Today marks the end of the first month of the New Year. I’ve heard folks say that life speeds up as we grow older. Is it possible that life isn’t truly speeding up but that we’re slowing down? Truth hurts, doesn’t it? As I’m sure you’ve heard, this year’s theme is: ENGAGE. Joel and I will be sharing messages this month on engaging in things worth fighting for in your life. So, what are some things in your life worth fighting for? I’ll mention some of mine here. First and foremost I believe the relationships I’ve formed in life are worth fighting for; my relationship with God, my wife, my sons and daughter-in-loves, my parents, my mother-in-law, my siblings, relatives, my church family, close friends, etc. All these relationships are worth fighting for! Yet another thing worth fighting for is the salvation provided to me through Christ Jesus. The only one who can jeopardize that is ME. Yet another thing I see worth fighting for is the nation in which I live. The freedoms we enjoy in this country are NOT free. Men and woman throughout history have paid dearly for the opportunity we have today to live in peace. Isn’t it strange how as we grow older some of the things we thought so important at a younger age now seem rather insignificant? Because February is upon us and we’ll be celebrating Valentine’s Day on the 14th with a covered dish get together. I also wanted to mention that we will be showing a movie in the auditorium titled: War Room. I’m not sure how many of you have seen the movie, but it’s a keeper. It shares the importance of prayer, the value of relationships and the sanctity of marriage. I really hope you’ll be able to join us! Tentative date for the movie will be Saturday, the 13th. Depending on how many are able to come, we might be able to show it again on another Saturday. As we begin this new month, prayerfully ask yourself: what (in my life) is truly worth fighting for? Make a list, if need be, and lift those things up to God. After all, the battle really doesn’t belong to us, it belongs to Him!
Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you! Kevin Discussions have ensued throughout the course of history discussing whether or not the bible is truly the Word of God. Historians have examined it, archeologists have tested it, scholars have debated it and evangelists have proclaimed it. Dictators have tried to extinguish it, Racists have tried to circumvent it, naysayers have attempted to belittle it, and yet it remains the most widely accepted best seller in the history of mankind. The first question I would be tempted to ask is this: why does the bible undergo such incredible scrutiny? Why is it examined so thoroughly? Why do some work so diligently to extinguish its presence from humanity?
There are two obvious reason for the last few questions I’ve raised. I believe the greatest reason God’s Word receives such incredible scrutiny is because it contains the very words we’ve been called to live by. One might reason: If I dismiss the truth it contains, I’ll not be held accountable for it, and hence, God cannot condemn me to hell because of my ignorance concerning its truth. Such a feeble argument cannot excuse behavior to ignore infallible truth! Acts 17:30 reminds us that at one time God winked at such ignorance, but now commands all men everywhere to repent of such foolishness. A second reason why the bible receives such incredible scrutiny is because Satan is still very much alive. His greatest quest is to destroy as many souls as he can. Read the 12th chapter of Revelation. He’s been jaded. He’s angry because he lost the war of supremacy to Christ Jesus. As powerful as he is, he will never be as powerful as our God. How can you be sure the bible is God’s Word? You can be sure by living as if your life depends on it, because it does. Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you! Kevin I’ve heard different discussions on whether or not it’s okay to pray, ‘if it be your will, Lord.’ Those discussions stem from the belief of praying with confidence, boldness and faith according to God’s divine will (the Bible). This concept is based on what John says in 1 John 5: 14‐15: “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” Some have thought that we shouldn’t say, “If it be your will” when we pray. While we should constantly be reading God’s Word to know and understand God’s will better, it’s not possible that we completely know and understand the will of God thoroughly. Any which way we slice it, prayer is still a human exercise. In many instances, God’s will is clearly revealed to us. The more we know scripture, the more we can be sure of God’s will when we pray. At the same time, we won’t always completely know God’s will, his infinite thoughts, ways, plans and purposes. Because God’s ways are higher than our ways, his ultimate will can’t always be understood by our finite, limited minds. So, when we’re unsure of God’s will, there is nothing wrong with praying, “If it be your will, Lord.” There are certain things, however, that we know for sure because we read about it in His Word! Regardless as to how we do it, prayer isn’t about phrasing everything perfectly or using the correct formula in the exact right way. Prayer is about deepening our relationship with the One who loves us with a love that defies human comprehension. Prayer is about communicating with God from our hearts in an honest, loving relationship. Because our hearts can (from time to time) lead us in the wrong way, it’s best to pray to God through His Word which is always true, always unbiased and always dependable. Prayer is one of the most blessed gifts we could ever hope to receive from our Heavenly Father. Celebrate that gift by doing it often, in thankfulness and in reverence. If Jesus prayed, “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done”, why can’t we?
Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you! Kevin One morning this past week before entering into my devotional time, I opened my morning ‘newspaper’ to see what was going on in the lives of folks I care about. Facebook seems to be the ‘middle‐aged’ folks’ newspaper…at least it’s quickly become mine. I immediately saw three people dear to me requesting prayers for God to help them through a difficulty they were facing that day. It’s troubling to see people we love go through difficult times, isn’t it? I quickly came to an assumption. If these people didn’t think prayer worked, why would they send out a public request asking for folks to lift their name up to God? A second thought crossed my mind…has there ever been a time I’ve seen someone request prayers and I told them I’d be praying for them, but never did? I believe we need to be very cautious when telling others we’re praying for them. Anyone who requests prayers and is told they’re receiving them are anticipating answers from God. If we’ve said we’re praying, but we really aren’t, God isn’t being asked to intervene, heavenly power isn’t received and the one making the request may believe they’ve received their answer, when in actuality they haven’t. By far one of the most precious gifts we have is the gift of prayer. I’ll not pretend to understand all the complexities associated with prayer being asked or answered, but I really like what Charles Stanley said one time in a devotion I read. He said when we beseech God, He doesn’t readily respond with, “No”. In some instances He’ll say, “Yes”. If He so chooses not to say “Yes”, He’ll say, “Not yet”. If these first two options don’t appeal to Him, He’ll end up saying, “I’ve got something better for you.” I really like Charles’ take on prayer! Does prayer really change things? Absolutely! If it didn’t, why would we take the time to do it?
Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you! Kevin Sometimes we’re tempted to say, “I really want to follow Jesus, but I’m just not feeling it right now.” To make such an important decision one mustn’t use feelings as a master to follow, one must use decision. We decide to follow Jesus; not because of confidence in ourselves but because of our confidence in Jesus. In Psalm 132: 35, David made a decision. He couldn’t see himself doing anything without first making God the center of his life: “I will not enter my house or get into my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” Discipleship of this magnitude calls for obedience. I’ve heard folks exclaim: “The bible is just too difficult to understand.” For the disobedient, the bible isn’t simply too difficult to understand, it’s practically impossible to understand because the unbeliever knows that to take God at His word is to relinquish control over his/her own life. Cheap grace says, “God has forgiven me so I can live any which way I choose.” Grace that comes from the sacrifice God made to the world through His Son reminds me that as beautiful as this life can be, nothing is more important than my relationship to Jesus Christ. Grace is free, but it’s anything but cheap.
Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you! Kevin All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the LORD blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:68 It was with shock and sadness that I received two calls last week about the passing of both Jerry Kerns & Joann Matheny. Jerry was a person I considered a close friend. We chatted over a variety of issues more than once. Jo was one of the sweetest ladies I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing. There are certain people one looks forward to visiting because of how you feel once you leave their presence. Jo was one of those people. Although my schedule allowed me to officiate Jerry’s service, it saddened me that I was unable to preside over Jo’s funeral. The passing of these two people brings to mind an inevitable truth: not one of us will get out of this world alive! Death comes to us all: young, old, middle‐aged; everyone… it stands to reason, then, that we should want to do everything in our power to make sure our standing with our God is what it ought to be. Although Jerry “knew the score”, I don’t imagine Jo woke up last week and thought, “well, today I’ll go be with the Lord.” Her passing was a shock; not only to Lynn & Elsie but to each one of us who received word that she was gone. The writer of Hebrew reminds us that it’s appointed unto man to die and after that comes the Judgment. All of us need to be reminded from time to time of the inevitability of death. It comes to us all. Are you ready to meet your Lord face to face should He come today? Would you stand before Him in confidence if (for some unknown reason) you died tonight? The relationship we share with our God is one we should never neglect. If things aren’t right with Him, make them right: TODAY!
Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you! Kevin One of the greatest struggles of a Christian is to maintain joy. Life has a way of drawing us into its mold. When this happens, we become deflated and disillusioned. This is one of the greatest tragedies of Christianity! We NEED to experience the joy of our Lord on a regular basis, but how do we do it? And once we’ve done it, how do we maintain that joy? Scripture contains numerous gems. For instance, we sometimes are tempted to limit the Psalms to chapters we reference in times of grief to receive a spiritual “pick‐me‐up”. And while it’s true the Psalms can provide a salve for the weary, we dare not lose the richness of their beauty! Try looking at the Songs of Ascents sung by the Israelites as an experience they enjoyed as opposed to our usual approach of a scholarly point of view. We can divide these fifteen psalms into five "stages" of three psalms each. Psalms 120‐122 are the first stage, the stage of "vision." The second stage, Psalms 123‐125, focuses on our consecration. Out of our vision we come to a consecration. The third stage, Psalms 126‐128, is the stage of enjoyment. Our consecration leads to a rich enjoyment of the Lord. The fourth stage, Psalms 129‐131, we will call the stage of enlargement. Our enjoyment of the Lord eventually causes our vision to expand. Then from our experience of enlargement we enter the final stage, the stage of maturity (Psalms 132‐134). If we were to approach these songs as the Israelites did, we would appreciate a general ascending of the songs pitch as well as a deeper connection with God. We should never go so far as to think that in the stage of enjoyment our consecration can now take a break so we can love the world and love the Lord together. Remind yourself that whenever our consecration is gone, then our enjoyment of the Lord is also gone! If we want to enjoy the Triune God then we must be a consecrated person all the time. The moment we are away from consecration we are also out of the enjoyment. Just as the Israelites progressed upward as each stage was sung, so too did this symbolize their spiritual growth. Think of it like this: our ability to comprehend these messages is based on our level of experience. Some of these messages may be beyond our grasp. If we appreciate the first message the most, that probably means we are recently saved. If we enjoy the second message the most, that means we have gone farther in our growth. If we get lost by the fifth message, that means we still have a long way to go. The more we understand a message, the more we know we have experienced it. Our experience will determine our ability to understand. Isn’t the Bible an awesome teacher? Aren’t its precepts true, reliable, exciting and relevant yet today?
Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you! Kevin As one who enjoys praising God through song, it was somewhat of an enigma (at least to me) as to why we have a hymn in our books titled “We bring the sacrifice of praise”. (For those interested in checking it out, it’s number fifty four). It really didn’t make much sense to consider praise toward God as being a sacrifice. But after looking a little deeper into it, I wanted to share a couple of observations with you as to what I’ve learned. In the first place, the implication shows that this praise is a continual praise, which means we’re called to praise God at ALL times; in good times, bad times and in‐between times. It’s not much of a sacrifice to praise God when things are good, but let your life start unraveling at the seams and see how easy it is then! Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 4: 6f, “Do not be anxious about ANYTHING, but in EVERY situation, (notice this…) by PRAYER and PETITION, with THANKSGIVING, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends ALL understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Thanksgiving involves praise!! Those things we allow ourselves to become anxious about seem to vaporize when we turn our attention to praising God through thanksgiving. So, the next time you work at justifying in your minds a reason to gripe or complain, pause long enough to pray and ask God to put a song in your heart. Once He presents you with a song, let it out!!! Sing that song back to your heavenly Father in thanksgiving for what He’s about to do for you. The more we praise, the less we complain and the easier our sacrifice of praise becomes much less of a sacrifice!
Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you! Kevin When a person accepts Jesus as their Savior by taking Him on in baptism something incredible happens. It’s true that our sins are remitted, but there’s also a tremendous gift we receive. His name is Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a person. He is not like smoke, fog, or a cloud, or any other false idea that people have of Him. He is the Third Person of the Godhead. He is one who has the capacities of emotion; therefore, He feels deeply for you. He is a person with the divine power of will; therefore, He can choose to do wonderful things for you when you obey the commands of scripture. It’s not that He brings a different message than what Jesus did. He has come to continue sharing with us everything we’ve been taught by our Savior. Listen to what John has to say in John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.” It ought to bring us tremendous comfort to know that our Heavenly Father cares about us enough to make sure part of Him lives permanently inside of us. But, we also must be aware of the truth that if we’ve never made Jesus the Lord of our lives we receive little to no help from what the Spirit can offer us! As you address God, thank Him for the gift living inside you. Thank Him for the gentle tugs on your conscience. Thank Him for always being there even in times of doubt, grief and mistrust. Salvation is special, but it wouldn’t be complete without the aid of God’s Spirit!
Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you! Kevin At times it’s tempting to read stories of tremendous faith being exhibited by our early brothers and sisters and think, “they must have possessed faith I could never possess!” We also might think that because Jesus walked among them that they had a leg up on us. Both of these theories, according to scripture, are in error. Jesus reminded his disciples that it was to their advantage that he go away. As a matter of fact he reminded them that the Holy Spirit couldn’t come unless he departed. We must be reminded that the same Spirit that empowered them to remain faithful is the very same Spirit who lives in us. In the 4th chapter of Acts, there’s a nugget of truth tucked away in v. 21. Whenever we find ourselves discouraged, disenchanted or disheartened we MUST lift our voice and praise the Lord. The key to combatting discouragement is only found in praise! After the people saw the boldness of the early Christians, they realized they had been with Jesus. V. 14 tells us that they had nothing to say against that truth. They decided to severely threaten them so that they would no longer speak the name of Jesus freely. In v. 19 the disciples reminded them that they would listen to God instead of the people. The result? They kept on speaking, kept on proclaiming Christ and kept on receiving persecution. But, I want you to notice something else that happened…THEY WERE UNITED IN PURPOSE. V. 33 says they had “great power” and “great grace”. V.34 says they took care of each other which led to other Christians being spurred on to action (37). I don’t seek persecution for the church, but I do seek purpose, unity and boldness. How is that accomplished? By #1 making a determination to listen to God instead of men. #2: by continually speaking the name of Jesus Christ to those around us, and #3: by glorifying and praising God even if ours in an unpopular message.
Have a blessed day and remember the One who gave it to you! Kevin |
Kevin's KolumnKevin Lough is the minister at the Whitehall Church of Christ in Fairmont WV. Archives
September 2019
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