Dwell on this!

Romans 4:22 And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. 23 ¶ And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. 24 It was recorded for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God.
Romans 5:1 ¶ Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us. 2 Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

Based on this amazing revelation of Scripture given to us,

Why did God count Abraham as righteous?

When God did this was it only for Abraham’s sake?

Who else is it meant to benefit?

Why?

Why did Christ die?

What did His resurrection do for us?

How are we made right in God’s sight?

Why can we enjoy peace with God?

What is it that makes us privileged in God’s sight?

How do we stand in this privilege?

What enables us to joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory?

Wineskins

Luke 5:36 Then He spoke a parable to them: "No one puts a piece from a new garment on an old one; otherwise the new makes a tear, and also the piece that was taken out of the new does not match the old.37 "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins; or else the new wine will burst the wineskins and be spilled, and the wineskins will be ruined.38 "But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.39 "And no one, having drunk old wine, immediately desires new; for he says, ‘The old is better.’"

I have heard so many messages on this subject of wineskins and each one has always stressed the importance of doing things differently.

I have heard it used to validate the idea of having church anywhere but a corporate setting with the argument that this statement deals with the end of the synagogue gathering styles.

Actually this has been one of the most popular uses for it I have run into. I have also heard it used anytime someone wishes to make a "paradigm shift," in the way we view the church.

How about we allow it to speak to what it was intended to speak to. Jesus is addressing the religious leaders who have questioned him regarding his disciples and their lack of observance of certain Jewish customs, such as fasting and sabbath related matters.

The old wine refers to the administration of the Spirit under the old covenant and the new wine refers to the administration of the Spirit that will come through Christ in the new covenant. The Spirit came in the new covenant and dwells in us and on us. We become the temple! The old wine skin tore when Jesus died on the cross, this is represented in the tearing of the veil in the temple.

Being born again by the work of Christ that is ours by grace through faith is given the emphasis with regard to this new covenant. Salvation is the work of the Savior who brings it, not the man who receives it. Thus the verse that speaks of how the ones who have had the old wine do not immediately want the new for they think the old is better! Still yet today there are people who want the old ways of the old covenant thinking that the law and the writings of Moses will bring us closer to God by leading us into proper behavior. Like the religious leaders they want to draw us back into antiquated powerless ceremonies as opposed to living in the faith that is ours in Christ.

To make this parable about anything else other than the new life and new covenant that is to come through Christ is an attack on the glory it gives to Christ for the work He performs on the cross for redemption.

Let's not make wine skins about structures or meeting venues. Let's allow it to remain to be about the release of the Holy Spirit into man through a better covenant in Christ, a covenant that is only realized by new creatures in Christ.

I Wonder

I can only imagine the grief Jesus would have been given in this modern age had He come in our generation.

I would guess he would be challenged with regard to his people skills and ability to relate to others. After all many were offended at Him.

Think for just a moment, He is in a boat with the guys who have left everything to follow Him and a storm comes up that is violent and threatens to sink the boat with the prospect that everyone in it will perish. They are far from shore!

The Disciples are frantically doing everything they know to do as fisherman to weather the storm and as expected they are panicking. After all they are human right?

In their panick they awaken Jesus who is asleep during all this, and what is His response? "Oh ye of little faith." You can look it up for yourself in Matthew 8

If a minister stands and challenges someone with regard to their faith he is accused of being heartless and lacking compassion. Insensitive they say.

But the truth is most of what ails us in this life is directly tied to faith in some aspect. If it is by faith that we please Him, and all our life is meant to be lived for His glory and is our most real act of worship, then would it not also stand to reason that faith would play a major role in everything that we do?

How good are we at allowing the Holy Spirit to cut to the chase with regard to where our faith is and what our motives are? Is He able to speak honestly without crushing us?

Only real faith in the finished work of Christ enables us to bear up under the truth and light He brings. He will show us the ugly things about us that He desires to consume with His fire and replace with the character and nature of Christ himself at work in us.

Shaky faith will resist this process and run away when the fire turns up. When light begins to shine on motives and the hidden things begin to get revealed if we are not established in grace through faith we will be unable to stand the heat.

Redeeming the time

WORD MINISTRY INPUT
Statistics show that a good churchgoer averages anywhere between 36 to 44 weeks of attendance at church. Very few if any are 100%. The amount is affected by vacations, sickness, work situations, or circumstances that might interfere with a Sunday here or there.

If the Word ministry at church each week takes up 45 minutes and there is a 100% attendance record it would amount to 2340 minutes, or 39 hours, or 1.65 days which is 0.44% of one’s available time each year.

Remember that would require that a person make it to church 52 weeks out of the year in order to achieve less than half a percent of their overall available time each year.

If we allot for two weeks of vacation taking away two Sunday’s, 3 Sundays missed due to illness, perhaps one Sunday due to a family get together over a holiday, and for good measure we add one more in for circumstances beyond our control. That allots for a total of 7 Sunday’s missed in a year, which would leave us with a total of 45 Sunday’s attended.

That would account for 2025 minutes, or 33.75 hours, or 1.406 days which amounts to 0.38% of one’s available time each year.

If we assumed a 45 week involvement, accompanied by 30 minutes of word discussion in a small group situation each week it would increase to 57 hours, or 2.375 days which is 0.65%

If we are to see an increase of Christian influence in our nation for the gospel I believe we will need to take greater advantage of fellowship and word input opportunities in the Christian community. It is more likely that a professing Christian will know more about current events in Hollywood or politics than they will know the true gospel. It might be accurate to say that distractions are effectively hindering the advancement of the gospel due to ill equipped saints who are anemic in word. Meanwhile it is by the word of God that faith is grown in our hearts. If that word is reduced in amount would it not stand to reason that there will be a famine of faith?

Compare the time figure for word input with something such as the amount of time spent for:

NOURISHMENT
Everyone must eat. This is an area that can serve us in many ways. By eating with others we can turn nutrition into social interaction. Everyone misses a meal every now and again. But we also spend more time on one meal than we would another and it varies from one occasion to the next.

On average we take 30 minutes for breakfast 30 minutes for lunch and 60 minutes for dinner which amounts to 120 minutes each day devoted to meals which amounts to 43800 minutes, or 730 hours, or 30.41 days a year which is 8.33% of one’s available time each year.

If a person watches just one hour of television a day it amounts to 365 hours a year which is 15.2 days each year which is 4.16% of one’s time spent. This is 9.45 times greater than the amount of Word ministry input one might receive in one year’s time.

How should this knowledge affect our ministry in the word if we are a mouthpiece for God?

How should this knowledge affect the time we give to being under the word ministry in the church?

It really is something to think about, wouldn’t you agree?

Traits of Legalism by Sheila Atchley

Legalism masquerades as zeal for God. It substitutes the application of Biblical principle, as being righteousness itself. Every Christian is susceptible to the seductive sickness of self righteousness - since I have battled this sickness in my own life, and encountered it in the lives of others, I've learned to discern a few of its symptoms:

Clever: a legalist is often quite bright. And she always, always sounds right, but there is always, always something wrong with her arguments - they lack depth and they lack a genuine care and concern for people as they are. A legalist loves people insofar as she thinks they "should be". She loves her idea of Christian maturity, without loving her flawed brother, sister, friend, mother, or husband.

Comparison: a legalist will compare herself to others, and compare people with people. She is habitually measuring herself and her spouse, and everyone else.Coldness - a legalist is incapable of sustained personal warmth in relationships. To be warm is to be pliable. To be cold is to be rigid. A legalist is rigid, and therefore ultimately an emotionally cold person. It may take six months, or it may take years and years, but if you "cross" a legalist in any significant way, you'll discover that her warmth quickly fades, and a cool demeanor replaces it.

Conversation: a legalist's primary topic of conversation is herself (or himself...but since I myself was once a legalist, and still struggle with the tendency, I use the female pronoun). So long as you remain in her fan club, and make it "all about her", you will have her as your friend. A legalist's second favorite topic of conversation is "this person or that person"(see the first symptom of legalism: comparison). Remember - great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people. Since the legalist is ego-centric, her world is a small one. She will primarily discuss herself, her problems, her life, her job or her children....and she will then discuss certain people. If you attempt to steer the relationship to a broader horizon, and engage her in an honest discussion of great ideas, she will withdraw (see the second symptom of legalism: coldness).

Cutting Ties: a legalist will cut ties with you, eventually. Wherever legalism exists, you will find a string of broken relationships. You will encounter the slow, progressive separation from even a significant relationship, if she perceives that the relationship is not in her control....which brings me to the next symptom:Control: A legalist cannot help but manipulate. She doesn't mean to, and may not even consciously try to. But she does it. She will attempt to control you by giving or withholding her approval. Giving or withholding her attention or affection. Giving or withholding gifts - because if you cut the "string attached" to the gift, the giving will cease. Giving or withholding love itself. A legalist will begin to act irrationally whenever someone close to her actually lives in a revelation of their gift of righteousness. Why? Because when you begin to believe the gospel, a legalist loses her leverage in the relationship.

Cloying: a legalist is a cloying person. She's happy only when she feels you are admiring her, or her possessions, her ability, or her status. She will assist you time and time again, she will help you more than you need to be helped, so long as you admire her for it. She will take what otherwise would be healthy and pleasant, and she will cling and cloy the joy right out of the experience or the relationship. Every relationship starts well, but almost none stay well. Since most legalists are insecure, they end up maxing everyone else out - no one can prop up their damaged ego consistently enough.

Conditional Contentment: most legalists are ever-so-slightly depressed people. (Ask me how I know!) Their contentment depends on being better than most everyone else ("I thank thee Oh Lord, that I am not like this tax collector..."), and since there is always someone who has a better home life, or house, a better marriage, car, or has more talent than they do, a legalist consequently suffers from constant, low-level unhappiness. Her contentment is conditional, and relative to her ability to control circumstances, or to feel superior. Thus, you don't find a legalistic woman laughing freely and often.

Christian: most legalists are Christians. The very recipients of such amazing grace, often do not know just how amazing it really is. You have to know that you need grace, to understand grace. You run to a throne of grace in time of need. Most Christians are chronically un-needy. These un-needy believers are also unaware that they are miserable, poor, blind and naked, and ever in great need of great grace. Subconsciously, a legalist relegates grace to be the solution for non-Christians, the unfortunate, uneducated or immoral. Meanwhile, the proud need grace the most, and yet perceive their need the least.

How Paul Worked to Overcome Slavery

By John Piper September 3, 2009

The historic and contemporary reality of slavery is never far away from how we think about the Bible. Instead of a frontal attack on the culturally pervasive institution of slavery in his day, Paul took another approach, for example, in his letter to Philemon.

Onesimus was a slave. His master Philemon was a Christian. Onesimus had evidently run away from Colossae (Colossians 4:9) to Rome where Paul, in prison, had led him to faith in Jesus. Now he was sending Onesimus back to Philemon. This letter tells Philemon how to receive Onesimus.
In the process, Paul does at least 11 things that work together to undermine slavery.

1. Paul draws attention to Philemon’s love for all the saints. “I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints” (1:5). This puts Philemon’s relation with Onesimus (now one of the saints) under the banner of love, not just commerce.

2. Paul models for Philemon the superiority of appeals over commands when it comes to relationships governed by love. “Accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love’s sake I prefer to appeal to you” (1:8-9). This points Philemon to the new dynamics that will hold sway between him and Onesimus. Acting out of freedom from a heart of love is the goal in the relationship.

3. Paul heightens the sense of Onesimus being in the family of God by calling him his child. “I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment” (1:10). Remember, Philemon, however you deal with him, you are dealing with my child.

4. Paul raises the stakes again by saying that Onesimus has become entwined around his own deep affections. “I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart” (1:12). The word for “heart” is “bowels.” This means, “I am deeply bound emotionally to this man.” Treat him that way.

5. Paul again emphasizes that he wants to avoid force or coercion in his relationship with Philemon. “I would have been glad to keep him with me...but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your goodness might not be by compulsion but of your own accord” (1:13-14). This is pointing Philemon how to deal with Onesimus so that he too will act “of his own accord.”

6. Paul raises the intensity of the relationship again with the word forever. “For this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever” (1:15). In other words, Onesimus is not coming back into any ordinary, secular relationship. It is forever.

7. Paul says that Philemon’s relationship can no longer be the usual master-slave relationship. “[You have him back] no longer as a slave but more than a slave, as a beloved brother” (1:16). Whether he lets Onesimus go back free to serve Paul, or keeps him in his service, things cannot remain as they were. “No longer as a slave” does not lose its force when Paul adds, “more than a slave.”

8. In that same verse (1:16), Paul refers to Onesimus as Philemon’s beloved brother.This is the relationship that takes the place of slave. “No longer as a slave...but as a beloved brother.” Onesimus now gets the “holy kiss” (1 Thessalonians 5:26) from Philemon and eats at his side at the Lord’s Table.

9. Paul makes clear that Onesimus is with Philemon in the Lord. “[He is] a beloved brother...in the Lord” (1:16). Onesimus’s identity is now the same as Philemon’s. He is “in the Lord.”

10. Paul tells Philemon to receive Onesimus the way he would receive Paul. “So if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me” (1:17). This is perhaps as strong as anything he has said: Philemon, how would you see me, treat me, relate to me, receive me? Treat your former slave and new brother that way.

11. Paul says to Philemon that he will cover all Onesimus’s debts. “If he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, charge that to my account” (1:18). Philemon would no doubt be shamed by this, if he had any thoughts of demanding repayment from his new brother, because Paul is in prison! He lives off the gifts of others. Philemon is the one who is to prepare a guest room for Paul! (1:22).

The upshot of all this is that, without explicitly prohibiting slavery, Paul has pointed the church away from slavery because it is an institution which is incompatible with the way the gospel works in people’s lives. Whether the slavery is economic, racial, sexual, mild, or brutal, Paul’s way of dealing with Philemon works to undermine the institution across its various manifestations. To walk “in step with the truth of the gospel” (Galatians 2:14) is to walk away from slavery.

Walking with you toward Jesus,
Pastor John Piper


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