moncurebaptistchurch

Worry

jhoward48@charter.net (John Howard) — Mon, 27 May 2024 11:55:34 GMT

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Listen!

jhoward48@charter.net (John Howard) — Sat, 03 Feb 2024 17:32:45 GMT

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In Mark 4:9 Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear had better listen!” We see that statement throughout the Gospels. When Jesus says something He wants us to understand, often in a parable, He repeats this strong statement. We, however, often take to mean it is a holy suggestion, a piece of advice or a recommendation, rather than the command it is. I guess the first thing to do is to reach up to the sides of your head and check if you do in fact have ears. If you should discover ears there, then you are commanded to listen, listen to what Jesus says. It is important or else He would not told us to listen. And if by chance we do not understand what He is telling us, particularly in the parables before this command, then we are obliged to ask Him to explain it to us. Many of the parables are explained and many are not hard to understand. Where fall down is we fail to implement the lesson taught and heed the command to listen intently, carefully and then to obey.

Christ as Lord

jhoward48@charter.net (John Howard) — Wed, 06 Dec 2023 12:57:59 GMT

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“But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about this hope you possess. Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience,…” (1 Peter 3:15-16a). We are called to set Christ as Lord, not as a lord among many or several in our hearts, but as the Lord. He is to be our only Lord (master is another word for it). And when we do that, when Christ is indeed the Lord or Master of our hearts, we will find our lives transformed. He through the work of the Spirit will change attitudes, hopes, desires and the manner of living we have. That will lead to others asking why we are different (maybe even peculiar) about us. We then need to be ready to tell others what is different in us and for us- Christ is our Lord, and in Him we have a hope and a life that endures beyond this life, beyond the grave. Our world wants to make Christ go away. He is a threat to the world’s pursues and desires. But the world’s way leads to death. We have Christ and in Him we have life that leads to life eternal and abundant in hope, peace, joy and love. Those things the world craves but cannot find. They are looking in all the wrong places. We need to direct others to Him, the only right place. But we need to do this gently, with courtesy and respect. Just because the world is blind does not mean the people in it are not made in the image of God. As such they are to be treated as such and with prayer and gentleness led to see in us what they need and desire- life.

God's Love

jhoward48@charter.net (John Howard) — Wed, 08 Nov 2023 13:33:24 GMT

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The apostle John wrote, “The person who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” (1 John 4:8) Many people who claim Christ or God as least, use the idea they love others as proof of their relationship with God and the correctness of their beliefs. Unfortunately, they have misread this verse and ignored the ones that follow. They correctly say, “God is love.” They incorrectly deduce then that love is God. The idea that because we have love we are know the author of love is erroneous. The love, that God is, is a divine love, one where He chooses to love us. The very next verse give the nature of that love He has for us. It reads, “By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God sent his one and only Son into the world so we may live through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but the he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10) It would seem clear we cannot love the way God loves. We can make no sacrifice large enough, deep enough, personal enough to merit his love. What is also clear is God loves us, not because we deserve or earn it, but because He chooses to love us. He instigated the love relationship at creation, and then rescued it when we wandered off into sin, doing our own thing, making gods of ourselves or things around us, created things. God rescued us by sending His Son, Jesus Christ, to be the sacrifice through which we could again experience the benefit of His love. He loves us and therefore we are called to love one another. It is not because we gin up love, but rather we extend the love God has shown us to others around us. It is not a generic love for anybody or everybody, but a specific love for those who are His or are in need of His love. Don’t confuse loving with a hollow, human sourced love. Rather allow His love to find you through your acceptance of the atoning sacrifice of Christ for your sins. Then share that good news in love with others needing to know God’s saving love.

Sufficient Grace

jhoward48@charter.net (John Howard) — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 13:14:57 GMT

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Are you old enough to remember learning to diagram sentences in high school? Well, I am and I do. I have found it useful at times, especially when trying to grasp the meaning of some of Paul’s sentences found in his letters. Here is one from 2 Corinthians 9:8: And God is able to make all grace overflow to you so that because you have enough of everything in every way at all times, you will overflow in every good work. Wonderful literary English and probably Koine Greek as well, but extracting the meaning in a way to be able to apply it to one’s life may be a bit taxing. Let’s break it down a bit. First Paul tells us God is able to make grace overflow to us. God is indeed the source of grace. He pours out His grace on us daily, often without us even knowing it. He loves us and wants us to serve His purposes well. So He provides in grace all we need. That is what Paul writes next: you have enough of everything. God has provided us with all we need to walk before Him as effective, victorious believers. He has provided all we need at all times, every day, every moment. We have enough grace in every way, in every situation . God provides grace for us more than sufficient. Why? So we will overflow in every good work. We are not just supposed to survive, but thrive as Christians in our walk of faith. We may not have much in this world or life, but we will always have sufficient grace to meet any crisis or opportunity to further the Kingdom. We need just to draw on it, seek Him in it and allow Him freedom to direct our attention and efforts towards His purpose for us.

Learn and Do

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 10:19:19 GMT

Learn and Do

I have come across an idea in Scripture that is repeated in different ways that I think we need to think about. First, Psalm 32:8 says, "I will instruct and teach you about how you should live. I will advise you as I look you in the eye. God is the one who will instruct and teach us. This is a teacher we should not ignore. The Psalm continues with, "Do not be like an unintelligent horse or mule, which will not obey you unless they are controlled by a bit." James adds this to the discussion: "Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters! Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger (1:19)." Paul wrote in Philippians 4:9, "And the things you learned and received and heard and saw in me, do these things. And the God of peace will be with you.: Do you see the point? God instructs us, through a variety of means- sermons, Bible studies, Bible reading, in prayer, in experiences, by another believer. We need to take those lessons and apply them to our daily living. If we do we will find God's peace. If we don't, we will find ourselves bridled to do someone else's bidding.

Transformed Mind

jhoward48@charter.net (John Howard) — Wed, 13 Sep 2023 11:11:02 GMT

Transformed Mind

TThere is a verse almost all Christians know well, and that is Romans 12:2. It says, “Do not be conformed to this present world (or age), but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God- what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.” What most Christians are not aware of though is that the word ”conformed” here is in the passive. That means we are conformed to this world or age without actively trying to be. It happens in part subconsciously by being around those things and ideas the world teaches that are contrary to God’s ways, or permissively. That is, there is some consciousness of the conformity taking place, but not much resistance to accepting the false ideas of this age. All this adds up to Christians unwittingly sliding into following, living by ideas that draw them away from knowing God’s will or lead them to pursue things of this world not realizing they are headed the wrong direction. Satan has not changed. He was sly about deceiving Eve and he is sly about deceiving us. The goal is the same- deflect Christians’’ hearts and energy away from doing God’s will and pursue our own desires. Possessions and position are strong lures. We are too eager to bite, convinced there is no harm in these things. They are normal and good. The truth is they are neutral but often used by the devil and the flesh to get us to take our eyes off the true goal- the heavenly city. Many of us might hear from our Lord, “Well, you got here and that is something” instead of “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

Doers of the Word

jhoward48@charter.net (John Howard) — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 18:02:23 GMT

Doers of theWord

James wrote a very practical and challenging letter to believers. For an instance, James wrote in 1:22-24 this: “But be sure you live out the message and do not merely listen to it and so deceive yourselves. For if someone merely listens to the message and does not live it out, he is like someone who gazes at his own face in a mirror. For he gazes at himself and then goes out and immediately forgets what sort of person he was.” We are told elsewhere to examine ourselves and Psalms tells us to ask God to examine our hearts. That means more than merely gazing at ourselves, rather we are to seek to know our hearts and recognize the nature of our behavior in light of the Gospel and the new life we live in Christ. Now we all know that almost every person who hears a sermon or a Sunday School lesson has forgotten the most of it before the day is over. We are merely listening, not looking to see how we might allow it to inform our behavior or lives. Too many Christians read their Bibles as a routine, but never get the words into their hearts, that is never allow them to change them, their behavior or thinking. James would call this merely listening. It does no good and has little value. We need to hide the Word in our hearts so the Spirit can recall it as we have need . Then it can help us mature in our faith and walk in Christ. People who get disappointed or angry at God for failing to meet a demand, often are the same people who have a very loose grasp of Scripture. They work off of their own hopes and expectations rather than God’s truth. They have a history of merely listening. God’s Word is active, a two-edged sword, able to divide soul from spirit. You have to pick up the sword if you want it to be useful. Otherwise it remains a showpiece or a trophy, a relic, not a tool for perceiving truth in our hearts and minds. Let’s change our attitude and action toward listening to the Word, the teaching we hear so we do not deceive ourselves further.The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.

Hope

jhoward48@charter.net (John Howard) — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 17:40:23 GMT

Hope

God says in Jeremiah 29:13, “When you seek me in prayer and worship, you will find me available to you. If you seek me with all your heart and soul, I will make myself available to you.” We often go to God in prayer, asking for something we need or want, but how many times have you gone to Hom in prayer and worship to seek Him and not just what you want or need? Worship means worth-ship. He is worthy, worthy of praise, honor, glory and obedience because He is the almighty Creator, Sustainer and Source of life and hope. And that is true whether we give it to Him or not. When we seek Him in prayer and worship, He approaches us and hears our words, knows our hearts. When I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, I did not know how things would work out, whether it had spread or was localized. I did not know what life would be like after treatment. I did not know if I would get a reprieve from the threat cancer posed, but I did know God was worthy to be trusted even if I did not survive the cancer. Why? Because He is worthy and He makes Himself available to us when we come and say, “Lord, I dod not know if you will take this away, but even if you do not, you are still my God and I know have my best at heart. I trust you.” We ask a lot, but do we worship as much? Worship is where life is and where hope is found, in life or in dying.

Living at Peace

jhoward48@charter.net (John Howard) — Tue, 29 Aug 2023 17:01:26 GMT

Getting Along With Others

Paul wrote to the Roman church, “If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all people (Rom 12:18).” Now that word peaceably is the one that gets us. It means to live calm, tranquil, quiet, and amiable lives among others. Well, that is not the way our society is organized presently. It is anything but quiet, calm, tranquil, and amiable. Rather people are too often looking for offense, taking offense and being generally offensive to others, all in the name of diversity, justice, or some distorted understanding of personal rights. We are not to be like that. We are to look for peaceful relationships with others as far as is it dependent on us.

In other words, we must seek mutual relationships of respect, kindness, love, peace, and consideration. We should give these even when we do not get them in return. We should not go out of our way to offend, but also we should not be afraid to share the “truth in love” with others. We will be an offense to those who look at Christians as the enemy. Our responsibility is to let them see the love of Christ even through their distrust, dislike, or plain hate of what we are and Who we follow. That may require a lot of patience, perseverance, and self-control. But all these are gifts from the Spirit who lives in us.

Let’s listen to Him, allow Him to show forth, and see if we can find that peace, calm, and tranquility we want in our relationships.