Category: Christian good works

Four Small, Yet Exceeding Wise, Creatures

Sunday, May 20, 2012

“There be four things which are little upon the earth, but they are exceeding wise:” (Proverbs 30:24 KJV).

What are these four creatures? The context names them: ants, conies, locusts, and spiders. Let us learn from these “exceeding wise” creatures.

  • ANTS (verse 25): “The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer;” Ant societies are extremely complex. In the colony millions of ants cooperate with one another to forage for and store food. Although ants are mere specks to us, these “weakly creatures” teach us to adequately prepare for the future (in their case, lack of food in winter). Prepare for eternity by trusting the Lord Jesus Christ today for salvation (2 Corinthians 6:2).
  • CONIES (verse 26): “The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks;” Conies? They are a type of rock-hare or rabbit (rock-hyrax?). Other than biting, their defense is retreating to their houses… in the rocks (Psalm 104:18). Never be ashamed to admit you need God’s protection: you are weak without Christ (2 Corinthians 3:5; 2 Corinthians 4:7-10; Philippians 4:13).
  • LOCUSTS (verse 27): “The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands;” If locusts (swarming grasshoppers) can organize themselves into bands without a king (leader), then how much more unity can we have with a leader? We need to follow the Apostle Paul as he follows the Head of the Body, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1; Colossians 1:18).
  • SPIDERS (verse 28): “The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings’ palaces.” While a spider may live in a king’s palace, a luxurious mansion, she does not loaf or mooch. The diligent spider catches her own prey, binding it in her webbing. Your Christian life should not consist of sitting around and doing nothing. We have been ordained to good works, so let Christ do His good work in and through you (Ephesians 2:10; Titus 2:8).

These puny creatures have more sense than us humans! Indeed, they are four small, yet exceeding wise, creatures. 🙂

A Higher Education: It Is Up to You

Saturday, May 19, 2012

“Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Timothy 4:12 KJV).

Six years ago today, I graduated high school. Consequently, we dedicate this devotional to high school students who are nearing graduation.

Are you about to graduate high school? What would God have you do afterward? Go to college? Trade school? Something else? What career should you pursue? If you do plan on education after high school, where should you attend school? These are tough questions, and while God’s Word does not answer them, you can make decisions that conform to sound Bible doctrine—that is God’s will.

In today’s Scripture, Paul encourages downcast Timothy. Timothy was considerably younger than the Apostle Paul. Older people who are teaching false doctrine are intimidating young Timothy: “Tim, you are too young to teach God’s Word. Let us handle it.” Young Timothy conceded, became silent, and allowed the (“older and wiser”) false teachers to continue teaching their damnable heresies (cf. 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 2 Timothy 1:5-8). Paul replied, “Timothy, Speak up! Let no man despise thy youth!”

Christian youth can be just as effectual in their station in life as Christian adults. The lost world is watching us Christians, and we need to be sure that our actions are in accordance with the sound Bible doctrine we claim to believe (lest we be guilty of confusing the already-puzzled unbelievers). Whether “young or old,” our speech, our lifestyle, our acts of love, our determination, our belief in sound Bible doctrine, and our separation from that which God hates, is the way we communicate to the lost world God’s Word and its preeminence in our lives and hearts (today’s Scripture).

Above all, dear graduates, whatever you do post-graduation, “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by him” (Colossians 3:17). After all, it really is not your life—it is Christ’s life in you (Galatians 2:20; Colossians 3:4), so He alone deserves the glory!

*Based on a Bible study by the same name, which can be read here. Also, see the study “The Spirit-Filled Student.”

If Sinners Entice Thee, Consent Thou Not

Monday, May 14, 2012

“My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not” (Proverbs 1:10 KJV).

This world is filled with temptations. Sinful individuals surround us, and they encourage us to sin with them. Today’s Scripture says, “Consent thou not!” Ignore the negative peer pressure!

Saints, even though we are members of the Church the Body of Christ, we still sin. On a daily basis, our new nature in Christ wars against our old nature we inherited from Adam: “the flesh lusteth against the [indwelling Holy] Spirit, and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh” (Galatians 5:17a). But, we have victory over sin when we walk, by faith, in our identity in Christ!

In today’s Scripture (and the verses following it), King Solomon shares God’s wisdom with us: “If they say, Come with us, let us lay wait for blood [murder], let us lurk privily [secretly] for the innocent without cause: let us swallow them up alive as the grave; and whole, as those that go down into the pit: we shall find all precious substance [loot], we shall fill our houses with spoil: cast in thy lot among us; let us all have one purse” (Proverbs 1:11-14).

What is God’s response? Verses 15-19: “My son, walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path: for their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. Surely in vain the net is spread in the sight of any bird. And they lay wait for their own blood; they lurk privily for their own lives. So are the ways of every one that is greedy of gain; which taketh away the life of the owners thereof.”

When someone encourages you to be partaker of their “killing and stealing,” or any action that does not agree with God’s Holy Word rightly divided, “walk not thou in the way of them.” In Christ, God has saved us from that lifestyle and its resulting death: we have no need to return to them. “Walk in the Spirit [by faith in our new identity in Christ], and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh [sin]” (Galatians 5:16).

Mother: A Virtuous Woman

Sunday, May 13, 2012

“Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies” (Proverbs 31:10 KJV).

Today is Mother’s Day, so we dedicate this devotional to godly women (specifically mothers). I especially dedicate this to the virtuous woman who has been in my life for almost 24 years… my mom!

Today’s Scripture is the first verse of the Bible’s “Virtuous Woman” passage (Proverbs 31:10-31). King Solomon explained that the virtuous woman:

  • has a husband who safely trusts in her (verses 11,12).
  • is not lazy, but is strong because she works to feed and clothe her family and herself (verses 13-19,21,22,24,25,27).
  • pities the poor and needy (verse 20).
  • has a husband who is well-known because of her godly lifestyle (verse 23).
  • opens her mouth with wisdom, and speaks kindly and lovingly (verse 26).
  • has children and a husband who praise her (verse 28).
  • excels in what she does (verse 29).
  • has works that praise her (verse 31).

Verse 30 explains the virtuous woman is “a woman that feareth the LORD.”

The Apostle Paul wrote that godly women should: not slander/gossip, not be controlled by alcohol or emotions (sober minded), be teachers of good things, love their husbands and children, be cautious and modest, maintain the home, be “good,” and should obey (respect) their husbands… “that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:3-5). A Christian woman, especially a mother, should be a virtuous woman in beliefs as well as in deed. She needs to set an example for her children (especially her daughters).

A Christian woman and/or Christian mother places her faith in this sound Bible doctrine, the indwelling Holy Spirit will then take that doctrine and transform her for God’s glory (1 Thessalonians 2:13). Her mind will be renewed by sound Bible doctrine, and that will transform her outward activity (Romans 12:1,2).

Are you a Christian woman or Christian mother who desires to be the woman God intends you to be in Christ Jesus? Place your faith in this sound Bible doctrine, and God will take care of the rest!

*Adapted from a larger Bible study with the same name. The Bible study can be read here or watched here.

Let Another Man Praise Thee

Monday, May 7, 2012

“Let another man praise thee, and not thine own mouth; a stranger, and not thine own lips” (Proverbs 27:2 KJV).

As humans, we all have a tendency to brag about ourselves. Religion only makes the matter worse, for it teaches us to perform rites and rituals for others to see. They then “glory in [our] flesh,” boasting in our ability to fulfill those commandments (see Galatians 6:12,13). We need not praise ourselves, dear friends, for in due time, another Man shall praise us.

While we all enjoy someone telling us “Good job” or “Congratulations,” oftentimes these words go unspoken. Some individuals, no matter what we do, will never accept us. Even if it was godly Christian service, they still criticize us. Nothing we do will ever be good enough for them. No matter how kind we are to them, they will never treat us with respect. Do we love man’s praise, or God’s praise (John 12:43)? If we want man’s praise, then we should not be Christ’s servants (Galatians 1:10)!

In 1 Corinthians 4:5, the Apostle Paul talks about Christians having “praise of God” at the Judgment Seat of Christ: “Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God.”

The day is coming, the Judgment Seat of Christ, when Jesus Christ Himself will evaluate us Christians (the Church the Body of Christ) (Romans 14:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:9,10). He will look into our inner man (soul), searching our hearts and examining the doctrine we studied and believed from His Word rightly divided, the doctrine we stored in our inner man by faith. He will evaluate the doctrine we believed according to Paul’s epistles (1 Corinthians 3:9-15). Finally, we will receive a reward: an office in the government of heaven (Ephesians 1:3,20-23; Ephesians 2:6,7; Colossians 1:16-20; 2 Timothy 2:12)!

While fellow man may never say “Thank you” or “Well done” in response to thy acts of kindness or accomplishments, let another man praise thee… let the God-Man praise thee.

Dispensational Doctrine on Display

Thursday, May 3, 2012

“First, I thank God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world” (Romans 1:8 KJV).

Why does God not immediately take us home to heaven once we receive salvation in Christ? Today’s Scripture gives us a clue.

Firstly, God has temporarily left us Christians on earth because He wants to reach the world’s lost people with the Gospel of Grace (salvation). God reaches lost people (those outside of Christ) by using Christians, those who know His Word (the Bible) and are willing to share it with unsaved, hell-bound people.

For example, God saved the Apostle Paul in order to reach us pagan Gentiles with salvation (Paul did not go to heaven until 35-plus years after salvation). Paul was sent to us Gentiles “to open [our] eyes, and to turn [us] from [spiritual] darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that [we] might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in [Christ]” (Acts 26:18).

Secondly, God has temporarily left us Christians on earth because He wants us to reach other Christians with sound dispensational Bible study. God wants all Christians to experience the grace life, or Christ living in them (Galatians 2:20), and this only happens when we understand and believe God’s Word dispensationally.

For example, in today’s Scripture, Paul commended the Roman believers, whose lives communicated sound doctrine to the whole then-known world! The Romans believed the grace message, and then, by faith, they let God’s Word work in them (1 Thessalonians 2:13) to transform their minds (Romans 12:1,2) and then their lifestyles (Romans 6:1-23). The Thessalonian believers also had lifestyles that encouraged other Christians to pursue sound doctrine and acceptable Christian service (1 Thessalonians 1:5-10).

Lost people (and sadly, even some Christians) will never read the Bible. However, when we apply sound dispensational (Pauline) Bible doctrine to our lives by faith, these individuals will see sound doctrine in practice (see Philippians 4:9; 2 Timothy 3:10). The great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ will be glorified, for lost and saved will see dispensational doctrine on display.

What Does God Want Me to Do? #11

Sunday, April 8, 2012

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13 KJV).

Before God could do His “good pleasure” in and through us, and before Jesus Christ could live in and through us, He had to die and resurrect.

Jesus Christ died, not simply to help us get to heaven as religion teaches, but He died because our “good” works were nothing but “filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6) and “dung” (Philippians 3:8). Jesus Christ’s death was the only acceptable sacrifice to God: our good works cannot save us and they will never save us. Christ died for us so He could then give His life to us when we trust Him, so He can then live His life in and through us! Christ’s life—not our life—is acceptable to God, for Christ’s life is not “dung” and “filthy rags.”

Have victory over sin by resting in your new identity in Christ Jesus. When Christ died, you died to sin (Romans 6:6). God has given you Christ’s life: “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:11). I encourage you to read all of Romans chapter 6 and rejoice in the glorious truths of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and their impact on us.

We should remember Jesus Christ’s resurrection every day. The same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is now causing Him to live His resurrected life in and through us as we walk by faith in an intelligent understanding of God’s Word to us.

What does God want you to do? He wants you to rejoice and glory in the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. If you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour, you have Christ’s resurrection life now and forever. You have eternal life right now (you do not have to wait until you die to get eternal life).

Friend and brethren, study God’s Word God’s way, and then go and let Christ’s resurrection life live in and through you for His glory!

HAPPY EASTER!

*These past 11 devotionals have been adapted from a larger Bible study titled “Christ Liveth in Me.” The Bible study can be read here and watched here.

What Does God Want Me to Do? #10

Saturday, April 7, 2012

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13 KJV).

Today’s Scripture tells us God’s “good pleasure” is to work in and through us to accomplish His will. When we place our faith in the sound (dispensational) Bible doctrine that tells us what God is doing today (Paul’s epistles, Romans through Philemon), then God the Holy Spirit will use that doctrine to transform us from the inside (soul) out (lifestyle)!

Epaphras prayed that the Colossian believers “would stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (4:12). Compare that to Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonian believers: “Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:11,12; cf. Philippians 1:9-11; Colossians 1:9-11). The goal of God’s working in and through us is to glorify “the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in [us],” and to “glorify [us] in him.”

God wants “the word of Christ” to “dwell in [us] richly in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16)—to fill us with sound (dispensational) Bible doctrine that will literally “dwell” (live) in us (cf. 1 Thessalonians 2:13)! The indwelling Holy Spirit takes the sound Bible doctrine we believe and He uses it to form Christ Jesus in us, so that the sound Bible teaching (Christ’s life) is literally transferred to us, and then our lifestyles better reflect God’s grace (Titus 2:11-15).

The “fruit of the Spirit” (evidence of the Holy Ghost working in us) will then be manifested in our lives: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance” (Galatians 5:22,23).

What does God want you to do? He (Jesus Christ) wants you to allow Him to live His life in and through you (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21) as your study and believe His Word His way (dispensationally).

What Does God Want Me to Do? #5

Monday, April 2, 2012

“For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13 KJV).

God gave us the Bible so that we could learn what He is doing. We do not have to grope in spiritual darkness—although religion hopes that we do! Do you want to do God’s will? Find out what God is doing today, and then, by faith, GO DO THAT!

When we “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15), we understand that the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a giant timeline. God has divided, or segmented, His Word into dispensations, bodies of truth applicable during separate and distinct time periods when He deals with mankind differently. Never confuse the dispensations, or combine directions given in one dispensation with information given in another dispensation.

For instance, millions of church members have been taught that God wants them to “keep the Mosaic Law.” While God strictly commanded Israel to obey the Mosaic Law or suffer divine chastisement (Exodus 15:26; Leviticus 26:1-46; Deuteronomy 28:1-68), Paul writes to us in the Dispensation of Grace, “For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:14). God has replaced Israel’s performance-based acceptance system (legalism, Judaism) with His grace-based acceptance system.

God’s will for you is that you not “resurrect” the Mosaic Law, which was nailed to Calvary’s cross and crucified with Christ (Colossians 2:14; cf. Romans 3:21,22; Romans 7:4-6). Today, God’s grace, not the Mosaic Law, teaches us to live “soberly, righteously, and godly” (Titus 2:11,12). Grace shows us that we Christians have died with Christ, so sin is not who we are anymore (Romans 6:6-23; Romans 8:12-14; Romans 12:1,2; et al.).

If you want to let God “work in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (today’s Scripture), do not place yourself under religious bondage (legalism, performing religious duties to get God to accept or bless you). Your Christian life operates on the basis of God’s grace, Jesus Christ working and living in and through you (Galatians 2:20; Philippians 1:21), not you striving to keep God happy (law-keeping).

God’s Workmanship #3

Sunday, March 4, 2012

“For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10 KJV).

The Bible presents God as the Poet; we Christians are but His poem. He is the Mastermind; we are merely His design. God has the power; we are just His vessels. Our will and our works have not the preeminence; God’s will and God’s achievements do. The Creator of the universe is doing something excellent; the creatures’ work, our work, pale in comparison. What God did for us is foremost (grace), not what we do for Him (religion). This is God’s grace, and we are His workmanship.

Religion is not the work of God; it emphasizes man’s performance to make himself acceptable to God. Christianity is God’s workmanship, for it stresses how God can use mere frames of dust (us) for His glory (see today’s Scripture). Those of us who have trusted the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, God is using us to make a “new man,” a “new creature,” the Church the Body of Christ, an entity He will use in heaven forever (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:13-17); this is something that God, not us, does. God is building us—a temple, a house for Himself (1 Corinthians 3:16,17; Ephesians 2:18-22). We are “God’s husbandry, God’s building” (1 Corinthians 3:9).

Currently, God is preparing us Christians for eternity. We have His preserved and inerrant Word, the King James Bible, to learn and grow in His knowledge. The more sound doctrine we study and believe in the rightly divided Bible, the more equipped we are to function here and in eternity (1 Corinthians 3:10-15). In the ages to come, God will use us to restore the government of the heavens unto Himself (Ephesians 2:6,7; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:1; Colossians 1:16-22).

God saved us to use us for all of eternity future, to do His good work in us now on earth, and to do His good work in us forever in heaven. Verily, verily, we are God’s workmanship… forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever! 🙂