wicked brings shame and disgrace.” 
Prov. 15:28  “The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil things.”
The righteous man never lies and thinks before he speaks.
Prov. 19:11  “Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.” 
Prov. 12:26  “One who is righteous is a guide to his neighbor, but the way of the wicked leads them astray.”
The righteous man can control his temper and his life is a guide to all who see him. 
 
So, yes, there is a standard, set, and watched, by God.  It does matter because the wicked will be destroyed while the righteous enjoy many blessings both here and eternally. 

Prov. 15:9  “. . . He loves him who pursues righteousness.”
 
Lucas Ward