The Sweetness of Christ Flowing Out of Our Lives

Have you ever been really thirsty? I mean having such a dry parched mouth that it sticks together? You’re in a place of oppressive heat; its consuming and you cannot escape it. You walk left and walk right and cannot find a place of solace, a place of respite. You venture over the sandy hill and there in the distance at the bottom of your view is a beautiful glade, green and lush. You hurry your pace and find a flowing beautiful shady brook. Your hand discovers cool and clear water so clean. You satisfy your thirst and a coolness sweeps over you like a calm of a gentle rain; it is sweet and it satisfies. What a picture.

In Philippians 2, the Apostle Paul starts with this idea. He says, “If [there be] therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, [being] of one accord, of one mind. He uses the term consolation, that is simply, a “sweetness” in Christ. You get that? Think about this: the sweetness of Christ should so exude from our lives that we are like a refreshing drink of cool water to the dry around us; that we are a cool calm to the hot torrent of life to those who are our friends in Christ, and to the thirsty world….a satisfying drink. Ah, but read on dear friend.

You will notice that Paul teaches here to illustrate this thought: Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, [being] of one accord, of one mind. [Let] nothing [be done] through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. He calls us to a place of humility, one contrary to strife or vainglory. Each of us is to esteem others better than ourselves. Contrary to the world, we are to put others before our own life. Jesus taught, to die to ourselves; He taught to love our neighbor as ourselves. This is sacrifice; this is sweetness. How is your sweetness towards others? Do you have the “mind of Christ? Paul commands us to have the Mind of Christ, verse 5, one that embraces sacrifice and slavery to God; one that commands sweetness to others. Let your sweetness wrap its splendor to reach the thirsty. In His Honor! Sherrell

ON Removing Anemia from our Churches

I am burdened about the lack of clarity when dealing with sin in our churches today. We modern Christians have bought into the satanic lie that judgment within the body of Christ is wrong. Modernistic philosophy and psychology has done much damage to the church; after all this is the enemy’s desire. Lets consider Paul’s admonition to the Christians in Corinth regarding the adulterer who was living in open sin with his mother-in-law. 1 Corinthians 5: verse 1 says “It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you…” Here is the key: this man’s adultery was commonly known; it was public. Why even the gentiles (that is the pagan culture around them) were scandalized by this (1b). Paul goes on to say that they were prideful when they should be in mourning (verse 2). Look at verse 3, Paul said that he was in judgment about this even though he was not there. Why? He knew the Word of God; that is our standard. He preached the Word of Truth, that is the only measure (1 Tim 3:15-16). Paul knows that fornication is wrong! His admonition? “When you are gathered together” (verse 4); that is corporate worship, “…deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh…”(verse 5); that is cast him out of the church, where his leaven cannot infect the body.

Here is Paul’s key: verse 7 says to “purge out the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened….” Paul understood that harboring sin as a corporate church body was to allow a cancer to destroy unity and fellowship, as it had done in this church.

What is our solution? Some would say that Christ said, “Judge not that ye be not judged”, that is Matthew 7:1, but Christ here is talking to those (hypocrites) who are blinded by their own sin. What does he go on to teach? That we are to first remove the beam from our own eye where we can see clearly to remove the mote (speck) from our brother’s eye” (Matthew 7:5). Let's face it friend, we must all be on our knees asking for God’s forgiveness everyday, but we must exercise discernment in dealing with the open sin of others within the church. The point is that we cannot have a clean hearted congregation until we corporately deal with open sin in accordance with Paul’s loving admonition. It is the loving thing to deliver church discipline in a humble and loving manner, with the grave hope that such a transgressor would recognize the wickedness of their openly sinful ways and come back to be lovingly restored to fellowship. Such acts can help remove the anemia that churches experience today, and will restore God’s power to save the world through the Great Commission. Humbly submitted.

Godliness and Contentment

The great Apostle writes "....godliness with contentment is great gain" I Timothy 6:6. I have been most intrigued in these last days with the world of business and its enterprise. Our nation, indeed the world, is carried away with its necessity to stoke its engines with the fodder of economy. Our leaders are pressed to balance the grand scales of economic justice and seemingly strive to equate wealth and substance with liberty itself. It is this freedom to thrive and flourish that sparks hope to a budding entrepreneur; one that makes it a cherished prize. It is this ideal that is attractive about industry, and there is nothing wrong with hard work; "consider the ant..." Proverbs 6:6. From practitioner to strategist, they are all fueled with the one thing that gives momentum to that engine; marketing.

Further, there are popular spiritual books today that make purpose a divine. They play on an inner spiritual hunger to matter, be relevant and say that there is a destiny for everyone. The spiritual and business gurus carefully orchestrate their cacophony of clever terms (thats a story for another entry); decisively, they too are engaged in the second oldest profession, selling, that is, highlighting a need and filling it.

We are swarmmed with media images, those Madison Avenue servings thousands of times per week. We are absorbed with culture and the material being of our lives. We can be trite about materialism; I can say much here, but I am more concerned with a more insidious product of the flesh, that is a lack of genuine contentment and rest in Christ. Remember the admonition of Hebrews 13:5 which encourages: "Let your conversation be without covetousness, and be content with such things as ye have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" . Are you able to rest in Christ? Our goal is not the temporal prizes of this earth; they are of another plain. The writer of Hebrews goes on to summarize, "For here (that is this earth) have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come" 13:14. We rest in Christ when we lose ourselves, that is dying to ourselves. We press into Him when we serve Him and serve others. Godliness with contentment is a precious refreshment; one that satisfies our souls. With love.

The Natural Man's Way: Failure at a Deeply fulfilling Life

Are you finding your life woefully inadequate to fulfill some deeply seated longing? It is little wonder today. You see, the natural man, that is our natural disposition from our birth is inadequate: Proverbs 14:12 says "There is a way which seemeth right to a man, but its end is the way of death." God's Word further clarifies; "The natural man doth not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." I Corinthians 2:14.

It is no surprise that we sputter through life trying to satisfy a spiritual need with a fleshly solution. It would be foolish for me to tell you to go and read your Bible if you are starving, having not had a meal for a week. This would be a spiritual solution to a physical problem. The same thing can be said of the reverse. You cannot solve a spiritual problem with a physical solution; nor a financial solution, nor a better job..... You get the idea. The problem in life is not that we must get better nor try harder in solving our deep emotional issues or longings. No matter how much we attempt to alter our program, it always crashes. The answer is that we need a spiritual overhaul; a complete heart replacement!

The natural man is self-centered and rebels against God and God's Way. Jeremiah tells us in scripture that "The heart [is] deceitful above all [things], and desperately wicked: who can know it? (vs17:9). Paul summarized in Romans 3:10, There is none righteous, no not one".

How do we solve this heart problem? Nicodemus, a Jewish Teacher of the Law came to Jesus by night and inquired of Him the source of His miracles and power. Nicodemus knew that Jesus was different than his Pharisaical colleagues, and he desired to know the truth. Jesus' answer was profound but simple. He said "Verily, Verily I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3. He goes on to explain that "....that which is born of flesh is flesh, but that which is born of Spirit is spirit" verse 6. You see Christ here is explaining the real key to man's heart problem. It requires a spiritual birth to experience the true change inside; the true peace and joy that surpasses any known to common man. Jesus said, Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Thats John 14:27. Do you want peace? Confess your sins to God and repent; Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and that God raised Him from the Dead; and call upon the name of the Lord for salvation. Drop me a line and I can share more from Scripture. Paul said "... behold, now [is] the accepted time; behold, now [is] the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 6:2. Friend, you do not have time to wait. Sherrell

The Haunting Spectre

I am haunted by a spectre of unrest. It touches the shadows around me but eludes the slimest grapple at its breadth. It eases back into the recesses of my soul and nags at the slightest crisis of life. In solitude, it appears to creep closer as a timid creature of the wild, revealing its full extent. It is elusive and complex, like a wisp in the Wind. The Wind, revealing its exterior brings it closer; the Wind does its proving work.

Sometimes its downed (consumed) by the loudness of life; the hurried pace screams for attention, haranguing the spectre. It is like this, the spectre wants to tarry....it must have its space. It needs to have its own existence, but it fights for both its need to survive by resigning, and its hunger to haunt its hunter; it is embroiled in battle.

I strolled through my neighborhood the other evening, and to my delight I saw a small fox. There, the furtive little creature was elusively darting through the shadows like my spectre of unrest, looking for its quest but not wanting the full measure of attention.

This spectre of unrest is much like the fox. He must forage for existence. It must continually be fed. Its privation though, is manifested by the Wind. "He will reprove the world of Sin..." John 16. The spectre of unrest is rightly bludgeoned by the Holy Spirit's illumination. C. S. Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasure, but screams at us in our pain". But we push back....we numb it with generous amounts of chloroform in the fashion of pastime or labor. We must allow the Wind its due, to bring the scapel to bear on the spectre of unrest. It must be in this fashion. The pervasive aura of unconfessed sin.

The Psalmist said, Blessed [is] the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit [there is] no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Psalms 32: 1-4. Here it is; the chronic malignancy that unconfessed sin renders. Notice here the language, the physical results of unconfessed sin, the ailment when "one keeps silent"; "bones grow old"; that is they waste away". The hand of God's chastisement upon the wayward, who carry the palpable pain and the physical torture of unconfessed sins. This is a heavy burden.......this is a spectre of unrest. But notice the solution David describes. In verse 5, observe: I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

God's Word tell us that confession will rid us of the spectre. I John 1:9 states, "If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to fogive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". Friend, today you may be suffering from anxiety or depression, or even some physical ailment. You may not understand why your prayers seem to bounce off the ceiling. God may not hear your prayers due to your lack of a clean heart before Him. Sin sent Christ to the cross and it will keep you from a victorious life; it will rob your joy and it will destroy your life. Praise be to God for His solution; his restoration. Praise the Lord for I John 1:9! Confess and repent today. Now that is good news!