Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me

“Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me”—John 14:1

Every person who now reads the words of this message is fully aware that there are so many things that happen to us causing our hearts to become heavy. We are certainly aware of the illnesses and diseases that strike the human frame causing pain and suffering. Most, perhaps all of us, have stood by and watched as those I have loved dearly have shed these earthly bonds bringing the deepest, bitterest agony to our souls. We are all very much aware that sometimes the trials, burdens and cares of this life seem almost too heavy to bear. And now, I hear my Lord as he says, “Let not your heart be troubled”. I hear Paul tell us to rejoice always (Phil. 4:4, 1 Thess. 5:16). Then I hear Paul again as he tells us, “All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28). Given the trials of life we must go through, how can this be possible?

My friends, it is possible because as faithful children of God with a trusting faith in him we know that we have an anchor for our souls, one that is both sure and steadfast (Heb. 6:19). When those storm clouds gather, when it seems that darkness envelopes us we don’t have to be afraid because our souls are fastened to a rock that cannot be moved—THAT ROCK IS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST.  We simply focus on that rock knowing that the end of our endurance and trusting faith in God will bring about the greatest victory imaginable.

The circumstances of our lives are ever changing; one moment all is well, the next moment suffering enters. It just does not matter what the circumstances are because the source of our comfort never changes. There is never a moment in our lives that we cannot find that comfort in the exceedingly precious promises of God if we will but seek to find it (Rom. 8:35-39, Heb. 4:16, Phil. 4:6-7, 1 Pet. 5:7, Isa. 12:2-3, Heb. 13:5).

Will we ever be sad? The answer is yes. Will we ever have a heavy heart? Again the answer is yes but it is our trusting faith in God and his word that makes those moments of sadness and heaviness of heart only momentary pauses in our lives and keeps our hearts from being troubled for very long. The most profound statement of the faith we should have, yea must have in God, is found in the first verse of Psalms 23: ‘The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”. God will take care of you and if you don’t believe this then you will be most miserable as you make your way through this life.

Charles Hicks

Immersed in Jesus

When a person immerses himself in something, he totally surrounds himself with it.  He spends time thinking about it and making plans around it.  It occupies his mind, utilizes his energy and expends his resources.

 People can immerse themselves in many different things.  Some are immersed in hobbies, recreation or sports such as hunting, fishing, college football, baseball, golf, racing, collecting, or gardening.  Others are immersed in their work or school.  Some are immersed in their children or grandchildren.  When a person is seriously sick, it is easy to become immersed with health concerns.

 As Christians, "we were all baptized into one body" (1 Corinthians 12:13).  Most of us understand that the word "baptized" means "immersed."  But what we may not have thought much about is the connection between being immersed in water and being immersed in Jesus.  The apostle Paul puts it this way in Galatians 3:27: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ."  Those of us who have been "baptized into Christ" are to have put Him on like a garment.  We are to be covered up with Him -- immersed in Him.

 By itself, immersion in water does nothing to change a person's life.  But when that immersion is the beginning of being overwhelmed with Jesus Christ, lives are truly changed.  Baptism into Christ results in a person being raised to "walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4).  "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17).  This new life is one that is immersed in Jesus. 

 Every sinner needs to be immersed in water for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16).  But every one who is immersed in water is thus obligated to live a new life immersed in Jesus.  Are you immersed in Him?  "But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts" (Romans 13:14). 

 - by Steve Klein

Game Simon Says

Simon Says - 1 Peter 1:3-16


    “Simon Says” was a game we played often outside, growing up. It is also an electronic game that was popular in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1 Peter, Simon Peter, led by the Spirit of Christ, tells us how to live a holy life in an unholy world.


    Simon says…


REJOICE IN YOUR SALVATION - 1:3-9:

    Verses 3-9 are all one sentence in the Greek. While the sentence begins with a blessing on God who has initiated all of this, the verb that is at the heart of this long sentence is in verse 6 - “in this you greatly rejoice.”  What is “this” in which we rejoice? It is “hope,” Peter says in verse 3; or, salvation as the object of our hope.


    What does Peter say about this hope in which we should rejoice? First, it is God’s work - verse 3. Peter also, secondly, points out that this salvation cannot be stolen from us (vss 4-5).


    Third, Peter says that as we rejoice in our salvation (which cannot be taken from us), then the testing of our faith will result in the praise, glory, and honor of Jesus Christ - whom we love and believe.


    Finally, in verse 9, Peter summarizes all that he has just said: that we rejoice with inexpressible joy and glorified joy as we obtain the outcome or goal of our faith - the salvation of our souls.


    So, Simon says - “rejoice in your salvation.”


THE PROPHETS SERVED US - 1:10-12:

    The prophets did not understand everything they were preaching. Here in 1:11, Peter brings up the sufferings of Christ, just like he does in 4:21-24, to remind us that Jesus also was persecuted. He was slandered, insulted, maligned, and suffered. In fact, this was all predicted by the prophets.


    But, this was all for our benefit, our sakes. We, then, are recipients of this wonderful series of blessings that had been kept a mystery throughout the Old Testament but revealed through the prophets.


    Simon says the prophets served us.


LIVE A HOLY LIFE - 1:13-16:

    There are two commands, two imperatives, in these four verses: 1.) “put all your hope (vs 13);” and 2.) “be holy” (vs 15). Let’s look more closely at these two commands to see how we are to live a holy life…


    There are two things you have to do before you can hope in the grace of God that is available in Jesus Christ. First, you have to “prepare your minds for action” and, secondly, you have to “keep sober” in spirit. Both of these have to do with the way you think.


    Simon says, “Hope in the grace being revealed to us in Jesus Christ.”


    The second command is in verse 15 - “be holy.” Before we can “be holy” or be “distinct” from the world and “like” God (verse 14), we need not to be “conformed” to this world. Be different from the world. Follow the example of Christ. Talk like Jesus talked. Live like Jesus lived. Have the attitude toward others that Jesus had - His attitude toward His family, His attitude toward His friends, His attitude toward His enemies.


    Simon says - “Be holy.”


    Rejoice in your salvation. The Prophets served us (that’s how important our salvation is to God). Live a holy life (hope on the grace revealed in Christ and be holy).

 Paul Holland

For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions

                           FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

 

“This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from    me.  But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.”   Matt. 15:8-9

 

A while back I read where some members have left the church and joined with various denominations with many of them being of the charismatic type.  When questioned about why they left most of the answers given were in the realm of “the service was too dull and boring” or that they felt the music wasn’t inspiring enough.  Some cited the lack of “activities” as their reason.

 

In other words they wanted to be entertained.  They were going to church, not for worshiping God, but rather to be entertained.  In essence, they were putting themselves first and God second.  And, as I see it, that’s why many of the “mega-churches” seem to be gaining in membership.  They are providing “entertainment” and “activities” in place of “worship” and a lot of people don’t seem to recognize the difference. 

 

They like hearing sermons the likes of “Dale Carnegie talks” or “self-improvement lessons.”  They’re more pleasing to the ears than listening to the preacher teach a boring lesson from the Gospel.  Remember what Paul said about things that would happen in “times to come?”  In 2Tim. 4:3 he said, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions.”  (ESV)

 

I’ve got a little story with a moral to tell you that I think helps us to get the point of my lesson today.  It goes like this: “How’s it going down there?” barked the big walrus from his perch on the highest rock near the shore.  Down below, the smaller walruses were trying to figure out how to answer the Old Man without making him mad as he had a nasty temper.

 

The problem was that the water level in the bay had been falling for some time and it was now necessary to travel farther to find herring.  Someone should tell the “Chief” about this but they were afraid to speak the truth.  So one of them, we’ll call him Basil, spoke up and said, “Things are going pretty well, Chief.  As a matter of fact, the beach seems to be getting larger.”  The Old Man grunted, “Fine, fine.  That will give us a bit more elbow room.”  He closed is eyes and went back to sleep

 

The next day a new herd of walruses moved in just down the beach from them.  This really posed a problem as it affected the herring supply.  This could be a dangerous invasion of their territory.  But, how to tell the Old Man about this problem.  Finally Basil got up the courage and said, “Oh, by the way Chief, a new herd of walruses seem to have moved into our territory.”  The Old Man’s eyes snapped open.  “Of course, we don’t anticipate any trouble.  They don’t look like herring-eaters to me.  More likely interested in minnows and, as you know, we don’t bother with minnows ourselves,” added Basil.

 

 

Well, time went on and things weren’t getting any better.  One day the big walrus looked down from his rock and noticed that part of his herd seemed to be missing.  He called Basil and demanded to know what was going on.  Poor old Basil didn’t have the courage to tell him that many of the younger walruses were leaving the herd and joining up with the new herd.  So, he replied, “Well, Chief, we’ve been tightening up things a bit.  You know, getting rid of the dead wood.  After all, a herd is only as good as the walruses in it.”

 

“Run a tight ship, I always say,” the Old Man grunted.  “Glad to hear that all is going so well.”

 

It wasn’t long before everyone except Basil had left to join the new herd.  After much soul-searching, Basil decided that it was time to tell the Old Man the truth.  He climbed up the big rock and facing the Chief he said, “Chief, I have bad news.  The rest of the herd has left you.”

 

The old walrus was so astonished that he couldn’t even work up a good bellow.  “Left me,” he cried.  “All of them?  But why?  How could this happen?”  Basil just shrugged helplessly as he had no answer.  “I can’t understand it,” the Old Man said.   “And just when everything was going so well.”

 

MORAL:   What you like to hear isn’t always what you need to know.

 

My closing thoughts: people might like to be entertained.  I like to be entertained, but I know and understand that entertainment and worship are two different things.  Worship is not entertainment.  It’s a lot different from going to a play, a movie or a ball game.  Do you know the primary difference?  It’s that the worshiper is the actor and God is the audience.  It is the interaction between the worshiper and God and that action comes from the heart and soul of the worshiper.

 

If you attend church services to be entertained then you are totally misunderstanding of what constitutes worship.  To be blunt about it, we’re there to worship God and not ourselves.  Those who seek entertainment in the church services are just exhibiting a lack of reverence and appreciation for the God of all creation and for our very lives.  As far as I personally think, that borders of blasphemy.

 

When we get to the point that we’re “serving ourselves” instead of “serving God” our souls are in grave danger.  And, if you think about it, that’s exactly what those wanting to be entertained in church are doing - “serving themselves” instead of God.

 

Hearing what we need to hear may not be entertainment, but it is far more beneficial to our eternal soul.  Think about this as we close: in heaven, everything and all things are wonderful and beautiful.  There is no sadness there.  Just total happiness and you’ll be enjoying this because you heard and heeded what you needed to know to get there.

 

Ron Covey

Where to find a true miracle

 Somebody told about a guide taking some American tourists through Old Jerusalem. As they walked along the guide pointed to an old brick wall in the narrow street ahead. "Here at this location is one of the greatest miracles of all," he announced. "You pray at this spot, and money pours out of the wall. Many pilgrims come here to receive the benefits of its miraculous powers." Coming closer, the tourists saw he was pointing to an automatic teller machine!

The word "miracles" is heard often. People are heard exclaiming, "It's a miracle!" about everything from a baby's birth to a beautiful sunset to a recovery from serious sickness. And truly, life is filled with things we can correctly refer to as "marvels."

A "marvel" is defined as "something that causes wonder or astonishment; intense interest." Many things in life can and should be described as "marvelous." If you've ever seen a baby's birth (or a calf or pony or puppy) or a brilliant sunset that transforms the sky into a painting of breath-taking beauty, or a spider weaving her web, or the inside of a tulip in full bloom, you've seen marvels that evoke wonder and amazement! An awesome Creator filled our world with marvelous things that arrest our attention and evoke our praise. In the words of Psalm 11:2-3, "The works of LORD are great, Studied by all who have pleasure in them. His work is honorable and glorious, And his righteousness endures forever."

All "the works of the Lord" we see around us in "nature" and the "natural world" are marvels. But are these marvels miracles? Not in the Bible sense. Miracles in the Bible were more than just God's "normal" activity through nature.

A "miracle" in Bible times was an extraordinary event of divine intervention in human affairs. The special acts of creation in Genesis 1, the birth of Isaac to a hundred-year old Abram and his 90-year-old wife Sarai, the parting of the Red Sea, etc., etc., etc. - the Bible's pages are saturated with accounts of miracles - awesome and extraordinary occurrences where God very directly intervened in human affairs, causing things that cannot be explained by the operation of normal laws of nature.

The birth of Jesus to a virgin, and His resurrection from the dead are not just marvels, they are miracles! Jesus was a worker of miracles par excellence. Matthew chapters 8 and 9 record at least eleven of twenty miracles Matthew records. In these miracles Jesus displayed authority over demons, disease, death - and even a stormy sea! One motive behind Jesus' miracles was compassion (9:36), but the primary purpose for them is seen in Matthew 8:27. After Jesus calmed a story sea with His word, the apostles "marveled, saying, 'Who can this be, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?'" The miracles of Jesus point to His unlimited authority as God's Son! We ought to listen to His message because He is "the Christ, the Son of God" (John 20:30-31)! His miracles prove Him to be, to quote the apostle Peter, "Lord of all" (Acts 10:36).

To sum up, the marvels of nature evoke our wonder. But Jesus' miracles go further. In Matthew 14:33, after Jesus walked on water and snatched Peter from drowning, the Bible says, "those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, 'Truly You are the Son of God.' " If demons and diseases and even death are subject to Jesus' power, so are we. That's the message behind Jesus' miracles.

--by Dan Gulley

Common sins mentioned in the Bible

Define and explain the ‘works of the flesh’ (we follow here the KJV listing)

• Adultery
• Fornication
• Uncleanness
• Lasciviousness
• Idolatry
• Witchcraft
• Hatred
• Variance
• Emulations
• Wrath
• Strife
• Seditions
• Heresies
• Envyings
• Murders
• Drunkenness
• Revellings

Myles Eckert, a gold star kid

"Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is

seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”    Heb. 12:2 ESV

 

A short while back I caught an item on one of the national news broadcasts that had a profound emotional impact upon me.  Perhaps you might have also seen it and if you did, I’m sure that it also affected your emotions.  I’m going to use this news item as the premise to our spiritual lesson today.  Here is the news item.

 

A soldier, in uniform, and his family entered a restaurant and were seated at a table.  A few moments later another family consisting of a mother and her children came in.  One of her children, an 8 year old boy named Myles, had found a $20.00 bill in the parking lot on the way in.  It’s what he did with this $20 dollars that provides us with our lesson today.

 

He wrote a short note and wrapped it around the money, took it over to the soldier’s table and gave it to him.  The soldier, a Colonel in charge of an air wing in Ohio, said that he had never been so honored in his life and he keeps the note on his desk where he can see it every day.  Following are the words of the note that accompanied the twenty dollar bill.

 

“Dear Soldier.  My did was a soldier.  He’s in heaven now.  I found this $20 in the parking lot when we got here.  We like to pay it forward in my family.  It is your lucky day!  Thank you for your service.   Myles Eckert, a gold star kid.”

 

“Pay it forward.”  Have you ever thought about this in regards to your Christian life?  Of how this attitude can be related to how we, as Christians, are to operate?  Well, it caused me to think about it with the result being this lesson.  Let’s think about it together for a few moments.

 

You know, “backwards” is not a direction befitting a Christian.  We are to be “looking forward” with our subsequent actions going forward.   There’s the old familiar passage spoken by Jesus in Luke 9:62 where He says, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

 

If you’d like to see a good “type lesson” that helps us to understand the meaning of that verse in Luke, then open your Bibles to Jer. 7:24 where the prophet is describing the actions of God’s people Israel.  Look at what God says about them through the hand of Jeremiah: they (Israel) “walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts and went backward and not forward.”  Anti-type?  The church is now God’s people.

 

Now we know from this passage that He’s talking about a Christian because He uses the term “kingdom of God” which refers to the church.  Therefore, one who is “plowing” is a member, a Christian.  Farmers know that you can’t physically plow straight if you’re “looking back” so you’d be unfit to be a farmer if you were, so it’s pretty easy to see the application Christ is making by using that statement, isn’t it?

 

So, if we’re to be “looking forward,” where should our eyes be focused?  It shouldn’t be hard to answer that question because I’ve already given you the answer in our preamble scripture reading.  We look to Jesus.  OK then, now let’s look at some of the things we should take note of in looking to Him.

 

First and foremost, we look at His sacrifice on the cross and what it made possible for all of mankind.  Salvation!  Eternal life with Him in heaven.   The apostle’s words in 1Cor. 6:20 and 7:23 say that “you were bought with a great price.”  In other words, the price paid for the salvation of man’s soul was His cruel and unwarranted death on the cross.  Think of it this way, He “paid forward” for our hope of eternal life.  Read Rom. 5:8 for confirmation of this.

 

Then we need to emulate the apostle Paul in this regard, that we follow Christ just as he does.  (1Cor. 11:1)   And to further emulate Paul in “looking forward” note what he says in Titus 2:13.  “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.”  Paul knew where his hope lay and where the “founder and perfecter of our faith” is now located.  In heaven at the right hand of God.  Knowing that, why would Paul, or any Christian, want to look back?

 

Before we close this, let’s go back to the thought of “paying it forward.”  It’s my humble opinion that, not only are Christians to be “looking forward” we’re to be “paying forward” too.  Well then, how do we do that?  What do Christians have that we can “pay forward?”  Only the most precious, most valuable, thing we have entrusted to our keeping - The Gospel.  The “power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth...”  (Rom 1:16)

 

Think about it this way - what do we have to give (pay forward) anyone that is more beneficial to them than the one thing that will save their eternal soul in heaven.  We don’t possess anything near as precious and worthwhile than that.  Paul refers to it as a “treasure” that was left in “earthen vessels” to wit:  the church.  (2Cor. 4:7)   Then we see in Eph. 3:10-11 more evidence of this where he says that “the manifold wisdom of God” (the Gospel) is to be brought to the world by “the church.”

 

I enjoy teaching lessons on the parables of Jesus and one of them is applicable to our lesson today.  I’m speaking of the one called the “parable of the talents.”  (Mt. 25:14-30)   Here’s how I apply the lesson of that parable to this lesson.  We have a duty to use, to share this Gospel “treasure” that’s been left in our keeping.  We see from this parable that we’re not to hoard it.  It must be shared, IE: “paid forward” or we will not be pleasing to God.  We might as well be like Israel of old and be “looking backward.”  God intends it to be “forwarded” to “all the world...”  (Mark 16:15)

 

Ron Covey