Let's Remember

"For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you; that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."
In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes."
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 (NKJV)

If you have ever taken a trip to popular tourist destination you have probably seen souvenir stands selling all kinds of things that are associated with that place or some famous landmark there.  When people buy these souvenirs it is normally not because the souvenir is so valuable or that it even meets a need in their life.  People buy souvenirs to remember their trip and to remind themselves about all of the wonderful things that happened during that time, it is all about remembering.

For many Christians, Communion (or as some call it, the Lord's Supper) is nothing more than a ritual with no real significance to it.  Others have ideas, some of them not even biblical, about the meaning behind Communion.  Still other believers argue about how often someone should have Communion or exactly what someone should eat or drink during this time.  The problem with all of that is that the true meaning behind Communion and what it should mean for us today is lost.

Paul said that as often as we take Communion we are proclaiming the Lord's death; it is a time to remember what Jesus did for us.  It is not a time for us to think about our past mistakes and failures but to remember that through the blood of Jesus we have been forgiven.  Communion is about remembering that God loved us so much He sent His only Son to die for us.  The next time you receive Communion make it a time of remembering all of the wonderful things that Jesus has done.

Teach Your Mouth What To Say

"The heart of the wise teaches his mouth, and adds learning to his lips."
Proverbs 16:23 (NKJV)

If you were interested in getting physically fit you might hire a personal trainer to design a set of exercises to help you reach your goal.  That person could also monitor your progress and help you make any necessary corrections.  If you needed to learn how to drive you would find a qualified driving instructor to give you lessons on how to drive a car and they could ride along with you during the learning process to help you.  If you wanted to learn another language you could go to a school or even hire a private teacher to help you with the language and give you advice on how to speak the language.

One area that everyone can use help with is with the words we speak.  Our words are very important, which is why we see over and over again in the Bible an emphasis on being sure we speak the right words.  How do we know the right words to speak?  The first way is by seeing what God Himself has said about us and our life in His Word, the Bible.  Secondly, the Holy Spirit will help to guide us into speaking the right words.  However, even though the Bible shows us what to say and the Holy Spirit will direct us about what to say it is still up to us to say the right thing, we must choose the right words.

Proverbs 16:23 gives us the answer to how this will work in our life.  From our heart, our inner man, our spirit, we must teach and train our mouth about the right things to say.  We should never allow our mouth to just express whatever might come to our mind or repeat anything we hear.  We must keep a constant vigil over our words to be sure that what we speak is in line with God's Word.  We must fill ourselves with God's Words and choose the right words to speak in every situation; God will help us, but from our heart we must direct our mouth about what to say.

An Attitude Of Gratitude

"And they agreed with him, and when they had called for the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.  So they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.  And daily in the temple, and in every house, they did not cease teaching and preaching Jesus as the Christ."
Acts 5:40-42 (NKJV)

The perspective you view things with is very important.  It has been said that people view a glass of water as either being half full or half empty.  The contents of the glass are exactly the same for both people but the perspective the glass is seen with is different.  Our attitude is based on our perspective and people with a positive perspective will have an overall better attitude than people with a negative perspective.  If we look for the positive aspects of things rather than the negative it will help us to be thankful and have an attitude of gratitude.

In Acts 5 we see that the disciples were put into prison by some religious leaders but God miraculously delivered the disciples.  Then God told the disciples to go to the temple and teach the people, so they did, and then the disciples were arrested again!  This time the religious leaders were so upset that they wanted to kill the disciples, but instead they just beat them and told the disciples not to speak in the name of Jesus anymore.  When the disciples were set free they went away rejoicing!  The disciples saw a positive aspect in their situation and rejoiced and gave thanks to God.

Many people focus on their problems rather than on the good things in their lives.  This is seen in their unthankful, ungrateful attitude.  God wants us to have an attitude of gratitude and to be thankful in every situation and circumstance of life. No matter how bad things might appear to be, or how bad things really are, if we look a little bit we can find something to be thankful for, just like the disciples did.  We all need to guard ourselves from the ungrateful, unthankful attitude that is so prevalent today.  By being thankful for the things we do have we can keep an attitude of gratitude.

What Would Jesus Do?

"For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent me." 
John 6:38 (NKJV)

Several years ago there was a popular wrist band that had the question, "What Would Jesus Do?" on it.  Most of the time the wrist band simply read, "WWJD" and people understood the reference.  The idea behind this wrist band was that if we want to know the right way to live we can look at how Jesus lived and do that same thing.  Although it is nice to think that we can always know what to do by just simply reading about the life of Jesus and imitating what He did, that is not exactly how our life should function.

While Jesus is our example for how to live a life pleasing to God we cannot just imitate everything He did in every situation.  For example, we read about Jesus going to a wedding where He turned water into wine.  It is doubtful that this is the will of God for us the next time we go to a wedding but it is the only example we have of Jesus attending a wedding.  Another instance would be with the people that Jesus raised from the dead.  The next time we go to a funeral are we supposed to raise someone from the dead?  That is most likely not the case.

Jesus came to do the will of God, not to do His own will or just copy someone else.  God had a plan for what Jesus was to accomplish while He was on the earth and the same thing is true for us.  While there certainly are many principles we can take from the life of Jesus and use examples from how He did things to be successful and pleasing to God we must realize that we are individuals that God also has a plan for.  God has given us His Word and placed the Holy Spirit inside of us to help direct us in every area of our lives.  Jesus purpose in life was to do the will of God, let's have the same goal!

Influences

"Joash did what was right in the sight of the Lord all the days of Jehoiada the priest.
Now after the death of Jehoiada the leaders of Judah came and bowed down to the king. And the king listened to them."  
2 Chronicles 24:2, 17 (NKJV)

We have all seen examples of how one thing influences another; like how the moon affects the ocean's tides.  Another example would be how the shining of the sun influences the temperature.  But what if somehow the moon no longer had an effect on the ocean or the sun did not shine?  The results would not be good.  God created things to be interconnected with some things having an effect on other things.  Our world is an amazing place when we understand how so many things have an influence on other things and if that influence would be removed negative consequences would follow.

King Joash reigned over Judah for forty years.  For a time he did well and followed God, but that only lasted as long as Jehoiada who was the priest at the time was alive.  The influence of Jehoiada was seen in how Joash lived and reigned and how that once Jehoiada the priest was gone things changed.  Joash went from being a good king to a bad king largely due to the people who influenced him.  He did what was good when he had the influence of Jehoiada the priest, but Joash became a bad king once Jehoiada died and Joash even ended up killing the next priest, who was Jehoiada's son!

God created us as individuals and while it is important for us to grow and mature spiritually so that we can stand on our own, we were never meant to live life alone.  Even people who are not believers in Jesus are aware that anyone who has no relationships, or only has bad relationships, will not do well.  We are all influenced by the people around us and we need to be sure the people we allow into our lives are good, godly people.  Christians are a part of the Body of Christ and we should be a positive influence by helping and encouraging one another; we all need to be a good influence on others.

Smoothing Out The Rough Spots

"All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 
that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
2 Timothy 3:16, 17 (NKJV)

Recently I was at the dentist having a cavity filled.  Dental work is not something that people necessarily look forward to but when something needs to be done just putting dental work off is not a good idea.  My dentist does a great job and I am always satisfied with the work that has been done.  But after this recent visit I noticed that something was not quite right.  The tooth that I had the work done on had a rough spot on it, a bump that needed to be smoothed down.  While I might have been able to just ignore the bump it was better to have it taken care of so there were no further problems.

One aspect of the Christian life that people do not necessarily look forward to or get excited about is in the area of spiritual growth.  Once we become a Christian and make the step to follow Jesus by receiving Him into our heart and life we start the process of spiritual growth.  As we walk with God there may be some rough spots in our life, some bumps along the way that need to be dealt with so there are no further problems in the future.  The way we take care of the bumps and smooth out the rough spots in our life is through the Word of God; God's Word is given to us to help us grow and develop spiritually.

Paul told Timothy that God's Word is profitable for our doctrine, for reproof, correction, and instruction in righteousness; it is what we need to show us the right things to believe, to help us avoid error, to correct us, and to guide us in our life.  The Word of God is necessary for us to live a successful Christian life because it will help us to grow and develop spiritual showing us the right and wrong in every aspect of our life.  God's Word was given to us so we would be complete (mature) and equipped for all that God has called us to do; we need to let God's Word help us smooth out the rough spots in our life.

Bible Buffet

"Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"
From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more."
John 6:60, 66 (NKJV)

There are many different types of restaurants.  Some specialize in a certain type of food, some are only for people who want to come in and sit down to eat, and some restaurants are manly for customers who want to order food and take it with them.  Some restaurants have complete meals that you can order while others offer a buffet where you can choose different foods to eat and take what you like and leave what you don't want.  Unfortunately some Christians also have this kind of view of the Bible and the truth they like to listen to; however, there is no such thing as a Bible buffet.

One day while Jesus was teaching in the city of Capernaum He said some things that seemed to offend some people.  They said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it" or in other words, this is something that is hard to hear, who can listen to teaching like this?  What Jesus said was not well received and the result was that many of His disciples, the people who had been following Him and listening to Him, would no longer follow Him.  These people were guilty of the Bible buffet mentality.  There were some things they liked to hear and when they heard something they did not like they turned away.

God has given us His Word as a guideline for our lives.  But, we cannot just pick and choose the things in the Bible that we want to focus on and hear about while neglecting other parts.  We like to hear about benefits and blessings but not so much about how we need to walk in love, to serve others, to give, or to grow up spiritually, just to name a few things.  Sometimes we can be just like these disciples in John 6 and turn away from the things we don't want to hear.  We all need to be the type of Christians who know the whole Word of God and not just try to live on a Bible buffet.

Our Part And God's Part

"Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem.  And the power of the Lord was present to heal them."
Luke 5:17 (NKJV)

What would you do if you walked into a room that was dark but you did not turn on the light?  Would you say that there was something wrong with the light bulb or that maybe the electric company was not doing its job?  Or would you realize that you needed to do something to take advantage of what was already provided through the electric company and the light bulb and so you needed to turn on the light?  This example almost sounds ridiculous but it is the same thing that is happening with many people, including Christians, all over the world today.

In Luke 5 we see Jesus teaching a group of people and we are told that the power of the Lord was present.  But the only person in the story who benefited from the power of God was the man who was let down through the roof by his friends, this man was healed.  Just coming into contact with God will not necessarily change things; we have a part to play in it.  Some people have said that the Pharisees and other teachers were religious hypocrites and that is why they did not receive anything, but there is another similar story like this about Israel, God's people, in the Old Testament.

In 1 Samuel 4 we see Israel preparing for battle and the priests bring the Ark of the Covenant, which was symbolic of the presence of God.  The people shouted because God was with them, but they were still defeated!  Why was it that although God was there in both situations almost no one benefited?  The problem was not that God needed to do something, but God needed someone else to do something.  In every situation we need to see what God is directing us to do and not just wait for Him to do something.  God has done His part to provide for us by sending Jesus, have we done our part?

Let Peace Rule

"And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful."
Colossians 3:15 (NKJV)

Most people do not like excessive rules but most people do like some type of rules or guidelines.  If there were no rules or guidelines then the result would be chaos.  But the question is, what are the rules or guidelines in any situation?  In sports there are referees who help to guide and direct the players to follow the rules.  If one of the players does something that goes against the rules the referee will do something to let that player know that there is a problem and what is being done must stop.  A referee is placed in a contest to help direct the players to stay within the guidelines of the sport.

Most Christians do not like excessive rules but most Christians do agree that there has to be some way for a believer to have safe guidance in life and a way to do the things that please God.  While we do not have any official Christian referees within churches we do have the Holy Spirit living in us to help us.  The Bible says in Romans 8:16 that the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.  That simply means that there is agreement, or peace, between the Holy Spirit and our spirit.  We need to have this peace as the rule that guides our life.

Christians can get into trouble by not allowing the peace of God to rule in their life; they do something but do not have a sense of peace in their heart, so is not something that the Holy Spirit is directing them to do.  We must always walk in the peace of God by following the direction of the Holy Spirit and the steps He guides us to take in life.  These steps can be things He speaks to our hearts, something He shows us in the Word of God, or just the sense of peace within us knowing that a certain thing is the right thing to do.  We must allow the peace of God to rule in our heart and in our life.

Patience And Comfort From The Word

"For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope."
Romans 15:4 (NKJV)

Everyone has different tastes, things they like and don't like.  Personally I like to ride on roller coasters.  For me, going through the ups and downs as well as the curves on these amusement park rides are great!  But, while I really do like to ride on roller coasters I do not want to spend my entire life on one.  A roller coaster is fun for a while and even though I enjoy them it is not where I want to be all day, every day.  There are things like this that can be fun for a while but before long they lose their appeal, we all like things to be a little more settled than what we would experience on a roller coaster.

Romans 15:4 points out some very important truths for us as believers.  First it tells us that the things that were written before, in God's Word, were written for our learning.  God cares about us so much that He had some things written that can help us in our life.  Second we see that the Scriptures, God's Word, give us patience and comfort so that we can have hope.  This is another great thing to know; God's Word brings comfort to us and helps us to be patient.  The word patient here means to have cheerful or hopeful endurance, or we could say that it is talking about staying the same all the time.

God gave us His Word for a reason and His Word will do something in us.  God does not want us to have a roller coaster life where we are up and down all the time, living life based on our circumstances or feelings.  There is another good point here too, what we hear from God and His Word will bring us stability and comfort.  God wants to help us not hurt us, even if we have made a mistake.  If we hear something that brings fear, confusion, or doubt then it is not coming from God and His Word.  God wants us to life a life of stability and peace so we can do His will and help others to do the same.

A Sure Thing

"For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day."
2 Timothy 1:12 (NKJV)

We all like a sure thing, something that there is no question about and where there is no possibility of a mistake.  This is a nice thought, but in our everyday life it is not entirely realistic.  People like to say that the only things in life that are a sure thing are death and taxes, but there are some other things as well.  For example, we can be sure that we will see the sun rise in the morning and set in the evening.  We can be sure that dogs will bark, birds will sing, and fish will swim.  We do not have to just wish that these things were true, we have all seen and experienced them for ourselves.

One thing that is unique to Christianity, especially when compared to other religious beliefs, is confidence; confidence in our salvation and in everything God has said to us in His Word.  We are certain that because we have placed our trust in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior that we have an eternal home in heaven for all of eternity.  We can be confident that God is who He says He is and that His Word is true.  We can see God through the things He created in this world and we can take advantage of everything He has said in His Word by simply believing it is true and acting on what He has said.

Not being sure about something is a bad place to be.  But millions of people today do not live a life of security with a certainty about what will happen when they die or if what they believe will really work in their life.  So many people are really just blindly hoping something good will happen for them without any real guarantee of success.  Like Paul, Christians can boldly declare that because we know the God we believe in is real and His Word is true we can be sure that He will do what He has said.  When you put your trust and confidence in God and His Word you then have a sure thing!

Do The Word That You Have Heard

"Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.  But be ye doers of the word, and not hears only, deceiving yourselves."
James 1:21, 22 (NKJV)

What would it be like if you just got more and more of something but never used it?  What if you owned one hundred pairs of shoes and then just kept buying more and more shoes, could you ever really use all of those shoes?  What if you had one hundred pairs of pants and then bought one hundred more pairs of pants, would that even make sense?  While it is not wrong to have a lot of something there does come a point where if we are not making good use of what we have then there is no real reason to have it.  What we have is only good if we can use it and get some benefit from it.

James 1:21, 22 tells us that we need to receive the Word; but if we are not doers of the Word we receive then we deceive ourselves.  We can deceive ourselves by not doing the Word and then not having the abundant life God wants us to have so we start to believe that the God kind of life is not for us.  We can deceive ourselves by not doing the Word and thinking that what we need is more of something else when we already have the Word from God we need and we are just not putting that Word to use.  If we only hear the Word but do not practice the Word we will not have God's best in our life.

Some people just get more and more of God's Word without putting the Word into practice in their lives.  When we hear the Word we need to do something with it.  If we are just accumulating more and more knowledge without any practical application that is not so good, knowledge is only valuable when it can be used.  We need to take the Word of God that we receive in our life and make it a part of our life and use God's Word to help other people.  God gives us His Word for a reason and it is when we put it into practice and use it in our life that we receive God's best!

Faith Comes By Hearing

"So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."
Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

Have you ever wondered why some people do the things they do?  It can be very interesting to be in places like an airport where you can see a wide variety of people with a wide variety of ways of doing things.  But just looking at people and how they act will never fully reveal the motivation behind their actions and lifestyle.  To really know why people do things the way they do you would have to find out more about those people and their background; what is it that has shaped the life of someone to cause them to be who they are?  The answer is that people are shaped by the things they hear.

What we have heard, whether good or bad has had an influence on us and helped to shape us into the kind of people that we are today.  In Romans 10:17 it tells us that faith comes by hearing, what we hear will do something in us.  The things we hear have an impact on us, for good or bad, and will eventually dominate our lives.  Some people would disagree but can you find a successful person who always talks about and listens to words of defeat and discouragement?  Can you find a person who has a terrible life who is always talking about and hearing good, positive things?

God has given us His Word to build good things into us; faith, wisdom, and strength will all come through hearing God's Word but doubt, depression, and confusion will come through hearing something else.  We should not just listen to everything and anything that is available to hear, and we certainly do not need to read everything that someone might write in a book or put somewhere on the Internet.  What we hear will build something into us.  There are many things we can hear but we need to put God's Word in first place above everything else that we might listen to, read, or say.

What Are You Zealous For?

"For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it.  And I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers."
Galatians 1:13, 14 (NKJV)

Have you ever watched a sporting event on television and seen some of the people in the stands who are there to watch their favorite team?  Some people are very committed to their sports teams and show this by how they act, what they say, and even how they dress.  Some people don't care for sports but they do follow some music group, singer, or entertainer. This type of person who closely follows and identifies with some sports team, musician, or someone else is referred to as a fan.  It is interesting to note that, according to the dictionary, the word fan is most likely derived from the word fanatic.

In Galatians Paul talked about how he was zealous for the traditions of his fathers.  This word "zealous" means, to burn with zeal, to be eagerly desirous of something, or to vehemently content for something.  This is not just a passive or mild desire or thought about something, it is an all consuming passion.  In fact, this word Paul used can be traced back to a word that means to boil with heat, like boiling water.  Paul was zealous for Jewish tradition, you could even say he was a fan of it.  Paul was very committed to what he believed, but what he believed was not right.

There are many things that people are zealous about.  But like Paul, people can be very committed to and passionate about something and still be wrong, even with religious things.  As Christians we identify with Jesus and should be zealous about following Him and doing His will; we can find God's will in His Word, the Bible.  How we live, what we say, our goals and dreams should all fall in line with God and His Word.  It is good to be zealous but we need to be zealous for the right things.  Because Jesus is our Lord and Savior His will and way need to be what we are most passionate about.

Walking In Love - Believing The Best About Others

"Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]."
1 Corinthians 13:7 (Amplified Bible)

Has someone ever cut you off while you were driving and your first thought is that they have no idea how to drive?  Have you ever been in a restaurant and the server was not as sharp as they ought to be and you think they are the worst service person ever?  Have you ever been boarding a plane, train, or bus and someone got in front of you and you suspected they had no manners and were probably the rudest person alive?  It is likely that all of us have had these experiences and thoughts at one time or another.

But is it possible that we misunderstood what happened and were too quick to believe the worst about someone?  What if the driver was a bit lost and did not realize they cut you off?  What if the server in the restaurant was filling in for someone else who was not there and had to do the work of two people?  What if the person who got in line ahead of you legitimately did not see you and what they did was an honest mistake?  Our thoughts and reactions to how others treat us and how they act around us is an indication of how much we are walking in the love of God.

God's love bears up under anything and everything and believes the best of every person and that love is in us as Christians (Romans 5:5).  Are we quick to believe the best or worst about others?  Do we look for the best and expect the best of others or are we ready to find fault and see mistakes?  How does God see us when we make mistakes or do wrong?  Is He expecting the worst things from us or is He gracious and quick to overlook the mistake and continue to love us and do what He can to help us?  We all need to walk in the love of God where we expect and believe the best about others.