Tag Archives: good

Caught In The Spider’s Web!

Bible Study, ,

CAUGHT IN THE SPIDER’S WEB! 

“Did that which is good, then, become death to me? By no means! Nevertheless, in order that sin might be recognised as sin, it used what is good to bring about my death, so that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful. We know that the law is spiritual, but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.

“I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.” Romans 7:13-17.

The path of understanding how helpless we are without the Lord Jesus Christ is quite a tortuous one. Paul was obviously aware of his own spiritual journey from thinking that his law-keeping efforts were quite successful to realising that he fell very far short of God’s standards when he was honest enough to evaluate himself against the inward requirements of the law.

Paul came to realise that the law of God was only a measure, like a ruler, which accurately measured God’s holy standards. Therefore the law had no power to do anything else but show him whether his life measured up or not. Therefore the law had no power to kill him. It only showed him whether he was worthy of death or not.

Sin is a factor of human life, but different religions define sin in different ways. For most, sin is defined by the values people attribute to their gods. If we keep in mind that people who reject the one true God create gods in their own image, the character and requirements of their gods depends on how they want to live their lives…which, of course, accurately reflects Adam’s rejection of his Creator in the beginning.

Satan offered him the alternative – you don’t have to obey God because He is short-changing you, keeping you from partaking of the fruit of that one tree. If you listen to me, you can make your own rules. But Satan did not tell him to read the small print, the part that said, “If you follow my way, you will be my slave. You won’t really be free because you will be in my power and I will see to it that you utterly destroy yourself!” So Adam fell for the devil’s little scheme and lost the freedom he had, to become a slave of sin.

God’s standard did not change. What changed was Adam’s ability to live up to it because his Helper, the Holy Spirit, had left. He was on his own and helpless, like an insect caught in a spider’s web. The more he struggled, the more he became entangled in its death grip. He knew what was right because God’s law was written within his conscience, but he could not do anything about it.

All the law could do was to show him how far away from God’s ways he really was. Like the insect in the spider’s web, he could see the big wide world out there but he was powerless to get out of the web and fly free as he was created to do. Release from the silk’s sticky grip could only come if someone intervened and set him free.

A battle raged within him. He knew what was right because his conscience spoke loud and clear, but he could not do what was right because his natural bent towards sin was too strong. Like a bowling wood, he always veered off the straight path towards satisfying the demands of his selfish nature. He could neither silence his conscience by defending himself, nor appease it by living the right way. The very fact that his conscience accused him was an indication that he knew and agreed with what was right.

Guilt and self-loathing tormented him. But most of all, he was in despair because no amount of law-keeping could undo his past or give him hope for his future. Like the insect, he could only wait to be devoured. The same law that showed him how holy God is, would judge him and condemn him to eternal death. His problem was on the inside and no amount of trying to do good things would change his heart.

That’s the problem with man-made religions. Every ritual people perform, every regulation they adhere to cannot change their hearts. Washing their bodies, wearing special garments, eating or not eating certain foods, offering animal sacrifices, putting food in front of idols, bowing down to wood or stone, being nice to animals – are all in vain because none of these things can pay the debt of sin or change the heart.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Fruit Or Fruitless

Bible Study, , , , , ,

FRUIT OR FRUITLESS

“As they went from town to town, a lot of people joined in and travelled along. He addressed them, using this story: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. Some of it fell on the road; it was trampled down and the birds ate it. Other seed fell in the gravel; it sprouted but withered because it didn’t have good roots. Other seed fell in the weeds; the weeds grew with it and strangled it. Other seed fell in rich earth and produced a bumper crop. ‘Are you listening to this? Really listening?'” Luke 8:4-8 (The Message).

How many sermons have been preached on this story!

As the crowds joined Jesus, He was aware that all of them represented one or even more of the soil types of which His story spoke. No doubt the scribes and Pharisees were among those whose hearts were so hard that the seed of God’s Word would remain exposed on the surface until the birds came and snatched it away.

What makes hearts so hard that the seed will never take root? Disobedience creates calluses in people’s hearts. God speaks and, because the time is not convenient, or because His instruction seems foolish or cuts across our own wishes or intentions, we do nothing. The next time His speaks, we hear but do nothing again. Eventually we no longer hear Him because our hearts have become deaf to His voice.

Sin dulls our sensitivity to His word. Self-will and the notion that we know better or that we are convinced we are right, like the Pharisees were, shuts us off from the influence of God’s Word until it no longer penetrates our minds and we dismiss it with contempt.

Gravelly soil represents the shallow person who is so caught up with the glitz and glamour of the world and the all the interests and entertainment that it can offer that the delicate roots of the Word of God find no place to anchor themselves. There’s hardness under the surface that resists the truth and the small plant of faith eventually withers and dies.

Ground that is full of weeds is like the person who has a divided heart. Jesus identified the weeds as “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches.” These are interesting concepts. To worry implies that you are split — you are here but your mind is there. You may be in church but your mind is somewhere else, churning over a situation or problem you cannot solve. You are unable to give your attention fully to God’s Word at that moment.

The deceitfulness of riches is equally distracting and you are equally split in your mind. Instead of being content with what you have now, you are continually living in the future — scheming and planning how you can get more money then. “Weeds” rob you of contentment and distract you from living in the present and in the place where you are here and now. Consequently God’s Word is gradually pushed out of your mind as you grapple with your worries and your ambitions.

The person who recognises the value of what God says and applies it diligently to his life, not allowing sin, pride or self-will to prevent its entry into his heart or the glamour, greed or worries of the present life to choke its growth, will receive the Word. apply it and show the fruit of its influence in the way he lives.

There is a little of each type of soil in each of our lives, depending on our attitude to the issues the Word addresses. We may resist what God has to say about any sin we are entertaining; we may be shallow or superficial in our attitude towards something God requires of us that touches our pride or our purses; we may have worries or ambitions that we are not prepared to relinquish to Him, and in those areas we will shut out the Word and become unfruitful.

The fruitfulness of the seed depends entirely on quality of the soil that receives it.

When God looks for fruit in your life, what will He find?

 

 

Murderous Envy

Christian Life, , , ,

MURDEROUS ENVY

“When things were back to normal, Paul called the disciples together and encouraged them to keep up the good work in Ephesus. Then, saying his goodbyes, he left for Macedonia. Travelling through the country, passing from one gathering to another, he gave constant encouragement, lifting their spirits and charging them with fresh hope.

“Then he came to Greece and stayed on for three months. Just as he was about to sail for Syria, the Jews cooked up a plot against him. So he went the other way, by land back through Macedonia, and gave them the slip. His companions for the journey were Sopater, son of Phyrrus, from Berea; Aristarchus and Secundus, both Thessalonians; Gaius from Derbe; Timothy; and two from western Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.” Acts 20:1-4 (The Message).

Paul was a tireless and faithful servant of the Lord Jesus. He had been given a commission to take the gospel to the Roman Empire and he did it as best and as thoroughly as he knew how, not only evangelising but also building up the followers of Jesus in the faith and encouraging them to stay on the path in the midst of persecution from many different quarters.

As we have seen through the pages of Acts, Paul was constantly the object of abuse and very often in danger of being killed by fanatical Jews and over-zealous pagans. Nothing would deter him. On his way back to Syria, via the churches in Greece where he spent three months instructing and encouraging them, he got to hear of a Jewish assassination plot and managed to slip through their fingers.

Although he had many travelling companions, faithful men who accompanied him and helped him with his load of responsibility, it was he who was the wanted man. There was a price on his head, and he had to be on the alert constantly to keep from inadvertently falling into hostile hands. It reminds us of David who got under King Saul’s skin just as Paul provoked the religious Jews to murderous envy. .

What is it that drives one human being to hate the goodness or success of another so much that he is willing to kill for it?

Jesus told a story about a landowner who needed labourers to harvest his grapes. He engaged men from the market place in the early morning and they agreed on the wage he offered. He went back several times during the day to look for more workers. An hour before knocking-off time there were still a few who had not found work. He employed them as well, even though they only had an hour to work.

At the end of the day, they gathered around the employer to receive their pay. The last men employed were paid first. To the annoyance of the ones who had worked all day, they received the same wage as the first ones, even though the last had only worked for an hour. Thinking that they were going to receive more, the first men protested. The landowner replied, ‘Didn’t you agree to the wage I offered you? Don’t I have the right to do with my money as I choose or are you envious because I am generous?’

What has envy to do with generosity? It was the generosity of the landowner that exposed the greed of the men first employed and they didn’t like it. Likewise, it was the generosity of Jesus that showed up the greed of the religious leaders to the extent that they killed Him for it. Instead of responding to His exposure by repenting and turning to Him, their hearts were so wicked that they chose to silence the voice that was offering them a new life.

This story had no value for us if we do not respond to its application. What do we do when the ungodly attitudes in us are exposed by someone else’s goodness? We will either do whatever it takes to silence the one who exposed us, often by character assassination, and keep on living the way we always did or, like Zaccheus, choose to change our ways and enjoy the blessing of a new life and freedom from the destructive ways of greed and wickedness.