If the Word of God is not your ultimate authority, then what would be? You could think of several answers: scientific researchers, political leadership, popular philosophers, your own inner voice, your parents, some ancient book of proverbial sayings like Confucius, etc. But what do all of these options have in common? They all come from man and focus on man.
When people hear you talk about your spiritual views...
(Pause. Do people hear you talk about your spiritual views?)
When people hear you talk about your spiritual views, do they hear more about church, programs, and other people, or do they hear about the living God?
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| I was fifteen years old. Lost. Unaware of the road ahead. |
I first trusted Jesus Christ in June of 2006. The Lord had been explicitly drawing me to Himself for months prior. In the first half of December 2005 I was invited to the church I lived next to -- a non-denominational, Bible-based community church. Though my family moved there when I was five, I attended my first service there about a month after I turned sixteen. That Sunday morning I saw joyful faces and heard a joyful noise. I'm sure I heard the gospel. It was different, and I was interested.
That June, though, is when I first expressed personal faith in the Lord. It came about through dramatic circumstances that I wouldn't have chosen for myself if God had consulted me. Praise Him that He didn't.
Last year our church studied John 15, covering verse 13 which says, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." It was a good time to dwell on this verse, as it was just before Veterans Day in America, when we remember the great sacrifice that so many servicemen have made so that we may live in freedom.
Christ's great love for us is a sacrificial love for His friends. It's also a sacrificial love for His enemies (see Romans 5:6-11). This sacrifice liberates captives, releases prisoners, and frees slaves. Sinners are forgiven of all of their sin and law-burdened weaklings are emancipated.
How do you effectively live for God when you can't see Him working?
At times, we can start to live under the impression that we should see and understand God's works in all of our dealings. We begin to think that what God is doing should be relatively obvious, and, if we can't see it, there must be something wrong with us. Or perhaps God is not involved in that particular situation. Or maybe He has abandoned us to one degree or another.
There are some professing Christians in the world who have a very poor attitude toward the church. Sometimes they have been hurt by others; other times they have just never come to understand the purpose of the body of Christ. I always hate to hear someone claiming the name of Christ out of one side of his mouth, while down-playing the importance of regular local church fellowship out of the other.
Fellowship is the life of the church. Without fellowship, our gatherings are just mere meetings instead of being corporate worship experiences. Without fellowship, we are merely associates instead of being brothers and sisters. Without fellowship, God's word ceases to have the effect it should--our common goal being to "love one another" even as Christ has loved us.
Below are some ideas you could employ to deepen your fellowship with the members of the body here this week.
"Proclaim" is a good word. Like any word, it can start to sound and look strange if you repeat it too many times or stare at it long enough. But in English, it comes from the Latin words for "forth" (pro) and "shout" (clamare; think "clamor"). The Greek is similar, as it combines "from" and the base word for "angel," or "messenger." This verb then carries the sense of declaring, announcing, and preaching.
The Apostle Paul used the word in this wonderful verse: "Him (Jesus) we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ," (Colossians 1:28, LSB, emphasis added).
In my eighth grade drafting class, my teacher taught us that the best way to draw a straight line when you don't have a straight edge is to keep your eye on your destination point as you draw the line. Straight edges are best, of course, but many times in life while working in an active job site, you don't have access to one. Often, the project doesn't require perfection anyway.
Scripture says, "Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God," (1 Corinthians 10:31).
"Whatever you do..."
Is this really as broad as it sounds? I'm going to say Yes, as the two examples Paul gives before "whatever" are the ultra-common tasks of eating and drinking. If we are to glorify God in our three meals a day, along with our likely overpriced and probably-not-so-healthy drinks and snacks in-between, then we certainly should seek to glorify God in everything.