——————————————–

 We are studying the keys to real happiness in the form of beatitudes—attitudes of the heart. And they really do run against the grain of our modern culture.

The most misunderstood beatitude that we have is the first one before us this morning. Matthew 5:5 says, “Blessed (or happy) are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.”

A study of its usage in Scripture reveals that it is linked with and cannot be separated from lowliness: “Learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29).

Second, it is associated with and cannot be divorced from gentleness: “I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:1).

Third, the Divine promise is “the meek will He guide in judgment, and the meek will He teach His way” (Ps. 25:9), intimating that this grace consists of a pliant heart and will.

Meekness is the opposite of self-will toward God, and of ill-will toward men.

Meekness is a fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5 gives several fruit of the Spirit: Peace, patience, kindness…one of them is gentleness. This is the same Greek word that Matthew translates as meekness.

“The meek are those who quietly submit themselves before God, to His Word, to His rod, who follow His directions and comply with His designs, and are gentle toward men” (Matthew Henry).

Aristotle, speaking of the ancient Greeks, listen to what he said about meek. “A meek man is angry on the right ground and against the right persons and in the right manner and at the right moment and for the right length of time.”

Our modern culture thinks and equates meekness with weakness. And people today crave power and strength and authority.

Meekness or gentleness…it’s not something that I can muster of my own power, of my own ability, it’s got to come from God, or it’s not going to come from me at all. And this word really is a word that was used to describe a wild animal that had been tamed or had been domesticated.

I want you to imagine a wild stallion. No one has ever ridden him. Bridle and bit have never been put upon him. He’s wild. He’s full of energy and strength and spirit. Now you take that horse and you tame him, you domesticate him. He becomes meek. You can put a saddle on him. His master can ride him, you can put a bit in his mouth and reins over his neck and he’s meek.

The only difference is, now that horse’s strength and energy, that horse’s life force are being controlled by his master and channeled for useful purposes.

Jesus is saying happy is that person who has all of his strength, all of his spirit, or all of her personality or energy, but they’ve allowed someone else to master them and to control them.

When we are meek…we’re no longer at the mercy of our own passion….at the mercy or the whim of our emotions or our anger or our temper. You can take an insult without giving one back. You can turn the other cheek but because you’re stable and because you’re strong in the Lord.

You’re happy because you’re free from bitterness, and you’re not easily provoked to anger. You don’t have to resort to revenge. You’re God-controlled, you’ve allowed his Spirit to direct your spirit.

When Jesus saw the merchants in the Temple, he was angry. They were making a mockery of the place of worship. And he made himself a weapon, and he drove them out. When Jesus denounced the Pharisees for their hypocrisy, he was angry.

But our Lord said of himself, “I am meek and lowly in heart.” He was angry at the right time. Near the end of Jesus’ life when he was beaten, when he was ridiculed and spat upon and crucified, he remained meek and compliant. Do you think he acted that way out of weakness? No. He acted that way out of the strength that he received from his Father.

Jesus gives us a great picture of this …look down at verse 38.Jesus says, ‘”You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.'”

Meek inherit the earth—proud send souls to hell. Matthew 23:15 (ESV) Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.

A proselyte is a convert to a cause. The Pharisees were out to win others to their legalistic system, yet they could not introduce these people to the living God. Instead of saving souls, the Pharisees were condemning souls!

A “child of hell” is the equivalent of “child of the devil,” which is what Jesus called the Pharisees (Matt. 12:34; 23:33; John 8:44). A “child of the devil” is a person who has rejected God’s way of salvation (righteousness through faith in Christ).

 

 Gary’s blog: http://www.tjsman.wordpress.com;

Free book from Gary: The Measure of One’s Life book

———————————————————-

Turn in your Bibles to Matthew 5 where we’ll camp for the rest of our time together. We’re going to see what Jesus says about happiness. I’ll tell you right now that he says your happiness doesn’t depend on your circumstances, it depends on your attitudes.

In Matthew 5 we have the opening lines of Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, and that sermon begins with eight positive statements about happiness that we’ve come to call the Beatitudes.

The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most misunderstood messages that Jesus ever gave. One group says it is God’s plan of salvation, that if we ever hope to go to heaven we must obey these rules. Another group calls it a “charter for world peace” and begs the nations of the earth to accept it.

I have always felt that Matthew 5:20 was the key to this important sermon: “For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The main theme is true righteousness.

The religious leaders had an artificial, external righteousness based on Law. But the righteousness Jesus described is a true and vital righteousness that begins internally, in the heart. The Pharisees were concerned about the minute details of conduct, but they neglected the major matter of character. Conduct flows out of character.

Now it’s interesting to me that of all the subjects that Jesus could have picked to start the greatest, most famous sermon of all time, he chose to speak on, “How to Be Happy.”

Isn’t that fascinating? Do you know why? Because he knew that is what everybody wants and what so few people find. So for the next eight weeks we’re going to look at those eight beatitudes in our series, “How to Really Be Happy.”

Being a master Teacher, our Lord did not begin this important sermon with a negative criticism of the scribes and Pharisees. He began with a positive emphasis on righteous character and the blessings that it brings to the life of the believer. The Pharisees taught that righteousness was an external thing, a matter of obeying rules and regulations. Righteousness could be measured by praying, giving, fasting, etc. In the Beatitudes and the pictures of the believer, Jesus described Christian character that flowed from within.

Here’s what it says:

1. “Happy are the poor in Spirit.”
2. “Happy are those who mourn.”
3. “Happy are the meek.”
4. “Happy are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.”
5. “Happy are the merciful.”
6. “Happy are the pure in heart.”
7. “Happy are the peacemakers.”
8. “Happy are those who are persecuted because of righteousness.”

Now tell the truth. As I went down that list, that sounded like a whole series of contradictions, didn’t it? I mean tell the truth. “HAPPY are the poor in spirit?” “HAPPY are those who mourn?” “HAPPY are those who are persecuted?”

WHAT? It doesn’t sound like happiness to me. Let’s spend eight weeks on it and see if you don’t have a different outlook. But, I’ll tell you, even from that one casual reading we just made of the eight beatitudes, one thing ought to be abundantly clear to you. Jesus didn’t make the mistake Solomon made. He says clearly, you can be happy in spite of your circumstances.

•          If you’re going to have to have all your problems solved before you’re going to be happy, will you ever be happy? NO.
•          If you’re going to have to have everything perfect in your life before you’re going to be happy, will you ever be happy? NO.
•          So Jesus says I want to teach you that happiness doesn’t depend on having the right circumstances, it depends on having the right attitudes.
•          In other words, “My happiness is not determined by what’s happening to me, but what’s happening in me.” Do you get that? “My happiness is not determined by what’s happening to me, but by what’s happening in me.”
•          Jesus says it’s not how much we have that makes us happy, it’s what we are that makes us happy.
•          It doesn’t depend upon the circumstances outside, it depends upon the attitude inside.
•          What Jesus is getting at then is that happiness is a choice. You choose it as you choose the right attitudes.

Mark Twain over 100 years ago had a great statement. He said, “Do you know what happens to most people over life?…About the same things.”

Now think about that. Isn’t that good? That’s true. If you live long enough, do you know what happens to most people over life? About the same things.

We all cry, we all laugh, we all smile, we all frown, we all hurt, we all have pleasure. You know if you live long enough about the same things happen. And Mark Twain concluded, he says then most people are about as happy as they choose to be. And he’s right, but that line wasn’t unique to him. He borrowed it from Jesus 1,900 years earlier.

•          This series is not to sugar-coat anything.
•          Hear me, life is tough. I mean it can be a bear.
•          Preachers even go through “Bear” periods during life. It can be hard.
•          There are a lot of things that don’t go your way.
•          You hurt and you cry, does that mean you cannot be happy? Absolutely not.
•          Your happiness depends upon the right attitudes.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.” What is poverty of spirit? It is the opposite of that haughty, self-assertive, and self-sufficient disposition that the world so much admires and praises. It is the very reverse of that independent and defiant attitude that refuses to bow to God, that determines to brave things out, and that says with Pharaoh, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?” (Ex. 5:2).

To be poor in spirit is to realize that I have nothing, am nothing, and can do nothing, and have need of all things. Poverty of spirit is evident in a person when he is brought into the dust before God to acknowledge his utter helplessness. It is the first experiential evidence of a Divine work of grace within the soul, and corresponds to the initial awakening of the prodigal in the far country when he “began to be in want” (Luke 15:14).

To be poor in spirit means to be humble, to have a correct estimate of oneself (Rom. 12:3). It does not mean to be “poor spirited” and have no backbone at all! “Poor in spirit” is the opposite of the world’s attitudes of self-praise and self-assertion. It is not a false humility that says, “I am not worth anything, I can’t do anything!” It is honesty with ourselves: we know ourselves, accept ourselves, and try to be ourselves to the glory of God.

The first step to happiness, very simple, be humble. Verse 3 in Matthew 5 says, “Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

• Being poor in spirit doesn’t mean to have low self-esteem.
• It doesn’t mean to walk around having some kind of inferiority complex.
• You know walking around saying, “Oh, I’m no good. I’m just lousy. I’m just junk. I’m just trash.”
• Jesus didn’t die for junk. God didn’t make trash in his own image.
• You are infinitely valuable to God because you’re made in his image, and Jesus died on that cross redeeming you with his precious blood.
• You weren’t paid for by silly stuff like silver and gold.

It simply means to depend on God. It means to be humble. It means admitting daily, I don’t have it altogether, because you don’t.

I know you come here in a suit and tie and a nice dress, but you don’t have it altogether. It means admitting that I haven’t arrived, that I’ve got more to learn, that God didn’t build the universe to revolve around me.

I think maybe the best way to get a picture of what being poor in Spirit is, is to tell you what the opposite is. It is the opposite of being arrogant. It’s the opposite of being prideful and egotistical. Jesus says if you’re full of pride, if you’re full of ego and arrogance, you’re never going to be really happy.

But the more you depend upon the God and the more that you’re humble, the more you open the door to happiness. I will tell you right now that humility and happiness are twins. They’re like bread and butter. They go together, you can’t have one without the other. If you want genuine happiness, you start by humbling yourself before God.

Three ways that humility will bring you happiness:

On the Mount in the section about worry that begins in Matthew 6:25, where he basically says, why do you fret about over what you’re going to eat, what you’re going to wear, and how long you’re going to live, and how many hairs you have? He says, why do you worry about all that when you’ve got a God who’s bigger than everything you can worry about?

Do you know how humility makes you happier? Here’s how.

• When I’m humble, I don’t have to have all the answers.
• When I’m humble, I realize I can resign as general manager of the universe.
• When I’m humble, I don’t have to know the answer to every question.
• When I’m humble, I don’t have to fake.
• When I’m humble, I don’t have to pretend I’m perfect because I’m not, I’m just human.
• When I’m humble, I can live in the tension between the ideal and the real.

Do you know what I’m talking about there? You know what I’m talking about because you have to do it.

I’ve got an ideal for all parts of my life, don’t you?

• I mean I’ve got an ideal picture of how I’d like to do my job and all the things about me.
• I’ve got an ideal picture about all of my habits that I wish I had.
• I’ve got an ideal picture for my marriage, I mean you know just perfect, never a cross word.
• I’ve got an ideal picture about my family and my children.
• I’ve got ideal pictures about all those things, and then I’ve got the real.
• And guess what? The real is never the ideal.
• And the problem most people have is they think they’ll only be happy when the ideal comes along.
• And it never, ever gets here.

Humility accepts the fact that things aren’t ideal, and yet I can still be happy because I’m depending upon an ideal God. He’s going to make everything all right. It’s not perfect until we get to heaven, but he’s going to make it all right. Humility reduces my stress because I don’t have to take myself that seriously.

Do you know what I think one of the biggest problems in the world is? This is my opinion, but I think one of the biggest problems in the world is that we take ourselves too seriously, and we don’t take God seriously enough. I think that’s the crux of the human problem.

We’re out there trying to do it all, impress people with who we are, and because we know who we really are underneath, there’s all this stress. But when I walk humbly, dependent upon God, the stress goes down and happiness goes up. That will make you happy.

Here’s the second way humility will make you happy, it will improve your relationships.

It will improve your relationships. Let me ask you a question. How many of you love to be around big-headed, egotistical people? How many of you love to do that? How many of you wake up on a Monday morning and say, “Man, I hope I can take an irritating, conceited jerk out to lunch today.” How many of you do that?

You know the fact is, prideful people are a pain to be around. Somebody says that pride is the only human disease that makes everybody else sick, that’s true, isn’t it? I mean egotists, they are irritating, and they wreck relationships. Do you know why they wreck relationships? Because self-centered people are never happy. And because they aren’t happy when they come into a relationship, they tend to drag everybody in that relationship down.

On the other hand, how many of you like to be around humble people? Don’t you just love that. Because they’re always lifting you up. Don’t you love to be around somebody who when you tell a little story, they don’t have to top it? “You mean your fish was how big, well let me tell you about this one.”

When you are humble, you get along better with others, not because you think less of yourself, but because you’re thinking more about others. And folks, this is a key to good, happy social living.

When you become more interested in others, you become more interesting to others. When you become more interested in others, you become more interesting to others. So you have better relationships when you’re humble. You’re not afraid to say, “Hey, I’m sorry. I messed up, I didn’t mean to. Forgive me, I’ll do better.”

If you walk humbly before the Lord, you’re almost immune to insults. It doesn’t mean that you don’t accept criticism, it’s just that you don’t take it so personally that you get all upset. Humility will improve your relationships. It will make you happy.

And then third as we close, and this is the best of all. How am I happy through humility? Humility unleashes God’s power.

This is the best one. It’s humility that unleashes God’s power. The Bible says the secret of spiritual power is to walk humbly before God. Let me read to you about three verses. Isaiah 66:2, God says through Isaiah, “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.”

James 4:6, James says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.”

Same chapter, verse 10, James says, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

I want to tell you this morning that if you are not humble before God, you’re cutting the cord through which he’s going to channel all of his power. When I read Luke 18 about that proud Pharisee who stood in the temple and prayed, “Lord, I thank you that I’m not like other men. I give all these tithes and I pray and I do this. And there’s this old sinner, this old publican down there,” and you can see between the lines. Umph, umph, like him?

That poor old sinner, that old publican was down on his knees and he wouldn’t lift his head, and he smote his breast, and all he said was, “Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.” And Jesus said, “I want to make sure you know which man walked out of there justified.”

And if you don’t get the point of that simple parable, it is simply this: If you’re not humble, your prayers are not answered. They’re not even heard. Is anybody going through a barren period with your prayer life? Check your humility before God. You won’t be forgiven if you’re not humble.

The man didn’t leave justified because he was full of arrogance. But that old publican who committed every sin in the book, he followed beatitude number one, and he was poor in spirit, and he said, “Lord, please be merciful to me, I’m a sinner.” And God said, “He walked out of there with his sins washed away.”

The secret of strength is admitting weakness. Paul said in II Corinthians 12:9, “Therefore I boast all the more gladly in my weakness so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”

Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.”

The King’s Denunciation — Matthew 23

This was our Lord’s last public message. It is a scathing denunciation of false religion that paraded under the guise of truth. Some of the common people no doubt were shocked at His words, for they considered the Pharisees to be righteous.

Perhaps we should remind ourselves that not all of the Pharisees were hypocrites. There were about 6,000 Pharisees in that day, with many more who were “followers” but not full members of the group. Most of the Pharisees were middle-class businessmen and no doubt they were sincere in their quest for truth and holiness. The name “Pharisees” came from a word that means “to separate.” The Pharisees were separated from the Gentiles, the “unclean” Jews who did not practice the Law (“publicans and sinners,” Luke 15:1-2), and from any who opposed the tradition that governed their lives.

Among the Pharisees were a few members who sought for true spiritual religion. Nicodemus (John 3; 7:50-53), Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:38ff), and the unnamed man mentioned in Mark 12:32-34, come to mind. Even Gamaliel showed a great deal of tolerance toward the newly formed church (Acts 5:34ff). But for the most part, the Pharisees used their religion to promote themselves and their material gain. No wonder Jesus denounced them.

They had a false concept of righteousness (vv. 2-3).

To begin with, they had assumed an authority not their own. “The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in Moses’ seat” is the literal translation. There is no record in the Scriptures that God assigned any authority to this group. Their only authority was the Word of God. Therefore, the people were to obey whatever the Pharisees taught from the Word. But the people were not to obey the traditions and the man-made rules of the Pharisees.

 

To the Pharisee, righteousness meant outward conformity to the Law of God. They ignored the inward condition of the heart. Religion consisted in obeying numerous rules that governed every detail of life, including what you did with the spices in your cupboard (Matt. 23:23-24). The Pharisees were careful to say the right words and follow the right ceremonies, but they did not inwardly obey the Law. God desired truth in the inward parts (Ps. 51:6). To preach one thing and practice another is only hypocrisy

We must not read this series of denunciations with the idea that Jesus lost His temper and was bitterly angry. Certainly He was angry at their sins, and what those sins were doing to the people. But His attitude was one of painful sorrow that the Pharisees were blinded to God’s truth and to their own sins. Perhaps the best way to deal with these eight “woes” is to contrast them with the eight beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12. In the Sermon on the Mount the Lord described true righteousness; here He described a false righteousness.

Entering the kingdom Vs. shutting up the kingdom

Matthew 23:13 (NIV)
¹³  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.

Matthew 5:3 (NIV)
³  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The poor in spirit enter the kingdom, but the proud in spirit keep themselves out and even keep others out. The Greek verb indicates people trying to get in who cannot. It is bad enough to keep yourself out of the kingdom, but worse when you stand in the way of others. By teaching man-made traditions instead of God’s truth, they “took away the key of knowledge” and closed the door to salvation (Luke 11:52).

Mark your calendars for the 2015 Harding Bible Lectureship: it will be held on September 27-30. The theme will be “SECRETS OF THE KINGDOM – Unlocking the Treasures of the Parables.” There is a popular understanding of the parables as being cleverly constructed stories that simplify complex themes so “you can’t miss it” – nifty little narratives that are so simple even the dullest of readers can get the point. That is not at all how Jesus explained them!

Matthew 13:10-12 tells us, “The disciples came to Jesus and asked, ‘Why do you speak to the people in parables?’ He replied, ‘The knowledge of the secrets of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.’”

The parables will never make sense to people unless the listeners already possess a certain quality. The parables will unlock the secrets of the kingdom only for individuals who already have the proper preparation to receive them.

What is that quality? Here’s a clue: this passage comes in the middle of two connected sections – the parable of the sower and the soils precedes it, and Jesus’ explanation of the parable that follows it. What is the “good soil” that responds to the word by bringing forth a crop? It is the man with the “good and honest heart” (Luke 8:15). Without that quality, we will never grasp the meaning of the Word, and it will never produce any fruit in our life.

It’s not only what the texts say to us, but what we bring to them, that enables us to grasp their meaning! The parables, therefore, are not just didactic – they are prophetic. They stand in judgment of us by presenting us with truths we will comprehend only if we are spiritually receptive. It reminds me of the prayer of Jesus in Matthew 11:25, where he says, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”

My goal, therefore, should be more than simply reading the Scriptures: I should also be cultivating the humility it takes to have a teachable, reachable heart.

I invite you to join us on the campus of Harding University this fall on September 27-30 as together we unlock the “Secrets of the Kingdom.” To learn more, go to http://www.harding.edu/lectureship. 

Salt, Leaven, and Light newsletter

The College of Bible and Ministry at Harding University seeks to lead all students to know, live and share God’s Word and to understand, love and serve God’s world through and beyond their chosen vocation.

Salt, Leaven, and Light is a quarterly publication of the Office of Church Relations that reports on our efforts to meet that goal. 

I am privileged to associate and work with the outstanding Bible faculty who serve here. Their work truly provides “salt, leaven, and light” in our world.

I invite you to open the latest issue of SLL below and learn the latest news of what they are doing for good and for God!

-Dan Williams, Ph.D. Vice-President for Church Relations

http://www.harding.edu/churchrelations/salt-leaven-and-light

       

 ——————————————–

Life is too short and families grow  too fast for us to raise a family  through “trial and error”

  Man’s domestic problems begin when he departs from God’s counsel regarding the home. This study is vital because our understanding of Christ’s relationship to the church is dependent upon His conception of the home. A reminder about Satan The first attack Satan made was against the home: he invaded Eden and led the first  husband and wife into disobedience and judgment.

He is called the “deceiver” and wants us to center our mind upon him, to make us  ignorant of God’s will in our life. He uses lies…Jesus tells us that “Satan is the Father of  all liars…that he cannot tell the truth because it just isn’t in him”….our defense is God’s Word!

He’s also called “the destroyer” and uses suffering in this world to make us impatient with God’s will…we need to remember the unmerited, unending grace that God bestows upon each of us when we choose Jesus and make Him Savior and Lord of our lives!

If he can’t get us through these means, Satan works on our pride and hopes to make us independent of God’s will.  Or he uses accusation as “the accuser” to work on the heart and the conscience to bring an indictment by God’s will.

Satan uses religious leaders today to forbid marriage (1 Tim. 4:1-3). Singleness is a Christian’s option but for most people, marriage is the will of God. Satan’s approach is to convince the person that marriage is sinful. Any teaching  that claims greater spiritual virtues and blessings for the celibate than for the married is of the devil and not from God.

Satan seeks to reverse the headship in the home (1 Tim. 2:11-13; Eph. 5:22-23).  He wants man to be concerned with dictatorship and forget the model of Christ as the head of the church; the husband ought to be the head of the wife in a living, loving relationship.

What is the answer to life’s difficulties and to Satan’s attacks on our homes? God!! It might be of some comfort to realize that the world has always been a difficult  place in which Christians must live. It has always been opposed to God’s values and God’s will. Satan longs for the soul of any age person who will reject good, right, and truth and turn to his way of thinking. Christians must daily remind themselves of the clear, simple words of Jesus, from Matthew 7:13-14: “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.” {14} “For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.”

Confident Children and How They Grow — Blessing or Bother?

How could I ever forget the birth of our first child? It was early in the morning and I was rather groggy, but even through the fog of the years I can still project on the screen of my mind some vivid scenes from my memory bank. I can still see the doctor walking toward me in the hallway of the hospital, looking like a giant pea pod in his surgical greens, announcing with a note of happy triumph, “It’s a girl!”

Little did I realize it at the moment, but I would hear that very same announcement two more times, each with a little less of the happy triumph. After all, variety is the spice of life, and what father in his right mind doesn’t want a little girl to put her arms around his neck and say, “I love you, Daddy.”

I have learned, however, that God knows far better than I do what my needs are. Since he gave me those boys, and since they are exactly what I need for my own spiritual growth and blessing, no human being could make me give any one of them up of my own volition. Next to the wonderful wife the Lord has given me, they are the most precious things in this world to me. Those beautiful words of the ancient poet of Israel have taken on new meaning

Psalm 127:3 (NIV) Sons are a heritage from the Lord, children a reward from him. (5) Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate. “

It is quite obvious that somebody wrote that a long time ago. There are not many people in 21st century America with the Psalmist’s viewpoint on children. A modern version might sound more like this: Lo, children are a burden from the Lord; and the fruit of the womb must be his way of testing us.  As the source of endless work and continual aggravation, so are the children of one’s youth.  Unhappy is the man who hears his neighbor ask, “Do all those kids belong to you?”

We can understand why folks might feel that way. Many children are rebellious, disobedient, disrespectful, and unmannerly–not very pleasant to be around. It’s no wonder that some people have decided not to have any at all. What has gone wrong? Where did we lose God’s perspective? The first verse of Psalm 127 may provide us with a clue. “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.” Stable and successful homes are built by God. He is the architect and the general contractor. He has drawn the blueprint, and he wants to provide the direction and give the orders. All he needs are some laborers–husbands, wives and children–who will study the blueprint provided in his Word, then follow his di­rections. Any other procedure is going to result in frustration and failure.

The basic problem in many homes is that we have departed from God’s blueprint and have substituted man’s. God is no longer the architect and builder. We are following instead the blueprint drawn by psychiatrists, psychologists, modern educators, doctors, and even syndicated columnists. Much of the advice we get from these sources is good. But if some parts of a blueprint are good and other parts are faulty, the result is going to be a weak building. The Bible is still the best textbook ever written on rearing children. We need to find out what it says and obey it. “Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”

It is gratifying to note an increasing alarm about the situation. Newspaper and magazine articles, along with a growing number of books on the subject, are warning people of the dangers of an unhappy home and are trying to help them repair the damage. The information may be helpful, but unless people are willing to turn their hearts and homes over to the Lord, it may be too little too late.

Listen to the Psalmist again. “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” No ancient city was safe from attack no matter how thick its walls nor alert its guards unless God was protecting it. Likewise, no home is safe from the attack of Satan unless it has been consciously committed to the Lord, unless he has been put in charge.

The homes where Jesus Christ reigns as Lord in the lives of every family member are the homes that will tower above the rest in love, serenity, happiness, mutual concern one for another, and the ability to adjust to people outside the home.

Some folks think there are other ways to produce a happy home. For example, “Work, work, work, as hard as you can. Provide all the material things of this world for your children. Maybe that will make them happy.” If dad doesn’t make enough money to do it, mom goes to work too. Read on in Psalm 127. “It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; for so he giveth his beloved sleep.” The bread of sorrows is simply bread secured through toil and trouble. Food is essential, but God can provide it without taking fathers and mothers away from their children day and night to pursue that elusive and almighty dollar.

God has no time for laziness. He blesses honest work, but he can supply the things we need without anxious efforts and ceaseless self-activity. The Psalmist says God provides for his beloved ones, literally, “in sleep,” the idea being in calm, restful, confident trust in him.

The society in which we live has perverted our perspective. We have been sold a bill of goods, the false theory that we owe our children all the things they want. We hear parents say, “But we want them to have all the things we never had.” So they have things, but they don’t know who they are, or why they are here, or what they ought to accomplish in life. The most incor­rigible rebels in our society are not necessarily the under­privileged. They are kids who have had all that money can buy but were never loved, appreciated, and accepted. 

      

 ——————————————–

We often are cautioned that training involves getting a child to follow your instructions…without begging, nagging, anger, and counting.

We should reach the point where you must learn how to accomplish getting this obedience.  Are you a winner? Winners are parents who have reared or are rearing obedient children. Their children respect and honor them; they show it in their speech, manners, and actions.

I can remember a visit made a few years back that was important, and, after meeting and greeting the family, it was time for the adults to talk alone in the living room. At the time, two children were in the room watching television.

The husband/father made a simple statement: “Boys, turn the TV off…we have to visit alone for a few minutes.” What did the boys do? Without hesitation (or begging or further explanation) they got up and obeyed their father. No talk back. No nasty attitude involved.

What would you expect as parents? Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way in many homes because the children are treated differently on a daily basis and don’t know how to act when “company arrives.”

True obedience in this regard is: (a) immediate; (b) unquestioning, and (c) to the letter — no substitutions, additions, or omissions.

Several years ago we had a house in Ohio with a large open field and wonderful woods just behind us. The children spent many hours in those woods…special time with each other, etc. We had one common-sense rule immediately in place: when either Terry or I called out and wanted the children to come to the house, etc., we called their names and their only response was to be this: “coming.”

Not “what?” Not “do you want something?” It worked often because they had learned obedience.

Rosemond’s  Bill of Rights for Children

1. Children have the right to find out early in their lives that their parents don’t exist to make them happy, but to offer them the opportunity to learn the skills they-children-will need to eventually make themselves happy.

2. Children have a right to scream all they want over the decisions their parents make, albeit their parents have the right to confine said screaming to certain areas of their homes.

3. Children have the right to find out early that their parents care deeply for them but don’t give a hoot what their children think about them at any given moment in time.

4. Because it is the most character-building activity a child can engage in, children have the right to share significantly in the doing of household chores.

5. Every child has the right to discover early in life that he isn’t the center of the universe (or his family or his parents’ lives), that he isn’t a big fish in a small pond, and that he’s not even-in the total scheme of things-very important at all, no one is, so as to prevent him from becoming an insufferable brat.

Daddy
    1. Be fair. A man setting out to lead his wife and children must first of all be fair. Listen, especially to the wishes of your wife. Don’t expect of your family what you are not willing to do or be yourself. Take care of your family’s needs before your own.
     2. Be firm. When there is no leader, there is no leadership. If you are seeking to be fair, you’ll know when to listen and make changes.
     3. Be faithful. A family will do anything asked of them if they know you love them. How can you hurt your wife the most? Don’t love her; avoid her; don’t compliment her; make her feel as if she is inferior. Some treat the waitress better than their wife at home. Our wife needs to know, without doubt, that they are loved! Go visit your child’s teacher at the school they attend; determine their level of maturity as it relates to listening, sitting still, obeying commands, etc., and, please, do not expect less of them at worship than your teacher expects from them at school.

       

 ——————————————–

The story is told of a good woman known for her great calmness in the midst of many trials and for her simple faith.  Another woman heard of her and said, “I must go and see that woman, and learn the secret of her strong and happy life.”  She went, and speaking to her asked:  “Are you the woman with the great faith?” “No,” she replied, “I am not the woman with the great faith; but I am the woman with the little faith in the great God.”

It’s my greatest blessing in life to have known some men and women who “lived their whole life for their death.” People who loved the Lord daily and longed for eternity moment by moment.

They understood that the most important things in life are things we cannot see.  They knew a faith that hasn’t been tested can’t be trusted. Their motto: without Christ, not one step; with him, anywhere!

As Abraham Lincoln said, “Faith is not believing that God can, but that God will!” Faith has never yet outstripped the bounty of the Lord. And faith is a gift but we can ask for it.

Faith comes by the word of God (Rom. 10:17). Thus, we trust a book, whose original we have never seen, to help us learn about a man we have never met, to save us through an event we have never seen, and take us to a place we have never visited. Nevertheless, we believe.

There are three kinds of faith in Christ: 1. Struggling faith, like a man in deep water desperately swimming; 2. Clinging faith, like a man hanging to the side of a boat.; 3. Resting faith, like a man safely within the boat (and able to reach out with a hand to help someone else get in).[1]

When people come in for counsel, and begin to list their many difficulties, I often ask a simple question, “How much time have you spent in Bible study the past month?” Without exception, those who have ‘little faith’ in themselves and in God working with them in their circumstances have spent little or no time in His Word.

   Our need to be in charge of ourselves, others, and situations often makes our relationship with Christ life’s biggest power struggle.  We are reluctant to relinquish our control and allow Him to run our lives.  We may believe in Him and be active in the church and Christian causes, but trusting Him as Lord of everything in life can be scary.

We live under the illusion that if we can acquire complete control, we can understand God, or we can write the great American novel.  But the only way we can brush against the hem of the Lord, or hope to be part of the creative process, is to have the courage, the faith, to abandon control.  For the opposite of sin is faith, and never virtue, and we live in a world which believes that self-control can make us virtuous.  But that’s not how it works. [2]

Even though we pray about our challenges and problems, all too often what we really want is strength to accomplish what we’ve already decided is best for ourselves and others.  Meanwhile we press on with our own priorities and plans.  We remain the script writer, casting director, choreographer, and producer of the drama of our own lives, in which we are the star performer. [3]

The principal work of the Spirit is faith … the principal exercise of faith is prayer. [4]   Our faith becomes practical when it is expressed in two books:  the date book and the check book. [5]

We are encouraged to never doubt in the dark what God told us in the light. We should not put a question mark where God has put a period. To have faith is to believe the task ahead of us is never as great as the Power behind us. To me, faith means not worrying.

Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trustworthiness of God. [6] Faith is a refusal to panic. [7] Faith is a strong power, mastering any difficulty in the strength of the Lord who made heaven and earth. Faith is an activity; it is something that has to be applied.[8]

We human beings instinctively regard the seen world as the “real” world and the unseen world as the “unreal” world, but the Bible calls for almost the opposite. Through faith, the unseen world increasingly takes shape as the real world and sets the course for how we live in the seen world.[9]

Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.

The Bible recognizes no faith that does not lead to obedience, nor does it recognize any obedience that does not spring from faith.  The two are at opposite sides of the same coin. [10]

The writer to the Hebrews went on to say: “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.”(Heb. 11:1-3)

Faith is absolutely certain that what it believes is true and that what it expects will come.  It is not the hope which looks forward with wistful longing; it is the hope which looks forward with utter conviction.  Faith is not a sense, nor sight, nor reason, but taking God at his Word.

In the early days of persecution they brought a humble Christian before the judges.  He told them that nothing they could do could shake him because he believed that, if he was true to God, God would be true to him.  “Do you really think,” asked the judge, “that the like of you will go to God and his glory?” “I do not think,” said the man, “I know,” [11]

A person who has faith is prepared for life and to do something with it. [12]

Moffatt distinguishes three directions in which the Christian hope operates. It is belief in God against the world.  If we follow the world’s standards we may well have ease and comfort and prosperity; if we follow God’s standards we may well have pain and loss and unpopularity.  It is the conviction of the Christian that it is better to suffer with God than to prosper with the world. 

In the book of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego are confronted with the choice of obeying Nebuchadnezzar and worshipping the king’s image or obeying God and entering the fiery furnace.  Without hesitation they choose God (Daniel 3).  The Christian attitude is that in terms of eternity it is better to stake everything on God than to trust to the rewards of the world.

The Christian hope is belief in the spirit against the senses.  The senses say to a man:  “Take what you can touch and taste and handle and enjoy.”

The Christian hope is belief in the future against the present.  Long ago Epicurus said the chief end of life was pleasure.  But he did not mean what so many people think he meant.  He insisted that we must take the long view.  The thing which is pleasant at the moment may bring pain in the long run; the thing which hurts like fury at the moment may bring joy in the long run.  The Christian is certain that in the long run no man can exile the truth for “great is truth, and in the end she will prevail.”[13]

It was precisely because the great heroes of the faith lived on that principle that they were approved by God.  Every one of them refused what the world calls greatness and staked everything on God and history proved them right.

Many of us need to be more like the little girl whom the farmer found lost in his meadow.  The farmer said to her, “Do not cry; I’ll take you home.”  The little child snuggled up to him, and with a smile, said, “I knew you would; I was waiting for you.”  “Waiting for me?” said the man. “What made you think I was coming?”  “I was praying you would” she said.  “Praying?  When I first heard you, you were saying A B C D E F G.  What was that for?” She looked up again and said, “I’m just a little girl.  I was praying all the letters of the alphabet and letting God put them together the way He wanted to.  He knows I was lost, and He knows how to put them together better than I do.”

What a difference if we would only let God put the letters of our lives together.[14] Faith does not struggle; faith lets God do it all. [15]

Hope stands up to its knees in the past and keeps its eyes on the future. There has never been a time past when God wasn’t with us as the strength beyond our strength, the wisdom beyond our wisdom, as whatever it is in our hearts–whether we believe in God or not–that keeps us human enough at least to get by despite everything in our lives that tends to wither the heart and make it less than human. To remember the past is to see that we are here today by grace, that we have survived as a gift. [16]

Two little girls were on their way to school one morning. Having been detained in starting, they were very much afraid that they would be late. One said, “Let us kneel down and ask the Lord to not let us be late.” The other said, “No, I think I will run as fast as I can, and pray to God while I am running to help me to get there on time.”

Folding our hands in prayer is not an act of resignation. Prayer does not lead us to accept every circumstance with passive calm. Is prayer our steering wheel or our spare tire?

Two gentlemen were one day crossing the river in a ferryboat. A dispute about faith and works arose, one saying that good works were of small importance and that faith was everything, the other asserting the contrary. Neither being able to convince the other, the ferryman asked permission to give his opinion. Upon consent he said, “I hold in my hand two oars. That in my right hand, I call ‘faith’; the other, in my left, ‘works.’ Now, gentlemen, please observe. I pull the oar of faith and pull that alone. See! the boat goes round and round, and the boat makes no progress. I do the same with the oar of works with precisely similar results — no advance. Mark! I pull both together. We go on apace, and in a very few minutes we shall be at our landing place. So, in my humble opinion neither faith without works nor works without faith will suffice.  Let there be both, and the haven of eternal rest is sure to be reached.”[17]

Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking.  First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again–until you can scarcely distinguish which is one and which is the other. [18]

When G. Campbell Morgan was young he used to visit several elderly ladies once a week to read the Bible to them. When he came to the end of Matthew’s Gospel, Morgan read, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age.” He added, “Isn’t that a wonderful promise?” One of the ladies quickly replied, “Young man, that is not a promise. It is a fact!”

Saving faith is always a working faith.  It not only trusts God for everyday needs but also motivates the doing of good deeds. One of the strongest evidences of the relevance of Christianity to human suffering and need is the good that believers do because of their relationship to Christ.

John Stott observed that ”every Christian should be both conservative and radical; conservative in preserving the faith and radical in applying it.” Put another way,  if there are two words that should be said in the same breath and said regularly to ventilate our hope, that should be flamed together, branded as a signature of our faith, they are the words “faith” and “courage.”  It takes courage to believe, and in order to have that courage, we must believe. [19]

On day six of the ill-fated mission of Apollo 13, the astronauts needed to make a critical course correction. If they failed, they might never return to Earth.

   To conserve power, they shut down the onboard computer that steered the craft. Yet the astronauts needed to conduct a thirty-nine-second burn of the main engines. How to steer? Astronaut Jim Lovell determined that if they could keep a fixed point in space in view through their tiny window, they could steer the craft manually. That focal point turned out to be their destination–Earth.

   As shown in 1995’s hit movie, Apollo 13, for thirty-nine agonizing seconds, Lovell focused on keeping the earth in view. By not losing sight of that reference point, the three astronauts avoided disaster.

   Scripture reminds us that to finish your life mission successfully, “Fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Heb. 12:2).

There was a tightrope walker, who did incredible aerial feats. All over Paris, he would do tightrope acts at tremendously scary heights. Then he had succeeding acts; he would do it blindfolded, then he would go across the tightrope, blindfolded, pushing a wheelbarrow. An American promoter read about this in the papers and wrote a letter to the tightrope walker, saying, “Tightrope, I don’t believe you can do it, but I’m willing to make you an offer. For a very substantial sum of money, besides all your transportation fees, I would like to challenge you to do your act over Niagara Falls.” Now, Tightrope wrote back, “Sir, although I’ve never been to America and seen the Falls, I’d love to come.” Well, after a lot of promotion and setting the whole thing up, many people came to see the event. Tightrope was to start on the Canadian side and come to the American side. Drums roll, and he comes across the rope which is suspended over the treacherous part of the falls — blindfolded!! And he makes it across easily.

The crowds go wild, and he comes to the promoter and says, “Well, Mr. Promoter, now do you believe I can do it?” “Well of course I do. I mean, I just saw you do it.” “No,” said Tightrope, “do you really believe I can do it?” “Well of course I do, you just did it.” “No, no, no,” said Tightrope, “do you believe I can do it?” “Yes,” said Mr. Promoter, “I believe you can do it.” “Good,” said Tightrope, “then you get in the wheel barrow.”

Often, God is ready and willing to provide help and security to us, yet we’re not strong enough in faith to allow it to occur.

One night a house caught fire and a young boy was forced to flee to the roof. The father stood on the ground below with outstretched arms, calling to his son, “Jump! I’ll catch you.” He knew the boy had to jump to save his life. All the boy could see however, was flame, smoke, and blackness. As can be imagined, he was afraid to leave the roof. His father kept yelling: “Jump! I will catch you.” But the boy protested, “Daddy, I can’t see you.”  The father replied, “But I can see you and that’s all that matters.”

At other times we place our aspirations for the future on items which are temporary or vain or weak.

In April of 1988, a TV cameraman jumped out of a plane with some other skydivers.  His goal was to record the exciting jump of the skydivers as they fell to the earth.  What’s more, this footage was shown on the local TV news, but not for the reasons why the cameraman had originally recorded the event.

After several minutes of “free fall,” the cameraman then filmed the skydivers as they one by one opened their parachutes. Of course, the final skydiver was the cameraman himself and the time came for him to pull his parachute ripcord.

However, when the cameraman reached for his ripcord, he realized to his horror and shock that he had no ripcord.  It turns out that he had completely forgotten to put on his parachute.

For the next several minutes, the cameraman was able to capture the sheer terror as he ultimately fell to his death. Indeed, toward the end of the film, the picture went berserk and eventually went dead.

This story is not only tragic, but it is also ironic.  Ironic because the cameraman took a plunge into what appeared to be an exciting and thrilling jump.  But tragically, in a moment of foolish carelessness, he made the worst mistake of his entire life: he jumped to his own death.  Yes, his faith had been based upon a parachute — a life support — that wasn’t there.

In the same way, if we based our lives upon anything other than faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, then we will make the biggest mistake of our entire lives as well.  That is, faith other than in Christ will lead to our spiritual deaths!  What’s more, this spiritual death will be for all eternity — forever and ever!

Dr. John MacNeill once said that if he heard his little three-year-old girl crying piteously for a piece of bread, knowing that she must be very hungry and having the bread with him, he would not think of telling her to cry on for another hour and if she coaxed hard enough he would give it to her!  Yet how slow we are to believe that God means what He says, “How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13) God is eager to come in His fullness.  We need not to coax, but to receive.

Michael Faraday, the great scientist, was taken ill.  When it  became evident that the sickness that had fastened itself upon him would soon result in his death, a group of fellow scientists came to see him–not so much to talk about science as to talk about death.

One of them said to him:  “Mr. Faraday, what are your  speculations about your future?”  With evident surprise to them he replied: “Speculations!  I have none.  I am resting on certainities.”  Then he quoted II Tim. 1:12:  “For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”

Several years ago a scientist wrote an article entitled, “Seven Reasons Why I Believe in God.” He said, “Consider the rotation of the earth. Our globe spins on its axis at the rate of one thousand miles an hour. If it were just a hundred miles an hour, our days and nights would be ten times as long. The vegetation would freeze in the long night or it would burn in the long day; and there could be no life.”

   He said, “Consider the heat of the sun. Twelve thousand degrees at surface temperature, and we’re just far enough away to be blessed by that terrific heat. If the sun gave off half its radiation, we would freeze to death. If it gave off one half more, we would all be crispy critters.”

   He said, “Consider the slant of the earth.” I think he said twenty-three degrees. “If it were different than that, the vapors from the oceans would ice over the continents. There could be no life.”

   He said, “Consider the moon. If the moon were fifty thousand miles away rather than its present distance, twice each day giant tides would inundate every bit of land mass on this earth.”

   He said, “Think of the crust of the earth. Just a little bit thicker and there could be no life because there would be no oxygen. Or the thinness of the atmosphere. If our atmosphere was just a little thinner, the millions of meteors now burning themselves out in space would plummet this earth into oblivion. These are reasons,” he said, “why I believe in God.” [20]

Imagine a ship filled with people crossing the Atlantic. In the middle of the ocean there is an explosion. The ship is severely damaged and slowly sinking. Most are dead, and the rest are rushing for the lifeboats. Now suppose one man doesn’t know about the lifeboat, so he does not get aboard. He doesn’t have knowledge, so he is not saved. Suppose another man knows about the lifeboat and believes it will save his life, but he is grief-stricken over seeing his wife killed, so he chooses not to get aboard and dies with his wife. He has knowledge and mental assent, but he is not saved. Others believe the lifeboat will save them, and they get into the boat. They are saved by faith, that is they have knowledge, mental assent, and trust. However, it is not their faith that saves them–no matter how much they have. It is the boat. Saving faith trusts Christ, and Christ saves. [21]

Everyone has faith in something–faith in some religion, faith in one’s self, faith in fate, faith in evolution, faith in mankind. Even the atheist has faith in his own reason.

But there is only one real faith that works for time and eternity. True faith is faith in the one true God–the God who made us, who will judge us, and who has paid the price to save us. This faith is an understanding faith, for it is “through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God” (Hebrews 11:3).

It is a saving faith, “for by grace ye are saved through faith, “for by grace ye are saved through faith” (Galations 3:11), it is, therefore, a living faith, and a growing faith, “because that your faith groweth exceedingly” (II Thessalonians 1:3), and a working faith, because “faith without works is dead” (James 2:20).

There is more. The true faith is a justifying faith (it makes us righteous in the sight of God) because, “being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). It is a protecting faith because, with “the shield of faith…ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (Ephesians 6:16). It is a stable faith, “for by faith ye stand” (II Corinthians 1:24).

This faith is also a purifying faith, “purifying their hearts by faith” (Acts 15:9). Furthermore, asking faith receives answers to its prayers, “in faith, nothing wavering” (James 1:6), and a strong faith recoiling “not at the promise of God through unbelief; but…strong in faith, giving glory to God” (Romans 4:20).

Finally, the Christian faith is a triumphant faith. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” ( I John 5:4).

This faith–even our faith(!)–is an understanding, saving, living, growing, justifying, purifying, working, protecting, stable, asking, strong, triumphant faith!

We need to feed our faith and our doubts will starve to death.  Faith is nothing at all tangible.  It is simply believing God; and, like sight, is nothing apart from its object.  We might as well shut our eyes and look inside to see whether we have sight, as to look inside to discover if we have faith.

We are all asked to do more than we can do. Every hero and heroine of the Bible does more than he would have thought it possible to do, from Gideon to Esther to Mary.

Faith is not a contract. Faith is surrender. If no other relationship in our experience is one of self-surrender, it’s all contractual; people won’t know how to believe.

Some people think the prayer of faith is crawling out on a limb and then begging God to keep someone from sawing it off. But that is not real prayer, that is presumption. If God makes it clear that he wants you out on a limb, fine–you will be perfectly safe there. If not, it is presumptuous to crawl out on that limb, expecting God to keep you there. [22]

An old lady in England who had stood the bombings with amazing fortitude was asked the secret of her calmness in the midst of such frightful danger. She replied, “Well, every night I says my prayers and then I remembers how the parson told us God is always watching; so I go to sleep. After all, there’s no need for both of us to stay awake!”

 

[1] Dwight Lyman Moody (1837–1899)

[2] Madeleine L’Engle in Walking on Water. Christianity Today, Vol. 36, no. 4.

[3] Lloyd Ogilvie in 12 Steps to Living Without Fear. Christianity Today, Vol. 32,  no. 3.

[4] John Calvin, Christian History, no. 12.

[5] Elton Trueblood.  Leadership, Vol. 11, no. 1.

[6] John R. W. Stott (1921– )

[7] D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899–1981)

[8] Corrie ten Boom (1892–1983)

[9] Philip Yancey (1949– )

[10] A.W. Tozer.  Leadership, Vol. 12, no. 4.

[11] William Barclay, The Letter to the Hebrews

[12] Sadie and Bessie Delany, Christian Reader, Vol. 33, no. 2.

[13] Ibid, William Barclay.

[14] Knight’s Illustrations  p. 186

[15] Corrie ten Boom (1892–1983)

[16] Frederick Buechner, Christian Reader, Vol. 35, no. 2.

[17] William Moses Tidwell, “Pointed Illustrations.”

[18] William Booth in The Founders’ Messages to Soldiers. Christianity Today, Vol. 36, no. 10.

[19] Fay Angus in Running Around in Spiritual Circles. Christianity Today, Vol. 36, no. 5.

[20] Frank Pollard, “Our Greatest Victory,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 175.

[21] Evangelism, A Biblical Approach, M. Cocoris, Moody, 1984, p. 77

[22] Ray C. Stedman in Man of Faith.  Christianity Today, Vol. 40, no. 7.

2015: COUNTRY United States	2015: NUMBERS 337
China	25
Brazil	6
Philippines	5
Canada	3
Italy	2
Romania	2
United Kingdom	1
Hong Kong SAR China	1
India	1
Netherlands	1
Singapore	1
Malaysia	1
Nigeria	1
Kuwait	1
France	1

      

 ——————————————–

One of the biggest causes of anger is disappointment over not getting what we expect. We expect life to work out in our favor–we want to be loved and appreciated and all that. But the truth is we’ll never get everything we want or expect. If we can accept that fact, it will do a lot to minimize our big disappointments. Disappointment is often the salt of life. [1]

John Calvin understood it when he expressed that we should “…let us not cease to do the utmost that we may incessantly go forward in the way of the Lord; and let us not despair because of the smallness of our accomplishments.”

Life often comes in horrible waves of despair and disappointment. But behind those realities is also the goal of discipline, with the purpose of character and holiness:

“And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”(Hebrews 12:5-11).

Robert Hamilton understood this eternal concept and expressed it well:

“I walked a mile with Pleasure, She chattered all the way,

And left me none the wiser, For all she had to say.

“I walked a mile with Sorrow, And not a word said she.

But oh, the things I learned from her, When Sorrow walked with me.”

—————————

[1] Theodore Parker, Instant Quotation Dictionary, p. 97.