Snipers

sniperI have read that when snipers are in training for warfare they are instructed to be discriminant about who they shoot. They are trained to discern who the leader is of the enemy group that they have in their sights. If they shoot the leader, the rest of the troop will be thrown into confusion and can more easily be defeated.

It seems that Satan has a similar strategy in his attempts to defeat the church. Satan will target a pastor, or an elder or a deacon. He will try to bring that leader down in some fashion or another. When a shepherd falls, the flock tends to be confused, and can more easily be scattered.

Keeping that in mind, we should be careful not to do Satan’s work for him! It is so easy to complain about the leaders of your church, but they don’t need to be “shot at”!

The Bible says we must respect our leaders and submit to their authority. We ought to do whatever we can to encourage our church leaders.

“Have confidence in your leaders and submit to their authority, because they keep watch over you as those who must give an account. Do this so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no benefit to you.”–Hebrews 13:17.

What can you do to ease the burden of one of your church leaders?

 

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Unlikely Fortunate Event

tornado-clip-art-pngMilton Berle once joked that a tornado touched down in New Jersey and did $20 million worth of improvements!

Part of what makes that joke funny is the fact that order cannot possibly come out of chaos in nature. This, of course, refutes the basic premise behind the theory of evolution. It is ridiculous to believe that a big explosion randomly occurred, followed by a long series of fortunate accidents and…well…here we are!

How ludicrous! It is much more reasonable to believe what the Bible says about the origin of the universe.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”—Gen.1:1.

“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.11:3.

 

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Telling the Truth Gracefully

Mark Twain

Mark Twain

Mark Twain once said, “Last week, I stated a certain woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I have since been visited by her sister, and now wish to withdraw that statement.”

Twain’s humorous comment points out the difficulty of being truthful and graceful at the same time. I suppose that there are some opinions that we should keep to ourselves in order to spare the feelings of others.

However, there are some truths that must not be withheld from people because they are critically important. It is essential that these truths be delivered with all the grace that we can possibly muster, so that the message will be more likely to be accepted.

Jesus was a master at being completely truthful and, at the same time, completely graceful. We would do well to try to imitate him in this regard.
“The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”—John 1:14.

 

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By Grace

Praying before the cross

Someone once explained the grace of God by telling the following story:

Suppose you lived in a place where a king ruled the land. Now suppose that you rebelled against the king. In response to your rebellion, the king sent his son, but you killed the king’s son.

Now suppose that, instead of condemning you for your action, the king forgave you. And not only did he forgive you, he also made you an heir to all of his riches. What would you do? Would you save up a lot of money and bring it to the king and say, “Here, now we’re even?” Of course not! What an insult that would be!

In the same way, we could never pay God back for what he has done for us through Jesus. Oh, we live our lives for him, but it is not to “pay him back”. We could never earn our salvation. We do not deserve his grace. We must humbly accept the forgiveness that we could never bring about on our own.

That’s what grace is all about.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.”—Ephesians 2:8-9.

 

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Disappointment with God

Randy Alcorn

Randy Alcorn

There seems to be a high level of discontentment with many people today. Randy Alcorn speaks about this:

“Our culture is riddled with a poisonous spirit of entitlement. We always think we deserve more. We’re disappointed with our family, neighbors, church, the waitress, the sales clerk, and the department of motor vehicles. Ultimately we’re disappointed with God. He hasn’t given us everything we want.

What madness! If only we could see our situation clearly—even for a moment. We deserved expulsion; He gives us a diploma. We deserved the electric chair; He gives us a parade. Anything less than overwhelming gratitude should be unthinkable. He owes us nothing. We owe Him everything. When you realize you deserve nothing better than hell, it puts a ‘bad day’ in perspective, doesn’t it?”

“Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.”—John 1:16.

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father…”—James 1:17.

 

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Nice Gesture

baptism-clip-artWhen I baptize people, they sometimes show their joy in a tangible way before they even get out of the water. This is understandable, since they realize that their sins have been washed away (Acts 22:16) and they have been united with Jesus (Rom.6:3-4).

Over the years I have received several wet hugs in the baptistery. Recently I baptized a lady who not only gave me a big hug, she also planted a kiss on my cheek for good measure!

It’s making me look forward to my next baptism!

“Greet one another with a holy kiss…”—Romans 16:16.

 

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Really Hearing It

christmas-carolsSometimes we sing familiar Christian songs so many times that we tend to sing the words without giving a lot of thought to the meaning. The Christmas songs especially have many lines that are deeply meaningful to our faith, and that express very vividly what happened that first Christmas.

This past Sunday we sang “Silent Night” at our church. When we sang the words “shepherds quake at the sight” it really impacted me. The Bible says that the shepherds were “terrified” when an angel appeared before them to tell them the good news about the birth of Jesus. How frightened they must have been! I would have been scared too, and so would you.

Maybe we all should pledge to listen more closely to the words we sing. When we really hear the message, it makes all the difference in the world.

“An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.”—Luke 2:9.

 

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Grace and Truth

jesus-forgivesJohn 1:14 says that Jesus was “full of grace and truth”. He never compromised the truth in an attempt to be gracious. Nor did he ever present the truth in a way that lacked grace.

John 2 gives us a couple of examples of Jesus acting gracefully and truthfully. First, he graciously turned the water into wine to prevent the wedding party from being embarrassed when they ran out of refreshments. Then he took a bold stand for the truth when he drove the moneychangers out of the temple.

John 8 shows how Jesus was gracious and truthful at the same time. When a woman who had been caught in adultery was brought to Jesus, he graciously chose not to condemn her. However, he truthfully told her that she must leave behind her life of sin.

Let’s try our best to be like Jesus—full of grace and truth. The world sure could use more of both!

 

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Protecting the Weak

dog-and-coyoteI just saw a video of a coyote attacking a small dog. The predator appeared to be in the process of successfully taking away some family’s beloved pet. All of a sudden, a much larger dog came charging into the picture. This neighborhood hero and valiant protector of the weak drove away the coyote and saved the smaller dog from certain death.

The Bible says that church leaders are to act as protectors of the weak. They guard against spiritual predators who may try to harm the members of their congregation in any way. This calls for church leaders to always be on guard and to be ready to quickly spring into action to boldly defend the ones that God has called them to protect.

“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.”—Acts 20:28.

 

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Excellent Shot!

golfer-cartoonA man who wanted to learn how to play golf hired a golf pro to teach him the game. The pro thought that the best way to learn would be to go out on the course and actually begin to play.

When they got to the first tee, the pro pointed to the green and told the man to hit the ball onto the green, as close to the flag as he could get it. So the fellow approached the ball and swung a golf club for the first time ever.

Incredibly, the ball landed on the green, only a few inches away from the hole. The pro was so amazed he didn’t know what to say. The student asked, “What do I do next?”

“Actually, you are supposed to hit the ball in the hole where the flag is.”

“Well, why didn’t you tell me that in the first place?!”

No matter what we do in life, we need to strive for excellence. The Bible urges us to do the best we can in order to honor the Lord.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might…”–Ecclesiastes 9:10.

 

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