The least of them

“And the king will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me” (Mathew 25:40 NET).

If one looks at this statement literally it is perhaps one of the most powerful statements in the Bible. That is, the way that you treat any human being is the way that you are treating Jesus. If Jesus came up to you and said “I’m hungry”, I am sure that you would give him all of the food that you had. But what about that drug-addicted man, dressed in rags, who is always begging by the side of the road. According to this scripture, there is no difference between the two.

Seeing Jesus everywhere you look will change your outlook on life in a dramatic way. He is your neighbor, the stranger, why, even your enemy. This sits right with our call to love everybody. In the accompanying passages of this parable, Jesus talks about feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the sick or those in prison, clothing the naked and taking in the stranger. All of these actions are visible, practical, and tangible demonstrations of love.

I am a full-time caregiver for my wife. As such, I cannot work a regular job, as she requires constant attention and care. I had a brother in Christ, who probably lives a mile away, say to me, “I’ll pray for you.” He knows both my situation and my needs but the best he can do is pray for me. He doesn’t visit and doesn’t call, let alone come and watch my wife to relieve me of my stressful duty for a few precious hours.

On the other hand, I’ve had sisters who came and cleaned my apartment. I’ve had brethren who watched my wife when I was in the hospital. I’ve had brethren who have brought me food and have given my wife clothes. I’ve had brethren who have watched my wife so I could go food shopping. I’ve had brethren call to check up on me and encourage me along the way.

Let me tell you that words are cheap. When I look back at my thirty years of Christianity, what stands out to me are those who demonstrated love to me. I can scarcely remember the sermons preached but I can vividly recall when somebody was there for me in a time of need.

As such, I want to help others out whenever and as often as I can. I look at every person as if they are Jesus and I “say how can I help?” Of course, I can never meet the needs of every single person I encounter within my life. Then again, Jesus didn’t heal all the lepers in Israel, or raise every dead corpse, did he?

Do as much good to as many as you can – that is the lesson for the day. “The one who is gracious to the poor lends to the Lord, and the Lord will repay him for his good deed” (Proverbs 19:17).

By John Kaniecki

Contentment in Every Circumstance

Philippians 4:10-13

Many people think contentment is elusive, because happiness and peace never last. But is that really the reason? It’s common to associate a state of satisfaction with a positive situation, but Paul challenges this idea when he says, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am” (Phil. 4:11).

Contentment isn’t something that comes naturally; it is learned. And what kind of classroom do you think God uses? It’s not in the midst of comfort and ease that we sense gratification most profoundly, but in situations that cause us to be troubled, fearful, and anxious. Paul had plenty of opportunities for these lessons because his life was a series of hardships (2 Corinthians 11:23-33). And in his letters, he passes down what he’s learned about contentment.

Focus on Christ rather than your circumstances. Paul had every reason to complain, because he was wrongfully imprisoned. Yet in his letter to the Philippians, he didn’t blame anyone or grumble. Instead, he kept rejoicing in Christ because that’s where his focus, affections, and devotion lay.

Focus on what God is doing through the situation. Paul saw how the Lord used his imprisonment for the greater progress of the gospel (Phil. 1:12).

Focus on the omnipotence and goodness of the Lord. The apostle was confident that his circumstances were under the sovereign control of God—the One who causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Rom. 8:28).

In essence, we could say that Paul evaluated his circumstances through a God-centered lens. The result was joy and contentment in every situation.

Charles Stanley

Burning in our hearts

The boisterous crowd fell silent. They had gathered in the summer of 1536 to witness an execution, a man burned at the stake. He was just a little over forty years old, an Oxford scholar, and a felon facing the death penalty.

So what had he done?

All eyes were on the victim. Flames snapped and crackled as the wood at his feet began to be consumed. Soon the man, too, would perish in its flames.

So what was his crime?

William Tyndale (1494-1536) had a simple ambition. He wanted to make the Bible available to the common man. You would have thought it was an innocent enough ambition, but powerful forces did not want just anybody to read the Bible.

At stake was the power and position of many clerics and churches whose practice differed too radically from Scripture. A plain reading of God’s word would reveal that these shepherds of the people had led their flocks astray. A measure of the clerics’ fear can be seen in the ruthless way they sought his life.

When one cleric objected to Tyndale’s proposals, he stood and declared:“If God spares my life, before many years pass, I will make it possible for the boy behind the plow to know more Scripture than thou.”

Such undiplomatic language did not endear him to the powerful and the entrenched. He had to flee to Holland, where he began to translate the Bible into common, plainspoken English. Copies of this precious work began to seep back into England, and the authorities, incensed, set a bounty on his head.

In 1536 Tyndale was betrayed, and fell into the hands of the Church authorities. At his trial he was convicted with the death penalty. As the crowd watched with the fascination of horror, the great man had something to say. His last words were a prayer:

“Lord,” his voice rang all around the courtyard, “Open the King of England’s eyes.”

Do me a favor, if you would, please. Take out your copy of the Bible, and hold it for a moment. Do you own anything more precious? There was a time when only the rich could own a Bible, so expensive was its manufacture. That changed with the invention of printing by Johann Gutenberg in 1456. Of course the first thing he printed was a German Bible.

Tyndale’s English Bible was so dangerous, so “revolutionary” that he lost his life for publishing it. But it should not escape our notice that it was so precious, so marvelous that thousands of Englishmen risked their lives in order to obtain it, and read its truths.

Have we taken something for granted? You can pick up a Bible at “Wally World” for less than five dollars. And you won’t have to smuggle it home. You can obtain a Bible “App” on your cell phone in just a few minutes. You probably own a variety of Bibles, large print, Study Bibles, various translations. The biggest danger you face by owning a Bible is…a changed life!

• Tyndale’s Bible was valuable enough to die for. Is your Bible important enough to read?
• Tyndale’s Bible was important enough to smuggle across the gray English Channel. Is it important enough for you to obey?
• Tyndale’s Bible was responsible for lifting the spirits of thousands of Englishmen – carpenters, lawyers, doctors and, yes, the boy behind the plow. Is it important enough for you to live?
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No fire burned hotter, the day Tyndale died, than the fire of God’s word. Will it burn in your heart too?

When the disciples of Emmaus reflected on their encounter with Jesus, they felt a burning in their hearts: “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32).

Stan Mitchell

The Downward Cycle of Sin

The book of Judges begins with God blessing Israel with wonderful victories over her enemies. The picture changes as Israel falls into spiritual decline and her enemies begin to make life miserable. The book of Judges graphically details the downward cycle of sin as it reveals what happens when God’s people become half-hearted about their relationship with the Lord and begin to compromise with sin. Someone has wisely said, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go; it will keep you longer than you want to stay; and it will cost you far more than you want to pay.” That is an excellent summary of the book of Judges.

The cycle of Israel’s decline is detailed in Judges 2:10-19, which begins with God’s blessings on Israel. Rather than responding with thanksgiving, Israel pursued her own pleasure and false gods which drew discipline from the Heavenly Father as He sold them into the hands of their enemies (Judges 2:14). God allowed the pressures of the enemy to build until Israel cried out for His help. When they called upon the Lord, He graciously raised a judge to deliver them, for the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning (Judges 2:18).

Judges 2:19 is a key verse for interpreting this book: And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted & behaved more corruptly than their fathers by following other gods, to serve them & bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way. This pattern put Israel on a downward spiral with their spiritual decline hitting rock bottom by the end of the book. Judges 17-21 emphasize just how backslidden God’s people had become. Judges 21:25, In those days there was no king in Israel… God should have been their King, but since He was not, …everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Their insistence upon practicing the “Burger King philosophy” resulted in all the chaos and confusion reported in Judges.

The shocking story of Judges 19 is about a Levite [a man set aside as a priest to lead Israel in worship]. When conflict arises in his marriage, his wife goes home to her parents. After four months of separation the Levite travels to her parents’ home and persuades her to return with him. On their way home they come to Gibeah, a town in the territory of Benjamin. They are taken in to spend the night in an old man’s house, which was the custom of that day when there were no Motel 6s! During the night an incident occurs very similar to the one recorded in Genesis 19. The townspeople ask the old man to allow the Levite to come out and engage in homosexual activity. The Levite instead sent his wife out to the men who raped her all night long. At dawn, they let her go. The woman fell at the old man’s front door and lay there until daylight. When the Levite opened the door, he discovered her body which he loaded onto his donkey. He took his dead wife home, carved her body into 12 pieces and sent each of the pieces to the 12 tribes.

Why such a horror story in the Bible? It tells us where sin will take us if we compromise with it. The book begins with a little apathy in not doing God’s will, but look where it finally takes Israel. Remember this was not pagan Sodom of Genesis 19, it was God’s covenant people. Sin is a slippery slope that gets steeper the further you slide down it.

Nowhere in Scripture is homosexuality presented the way our media presents it today. There is nothing “gay” or funny about it. It is abnormal behavior that is more debased than heterosexual sin because it departs even further from God’s intended purpose for human sexuality.

By the end of the book of Judges, evil had taken over the minds of the reprobate Israelites. What kind of man (especially a religious leader) would hand his wife over to a crowd of lustful men just to protect his own skin? How could he have slept during the night with all that was going on with his wife, and how could he leave without at least checking on her? What kind of cold-blooded man would dismember her corpse?

The graphic, shocking lesson of this story is that sin is never pretty but only becomes uglier if pursued. One horror of hell is that it is the final dwelling place of those whom Satan has molded into eternally sinful beings. We are all being shaped—either by God into saints fit for heaven or by Satan into demons fit for hell. The horror we have toward this terrible story is the attitude God wants us to have toward the slightest suggestion of sin and iniquity. Let us be like Joseph and run for our spiritual lives whenever sin beckons us with its pleasures!

Ralph Weinhold

The Bible

The Bible contains the mind of God, the state of man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners, and the happiness of believers.

It's doctrine is holy, its precepts are binding, its histories are true, and it's decisions are immutable.

Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy.

It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you.

It is the traveler's map, the pilgrim's staff, the pilot's compass, the soldier's sword, and the Christian's charter.

Here heaven is opened, and the gates of Hell disclosed. Christ Jesus is its grand subject, our good its design, and the glory of God it's end.

It should fill the memory, rule the heart, and guide the feet.

Read it slowly, frequently, and prayerfully.

It is a mine of wealth, health to the soul, and a river of pleasure.

It is given to you here in this life, will be opened at the judgment, and is established forever.

It involves the highest responsibility, promises reward for faithful labor, and condemns all who trifle with its sacred contents.

PROVE ALL THINGS

How to Answer When You Don’t Know the Answer

No one likes to be ‘put on the spot.’  We dread the possibility of being asked questions that we can’t answer.  This is especially true when the questions are about religion.

Perhaps one of the biggest hindrances to spreading the gospel is this fear of being asked questions. If you feel uneasy about your level of Bible knowledge, you may try to avoid potentially embarrassing situations — sidestepping any discussion that might turn to religious themes.  Unfortunately this keeps us from many ‘open doors’ for personal evangelism.

Since no one has ALL of the answers, it is important for us to know what to do when questions arise that ‘stump’ us.  Here are some suggestions:

1) Realize — and be ready to explain — that there are simply some pieces of information that we do not have because God has not supplied them. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God”  (Deut. 29:29).  But, we have “all truth” (John 16:12, 13), and “all things that pertain unto life and godliness” (2 Pet. 1:3).  So, every piece of essential information has been supplied.

2) When you do not know the answer, it is best to simply admit it.  This is much better than trying to ‘bluff’ you way through.  Humbly say, “I don’t know.”  But do not fail to add: “I’ll find out and get back to you on that.”  Following this procedure will actually provide additional opportunities to teach.  It keeps the door open to further discussions.

3) Study, study, study!  You will feel less intimidated and more willing to engage in biblical discussions if you build your confidence level by increasing your Bible knowledge.  Pay special attention to areas where you presently feel ‘weak’ in knowledge and understanding.  Be well prepared to deal with popular denominational errors.  Be ready to explain ‘issues’ that divide brethren.

4) Never shy away from a chance to talk about God and His Word.  The more you do this, the easier it will become.  Every such conversation serves as an opportunity for you to ‘sharpen your sword.’

– by Greg Gwin