The Book That Bares Our Souls!

 

A "cover-up" is an attempt to prevent people from discovering the truth about a serious crime, mistake, or sin. But the truth has a way of eventually coming to light. Like a robbery suspect who couldn’t help himself in a line-up. When detectives asked each man lined up to repeat the words, "Give me all your money or I’ll shoot," the guilty man shouted, "That’s not what I said!" While it’s sometimes difficult to always know the truth about others, Rita Rudner reminds us it’s pretty hard to hide the truth about ourselves from ourselves. She said, "I work for myself, which is fun. Except for when I call in sick – I know I’m lying." Is there something you know about yourself that you don’t like? Are you attempting to keep something secret about your life that makes you miserable? Have you lied to a friend, held out on the IRS, stolen from a neighbor, cheated an employer or employee, been sexually unfaithful to a wife or husband, mate, etc.? History books are peppered with examples of people ranging from average, everyday citizens to presidents, preachers, policemen, teachers, and CEO’s of huge corporations who did something slimy and sinful and depraved and then sought to hide their actions. Of course, there are criminals who lie and cheat and rape and rob and even murder who think they "got away" with it. And sometimes they succeed in covering it up, at least for awhile. But cover-ups are hard to keep covered up forever. To borrow a 3,400 year old phrase in the Bible from Numbers 32:23, "be sure your sin will find you out." Note now, not that your sin will always be found out, but be sure it will eventually find you out, even if that moment doesn’t come until "the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ" (Romans 2:16).

 Cover-ups are not new. Adam and Eve attempted one in the Garden of Eden, but it didn’t work(see Genesis 3). After they did what God said don’t do, they were ashamed and afraid and did what a lot of us do when we do wrong and are afraid and ashamed – they covered their heretofore naked bodies with fig leaves and hopelessly sought to hide from God. When God called them to account, they tried to play the "blame game." But God didn’t buy that either. Other memorable attempts to hide something in the Bible are the accounts of Achan (Joshua 6-7), David (2 Samuel 11-12), Jonah (Jonah 1), and Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11). The narratives all send the same message – God sees through our flimsy and futile attempts to hide from Him! In our modern age of medical marvels, doctors and medical professionals can send a scope through our mouths, up our noses, down our throats (and through a couple of other places) to see deep into our bodies. These scopes and imaging devices bare the inside of our throats, brains, bladders, stomachs, and intestines to health experts. But long before these devices bared human bodies to doctors, human souls have been bare before God. He "sees through us." Hebrews 4:12-13 declares that God’s word bares our souls – "For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account." That thought either thrills or chills, depending on the nature of our thoughts, motives, deeds, and whether or not we are in Christ. The naked truth is cover-ups never fool God. He sees past all our attempts to hide who and what we really are. The Bible is truly the book that lays our souls bare.

     by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Hanging With Jesus!

 You may want to "hang" me after your read the next sentences. I warn you ahead of time I am going to be "hung up" on the word "hang" for a few moments. Like many other words in the English language, the word "hang" can have several different meanings according to context and usage. In days gone by to "hang" somebody meant to kill them by tying a rope attached from above around the neck and removing the support from beneath. When used as a form of capital punishment people referred to it as " a hanging." But to "hang" does not necessarily refer to putting to death. We "hang" clothes in the closet, pictures on the wall, hats on a peg or even a nail. Then, some people identify where they reside as the place where "I hang my hat." To "hang up" commonly means to end a phone conversation. But wait – to be "hung up" on something is to be extremely interested in or worried about or preoccupied with it. A jury can be "hung" meaning that they are unable to agree on a verdict. Ever found yourself "hung up" in traffic on the interstate? Then there is the slang usage of "hang" as in "hanging with" or perhaps "hang out with." According to the Online Slang Dictionary this use of "hang" is a verb and means "to relax, usually with friends; to chill." The parallel to this verb is the noun "hang" which means "a place at which one relaxes, as in, "Come see our new hang?" If you are older, you might better recognize this usage as a "hangout."

 Let us shift directions. When Jesus was crucified, Luke 23:32-33 tells us, "There were also two others, criminals, led with Him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left" (Matthew 27:38 calls the criminals "robbers"). Luke 23:39-43 relates an astonishing conversation between the three men as they suffered on their crosses. "One of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, ‘If You are the Christ, save yourself and us’ " (vs 39). Matthew 27:44 relates both robbers had earlier reviled the Lord. But now, one robber, clearly undergoing a change of heart, defended Jesus, rebuking the other criminal, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing we are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward for our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong" (vs 40). Both criminals were "hanging" with Jesus on their own cross. But one was "hanging" with Jesus in far more than a physical way. Even as he inches toward certain death on his cross, this desperate criminal clearly knows enough about Christ to believe there is hope beyond death. Desperately he pleads in vs 41, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." We don’t have space to consider all that he had in mind. But something mind- boggling happened that day – Jesus promised that penitent criminal in vs 43, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise." Whoa – who’d have thunk it?! Where would you have thought that thief would end up judging from appearances at the cross? Christ had power on earth to forgive sins (Matthew 9:6), and He clearly forgave this thief before he died and took him to Paradise later that day! Careful now – this side of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ you and I must exercise faith and obey the gospel in order to receive forgiveness of sins (Ephesians 2:8-9 * Hebrews 5:9 * Mark 16:15-16 *Acts 2:38; 22:16). All that being said, let us "hang" our hopes on Jesus. If He could and would save a penitent thief who hung with Him in death, surely He will save you and me if we hang with Him in life! Hallelujah! Hang with Jesus!

    by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

Spending the Treasure We Call Time!

 John Randolph said, "Time is at once the most precious and the most perishable of all possessions." We often talk about "spending time" and that is a very accurate phrase. Besides meaning to pay out money, another definition of time is "to concentrate one’s time or energy on an activity; to pass time; to use up." Each day each of us spends 24 hours which is 1,140 minutes which is 86,400 seconds. Like money itself, time can be spent and invested in that which is necessary and good and wise and wholesome . . . or it can be spent foolishly on that which is cheap and tawdry and harmful. Someone observed that time is a daily treasure attracting many robbers. Consider the following few sentences about time from Lloyd Cory, quoted by Charles Swindoll in his book, The Tale of the Tardy Oxcart (p 71): "Time is significant because it is so rare. It is completely irretrievable. You can never repeat or relive it. There is no such thing as instant replay. That appears only on film. It travels alongside us every day, yet it has eternity wrapped up in it. Although this is true, time often seems relative, doesn’t it? For example, two weeks on a vacation is not at all like two weeks on a diet. Also, some people can stay longer in an hour than others can in a week! Ben Franklin once said of time, ‘. . . that it is the stuff life is made of.’ Time forms life’s building blocks. The philosopher Williams Jones said, ‘The great use of time is to spend it for something that will outlast it.’ " No wonder then, that God’s timeless word admonishes us, "See then that you walk circumspectly (that is, carefully), not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is" (Ephesians 5:15-17). 

The year 2021 now stretches out before us. This year "time will fly" as swiftly as ever. For some it will seem to go faster than for others. As a good brother in Christ once told me, "Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The closer you get to the end, the faster it goes." Not really, but older people will tell you it feels that way. An unknown author said, "When as a child I laughed and wept, time crept; When as a youth I dreamed and talked, time walked; When I became a full grown man, time ran; And later as older I grew, time flew." Soon I shall find while traveling on, time gone." Like coal and oil, each moment of time is a non-renewable resource – once used up, gone forever to never be replaced. And our time on earth will run out. In the words of the ancient inspired wise man Ecclesiastes 3:2 there is "a time to be born and a time to die." Death, of course is not the end, for the Bible further declares that "man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment" (Hebrews 9:27 NIV). Since 1939, the beautiful but haunting words of "Into Our Hands" (Ruth Johnson Carruth) have urged Christians to think about how we are spending the treasure we call time: "Swiftly we’re turning life’s daily pages, Swiftly the hours are changing to years; How are we using God’s golden moments, Shall we reap glory, Shall we reap tears?" The year 2021 will be filled with 525,600 golden moments. Each will hold potential for prayer, kindness, sharing God’s love, and serving others. Where will you spend eternity? The truth is, you won’t "spend" eternity. In the hereafter you will live somewhere forever – with God or apart from Him. Whether we reap glory or tears depends on how we use the treasure we call time. Remember – you are spending your time, and can never get it back. Think about it, and spend it wisely.

          by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

 

 

 

Forgive, or Forfeit Forgiveness!

  The great English poet Alexander Pope [died in 1744], published his "Essay On Criticism" in 1711. That poem is the source of the familiar saying, "To err is human; to forgive is divine." The saying echoes the Bible’s teaching that all accountable human beings sin (even those who are Christians – Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:8-10), and that God forgives sin when people meet the conditions He has laid out in the Gospel (Acts 2:37-38; Colossians 2:10-13). Pope’s saying hints at something Jesus taught clearly and forcefully – those who claim to be His disciples must work at having a forgiving spirit. The Lord said in Matthew 5:14-15, "For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you." That’s pretty blunt stuff. And the Lord didn’t leave much wiggle room. He didn’t qualify what kind of trespasses. He didn’t say, "You have to forgive other people of the lightweight stuff or the stuff that’s really not all that serious or the stuff that is easy to get over." He just jars us with one of the heaviest demands He ever laid out for those who would be like Him – if we forgive, God forgives us. If we don’t forgive, God won’t forgive us. "That’s hard," you say? Indeed. But before you decide God will let you off the hook for being unwilling to forgive, recall the cross where God’s bloodied and battered and blasphemed Son, with not a single sustainable charge of sin against His pure and innocent soul, prays from a cross to which His hands and feet are nailed – "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do" (Luke 23:34). A few weeks later the Father did forgive many of them who complied with Gospel conditions (see Acts 2:36-41). Does what you see at the cross suggest to you there was anything easy as God, through His Son, brought to completion His ages-long plan to be able to righteously and justly forgive your sins and my sins and anyone else’s sins? All of this is why William Arthur Lloyd is right when he says, "We are most like beasts when we kill. We are most like men when we judge. We are most like God when we forgive."

 Elizabeth O’ Connor reminds us, "Forgiveness is a whole lot harder than any sermon ever made it out to be." One clear message from the cross is that forgiveness is horribly difficult and costly. To forgive us cost God His Son, and cost the Son excruciating physical torment and agony, let alone the unimaginable spiritual pain and torture He suffered there in His soul. If it proved that costly to God and His Son to forgive our sins, why would we expect it to be easy to forgive others who have trespassed against us? By the way, before I forget to say this, can you imagine how costly it would have turned out for us if God and His Son had been unwilling to pay the price to forgive us? Yes, to forgive is sometimes very, very difficult. As some sage noted,"To err is human, to forgive is unusual." It may be unusual for those who don’t know Christ to offer forgiveness. But the call for those who claim to follow Jesus could not be more plain or direct – "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32). Burton Coffman’s commentary on this verse provides a succinct if sobering summary of the New Testament’s teaching on God’s demand that we be forgiving – "The watchword for Christians, and for all people, is, ‘Forgive or forfeit forgiveness.’ " Think about that when you struggle to forgive. 

         by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

 

Talking About Jesus!

 A six-year-old boy stirred his parents interest on the way home after church one Sunday. The child said, "My Sunday school teacher must be Jesus’ grandmother." When they asked why, he replied, "Because she talks about Him all the time." As my wife and I prayerfully and joyfully await the arrival of our first grandchild, I am being told by veteran grandparents that "there’s nothing like it" and, "You’re going to love it!" I already know grandparents love to talk about their grandchildren! They are extremely evangelistic about them. They will talk to you about a grandchild as long as you will listen, and sometimes after you’ve already quit listening! I’m already talking about my first one, telling everybody about his arrival and his name, and he’s still in the process of getting here! Anyway, the subject of this little piece is not grandchildren or the grandparents who talk about them. My subject is Jesus, and how the apostle Paul would not stop talking about Him! Paul was all in all the time, when it came to preaching Christ. His sermons and letters to congregations are saturated with teaching about Jesus Christ. He was, as we sometimes say, "bent" on preaching Jesus. To use his words in 1 Corinthians 1:2, "I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." In 2 Corinthians 4:5 Paul wrote, "For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake." Acts 26 records the sermon Paul preached to King Agrippa. The centerpiece of that sermon is found in verse 23 where Paul proclaimed to the king that Christ had suffered and risen from the dead. Near the end of that sermon, the powerful king told Paul in verse 28, "You almost persuade me to be a Christian." In Romans 16:25 Paul asserted that God is "able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ" (Paul’s gospel in the sense Christ committed to him the task of taking the gospel of Christ to the Gentiles).

Then there is this statement in Paul’s writings at Colossians 1:27b-28 – "... which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." This wasn’t a part-time or past-time activity for Paul, or some- thing he did for 30 minutes on Sunday mornings. Because he was convinced Christ alone was every person’s "hope of glory," Paul gave himself completely to the task of preaching Jesus. Verse 29 makes clear his intentional goal and unceasing aim is to preach Christ – "To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily." What came out of his mouth was a result of a work he credits God was doing in his heart. When Paul opened his mouth, Jesus and the gospel spilled out because that’s what Paul was full of! In Colossians 3:4 he refers to Christ as "our life." Paul filled Colossians with Christ! "Jesus" occurs 5 times in chapter 1 plus two more in the book (total 7 times). "Christ" occurs 9 times each in chapters 1 and 2, eight in chapter 3, plus two more in chapter 4 (total 28 times). "Lord" occurs 13 times in the book. Combine these references to Jesus and the grand total is 48 times, in a total of 98 verses in the letter. Wow! – on average Paul made a reference to Christ in every other verse! According to tradition, Paul did finally quit preaching Jesus – when they cut his head off outside Rome about 68 A. D. Everybody needs Jesus and the hope He alone gives. God bless us to talk about Him to everybody we can anytime we can!

 by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN

A Better Bible?

 A better Bible? Let me shout, "No, NO, NOOO!" We not only don’t need a "better" Bible, it would be impossible to write one. Inspired men refer to the one we have as "given by inspiration of God", profitable for doctrine, reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness"– and the result is "the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Timothy 3:16). Another inspired writer described God’s word as "perfect," and declared that people are blessed by the Bible, not just because they hear it, but when they are "doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves" (James 1:21, 25). The Bible tells us the earliest Christians "continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine" (Acts 2:42), and that they were taught to "remember the words which were spoken by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Jude 17). But, as Willard Collins, former president of David Lipscomb University, once said, "A lot of preachers try to find something wrong with the Bible. When they can’t find anything wrong with it they try to find something new [in it]" (at a seminar at the Madison church of Christ building, 10/18/97). His words bring to my mind a catchy little quote a fellow-preacher taught me years ago – "If it’s new, it ain’t true, and if it’s true it ain’t new." That hasn’t stopped many churches and preachers and "reverends" and theologians from having "new" insights after "re-imagining" Bible teaching on the plan of salvation, the organization of Christ’s church, worship in spirit and truth, and practically every aspect of the Bible’s moral / spiritual content. The result is widespread ignorance, confusion, and division in the religious world today, and a world at large so open-minded its moral brains have fallen out.

 But wait. Calls for a "new and improved" Bible / gospel, more in keeping with man’s thinking, are not new. Consider these jarring words from a riled-up apostle Paul in Galatians 1:6- 9: "I marvel that you are turning away so soon from who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed." The rest of GALATIANS reveals some wanted an "App" or "add on" of circumcision to the inspired gospel Paul preached. Paul vigorously opposes that idea throughout the rest of the letter, even as he vigorously contends for salvation through faith in Christ (see 3:26-29). Paul described himself in 1 Corinthians 9:[19-]22 as one who was willing to "become all things to all men, that I might save some." But when it came to adapting and amending and adding to and "improving" and making the inspired content of the gospel "better," the apostle dug his heels in and resolutely refused, and "did not yield submission, even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you" (see Galatians 2:4-5). A better Bible? It has been pointed out the devil wouldn’t have written the Bible even if he could, man couldn’t have written the Bible even if he would, so God is its source. Christians listen up – our first calling is not to be ambassadors of good will – our highest duty is to be ambassadors for God’s will. "Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" (Galatians 4:16)

            by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN 

 

Have Faith in God!

 I want to begin this little meditation with four simple, one-syllable words we hear Jesus speaking in Mark 11:22 – "Have faith in God." Do you have faith? What do you have faith in? Jesus said, "Have faith in God." Careful study reveals Jesus is within five days of His death on the cross in this text. Scholars explain "the morning" referred to in verse 20 is Monday morning before Jesus died on Friday. The Son of God was moving inexorably toward the cross like a moth to the light. Back in Mark 10:32 we are told Jesus and the apostles were "on the road, going up to Jerusalem," and the Lord went on to remind the apostles that betrayal and mistreatment and death were waiting on Him there, but that "the third day He will rise again." In the space of a few short days not only will Jesus suffer, but His disciples’ faith will be severely tested. The faith of all the apostles will fail and they will temporarily abandon Him out of fear for their own safety. Eventually all of them save Judas will recommit themselves to Jesus. With all that ahead, the Lord speaks these four challenging words: "Have faith in God." Somebody observed that God makes bends in the road because He doesn’t want us to see that far ahead. That’s where faith comes in. Scripture teaches the road of life has many bends. We are extremely limited as to how far ahead we can clearly see. Proverbs 27:1 says, "Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." Again we are admonished, "whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow" (James 4:14a). What will happen tomorrow?" God’s word says, "you do not know." Because of that Jesus’ words still speak to our hearts – "Have faith in God." Speaking of our eternal home in heaven versus the temporary tent (body) we live in here, the apostle Paul declared, "For we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7). Faith in a good and great God gives us confidence and hope even when we can’t see around the bends in the road ahead. We may not know what will happen tomorrow, but we have faith in God that He is already there, and that no bend in our road catches Him by surprise. Have faith in God!

Scripture never teaches we can know all things, or that all things that happen to us are good. It clearly teaches this: "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose" (Rom.8:28 NASB). God is good ... all the time. If God can take something as awful as Jesus’ suffering on the cross and use to it bring about good, we can have faith that He is with us through the painful things in our own lives. Have faith in God! A story tells about a group of scientists exploring remote regions of the Alps in search of new species of flowers. One day, through binoculars, they spotted a rare, beautiful specimen never seen before. Its value for scientific study would be incalculable, but it lay deep in a ravine with cliffs on both sides. To get the flower someone would have to be lowered over the cliff with a rope. A curious boy was watching nearby, and the scientists offered to pay him if he would agree to be lowered over the cliff to retrieve the flower below. The boy took a long look down the steep, dizzy depths, and said, "I’ll be back in a minute." A short time later he returned with a middle-aged man. The boy told the scientists, "I’ll go over the cliff and get that flower for you if you let this man hold the rope. He’s my dad." As Christians, we can trust our Heavenly Father to never let us go. Have faith in God!

             by: Dan Gulley, Smithville, TN