Pure love

 

Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart – 1 Peter 1.22

 

Sincere love

Fervent love

Pure love

 

It seems like every few days in normal scripture reading we come across something about love and how we are to love.

 

I like this passage because it talks about the attitude behind love. It speaks to the kind of heart that loves with God’s love. It requires a heart that is sincere and fervent and pure.

 

Too often what we call love is something based on what we can get out of it. We love to get loved back or we love as a result of how we are treated. Our love is conditioned on exterior factors.

 

That’s not what agape love is though. Agape love is based only on giving with thinking of the consequences. It is sincere in that it is based only on what I can do for others. It is fervent in that it is my driving force in how I deal with others. It is my motivator. It is based on the love of Christ that constrains me in all I do. It is pure in that it is done without being mixed with anything else.

 

Help me to love with a sincere, fervent, and pure love that only comes from Christ love for me.

 

 

 

Faith and hope

 

He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God. – 1 Peter 1.20-21

 

Boy are those two key words on how to get through life? Even after all these words I still have a hard time dealing with those two little words faith and hope.

 

How can I possibly, after all these years, still fret and fear and fail to have faith and hope in God. Why do the myriad of things in this world still weigh me down?

 

I know the answer. If anyone were ask me about themselves I would tell them that it is because we think we can do a better job of orchestrating our lives than He can.

 

Instead my faith and hope must be in Him and His ability. That way, even if things don’t go the way I want, I will know that He knows best and that the end result is always the best result.

 

My hope should be built on nothing less the Jesus blood and righteousness. My hope is I the Lord, who gave Himself for me. Every time I do anything else, every time, I get myself in trouble.  If I put my faith in me my best hopes are in vain.

I am bought

 

(Redeemed) with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. – 1 Peter 1.19

 

Why should we live these holy lives we are challenged to live? Why is it such a big deal? We are told over and over that we need to live this kind of lives in the word of God, but why?

 

Why?

 

Because we have been bought with a price. We are bought with the precious blood of Christ. Therefore we belong to Him. He bought us back from sin and we ought the glorify Him in our bodies and our spirits which belong to Him. The price He paid to redeem us is the precious blood of Christ. Our sins cost Jesus His all. Our lives show the value of His sacrifice. 

 

He has made me holy. All that put together means that I need to live in a way that reflects His holiness to a world that surely will make a difference.

 

I am His. May every part of my life reflect the fact that I belong to Jesus!

Be holy

 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.” – 1 Peter 1.14-16

 

Don’t conform to the ways of the world and our former lusts.

 

Instead be holy in all your conduct.

 

Holy living is not something we hear a lot about today. We certainly don’t hear anything about it in the world and sadly it is rare enough in the church. Tragically we too often just go back to the world and our own lusts instead of striving to holiness in our daily lives.

 

I was declared holy with all the holiness of Christ the day I accepted Him as Saviour. One day I will enjoy all the blessings of that holiness when I get to heaven.

 

In the meantime, while here on this earth, I am called to live a holy life in a world which is anything but holy. It is by God enabled holy living that the world sees what Jesus can do in a life.

 

We may be mocked and ridiculed for making holy choices. I think the reason is that people know their lives are not what they should be.

 

Be holy as God is holy. Make a difference in and to the world around us.

The loins of your mind

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; - 1 Peter 1.13

 

Gird up the loins of your mind.  What does that mean?

 

Girding up is a phrase often used in the Bible to talk about preparing for war. Originally it was a picture of a soldier wearing a tunic or a robe who would gather up the bottom of the garment and tuck it into his belt for better movement in battle.

 

We are surely in battles of our own. They may not be battles of flesh and blood, but they are battles just as real. Just like that soldier tucked up his robes, we have our own girding up to do.

 

There are two simple instructions here that we must do. We must be sober, then we must do something I need all the time. I must rest my hope on His grace.

 

When I rest on me I always fail.

 

Gird up for the fight and rest on his grace. He is leading us on to go victory.

What the angels want to know

 

To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into. – 1 Peter 1.12

 

Salvation is an amazing thing. The prophets did not fully understand the gospel even though the spoke of it.

 

Even more interesting to me is that the angels desire to know more about it. Angels are a whole class of created being given by God as ministering spirits. They are serving God, worshipping Him, acting as messengers of God before the Bible was complete, and ministering to us. They are not glorified people in heaven.

 

Yet this special class of being doesn’t really understand salvation. They rejoice every time someone gets saved. But they don’t really understand and they desire to know more about.

 

What a wonderful gift the gospel is. It is given to us, his flawed creation, so that we can be restored to Him through the precious blood of Christ.

 

It is such a wonderful gift that the prophets preached before the fully knew it and the angels wish they knew more.

 

Thank you Lord.

Joy unspeakable

 

In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. - 1 Peter 1:6-9

 

Irrepressible joy. Unworkable joy. We could all do with good dose or that now, couldn’t we? There is not a whole lot of joy out there today. There does not appear to be a lot of cause to rejoice.

 

Because, when it is all said and done we have the most important thing there is. We have the full assurance of eternal salvation.  No matter what we face we can live in joy because of the unspeakable joy that is coming at the end that will make this worth it all.

 

This joy ought to dominate our lives and our thinking and our attitude. We should be like children excited about going to Disneyworld. This joy should be enough to overcome whatever we are going through today.

 

I am going to heaven one day. I can get through this present trial because God has poured out His mercy on me and given me eternal life with Him.

 

How exciting is that?

 

Who having not seen you love

 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honour, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls. - 1 Peter 1:6-9

 

These trials that we have have another purpose. They bring us to the point of loving Christ, even though we have never seen Him. We may not see Him physically, but we can see Him as He brings us through those trials. Even though we can’t see Him we believe Him.

 

If we love someone we are going to trust Him no matter how things seem. Testing is the time when our love for Christ is tried. Are we going to trust Him or us?

 

It takes faith to love the unseen and it takes love in the unseen to get us through our trials. When I begin to doubt or become anxious or get troubled it is because I am not trusting the One I claim to love. If Jesus were sitting here at the table with me do think I’d be concerned? Probably not.

 

I need to love the Jesus I can’t see and learn to trust Him completely. Trusting Jesus in trials is the best way to prove I love Him.

 

Love the One we can’t see. Look on the invisible. Set our affection on things above.

The patience of Job

 

My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.  Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. – James 5.10-11

 

I never understood Job very well until about 17-18 years ago when we were going through our own Job experience. It was then I learned the lessons of Job’s patience based on his faith.

 

I love Job. He was real. He was an upright man who God allowed to be tried and in that trial he lost literally everything. He lost family and houses and livestock and building and wealth and even his wife turned against him.

 

Yet, he stayed true. Sure he faltered at times and questioned but over and over and over again he turned back to God.

 

He knew He would see God. He wanted his experiences written down so others could see his example. Job’s patience was built on Job's faith.

 

The question we must ask ourselves is if our faith too will allow us the patiently wait for God.

 

Job held on, and he found out that God was full of compassion and mercy. Can we be patient enough to do the same?

Do not grumble

 

Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! -James 5:9

 

People can be hard to get along with. We all have our quirks and strangeness. We can all get on each others nerves. We are all sinners and we all have flaws.

 

Grumbling does not seem like that big a deal. It is not attacking or degrading. Its just that little grumble, that murmering, that little under the breath mumbling. That’s surely not right, but is it worthy of condemnation?

 

It is, of course, worthy of condemnation. It is another of form of judging. It is judging people by how they meet up to my standards.

 

Grumbling does no good. It hurts my fellowship with the person, it effects my relationship between me and the person I am grumbling to, and it affects the relationship between the person I am grumbling about and the person I am grumbling to.

 

Dr Suess put it perfectly when he wrote ‘don’t grumble, don't stew.’ That applies to any situation, but it especially important when we talk about grumbling about others.

Grumbling about another is a pretty rotten thing to do. Especially since I am sure I give others plenty to grumple about me. 

Be patient, but

 

Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. – James 5.7-8

 

Be patient, God says, till Jesus comes again. Be patient like a farmer waits for his crop. Jesus is coming again.

 

It has been a long time since these words were written. I have been reading and hearing them for nearly fifty years. It’s a good thing that my timeline is not God’s  time.

 

This world is in a big mess. It is getting harder and harder to do right and stand for what is right.

 

Be patient. Wait on God. Jesus is coming again. So we wait.

 

But while we wait what we do. Paul answered that 1 Thessalonians 5.

 

Wake up

Armour up

Sober up

Honour your leaders

Comfort each other

Exhort each other

Esteem each other

Love each other

Don’t return evil with evil

Rejoice

Pray

Give thanks

Hold fast

Abstain from evil

 

We don’t sit here idly waiting. While we wait we work whole it is day. We stay steady. We stay immovable. We abound in God’s  work.

 

While we wait our labour is not in vain.

 

Wait, but stay busy while we wait.

To do good

 

Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin. – James 4.17

 

Many years ago I was in a chapel service at Bible College. It was in a building called Philips Chapel and the speaker (I decided not to name him) was ‘preaching' from this passage. He focused on that little phrase ‘to him that knows to do good and dodgy it not, to him it is sin.’

 

He went on to go through a whole list of pet issues of the day and used the passage to support any number of man made rules imposed on believers. That was a bit over the top, but there is a case for us to pay attention to sins of omission as much as sins of commission. It’s easy to think about sins we do, it’s a bit harder to remember the sins of not doing what we should.

 

Am I praying like I should? Am I caring for others like I should? Do I love like I should? Am I the kind of servant that I should and could be? Am I spending time in God’s word?

 

It is not a matter of all kinds of rules and regulations. It is a matter of obeying God not only in sins to avoid, but in doing the things I should do.

 

When I know the right thing to do and I don’t do it, it is sin. Full stop.

D.V.

 

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.” - James 4:13-15

 

We can get awfully presumptive in our lives and awfully certain of our plans without ever thinking about what God wants.

 

Years ago when events were planned and events announced there would always be the letter D.V. included in the notice. This Latin abbreviation stands for Deo volente and means God willing. There was more of a reliance and dependence on what God wanted. Not only have we taken that idea off of our notices and flyers and invitations and such, it seems to a large extent we have taken it out of our lives.

 

Putting DV eventually became more of a custom than a statement of fact, but the reality of DV is something that should be a part of everything that the Christian plans, and not just a cursory acknowledgement of God. I, for my own sake, try to say something like ‘please God’ or ‘God willing' or ‘Lord willing’ when announcing church plans or when I am going to meet someone or any kind of plans I am making.

 

That means that I need to be willing to change my plans to fit God’s plans. He can change circumstances to change my plans to His. 

 

See you tomorrow God willing.

Brief hiatus from blog

 From about midweek I am taking  brief break due to technical issues. I hope to be back before the end of the month. 

Who made you judge?

 

Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another? - James 4:11-12

 

We are all very good at judging others. We are so quick to look at the flaws and failures and weaknesses of others and quick to pass judgement and condemnation. It’s easy when it is somebody else.

 

But we need to be very very careful about passing judgement on others. Jesus warned against it and here James writes almost the exact same words.

 

James prefaced his statement with these words, ‘don’t speak evil of others.’ That’s where we too often start messing up. When we speak evil we set ourselves up as judges. We say that we are so good that we can judge them and speak judgement.

 

When we judge others we have to ignore our own sins. We try to make ourselves look good by making others look bad. Sadly that has become part and parcel of modern society. Even more sadly Christians have joined right in.

 

What does that do to the cause of Christ? What does that do to our witness? If We set ourselves up as judges over others what must others think about us? How arrogant can we be? Where is the spirit of humility?

 

Indeed, who do we think we are to judge others? I have enough issues to deal with. Let me get that sorted first.

He will lift you up

 

Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up. – James 4.9-10

 

God is the God of all joy. He wants us to enjoy life lived according to His word. We can have that kind of joy when we are walking close to Him and submitting to Him.

 

But sometimes we slip up and fall. Maybe it is a stupid choice we make. When we are away from God there is no room for joy, but sorrow takes its place.

 

 

But despite that there are times when we fall. We are going to blow it and do something stupid or eve to choose to do the wrong the wrong things. When we don’t draw near to God and have defiled hands and impure hearts we cannot continue to live in joy. When we do not walk in fellowship with Him we have no call for joy or mirth. It is time for sorrow and repentance and turning back to God. As I look back to the times when I was not is fellowship with God I remember how miserable I was.

 

Shortly after I was saved I had about nine month period where I slipped back into some of my sins. I was out of fellowship with my God. I played the hypocrite by going to church, but I was miserable. I tried to cover my misery with partying and such, but in those quiet moments I was miserable.

 

That happens. But we don’t have to be beaten. We don’t have to quit. God will lift us up. When get to that kind place it is time for us to humble ourselves before the Lord and let Him pick us up and put us back on track.

Draw near to God

 

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. – James 4.8

 

There are plenty of things out there vying for our attention, all of them calling for us to draw near and give heed to them. Like never before in history we are inundated with the flashy lights and loud music of the world. It’s always been an issue. Bunyan wrote of the dangers of getting too close to the allure of Vanity Fair. Back then though Vanity Fair was not in your face for the time you got up in the morning until you went to bed at night.

 

In line with the notion of submitting to God we have this added admonition to not only submit, but to draw close to Him. He should be our place of rest and comfort.  When we draw near to God He promises to draw near to us.

 

I am reminded of the son of the prodigal. While his son was wandering he waited for him to draw near. When son drew near to home the father ran to be near him.

 

God says several times in His word that He is not distant, He is at hand, He is close by, and He is looking for us to draw close to Him. When we feel far from God it is not because He moved, it is because we moved.

 

All we have to draw close to Him. He is right where we left Him.

Submit - resist

 

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. - James 4:7

 

Wow. Do we ever have a need to remember this passage today? We are being pressed in on all sides. It is a time of confusion and not knowing where to go or what to look. We seem to be under attack from all sides.

 

One of the reasons we can mess up so badly is that we don’t follow simple Bible directions, and this passage is on of the simplest directions of all.

 

Do we want victory over sin and the devil?

 

Resist the devil

Submit to God

The devil will flee

 

The old image of a devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other is kind of apt here. We have choices to make numerous times a day. Believers have God’s word for direction and we have Satan and His minions want to destroy. He walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he might devour. We can’t afford to get lazy. We must always be on guard and ready to recognise his subtle attacks and then be ready to resist him with God’s word.

 

On the other hand is the positive side – submit to God.  That’s why we must always be in His word. We can’t submit to Him if we don’t know what to submit to. God’s word gives us all we need to submit to Him.

He gives more grace

 

But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: “God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.” - James 4:6

 

But He gives more grace.

Just a few short words, but what a message. He gives more grace. He giveth, and He giveth, and He giveth again.

 

I am grateful that God’s storehouse of grace never runs out.

 

Annie Flint said it so well in her beautiful hymn.

 

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,

He sendeth more strength when the labours increase;

To added afflictions He addeth His mercy,

To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

 

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,

When our strength has failed ere the day is half done,

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources

Our Father’s full giving is only begun.

 

Fear not that thy need shall exceed His provision,

Our God ever yearns His resources to share;

Lean hard on the arm everlasting, availing;

The Father both thee and thy load will upbear.

 

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure,

His power no boundary known unto men;

For out of His infinite riches in Jesus

He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again.

 

I love that last line. He gives and He gives and He gives again. We can’t use up God’s grace. That’s a part of why God’s grace is so amazing. If not for God giving and giving and giving again I would have used up my share a long, long time ago.

 

Thank God that He gives and gives and gives.

Who is your friend?

 

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. - James 4:4

 

Christians living in this world have a lot of dilemmas to face. We have to live in this sin cursed world. There is no way out of that. We have to be a witness to this world and in order to be a witness we must have friends who are in and of this world.

But we have to do that without being friends with the world and its systems. The world system are at odd, they are in conflict, in fact they are at war with each other and we need to choose which side we are on. We can’t jump back and forth. We can’t serve God and the world. We need to decide which we will follow. As Elijah told the people ‘how long are you going to go back and forth’ and as Joshua told the people ‘choose you this day who you will serve.’

The start of a new year is always a good time for pause and reflection. It’s a good time for us to reflect on whether we are friends with God or riends with the world. How do we know? Simple enough – which are we most in fellowship with? Where do we spend most of our time? We do we spend our down time? Where are our thoughts during those quiet times? Are our thoughts showing God as our friend or the world as our friend?

Who do we really want as our friend?  Who is going to be the true friend to carry us into eternity?

You ask amiss

 

You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. – James 4.2-3

 

You want and we don’t get it. We fight and covet and can’t obtain what we want. We ask for what we want and we don’t get it – because we ask for the wrong things. We ask for the things that we give us pleasure.

 

When we pray too often we are praying amiss. We aren’t not praying for what God wants but we want. We pray for things that are going to please us instead of Him and therefore we don’t receive.

 

The key to that is in Psalm 37.4 – delight yourselves in the Lord and you will receive the desires of your heart.

 

A lot of folks miss the point there. They think that if I delight myself He will give me whatever I want, That’s true, but maybe not exactly in the way it first appear. It says that God will give us the desires, the right desires, His desires. When we have the right desires we can wait on God to answer our prayers. If we are delighting in the Lord instead of ourselves we will learn to have godly desires instead of selfish desires.

 

Lord, fix my desirer so that I don’t ask amiss and see my prayers answered.

Why can't we all just get along?

 

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? – James 4.1

 

Why can’t we all just get along?

 

The question has been asked for millennia.  Why is it that everything turns into a fight? Why is that we have personal spats and family rows and violence in the streets and gang fights and international struggles and conflicts and world wars and terrorism and bombings and all that kind of thing. Why indeed can we not just get along?

It doesn’t take long to see it start. One baby has a toy and another baby wants is and grabs it and the first bay tries to get it back and the first thing you know they are crying and fighting and are in full conflict.

 

At the root of all conflicts from two toddlers fighting over a toy to nations sending armies to war is that both sides want what they want. Sometimes there is a need that we fight to stop another from doing great evil, what some might call the ‘just war’ but too often wars are over the petty things based on conquest and greed. .

Why do God’s people fight? Too often it is for the stupid selfish reasons that James talks about here. I’ve seen churches fight over carpet colours and moving furniture and entrances to car parks among many other things. Christians fight over music or worship style or predestination or Bible versions or even more stupide things.

 

Most of the time we just need to get over ourselves. We fight amongst ourselves because we are no better than those babies.

 

Change the focus. Think about others. Let it go.

Righteousness and peace

 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace. - James 3:18

 

How do we bear and produce and show the fruit of righteousness? What proves our righteousness? Is it warring and fighting and contending? Is it who can shout the loudest?

 

No, the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by the peacemakers.

 

I love the image of righteousness and peace going hand in hand. Sometimes I can associate righteousness with judgement, and it is, at times.

 

But when God has sown the righteousness of Christ in me, I am going to bear the fruit of the Spirit and one part of that is peace. We must live lives that reflect the righteousness of Christ imputed to us.

 

Sometimes though we get righteousness confused with being sanctimonious. We think our righteousness makes us better than someone else and if we are not careful we forget about being the peacemaker and instead take on the role of judge.

We strive to bear righteous fruit for the purpose of bringing peace.

Wisdom for the new year ahead

 

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom…the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. - James 3:13, 17

 

2021 – Another year is done and another year is dawning. After the year we have just been through and the confusion and dismay and the wondering how we are going to do it all and not having the wisdom on how to deal with all we could certainly all do with a good dose of wisdom. How do we show ourselves wise in this brand new year with its unknown trials and challenges and difficulties and blessings?

 

Good conduct

Works done in meek wisdom

Wisdom that is pure

Wisdom that is peaceable

Wisdom that is gentle

Wisdom that yields

Wisdom that is merciful

Wisdom that bears good works

Wisdom that shows partiality

Wisdom that is not hypocritical

That’s a pretty good tick list with which to start this new year. If I am to be considered a wise man by the time 2022 rolls around this is the kind of man I am going to need to be.

 

It’s funny how much those wise words sound like the love words from I Corinthians 13 isn’t it? It is also funny to see how much they look like the fruit of the spirit.

Did you notice there isn’t a word that about standing up for rights or freedoms or defending our nations or anything of the sort?

 

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. True wisdom, God’s wisdom, Bible wisdom is what will get us through the uncertainties of 2021 and beyond.