Salt and Light Blog

The tornado tragedies in Oklahoma have once again brought to light the brevity of life and the finality of death. There will be many questions as to why this happened and why did innocent children have to die. We will have some speculate on this being an act of God bringing judgment upon the sinfulness of Oklahoma and/or America. We best tread cautiously on the last point.

Our Lord Jesus Christ was asked His opinion of a tragedy in Galilee and Jesus took the high road and avoided the obvious political trap being set for Him. Instead He asked His questioners a question, as was often His habit:

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So baby murderer Kermit Gosnell has given up his right to appeal his sentence “in exchange for avoiding a possible death sentence,” CNN.com reports on its “Justice” web page. You may be thinking, some justice that this murderer gets life after taking so many innocent ones. I know exactly how you feel.

However, I want to go back to what I wrote yesterday:

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Yesterday Kermit Gosnell was found guilty on three of the four charges of baby murder. Much rejoicing was seen on social media and some not so Christlike comments followed on. While I understand the desire for vengeance, no one fights this urge greater than me, we must remember that we have a God of justice even when injustice seems to rule the land. Solomon reminds us:

“Moreover I saw under the sun: in the place of judgment, wickedness was there; and in the place of righteousness, iniquity was there. I said in my heart, ‘God shall judge the righteous and the wicked, for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.’” (Ecclesiastes 3:16-17)

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Last week was a tough week for me. Dealing with the issues of life was trying enough, but knowing what our present government has become in light of the Benghazi hearings it is enough to think of our nation as hopeless. If I were to look horizontally, that is all around me, for signs of hope I would have good reason to think of things as hopeless. But while I am living in this world, I am not of it because I am a child of the one true King as the Matthew West song proclaims.

The early church in Thessalonica felt this same despair in worrying of whether or not they had missed Jesus’ second coming. The Apostle Paul assure this church they had not and that no matter what they were facing, or whatever we are facing, the church is to stand fast in the truth of the gospel. That seems easier said then done when we are hard pressed on all sides but Paul gives us the key ingredients to rock solid faith:

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Abraham’s faith was accounted to him for righteousness. It manifested itself in hope. Hope in what? His hope, driven by his faith, allowed Abraham to believe God when He promised that Abraham’s seed would become a great nation. This promise came to Abraham at the ripe age of 75 and his faith in God’s promise caused him to take his family and leave Haran. The Apostle Paul reminded the Roman’s of Abraham’s great hope in God:

“…who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, ‘So shall your descendants be.’” (Romans 4:18)

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Yesterday in Sunday School we talked about the brevity and uncertainty of life; in other words life is short and we don’t know how it is going to turn out. At least we don’t know the specifics of how this life on earth will unfold. James advises us on that:

“Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.” (James 4:13-16)

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This year I finally bit the bullet and joined a fantasy baseball league. Those who know me know how big of a San Francisco Giants fan I am. I love baseball and I’ve heard all the horror stories of baseball fans getting involved in fantasy leagues to the point of ridiculousness. Some even go as far as lose contact with reality and start neglecting all other things for the sake of their “team.”

I can almost see how that can happen. My fantasy baseball team is not doing so well; in fact it’s the worse team in the league. Now the majority of my team is made up of San Francisco Giants players so one would naturally think that the actual Giants team is probably in last place too. While they are not playing up to their potential, especially their pitching staff, they are still 13-7 and one game out of first place in the National League West Division.

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Our pastor Bro Dennis is beginning a men’s study on leadership. Men, if you are a member of Midway Baptist Church or live in the Florida Panhandle, please consider this an invitation to join us on Monday evenings from 6:00 – 7:30 (Bible Study begins at 6:30).

I am so looking forward to this teaching.

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You’ve no doubt heard of the Pennsylvania Army Reserve officer who gave a briefing on religious extremism and put evangelical Christianity at the top of the list followed by Catholicism. Just for the record, this was the sole act of one misguided reserve officer and not the point of view of the United States Army, at least not officially.

A colleague of mine sent me the link to the article and said, “The Army has just labeled you as an extremist.” My reply to him was, “Yes, if only we were as extreme for Christ as some believe us to be. This country would not be in the mess it is in today.”

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Technorati Tags: bible thumpers, Bill O'Reilly, evangelicals

Is there anything more frustrating for a Christian than someone you have witnessed to who believes in Christ but will not confess Him because of how it may be received by others? That frustration is not a rare emotion; in fact a couple of days before Christ was crucified, He experienced that same frustration:

“Nevertheless even among the rulers many believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they did not confess Him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. Then Jesus cried out and said, ‘He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me.’” (John 12:42-45)

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Last night I presented this question to my social media followers and blog email list:

“What does the Bible think about social issues? Is it inclusive and welcoming? Is it concerned with limiting its ability to attract young people and others, including many women, who agree with the Bible on some but not all issues?”

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I’ve decided to combine the last step in our spiritual growth with its ultimate destination. Brotherly kindness is heavenly linked to love, which agape love is our ultimate destination in our spiritual growth. When we learn to love like Jesus loves, then we have arrived as a Christian. Loving like Jesus does is humanly impossible. It takes amazing grace to have this type of love. It is not human love; it is spiritual love.

The Greek word we get brotherly love from is philadelphia, yes the word from where we get our Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love as it is known. This word literally means “love for the brethren.” The brethren are fellow believers; members of the Body of Christ. If we are going to grow into Christlikeness, we must love our brothers and sisters in Christ. it is not optional:

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Last time we met we talked about perseverance. We learned that it is important that we endure and never quit knowing that our Lord Jesus Christ endured on the cross. We finished stating that if we will persevere, then the holiness, the Christlikeness, the godliness we so desperately need and hopefully desire, will follow.

The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology defines godliness as “the manner of life that is centered on God, with special reference to devotion, piety, and reverence toward Him. It can be defined as the conjunction of an attitude of devotion to God and of the consequent right conduct.”

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My pastor uses a most excellent word for perseverance: stickability. It means sticking to the task no matter how great the challenges. It means never giving up on God because He is never giving up on us. It means giving all diligence to our spiritual growth.

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins.” (2 Peter 1:5-9)

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We have many enemies in this world. Our greatest enemy, for those without Christ, is death. Death is the enemy of God. God created life; Satan created death, despair, and disease. Suffering is the antithesis to creation. As you read the creation story in Genesis 1 you see death, despair, and disease were not a part of the original plan. In fact when God finished, the Bible tells us:

“Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day.” (Genesis 1:31)

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If we were to be perfectly honest, I would guess that 75% of Christians struggle the most with self-control – especially men. Whether it be lusts of the flesh, our tongues, covetousness, whatever the issue, we struggle with self-control. For many of us, we try to get to a level of temperance without first building our faith, integrity, and Biblical wisdom. And it’s not a destination either; we have to maintain those if we are to achieve and sustain self-control.

At times I like to pat myself on the pat if I have “a good week” of walking the straight and narrow, but I really shouldn’t:

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My apologies for taking so long to get to our second characteristic in spiritual growth – knowledge. After virtue comes knowledge, the type of knowledge that we get from learning about God through His holy word. We are students of God.

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge…” (2 Peter 1:5)

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In his second epistle, the Apostle Peter gives us seven steps to spiritual growth.

“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:5-8)

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So how do we keep from backsliding, and once we find ourselves in such a state how do we get back? The answer is simple but the execution is not always easy. It dovetails with trying to figure out God’s will for our lives. I’ve written this before but it bears repeating: so many Christians struggle with trying to figure out God’s will for their lives. Well, do you do what you already know what God wants you to do? If you know what God wants you to do, then do what He wants you to do. Jesus said:

“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” (John 14:15)

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We never just walk away. We are prone to wander. That’s why Jesus called us sheep. Without following the sound of our Shepherd, by not remaining with the flock, we wander off. We walk into all types of danger. That’s why Jesus told the Parable of the Lost Sheep in Matthew 18 of the rejoicing of one found, not one saved, but of one found that has returned. (see Luke 15 for one saved).

“Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” (Matthew 10-14)

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