Summer in the Scriptures

This week we have been listening to some of my favorite passages in the Bible. Paul was such an amazing example of what God can do in a person’s life. The amazing thing to remember is that Jesus rescued Paul while he was out to destroy the Way. The Spirit of God completely transformed Paul’s heart. “For God who said, “Let light shine out of the darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). It so amazing to watch how Paul becomes completely consumed with spreading the gospel when at one time he tried to destroy it. This week we listened to 3 of the prison epistles. Even as Paul was in prison, he could not think of anything but how good and merciful God is and about the mission that we have to spread the gospel. When he wrote the words “to live is Christ and to die is gain,” he meant every word of it. I encourage you to watch for his devotion to the gospel as you continue to listen to his letters. It is so challenging think about, and yet we are called to the same level of devotion.

Summer in the Scriptures Week 10

More and more God is proving to me that if we seek Him and listen, He will speak to us. He is a near God, loving and patient and desiring what is best for us: Himself. The more time that I spend in the New Testament with a fresh perspective, the more I realize that God has brought us from death to life, and there is a big difference between a dead person’s way of life and a living person’s way of life. We are called to a drastically different existence than the lost world around us. We were not saved so that we could go to church and sing praise music with a clear conscience. We have been saved so that, as 1 Peter says, “you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light.” We are saved so that our lives, in every way, would shout to the world around us that God is glorious, and He is a God who saves sinners.

In 1 Corinthians 15:19 Paul says something kind of strange, but I think with the right mindset we know exactly what he means. The verse reads, “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” What does that mean?! Paul is saying something that is really hard here. He is saying that a true, Spirit-filled, God-pleasing believer lives his or her life in such a way that if Christ were not raised, his or her life would be a complete waste. If Jesus is not alive, there is no excuse for the life they live. Many times I fear in my own life that I live a life that would still make sense if I weren’t a Christian. Is my existence really dependent on the resurrection? This is a powerful, powerful question. God has called us to so much more than just a happy materialistic life. He has called us to so much more than 15 minutes a day with Him. He has not saved us to fill churches; He has saved us to be the church. Every second, every dime, every word, every thought, every step, every relationship, every job, and anything else that is part of our lives is to be completely for Him. There is no partial Christian. Christ died that He could rescue us from our old futile way of life. My prayer for myself and for the people of God is that we live such devoted lives that if Christ was not alive, our lives would be absolutely wasted. Let it all hang on the fact that Christ is risen! He is alive and our lives are by Him and for Him!

Summer in the Scriptures

“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:26-27).

God is so different from what we expect. He does not think the way we think or act the way we act. In my mind, I think God would be able to use the strong and the talented more than the weak and worthless. Have you ever thought to yourself before that if only “that person” would get saved, they could do such great things for God. This mindset comes from the value we place on ability. We think someone is greater because of the things they can do or the things they have, but God steps in and says that He is interested in the weak and the powerless, the dirty, the poor, the nothings. I think Oswald Chambers said it beautifully, “It is not a question of our equipment but of our poverty, not of what we bring with us, but of what God puts into us.” God is not concerned with how much ability someone has or how much money and fame someone has. God can take the most useless people and put the strong to shame. He can take the most foolish and shame the wise. God is the focus here. Which is greater, someone using their futile human strength or wisdom or someone who has nothing but God in them. God is greater. God is stronger. He is not looking for someone to help him with all their greatness. He is looking for humble, broken people that He can work mightily through. All this is so at the end of it all, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:31). Glory to God who takes the worthless and changes the world!

Summer In the Scriptures Week 8

This has been a great week in the New Testament. I love the book of Acts and am always challenged by the radical faith of the disciples. As the Holy Spirit filled the believers their lives became more and more saturated by Jesus and His mission. This week we have been listening about Paul’s journeys. This man was  brought to His knees and blinded by a great light. From that point Paul was a changed man. His impact throughout the known world at that time was vast and amazing. As I read through the Bible, there are always examples of faith that I desire. Paul’s life and dedication to following Jesus and loving Him more than anything else is so challenging, but my prayer is that I could live a bold life like He did. My prayer is that we all leave an impact that completely changes History. Jesus chose Paul to do some amazing things and completely change the world. I know God is willing to do the same thing in any one of our lives if we are ready to follow Him completely.

Summer in the Scriptures

Acts 1:8 – “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samria, and to the end of the earth.”

There a lot of things that people think about when they think about the Holy Spirit, especially what it means to be filled with the Spirit. I have been thinking about Acts chapter one a lot this week. Many times we make the Holy Spirit out to be some mysterious force that God gives to help us, but that is far from what Scripture teaches. The Holy Spirit is a person; He is God in us. Jesus said that it would be better for us if He went to be with the Father because then we could have the Spirit. God has been teaching me a lot about the Spirit over the past several weeks. One particular aspect that is surprising in Acts chapter one is that Jesus tells the disciples that they will be filled with power from the Spirit and then be witnesses in all the world. As the Spirit fills them, they will not just have a powerful worship service or pray a lot. They will impact those in their neighborhoods, regions, countries, and the whole world. As we seek to know the Spirit more and to be closer to Him, it is only natural that our desires become what He desires: that all the earth would give glory to God.  This is a true sign that we are being filled and led by the Holy Spirit of God.  Do our hearts beat with the Father’s? Do we see life and the world through our eyes or His?

Summer in the Scriptures Week 6

God’s Word is so rich. His promises are true, and it is full of power. God has really been growing my desire for His Word lately. I love to hear, read, and dig into the treasures of Scripture. This is not always the case though. I wish I could say that I always have an intense desire to spend large quantities of time in the Word, but I don’t. My prayer and desire, however, is that God would continually fix my gaze on Him and Him alone. He is gracious and good, and I am so grateful that God has been teaching me.

Chris, what are you getting at? In John 10 this week Jesus says some pretty amazing things. The whole book of John is an amazing book, though. I love going through it. In verses 27-29 Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” This little passage is so encouraging. Christ tells us that, first of all, those who really know Him hear His voice. When He calls, commands, speaks, and reminds us of things through the Word and those around us, we can hear Him. The next thing is that He says He knows us. He knows us more than we can possibly imagine, better than we know ourselves, and more than we want to be known. He knows our weaknesses, our pasts, our failures, and our inadequacies, and the most amazing part is that He still loves us and keeps us and works in and through us. No one can snatch us out of the Father’s hand. We may go up and down, and we may fall to pieces, but we are held by One who is greater than all. Isn’t it good that we have such a good Shepherd? He is so patient and good to us. “He who began a good work in you will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6). Amen.

Summer in the Scriptures Week 5

“Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are my witnesses of these things” (Luke 24:46-48).

This is it. This is the reason we have been saved, the reason God has redeemed us. It is so that we would make much of Him by proclaiming the gospel to the ends of the earth, to every city in Mississippi, every state in America, and every nation in the world. We have not been called to build careers or collect nice things. We have been commanded to go to every place declaring the greatness of God and all that He has done through His Son Jesus.

Often, we tend to focus on our salvation in kind of a selfish way. We think about the way that God has saved and forgiven us, and somewhere along the way we think we’re done. “That’s it. Now I’m just waitin’ for heaven.” But that is not the way God works. He does not save people for their sake. He saves people for His name’s sake (Psalm 25:11, Isaiah 43:7). God’s purpose for calling us out of darkness and into His marvelous light is that we would proclaim His excellencies all over the world. There is a day coming when we will spend eternity in perfect fellowship with our God, but we cannot waste the life and opportunities He has given us right now. The challenge is this: are we willing to truly be disciples of Jesus? Are we ready to devote our entire lives to telling others about His glory and the life-giving gospel of Jesus Christ?

Summer in the Scriptures Week 4

Everyone has a past.  Some of us have a worse past than others. I know that my life was an absolute wreck before I came to Christ and surrendered my life to Him. I was not clean; I was not worthy. I was a sinful wretch that God radically saved and transformed.

This week in Luke there is a passage that  completely overwhelmed me. In Luke chapter 7 there is a sinful woman that washes Jesus’ feet with her tears and then anoints His feet with perfume. The Pharisees are astounded that Jesus does not condemn this woman for the sinner that she is. Instead Jesus tells a story to show what is really happening. Two men had a debt. One had a small debt, and one had a large debt. The lender forgave them both. Which one loved him more? Peter says that the one with the larger debt obviously appreciates the forgiveness more.

Now I don’t think that Jesus is saying that someone that got saved as a child won’t love Him as much as a criminal getting saved having done all kinds of terrible things. The point is that this woman knew who she was in the presence of Jesus. We are all guilty of more debt that we can imagine. The question is do we see it? Or are we more like the Pharisees who saw only their “goodness?” God give grace to the humble, but He is opposed to the proud. Charles Spurgeon once said that the better we understand the greatness of our sin , the better we can understand the greatness of our Savior’s.

Summer in the Scriptures Week 3

Each week gets better and better as I am surrounded by God’s word. I hope all of you are experiencing new depth and challenges as we make our way through the Scriptures.

One particular passage that stuck out this week was Mark 12:41-44. In these verses Jesus is watching people give money to the offering box. First of all, that would be really intimidating. Second, he makes an interesting comparison between the  rich people and one poor widow. All of the rich people he watches “put in large sums” (v.41), but then the widow comes up and puts in “two small copper coins” (v.42). These rich people were not necessarily being cheap. They gave a lot of money, but Jesus is not impressed by their giving. The widow put in two small coins that add up to about 1/64 of a day’s wage. So basically, this widow didn’t put anything in that would help do anything, but Jesus says that she gave all she had to live on. Don’t miss this. Giving large sums unsacrificially, or out of our abundance, is not what Jesus wants from us. He doesn’t need us to just give Him some money. This passage points again to a hard truth that Jesus is calling us to devote all that we have to the God who gave it to us. This widow did not know what she was going to do from there, but her God promised He would provide, so she gave it all and followed.

Summer in the Scriptures Week 2: The Reward of Following

This week has been another amazing week in God’s Word.  The Bible is so alive.  Last week I spent some time sharing about the simplicity of the call of Christ, the call to leave everything and follow Him.  Briefly, I want to explore the reward of following Jesus.  Now, this is directly linked to giving up everything we have and following Christ to make His name known to every tribe, tongue, and nation.

At the end of Matthew 19, after Jesus has just told the rich young man to sell everything he has and give it to the poor, Peter looks at Jesus and asks, “See, we have left everything and followed You.  What then will we have?”  Then, Jesus answers Peter, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.”  The call is steep, but Jesus promises that the reward for following Him is better than money, than earthly “stuff.”  It is better than the American dream.  To follow Him costs everything, but the reward far outweighs the pain and sacrifice.  This is why in the midst of prison and possibly being put to death Paul says that “to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).  Imagine what the world would look like if we really believed like this.

God, by Your grace, make us a people that truly follow You.  Make us a people that live to see the gospel taken to every nation, tribe, and tongue, and make us a people that live for treasure in heaven and not just for what our culture sells.