Tag Archives: 1 Corinthians

The things of which we need to “take heed” (part 3)

Posted on February 10, 2014 by | Comments Off on The things of which we need to “take heed” (part 3)

prayer-bibleThe devotional for today is continuing one I began earlier last week.  It began during a daily devotional when the phrase take heed captured my attention.  As I began to study that phrase, I discovered that in the entire Bible, there are only fifteen times that the phrase is used.  I might need to add a note that I use the Authorized King James version for all my devotions and personal readings, so if you are using another version, you might not see that phrase in the verses that I highlight in this series of devotions.

The first two devotions focused on the first eight verses where that phrase is found.  Before I share the next four verses where the phrase “take heed” is used, Here’s a brief summary of the verses we’ve already discussed that use that particular phrase, and where Christians have been told to take heed of:

  • Making sure we give to others as led by the Spirit without drawing attention to ourselves.  This is found in Matthew 6:1.
  • We do nothing to any child that might prevent them from accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. This is found in Matthew 18:10.
  • We do not let others lead us astray from our faith.  This is found in Matthew 24:4.
  • We need to truly listen and make sure we are careful in judgment; whatever standard we set for others will be the standard we are held to.  There is also a responsibility and duty required of us – the more we learn about our faith, the more accountable we are to do it.  This is found in Mark 4:24.
  • We need to remember that someday we might be brought up before governmental councils seeking to put us to death over our faith in Jesus. This is found in Mark 13:9.
  • We need to remember that His returning could be at any moment; we do not know when He will return. This is found in Mark 13:33.
  • We need to remember that we all have gifts, talents, and abilities that are to be used to fulfill needs in the local congregation; if we hold back these gifts, talents, and abilities, we can lose them. This is found in Luke 8:18.
  • We need to make sure that we are not dividing our loyalty between the things of God and the things of this world.  As a child of God, we should be more reflective of His glory, and not of the things of the world. This is found in Luke 11:35.
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth (Luke 12:15).

Covetousness is a struggle for many Christians; myself included.  It slowly creeps in when we least expect it.  Its one of the reasons that the apostle Paul wrote to the early church at Philippi, Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content (Philippians 4:11). It’s hard to be content with what you have when you see other Christians with what you think are better things.  When we allow our attitude of gratefulness to become replaced with covetousness, we are no longer in a situation where God can bless us.  No longer are we a child worthy of blessings, but now a child deserving of correction.  Again, Paul wrote, For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows (I Timothy 6:10).  The love of anything, to the extent it becomes the focus of our consciousness, is evil. It becomes our idol, it will replace our worship of God.

When Jesus was asked about which was the greatest commandment, he told the young man, Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind (Matthew 22:37). We cannot love the Lord with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our minds when we have all our focus on attaining the wealth of this world. Jesus taught those who would listen during his earthly ministry, No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Luke 16:13).

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What are you offering on your family altar?

Posted on November 26, 2013 by | Comments Off on What are you offering on your family altar?

VineyardCurvedBrown_fThis week we gather around our tables with family and close friends and as a nation to give our thanks to God for the many blessings He has bestowed on us as a nation.  I often think back to the stories of the Old Testament where the patriarchs were instructed to build an altar, to offer a sacrifice and praise to God for his mercy and deliverance.  In fact, we find this concept of building altars and offering beginning with the children of Adam and Eve and continuing throughout the Old Testament through the stories about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and even the prophets, we see the concept of building an altar and offering sacrifices, praises and thanksgiving to God.

Back when I was living in Louisiana, I was listening to a local AM station dedicated to Christian programming.  I remember two shows that I enjoyed listening to, one by Lester Roloff and the other by J. Vernon McGee, actually had spent considerable time talking about the importance of the family altar.  It was a concept that I found interesting but never put much thought to until a few months ago – and then I realized the importance of such a simple concept.  As Christians, the sacrifice for sins has already been done – so this altar has a different purpose.  In the book of Joshua, God introduces the concept of this second type of altar to the children of Israel: Therefore we said, Let us now prepare to build us an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice: But that it may be a witness between us, and you, and our generations after us, that we might do the service of the LORD before him with our burnt offerings, and with our sacrifices, and with our peace offerings; that your children may not say to our children in time to come, Ye have no part in the LORD. Therefore said we, that it shall be, when they should so say to us or to our generations in time to come, that we may say again, Behold the pattern of the altar of the LORD, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifices; but it is a witness between us and you (Joshua 22:26-28).

This altar was not ever to have a burnt offering laid upon it, nor was blood ever to be poured out for a sin offering.  It was to be a memorial – a place of reflection to serve as a reminder of a promise between two people – those children of Israel that remained on the eastern side of Jordan and those that would cross the river into the promised land.  The altar had a second purpose as well – to remind all that would come to look upon it that they were called to serve God.  It would become a place of prayer, a place of spiritual renewal, and even a place to simply seek his presence.  It would also become a place of praise – a sacrifice that I know in my life I have not readily given God the praise that He deserves. Twice in the Bible we are taught that God does see our praise as a type of sacrifice – The voice of joy, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the voice of them that shall say, Praise the LORD of hosts: for the LORD is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: and of them that shall bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause to return the captivity of the land, as at the first, saith the LORD (Jeremiah 33:11) and By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name (Hebrews 13:15).

Earlier this year, as I was thinking about the spiritual need for a personal altar, I began thinking of the things I had noticed in my travels. In Louisiana, some of my Roman Catholic friends had a place inside their house where they would display their Crucifix, maybe a Bible, and family photos that was their family altar.  While I was in the Army and again, while living in Carbondale, Illinois, my Jewish friends had a spot in their house where a copy of the Torah, Sabbath menorah, and other items were placed on a fireplace mantle or a small table that served as their family altar.  When I was stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, one of the church families that often invited soldiers to their house had an area set up, a simple concrete bench with a Bible verse inscribed on it under a tree, that served as their altar.  In each case, these families set aside an area of their home to worship and fellowship with God.  It was an intentional act done out of a sincere desire to be obedient and mindful of God and His gracious blessings.

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The contrast between light and dark

Posted on November 20, 2013 by | Comments Off on The contrast between light and dark

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There are times that the most beautiful photographs we take are ones where there is a stark contrast between light and dark.  There’s something about the way that the shadows and darker colors make the brighter colors stand out.  Since moving to Henderson, Kentucky in 2011, I have probably taken hundreds of pictures of the scenery along the Ohio River from the comfort of my back patio – and over the last summer, I began exploring the many features of the camera I use and the effects that shadows and focus can have on the photograph.  It is truly remarkable what shadows and darker foreground objects can do to for the background of a picture.

As I was doing my personal devotion this morning I came across a verse that made me think of this particular picture.  While on Earth, the Lord Jesus Christ was teaching his disciples a way to understand their new relationship with the world around them.  He told them Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid (Matthew 5:14) and was demonstrating that now, as believers in him, they were to be different; they were to live a life that would draw others to Him.  He also taught those men that followed him If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light (Luke 11:36). This concept was well-understood by the apostle Paul; he wrote to those early Christians in the city of Ephesus, For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light (Ephesians 5:8). As Christians, we are to be different than the world For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another (Mark 9:49-50).

The apostle Paul taught on this concept of living differently than the world around us, Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man (Colossians 4:6). Even the apostle Peter taught how, as Christians, we should also strive to be different than the world and be ready to tell others the reasons for our joy and our faith, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing (I Peter 3:15-17).

I also think of how this teaching is clearly demonstrated in the teachings of the prophet Isaiah, Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday: And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not (Isaiah 58:9-11). Again, there is this concept that the believer of God should live their life different from the unbeliever; it’s been God’s desire that his believers would reject the standards of the sinful world and accept his standards as their own, Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine (Exodus 19:5). When you think about it, if we do adopt God’s standards in our life and live accordingly, we do become peculiar.  In five verses scattered through the Old and New Testaments, God calls his people, his children, to be peculiar people and to be different than those around them.

Just as in the picture above shows contrast between light and dark, we are to provide contrast between the lost world and God’s grace.  Everything we do, whether we are lost or saved, provides a message about us and what is important in our lives.  If we live like the lost around us and do those things that the lost do, whether it be for entertainment or our work ethics, it speaks volumes about our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.  It tells the lost world there is no real difference between a Christian and a lost person; there is no reason to become a follower of Christ.  At that point, we have inoculated our coworkers, family, or friends from the effects of hearing the soul cleansing effects a real acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.  We tarnish the name of Christ, and we lose that savor we were supposed to bring to the world.  If we adopt God’s standards, meaning a full acceptance of the apostle Paul’s teaching, Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God (I Corinthians 10:15), everything we do takes on a spiritual dimension; what we do at work, at school, in the home, while we are running errands in town – all of it – we are to do as if we are doing it for God.  All of a sudden, the fleshly attitude of doing enough just to get by no longer has the same appeal to us.

As a child of God, we are all called out to be different than the lost around us.  It is not because we are any better, but because we have been redeemed by the love and grace of God.  Its’ his will that we should tell others about that precious saving grace that only Christ can give; we are to tell it through our conduct, the way we treat others, by the way we do our jobs, and even by word of mouth about the plan of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ told Nicodemus that God’s desire was that all would come to accept that same saving grace: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved (John 3:16-17).

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