AN EXPOSE' OF YOUR SINS!

Through my years - since college days - I've been a fairly consistent reader of the Bible.  I'm fairly familiar with its stories and characters.

As I was reading in Psalms today, I realized something that had never occurred to me before.  

So many of the psalms are written by David - former king of Israel and Judah. Because of his very significant role in the history of Israel, we know a great deal about this man's life!  We know of his humble beginnings as a shepherd.  We are aware of his courage while protecting his sheep against ferocious wild animals.  We know about his exploit with the giant, Goliath!  We've followed the stories of his courage, strength, and wisdom as a fearless military leader.  

But, we also know of his failures.

• his moral failure with Bathsheba
• his guilt in scheming to have her husband killed in battle
• his failures with his children
• the chaos that ensued among his children
• his leadership failures toward the end of his life.

It occurred to me this morning: How would I like it if my sins, failures and shortcomings were broadcast for anyone and everyone to read?  

I can tell you very quickly that I would not like it!  

Yet we know of the failures of so many biblical figures!  

Lot:

• comes off as selfish when he takes the rich valleys and forces Abraham to go into the mountains
• [After the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah] he gets drunk and his daughters sleep with him in order to become pregnant!

Moses: 

• killed an Egyptian and was exiled from Egypt
• threw down the 'Ten Commandments' and broke them
• disobeyed God and was prohibited from entering the 'Promised Land'.  

Jonah:

• ran away as a result of the call of God
• Became angry when the people of Ninevah repented and turned to God

Hosea:

• is instructed by God to marry a prostitute who breaks his heart repeatedly by her wanderings.

Peter:

• reprimanded Jesus and got a surprising response: "Get behind me, Satan!"
• denied knowing Jesus!

There are many more examples that could be shared!  

I suppose we should be grateful that all these quirks are included in the Holy Bible.  They show us that God uses imperfect instruments to get His work done!  They remind us that we are human and that "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" [Romans 3:23]. 

Some of us have sinned greatly!  All of us have sinned and live with regrets.  Fortunately for most of us, our sins have not been published for everyone to read! 

God - in His kindness - did not hide the blemishes in His Word!  The Holy Spirit put them all there for the record - on display!  

God can use flawed people!  God does use those who have sinned greatly!  

He transformed the Apostle Paul who “...persecuted the followers of this Way to their death..." [Acts 22:4]. 

And this practice of God's in the Old and New Testaments has not ended!  He STILL converts people from the enemy's camp and uses them for His mighty purposes!  WOO HOO!  Thanks be to God! 

Perhaps your life has been characterized by shameful behavior or sinful, hostile activity.  You are not beyond His reach!  Oh no!  No one is!  He has transformed many of you to shine for His glory!  And He is still the 'Hound of Heaven'!  He's searching high and low, far and wide for those who will surrender to Him and join His life-saving adventure!  

If you've said 'Yes!' to Him - give thanks!

If you've yet to do so - what are you waiting for?  Say 'Yes!' today and then stand back and see what He wants to do through you!  All this, plus eternity too!  A WIN-WIN!  

MERE HUMAN BEINGS

 The Apostle Paul founded the Corinthian church and, after leaving to plant more churches in other cities, continued to correct it through his letters.  Scholars are quite certain that Paul wrote them at least four letters.  Sometimes, he's simply answering questions that they've asked.  However, in other places, he's clearly trying to correct their beliefs and behavior.  In I Corinthians 3, he is clearly expressing his disappointment in their lack of spiritual growth.

Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?  [vs.1-4]

Paul is not happy with the Corinthians!  They are divided:

...there are quarrels among you.  What I mean is this:  One of you says, "I follow Paul";  another, "I follow Apollos";  another, "I follow Cephas [Peter];  still another, "I follow Christ."  Is Christ divided?  Was Paul crucified for you?  Were you baptized into the name of Paul?  [I Corinthians 1:11b-13]

While Paul was among them, he gave them 'milk' - the elementary truths of the Gospel.  By now, they should be eating 'meat' - having matured and moved on to deeper truths and practices.  But instead, they have failed to grow and mature and are still drinking 'milk'.  Consequently, as their spiritual father, Paul chastises them for their spiritual adolescence.  

In doing so, he refers to them three times as mere men or mere human beings.  

God wants us to be SO MUCH MORE than mere human beings!

God has called us to be holy!  In Matthew 5:48, Jesus challenges us to Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Paul clearly admonishes that he expected the Corinthians to rise above petty arguments and dissensions.  By failing to do so, they besmirch the name of Christ!  

In II Corinthians 4:16-18, Paul tells them how to respond:

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

 His advice here is clear and seems to involve two primary steps:

1. Allow yourself to be renewed day by day!  This means that just attending Sunday worship can't be expected to carry you through the week!  You must make a daily effort to allow the Holy Spirit to mold you, mend you, correct you and teach you.  Our feet are continually rooted to this earth!  We cannot change that.  We will always have human responses to the stimuli of our world.  We must give the Spirit of God regular opportunity to transform those responses and give us a divine perspective!  If we fail to do so - we will revert to being mere human beings!
2. Keep focused on your eternal destiny!  Like Larry Norman said in 1972, "I'm only visiting this planet!"  Our presence here is short - like the dot on the 'i' in 'infinity'.  We will spend ETERNITY in Heaven with our Lord - if we are faithful here!  Don't you see how important this daily renewing is?  In Colossians 3:2, this same Apostle Paul instructs us to set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.  Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things...When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you will also appear with him in glory.  WOO HOO!

Overly Generous God,

Help us to ignore the daily frustrations and temptations of politics, pandemics, and petty preferences!  Soon, we will be done with the troubles of this world.  Soon, and very soon, we are going to see the King!  We need to rise above these things and be more than mere human beings.  We are Christians - Christ Ones!  We live in daily (hourly) (moment-by-moment) dependence upon You!  

Only through daily renewal and keeping focused on Heaven can we rise above these worldly distractions and be the salt and light that You desire us to be!  Thank You for the Apostle Paul and his wisdom!  Thank You for Your Word as it has been preserved for over 2,000 years!  Thank You for giving us Your Holy Spirit to live in us as a ready resource for living godly lives!  And thank You for Jesus and His saving grace and work of redemption!  

You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for you have created all things, and for your pleasure they are and were created.  Amen.

TRANSFORMATION #2 - CALLED TO BE HOLY!

 I love Paul's tact and strategy.  He begins his letter to the Corinthians by affirming and reminding them of some very important things:

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ - their Lord and ours...[v.2]

Just a few verses later, he reminds them again that they are called:

 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.  [v.9]

Eugene Peterson - in THE MESSAGE - paraphrases verse two:

I send this letter to you in God's church at Corinth, Christians cleaned up by Jesus and set apart for a God-filled life.  [v.2]

Sanctified = cleaned up

Called = set apart for a God-filled life!

The Corinthians needed to be reminded of these facts.  So do we!

In his introduction to this letter, Peterson writes:

When people become Christians, they don't at the same moment become nice.  This always comes as something of a surprise.

Conversion to Christ and his ways doesn't automatically furnish a person with impeccable manners and suitable morals.

The people of Corinth had a reputation in the ancient world as an unruly, hard-drinking, sexually promiscuous bunch of people.  When Paul arrived with the Message and many of them became believers in Jesus, they brought their reputations with them right into the church.

Paul spent a year and a half with them as their pastor, going over the Message of the "good news" in detail, showing them how to live out this life of salvation and holiness as a community of believers.  Then he went on his way to other towns and churches.

Sometime later Paul received a report from one of the Corinthian families that in his absence things had more or less fallen apart.  He also received a letter from Corinth asking for help.  Factions had developed , morals were in disrepair, worship had degenerated into a selfish grabbing for the supernatural.  It was the kind of thing that might have been expected from Corinthians!

So, Paul writes them a letter - reminding them first of all that they were cleaned up by God and set apart to live God-filled lives!  

That's always the starting point!  I need to be reminded of these two things frequently.  Don't you?

Left to my own devices, atrophy sets in.  My nature - like a rubber band - tends to return to its natural position.  I need constant input to keep me growing and becoming.   The inputs that are most helpful to me include:

• reading the Word
• talking with God
• worship
• sacraments
• fellowship
• study
• acting out my faith
• meditation
• accountability

When I ignore these practices - I cease moving forward.  I become luke-warm.  I back-slide.  I need an intervention!

Paul's letters were interventions.  Fortunately for us, they've been preserved for two thousand years!  

Need an intervention in your life right now?  Open to I Corinthians and let the Apostle Paul speak into your heart!   

 

 

 

 

 

TRANSFORMATION

Last week we looked at King Saul's life when Samuel anointed him to be the first king of Israel.  In that process, Samuel said to Saul:  [I Samuel 10:6  NIV]

The Spirit of the LORD will come upon you in power, and you will prophesy...and you will be changed into a different person.

What an unusual thing to say!  "You will be changed into a different person."  How?  Why?  Three verses later the biblical record records these words:

As Saul turned to leave Samuel, God changed Saul's heart...

I made a note in my Bible about this:

It seems important to realize at this point that God chose a good man with great potential.  God made an investment in human free will.  It would be Saul's choices that would bring his downfall.

In our New Testaments we find some verses that shed light on this subject.

Romans 12:2 (NASB)

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. 

 Ephesians 4:23-24  (NASB)

...that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. 

[verses 25-32 are so important to read because they describe what this renewed life will look like in VERY practical terms!] 

We're actually talking about a very familiar word here that most of us will remember from our high school science class days:  METAMORPHOSIS! 

Yep!  What happens to that caterpillar inside the cocoon!  A transformation takes place that is EXTRAORDINARY!  An ugly worm is transformed into a beautiful butterfly!  That which was restricted to crawling around on leaves can now FLY!!!!!

This is analogous to what happens to our lives when we present our bodies as living and holy sacrifices to God [Romans 12:1].

The term metamorphoo is found four times in the New Testament.  We've looked at one in Romans 12:2.  Two more are in the Transfiguration account where God's glory shone THROUGH Jesus - not on Him!  The fourth is in II Corinthians 3:18,  [NASB]

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.  

OK, Hal, so what does this all mean?

It's quite simple, really.  It simply means that when we open our lives completely to God, He changes us dramatically!  We begin a process of taking on His character.  The things that used to be important to us, may not any longer be so important.  We begin to love the things and people He loves!  Our priorities change! 

Think of the dramatic change that takes place in that worm!  That's the picture!  Maybe we all need to put pictures of worms and caterpillars on our mirrors and dashboards? 

God really can make that kind of change in your life - if you'll let Him!  I've seen it happen scores (if not hundreds) of times!  He's still transforming me!  PTL!  I think I've been one of His harder cases!  😂  Put your trust in Jesus and let Him begin the transformation now!  This simple prayer will put you on His path:

Lord Jesus, 

As of right now, I give You my life!  Begin to work Your transformation in my life!  I want to be a butterfly for You!  I surrender myself to the cocoon of Your will!  Amen.

JEFF FOXWORTHY

I heard Jeff Foxworthy speak this week and he didn't tell one 'redneck' joke - not one!  He didn't tell any jokes at all!  Yet, he was amazing!

He told of his involvement over recent years in a rescue mission in his hometown, Atlanta, Georgia.  He spoke of leading a men's Bible study there that has grown to nearly 150 men - many of whom are homeless.

He told us of one man in particular who has been turned around by the wornderful grace of God.  Then, Jeff introduced us to that man and we had the opportunity to applaude a formerly homelss man who now has a mansion being built for him in Heaven! 

The whole experience wasn't about Jeff Foxworthy.  It wasn't even about the homeless man.  It was all about Jesus and His transforming power!

Who are you investing in?  How are you loving your neighbor as much as you love yourself?  How is God getting His powerful work done through your life?