Post by tlsitd on Jun 25, 2018 11:35:42 GMT -5
I thought it would be a good idea to post a few of the Lord's words here for us all, to remind us of how we are to be, because it's easy to forget---as we go about our own business---what God is concerned about and what is important to Him, and to keep that as our own focus. The ideas of the world that surrounds us, and the desires of our own sinful nature, and our natural inclination to be more self-focused than God-focused or neighbor-focused, by default, are all potential distractions from and hindrances to maintaining God's perspective on things and remembering to pursue what is really important and pleasing to Him. I don't think any Christian can have too many reminders of our Lord's words and ways, what with everything that contradicts these surrounding us, and with our own sinful nature to contend with daily.
So here are just a few of them, which I've chosen---sayings that may be less commonly heard or remembered---with some commentary from me.
1. 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' (Acts 20:35)
Not just because we will be repaid by our heavenly Father for all eternity for whatever we do by faith here, including the sacrificial giving of our time and resources according to His will, but also because it benefits us spiritually now to have a Christ-like mindset of service to others, rather than one of serving ourselves. God will increase this mentality in us as we commit ourselves to doing that, which will make us more fruitful saints in general than saints whose primary concern is having what they want in this life. We will gain the renewing of our minds by faithfully living according to this saying, and with it spiritual blessings in the here and now, besides eternal rewards.
2. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." (Mark 9:42)
A good reminder of how seriously God takes sin and how serious a sin it is for anyone, including another Christian, to lead a Christian into sin. This would include pastors who change or avoid various teachings of Christianity in their instruction so as to permit and approve of things that God forbids and condemns, so that their congregation can sin; and also Christian women who intentionally dress and carry themselves in a provocative way that might draw the attention of their brothers in Christ to them to lust after them in their hearts, and so cause them to commit adultery (if they are married) or to have sexually immoral thoughts (if they are not married).
3. "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness." (Luke 11:34,35)
Our spiritual "eye" is our heart---our spiritual lamp---by which we behold Jesus and are able to follow Him by understanding how He is and what He wants us to do. If our hearts are pure, we will be full of God's truth, and of the goodness that results from being obedient to His truth; but if our hearts are impure, we will be full of deception (false truth that is really error), and of the fruits of that deception. The way that we make sure that what we hold to be truth really is, and not deception seeming to be truth, is by keeping our hearts pure before God. Then we will receive from Him all the light (truth) that we need to walk by, following the Lord, and by walking according to that light, we will also show forth His goodness and truth more abundantly.
4. "...What is highly exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God." (Luke 16:15)
God's ways are not man's ways. The love of money, and all sorts of other attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyles may be praised by people and promoted by the culture of the society in which we live, but they are (still) an abomination in the sight of God. As Christians we must remember to keep God's perspective on all things, lest we become abominable in His sight ourselves by embracing the things He hates. (The magazine stands at the grocery store checkout are a very good illustration of this: A display of every kind of wicked and ungodly thing that God hates, being exalted and promoted by depraved, spiritually dead people.)
5. "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
(John 12:25)
(Well we know what was getting ready to happen to the church at Laodicea.)
The more completely we live for Jesus Christ, according to His word and according to His will, the more our minds will be renewed by God to be like His own, and the more we will see things as He does and desire and delight in what He desires and delights in (and also hate and be grieved by what He hates and is grieved by)---which will make this world an increasingly unpleasant place for us to be. Trials, temptations, and persecution will also contribute to that "hatred" of life in this world, and increase our longing to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. But if we live for ourselves, and according to the flesh, rather than the Spirit, we will be comfortable and happy in this world, and jealous for our lives here, rather than for Jesus Christ---and we will be in danger of losing our lives in Christ for being unfruitful saints, as those Christians in Laodicea were about to.
So here are just a few of them, which I've chosen---sayings that may be less commonly heard or remembered---with some commentary from me.
5 Sayings of Jesus
1. 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' (Acts 20:35)
Not just because we will be repaid by our heavenly Father for all eternity for whatever we do by faith here, including the sacrificial giving of our time and resources according to His will, but also because it benefits us spiritually now to have a Christ-like mindset of service to others, rather than one of serving ourselves. God will increase this mentality in us as we commit ourselves to doing that, which will make us more fruitful saints in general than saints whose primary concern is having what they want in this life. We will gain the renewing of our minds by faithfully living according to this saying, and with it spiritual blessings in the here and now, besides eternal rewards.
2. "Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." (Mark 9:42)
A good reminder of how seriously God takes sin and how serious a sin it is for anyone, including another Christian, to lead a Christian into sin. This would include pastors who change or avoid various teachings of Christianity in their instruction so as to permit and approve of things that God forbids and condemns, so that their congregation can sin; and also Christian women who intentionally dress and carry themselves in a provocative way that might draw the attention of their brothers in Christ to them to lust after them in their hearts, and so cause them to commit adultery (if they are married) or to have sexually immoral thoughts (if they are not married).
3. "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness." (Luke 11:34,35)
Our spiritual "eye" is our heart---our spiritual lamp---by which we behold Jesus and are able to follow Him by understanding how He is and what He wants us to do. If our hearts are pure, we will be full of God's truth, and of the goodness that results from being obedient to His truth; but if our hearts are impure, we will be full of deception (false truth that is really error), and of the fruits of that deception. The way that we make sure that what we hold to be truth really is, and not deception seeming to be truth, is by keeping our hearts pure before God. Then we will receive from Him all the light (truth) that we need to walk by, following the Lord, and by walking according to that light, we will also show forth His goodness and truth more abundantly.
4. "...What is highly exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God." (Luke 16:15)
God's ways are not man's ways. The love of money, and all sorts of other attitudes, behaviors, and lifestyles may be praised by people and promoted by the culture of the society in which we live, but they are (still) an abomination in the sight of God. As Christians we must remember to keep God's perspective on all things, lest we become abominable in His sight ourselves by embracing the things He hates. (The magazine stands at the grocery store checkout are a very good illustration of this: A display of every kind of wicked and ungodly thing that God hates, being exalted and promoted by depraved, spiritually dead people.)
5. "Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."
(John 12:25)
(Well we know what was getting ready to happen to the church at Laodicea.)
The more completely we live for Jesus Christ, according to His word and according to His will, the more our minds will be renewed by God to be like His own, and the more we will see things as He does and desire and delight in what He desires and delights in (and also hate and be grieved by what He hates and is grieved by)---which will make this world an increasingly unpleasant place for us to be. Trials, temptations, and persecution will also contribute to that "hatred" of life in this world, and increase our longing to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. But if we live for ourselves, and according to the flesh, rather than the Spirit, we will be comfortable and happy in this world, and jealous for our lives here, rather than for Jesus Christ---and we will be in danger of losing our lives in Christ for being unfruitful saints, as those Christians in Laodicea were about to.