An Appreciative Attitude

Sunday, March 5, 2023

“He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:6,7 KJV).

What matters most is not the lips but the heart!

Dear friends, we can say anything and everything delightful but still be insincere. “I love the Lord.” Do we really love Him though, or is it just something nice we flippantly declare out of mindless habit? “The Bible means everything to me.” Is that actually the case, or are we just trying to impress our preacher or Bible teacher with superficial spirituality? “I am so thankful for your prayers.” Does this mean we truly care that Christian brethren are thinking about us so we can be in God’s will, or are we interested in merely being at the center of attention? “I enjoy church.” Is this really because we are growing in the Scriptures there, or only due to the amusement we find “in the sanctuary?” These are extremely personal questions, and if we exercise critical thinking in regards to them, we know just where we need to adjust our lives.

In today’s Scripture, Christ condemned hypocrisy that was parading in the name of Judaism. Even in Isaiah’s day more than 700 years earlier, this was a major problem in the nation Israel (see Isaiah 29:13). People were singing about the Lord, praying, attending synagogue and temple services, celebrating feast days and other holy days, but for nearly everyone there was no heart faith, no real desire to worship the Lord or better know what He was doing. It was all about their activities.

May our Bible study, prayer, and church attendance mean genuine hunger for the truth. If we are truly grateful for the Lord Jesus Christ and all that He has done for us, we will use our resources wisely to see that we learn about it and that we tell others about it. This heart attitude is of far greater importance than any mere singing moving hymns, reciting elaborate prayers, and preaching long sermons. Remember, we may fool others, but we can never fool the Lord!

Saints, please remember this work of the ministry requires monthly financial support to operate (Galatians 6:6; Philippians 4:16-17; 2 Corinthians 9:6-7). Those who prefer electronic giving can donate securely here: https://www.paypal.me/ShawnBrasseaux. Anyone who wishes to donate by regular mail can visit https://333wordsofgrace.org/contact-us-mailing-address-for-donations/ for details. Thanks to all who give to and pray for us! Unfortunately, since our ministry audience is so large and our ministry staff is so small, I can no longer personally respond to everyone. Thanks so much for understanding in this regard. 🙂

Looking Unto Jesus

Saturday, March 4, 2023

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1,2 KJV).

An artist once drew a night scene in which a man was rowing a boat across a large body of water. The waves were rough and the winds were strong. Storm clouds veiled the moon and all the stars except one. Focused on that solitary point of light, the man paddled on and on. The artist added a caption at the bottom: “If I lose that, I am lost!” Here is an extremely simple application of today’s Scripture.

In Matthew 14:22-27, the Lord Jesus Christ was delayed in meeting His disciples in the ship on the Sea of Galilee. Eventually, they no longer expected Him. When He finally showed up, they supposed He was a spirit or ghost. Keep reading: “[28] And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. [29] And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. [30] But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. [31] And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? [32] And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.”

Peter took his eyes off the Lord, looked at his perilous circumstances, and began to sink! Likewise, in today’s Scripture, the Holy Spirit reminds believing Israel suffering the troubles of Daniel’s 70th Week to keep watching Jesus, not the evil Antichrist or his followers. Saints, we would do well to remember to firmly fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ and not our difficulties (Romans 8:31-39)!

Worthless Papers #3

Friday, March 3, 2023

“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1,2 KJV).

Behold, Saul possesses worthless papers!

Saul is definitely relieved to learn the Lord is working with Ananias to confirm the fact he really is a saved man now. Read verses 10-19. With Ananias restoring Saul’s physical sight, Saul’s conversion thus made apparent, the saints in Damascus receive him. They recognize him as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, and no longer feel threatened.

Decades later, as the Apostle Paul, Saul writes Philippians chapter 3: “[3] For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. [4] Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more [and here is his worthless résumé, all his accomplishments]: [5] Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; [6] Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.” Saul learned a valuable lesson on the road to Damascus, for here comes the contrast….

“[7] But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. [8] Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung [manure!!], that I may win Christ, [9] And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: [10] That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death; [11] If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.”

If you think about, dear friend, there is much for us to learn from these verses too!

Worthless Papers #2

Thursday, March 2, 2023

“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1,2 KJV).

Behold, Saul possesses worthless papers!

It is not uncommon in this world to see people parading their “degrees,” whose specialty in one field (or, a few fields) of study has caused them to now be under the impression they can comment authoritatively on any and every topic. To be sure, Saul of Tarsus had rabbinical training, having sat under the most eminent teacher of Judaism of the day (see Acts 22:3 and Acts 5:34)—Gamaliel known to orthodox Jews even now. Saul assumed he knew all there was to know about religion. He was a master at it. He would have had the equivalent of a doctorate in theology, being proficient not only in Hebrew, but Greek, Latin, Aramaic, and perhaps other languages. Knowing the Hebrew Bible, he had also been familiarized with Greek philosophy.

Furthermore, Saul had received from the highest-ranking religious leaders of Israel the legal power to round up any believing Jews who had found refuge in Damascus. Carrying those warrants and leading a party of troops, he is just outside of the city when he meets the resurrected, ascended, and glorified Lord Jesus Christ! Whatever credentials Saul had, he realized they were useless at this point. Such worldly wisdom, such secular power, such religiosity, was worthless. “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?… I am Jesus whom thou persecutest…” (Acts 9:4,5). The God he thought he was worshipping was the very God he was upsetting!

“And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him to Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink” (verses 8,9). Once physically sighted but spiritually blind, he is now spiritually sighted but physically blind. His religious training is of no use to him now. Those warrants are unusable. There he is, vulnerable in Damascus, among the very people he had come to destroy….

Worthless Papers #1

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

“And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem” (Acts 9:1,2 KJV).

Behold, Saul possesses worthless papers!

Saul of Tarsus was a religious scholar, a rabbi or teacher in Judaism. He led Israel’s rebellion against the Lord Jesus Christ during the early Acts period. Let him tell you himself: “I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel [Jewish rabbi/teacher; see Acts 5:34], and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day. And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the estate of the elders: from whom also I received letters unto the brethren, and went to Damascus, to bring them which were there bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished” (Acts 22:3-5).

“I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange [foreign] cities. Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,…” (Acts 26:9-12).

Saul received from Israel’s governing body (Sanhedrin) letters of authority (warrants) to extradite (bring back) the Jewish saints who had fled Jerusalem and taken refuge in Damascus. Mighty Saul, with his extensive education and dreadful legal power, does not know it yet, but he is carrying worthless papers. He will soon be reduced to nothing….

Comatose! #6

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14 KJV).

“Wake up!,” screams the Holy Spirit to today’s comatose professing church!

Moses’ advice to Israel in Deuteronomy 4:5-8 was: “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments, even as the LORD my God commanded me, that ye should do so in the land whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the nations, which shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?” Unfortunately, Israel did not obey the Law of Moses, thereby misrepresenting the one true God in front of their Gentile neighbors (who scoffed at “God’s people”—see Romans 2:24, Ezekiel 36:23, and 2 Samuel 12:14).

Likewise, members of the Church the Body of Christ are thus urged to conduct themselves wisely, “that the word of God be not blasphemed” (Titus 2:5). “Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame” (1 Corinthians 15:33,34). The Christians at Corinth were spiritually asleep because they were fellowshipping too much with unbelievers, and had been negatively impacted.

Observe Romans 13:11-14: “And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering [sexual indulgence, lewdness, vulgarity] and wantonness [loose living, recklessness], not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”

Comatose! #5

Monday, February 27, 2023

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14 KJV).

“Wake up!,” screams the Holy Spirit to today’s comatose professing church!

In Matthew 13:25, “the enemy” labored “while men slept.” Verse 39 identifies this “enemy” as “the devil.” The sleeping, of course, is not physical but spiritual. When people are spiritually oblivious, napping in the spiritual realm, they become more susceptible to Satan’s will. A saint not walking in the light of God’s words to him or her will fall into the spiritual trap of functional death, the Christian life not functioning (see today’s Scripture). Also, any lost people refusing to believe God’s words to them—they are content in being lost—they too will be vulnerable to Satanic deception (remaining lost). The context of the verses in Matthew chapter 13 is the Little Flock receiving and believing the Gospel of the Kingdom, God’s work (genuine), and lost Israel refusing and disbelieving the Gospel of the Kingdom, Satan’s work (counterfeit).

Satan’s evil world system is still in force now, misleading lost and saved alike, following the patterns already laid out in Scripture. It had duped the Corinthian saints (spiritual immaturity, heresies and sects, fornication, abusing spiritual gifts, petty lawsuits, mockery of the Lord’s Supper, et cetera), the Galatian saints (legalism, denominationalism, works-religion), the Ephesian saints (various sins and silly deeds delineated in Ephesians 4:17–5:21), and so on. In the verses following today’s Scripture, we read: “[15] See then that ye walk circumspectly [looking around, carefully, alertly], not as fools, but as wise, [16] Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. [17] Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. [18] And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;….”

If there is no renewed mind, thinking like a mature grace saint (Romans 12:1,2), we will be “fools… unwise… [not] understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Since the vast majority of the professing church has never paid much attention to the warnings the Holy Spirit issued 2,000 years ago, there is no filling of the Holy Spirit, and therefore no real spiritual fruit and meaningful Christian influence on the world. Like with Israel of old, a spiritual coma incapacitates….

Comatose! #4

Sunday, February 26, 2023

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14 KJV).

“Wake up!,” screams the Holy Spirit to today’s comatose professing church!

In today’s Scripture, Paul evidently alluded to Isaiah 60:1, which is sinful, spiritually blind, spiritually-impotent Israel exhorted to pursue holy living because of Messiah’s coming: “Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.” You may also see verses 2 and 3 (Millennial Kingdom glory—cf. Matthew 5:14-16). Since Israel’s Messiah (Jesus) is our Head, the Head of the Church which is His Body, should we not likewise walk in God’s light instead of stumbling in Satan’s darkness?

As it was appropriately stated long ago, “We do not become sinless when we become Christians, but, when we become Christians, we should sin less.” Before we can fix a problem, dear friends, we have to identify it. After we discover what is wrong, only then can we proceed to making it right. If we want to improve our lives, we have to admit our shortcomings. Three passages of the Dispensation of Grace that will benefit us in pinpointing and correcting our carnal living, worldliness, and foolish thinking are Romans chapter 12, Ephesians chapter 4, and Colossians chapter 3.

If these three chapters were actually believed in the heart and applied to life on a daily basis, the Church the Body of Christ would have a far greater and more positive impact on the world than it has. We would hear much less about “hypocritical Christians,” “confused Christians,” “discouraged Christians,” “apostate Christians,” and “silly Christians.” There would be fewer dissolved Christian marriages, fewer broken Christian homes, fewer delinquent Christian youth, fewer split Christian churches, fewer secular Christian colleges. More lost people would notice and say, “I may not agree with Christians, but I cannot deny their sensible thoughts and decent lives.” More lost people would respond with, “I want to know more about Christianity and that ‘Jesus’ you serve.” Ultimately, there might just be a few less atheists, agnostics, freethinkers, Muslims, Buddhists, Satanists, and other pagans.

Today’s Christians need to wake up and heed the Lord’s words through the Apostle Paul, rising from their practical death, and enlightened with the brilliance of Christ’s very words….

Comatose! #3

Saturday, February 25, 2023

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14 KJV).

“Wake up!,” screams the Holy Spirit to today’s comatose professing church!

Never are we Christians called to be sinless in this life, for until “the day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30) or “the redemption of our [physical] body” (Romans 8:23), we will be in these fallen bodies of flesh that are biologically related to Adam. When we want to walk contrary to our identity in Jesus Christ, we will “Quench [hinder, extinguish]… the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19) and we will “grieve [sadden, pain, hurt]… the Spirit” (Ephesians 4:30). For a believer in Christ to sin is one thing, for him or her to sin in private is another, but for the Christian to flaunt sinful conduct in front of the eyes of the lost world is something else entirely!

When we have Christian pastors sharing obscene jokes in the pulpit or on social media (and I have seen and heard it), church members assembling and wearing vulgar attire during services (and I have seen and heard it), Christians engaged in public drunkenness (and I have seen and heard it), it should never surprise us when people snicker at the Bible and have no desire to hear anything about “Jesus.”

Christians have habitually complained about the evils in the world—but how many of them have shared the Gospel of Grace even once to rescue some poor unsaved soul from that same evil world system? Would they know enough of the Scriptures to teach so much as a children’s Sunday School class? Yet, they are the very individuals whining about “delinquent youth” and “ignorant young people!” They disparage the science professors who teach humanism in the name of “higher education,” but what sound Bible doctrine have these Christians taught their kids?

Instead of organizing concerts and potluck suppers, re-translating the Bible, scheming to raise money so as to fund denominational programs, preachers and teachers need to be laboring to impart doctrinal life to their practically dead church members and students. As the Lord Jesus stated, “…the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). Here is the key to recovering from a spiritual coma….

Comatose! #2

Friday, February 24, 2023

“Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Ephesians 5:14 KJV).

“Wake up!,” screams the Holy Spirit to today’s comatose professing church!

For a great many people, the summit of being a Christian means nothing more than criticizing any and every non-Christian and trying to make lost people behave like Christians. “Stop doing those evils, and start doing these religious works!” While sincere, they are sincerely wrong. It makes no sense to expect non-Christians to conduct themselves as though they were Christians. What is even more preposterous, but usually overlooked, is when Christians act like non-Christians.

When Christians are “too busy” for Bible study, and/or “not interested” in having fellowship with believers, and/or “unwilling” to separate from the world’s desires and activities, and/or “indifferent” to false teaching in their denomination, this is far greater sin in the eyes of the Lord than non-Christians having lifestyles that are to be expected of non-Christians. A sinner cannot help but sin; his or her very nature is sin. Yet, the saint has a choice: walk by faith in Christ, or walk in the flesh. God intends saints (a title meaning “set apart, sanctified”) to be set apart from the world, the flesh, and the Devil!

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1,2). It only makes sense for Christians to think and act like Christians—because that is precisely who they are. When Christians mimic the world, resembling non-Christians, they are spiritually comatose. Their Christian life is suspended. Alive in Christ positionally, they have decided practically to walk in the energy of the flesh—and their Christian life cannot and will not function. They are like the physical paralytic, sprawled out on a bed and totally helpless because they have decided not to have or apply the renewed mind.

Look at today’s Scripture. There are spiritual zombies in Ephesus, and they are all around us in our local churches….