I come back to the theme of wisdom. One issue Paul faced was those who gave an “outward appearance” of being spiritual, but their hearts were not true before God (2 Corinthians 5:11-12). He appealed to everyone’s conscience based on the love of Christ in His death for all (14), and with no false pretense.
“For our boast is this, the testimony of our conscience, that we behaved in the world with simplicity and godly sincerity, not by earthly wisdom but by the grace of God, and supremely so toward you” (1:12). There was never a hidden agenda with Paul. The gospel in all its purity was always his standard throughout all his ministry. It deeply saddens my heart when I hear of persons who have either money or popularity as their underlying aim. This is worldly wisdom, not godly sincerity. I plead with anyone in ministry to carefully examine every motive to make sure it is pure. If it is not, REPENT and return to first love for Christ (Revelation 2:4-5).
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I am interrupting my series on wisdom to update you on what is happening this week in Nicaragua. Jonathan and Pastor Tim are there and finding disciples with hearts like ‘sponges.’ Here is Jonathan’s comment after just one day: “It's been a full time since we landed yesterday. We had about 60 students in training today and over half had already finished GPHD (God Plan for His Disciples) and were ready to move on to GPHC (God Plan for His Church). We spent the morning in review of “How to Study the Bible” and then this afternoon gave out GPHC. I wish I had a picture of one woman who clung to GPHC against her chest treasuring it... We are excited about what's going on down here and the time that I'm spending with Tim. We are seeing 2 Timothy 2:2 in action; “and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also” (2 Timothy 2:2). May the Lord multiply this faithfulness in many places around the world! Jesus closed His Sermon on the Mount with an illustration comparing a wise man and a foolish man. ““Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:24–25). Acquiring wisdom begins with a teachable spirit. When we are teachable, we are willing to listen to instruction. Though the crowd was surrounding Jesus and hearing Him, He was mainly speaking to the disciples and challenging them to hear what He was teaching. They would need to learn these lessons for the time when He was gone. As at many other times, Jesus used parables or illustrations to get the teaching point across. In this parable, Jesus compares someone who listens to His words to a wise man and then puts into practice what he heard. This kind of man is like someone who built “his house on the rock.” In other words, hearing truth and applying the truth personally builds a spiritual foundation that will stand, especially during times of testing. James also likens this to looking in a mirror to examining whether what we hear is changing the way we live (James 1:22-25). If you remember my blogs on maturity, this is the same process that leads us to maturity. If we listen to the Word of God (OBSERVE and MEDITATE) and then directly apply it to ourselves, we will stand firm in faith and mature to become more like Christ. As I was thinking about the value of God’s Word, the Scripture, my mind took me back to Psalm 19 where David says, “the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (19:7). There is nothing wrong with education, but we must remember that knowledge and wisdom from God are two very different ideas. Gaining knowledge can be done in many places and many ways, but acquiring wisdom can only come from an intimate and personal relationship with God.
In Job’s struggle to find wisdom in his circumstances it drove him to ask where wisdom came from; “From where, then, does wisdom come? And where is the place of understanding? And He [God] said to man, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding” (Job 28:20, 28). That second phrase is repeated in Proverbs 1:7. To David’s point, even the simple can gain wisdom if they love and cherish the Word of God. In the next few days, I am going to explore the qualities of wisdom and why it is so important that we develop a close relationship with God so we gain wisdom. Solomon said to his son, “Get wisdom; get insight…the beginning of wisdom is this; Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight” (Proverbs 4:5, 7). Life can only be lived for the Lord if we get wisdom from Him every day. Wisdom is taking knowledge and applying truth that comes from God to the knowledge in the circumstances and habits of my life. That title no doubt brings up images of parents correcting you when you were young, or when you had children and their behavior required that you correct them. That is not what I am referring to. As David is writing his thoughts on what the Word of God means to him, he adds; “by them is your servant warned” (Psalm 19:11). This is in line with Paul’s words to Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). If you never feel the personal correction of God through His Word, then you are reading it on a very superficial level and not seeking or allowing the Holy Spirit to bring His conviction as you read the Scriptures. Jeremiah felt the correcting reproof of God speaking to him; “Is not My Word like fire, declares the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” (23:29). We should be thankful when God speaks through His Word and makes us feel the consuming fire on what is not suitable in His presence and in our lives. This convicting process may require His hammer to break up our hardness of heart so the water of the Spirit can soften the soil of our hearts and transform us. Our greatest spiritual growth usually comes when we accept the Father’s correction. It is never pleasant, but “yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:11). I trust you are learning from the Father’s correction! We often hear or read about revivals in history that came and went. These accounts are usually given with an urge for us to pray for revival, and we should. But I want to give you another path to revival that has been in the Bible for hundreds of years. We are actually watching this kind of revival take place in many places around the world, and it is gathering momentum, yet it is unseen by most of the Church.
What am I referring to? As this ministry begins our training by introducing God’s Plan for His Disciples, we start Lesson 1 with the “Disciples’ Authority and Sufficiency – The Authority and Sufficiency of the Word.” It is common for students to say, “I am seeing things I never saw before” or “this is making me want to study the Bible more.” One of the first verses they look at in Lesson 1 is Psalm 19:7-14. In verse 7, David says, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.” True revival begins when the Word of God is recognized to have authority over my mind, heart and life. Instead of just being words on a printed page, the Word imparts life through the Holy Spirit and what was dead (unfruitful to God) comes to life “through the living and abiding Word of God” (1 Peter 1:23). As David proved in his life, so we can prove that revival will happen in us when we RETURN to the Scriptures and allow them to impart life. Revival will come and stay as long as God’s Word remains in us (John 15:7). “So, Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples” (John 8:31). Are you REALLY His disciple? When the word “freedom” is often used, it is usually in the context of a political or religious meaning. Rarely do we hear people speak about moral freedom that comes from God alone. The idea of “freedom” originated with God. It was right after He created man that God gave Adam freedom and the command; “you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat” (Genesis 2:16-17). God never intervened in Adam’s daily life to control what he did, but left choices up to him. This freedom to choose was not without consequences; either “freedom” in fellowship with God or death separated from God. Joshua, a leader in Israel whom God selected to lead Israel into the Promised Land, knew the importance of making right choices so he could enjoy “freedom.” When the people chose idolatry over a personal relationship with God, Joshua “would not depart from the tent” where the presence of God was (Numbers 33:11). At the end of Joshua’s life, he challenged the people; “And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15). He had already made a choice for himself and for his family. True freedom is not controlled by outward circumstances, but by the inner state of soul and its relationship with God. Those who are in Christ should know more than anyone what freedom is. When I see disciples eager to learn from Scripture and hear of believers being taught the Word of God, there is one verse that often comes to mind from John’s third letter; “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth” (3 John 4). The picture below is one of these situations. These are students in Yangon, Myanmar who have just worked through God’s Plan for His Disciples and are moving on to study God’s Plan for His Church.
When they finish this intense four-week course, they will be equipped to go out to spread the gospel to those who have never heard, disciple new and existing believers, and plant churches. Would you be willing to start a movement like this where you live? Verse 15 and 16 of Ephesians 4 is packed with powerful principles about speaking the truth in love. The very idea of speaking truth in a way that communicates love is often difficult. Paul says that this is the way we overcome being childish and allowing deceitful ideas to influence our lives.
“Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:15–16). Let’s look at Paul’s points separately. 1. “Speaking the truth in love” promotes spiritual growth so we become more like Christ our Head. It affects every part of our lives. 2. “Speaking the truth in love” is not just for our personal growth, but it will affect the whole Church. Since we are members of each other (1 Corinthians 12:12-20), how we mature has a direct effect on the whole body, because we are held together by the connections God has given us in the Spirit. That is the purpose of the gifts He has given. 3. “Speaking the truth in love” is an indication that we are willing to work together with love for the truth and love for each other. 1 Corinthians 13 pinpoints characteristics of love that must be used when speaking truth. Promoting self and personal interests must never be a motive. This is the means God uses to build up the Church. If this principle were working in every church, the growth would be staggering! It also means that we would stop talking about others as gossip. Our concerns would center around truth, not personal gain or favoritism and partiality (read James 2:1-13). Often, we fail to see the dangers of not doing something until we travel down the road of being childish and then we regret the time we have wasted. Paul is even more specific than that about what happens when we fail to mature in Christ and godly character.
“So that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (Ephesians 4:14). The idea that Paul is referring to when he used the term “children” is someone who is “small or a helpless infant” who is unable to defend themselves or make decisions on their own. To be “tossed to and fro by the waves” means that the person is helpless to defend themselves against forces that will carry them in the wrong direction. We have lost many on our coast because people swim into “rip tides” that are too strong for them. This helps explain why some people make wrong decisions or choices that cause us sorrow. They have not matured to the point that they can stand firm in the truth (1 Corinthians 16:13; Galatians 5:1; Ephesians 6:11, 14; Philippians 4:1). Believers who are childish and immature are much more susceptible to false doctrine that is often presented through “human trickery, cleverness and craft.” False teachers and those who intentionally oppose the work of God devise schemes with the intent to mislead hearers. This seems like a harsh way of speaking to those in the body of Christ, but it is necessary. If we love (and I do) each person in the Church, it is my responsibility to warn them, promote spiritual growth and maturity. This one principle is what prevents damage through immaturity. |
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