It's A Trap

Proverbs 26:27  Whoso diggeth a pit shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will return upon him.

Every time I read this verse, I think about Disney's Swiss Family Robinson. It's not very spiritual, I know, but it's the truth. When the family learns of an imminent attack by pirates, they make various traps to defend their home, including digging deadfall traps (with a tiger thrown in for good measure). They  fortified themselves atop the mountain and made log falls to roll down if the enemy was foolish enough to climb up for them. But what if it wasn't a Disney movie, and the bad guys are the ones making traps? That's the image we have in our proverb.

The bad guy in the scene really wants to hurt his enemy, and he's going to go through a lot of trouble to set the trap. It takes a lot of work to dig a pit. Naturally, after I watched the Swiss Family Robinson, I wanted to dig a pit and try it out, like most boys probably did. But it takes a lot of  time and effort to dig a  deep pit and I always gave up. And to roll a stone up a hill? You would really have to hate someone to go through all the trouble to destroy them. One wonders what the payoff was for the man in the proverb? Most of the  time, the effort we put into vengeance is far more costly than the original offense.

Think about the effort pushing that rock up the mountain. Covered in sweat, muscles straining, gasping for air, pushing that rock up the hill –  all for vengeance and to hurt and kill. Every inch of ground takes all his strength to keep pushing and also to keep it from falling. It is up the mountain a pretty good way, but not far enough. It needs to be high up to cause maximum damager, because he cannot allow them to get away with that offense, or that slight. Suddenly, the stone is caught and it won’t go any further.  Hard as he tried, it won't budge, but he also can’t let go of the stone, he'll get run over. The stone of vengeance is caught by the rock of divine justice. He's worked himself into his own trap. Your sin will find you out and now there is no place else for the rock to go but down and to destroy whatever is in its path, starting with the one who worked so hard to get the stone up the hill.

God said vengeance is His – He'll take care of evildoers. You want vengeance because you are proud and don't like it when someone sins against you. Do you think God likes it? Stop trying to do God's job, because He's much better at it than you. You'll just end up mumbling to yourself in the bottom of a pit, or getting flattened by a rolling stone.

The Pastor's Wife

A Detailed and Exhaustive Exposition of the Biblically Prescribed Duties of the Office of the Pastor's Wife

by 

Doug Newell

1.

The End

He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

The Gospel of God

Romans 1:1-2  Paul… separated unto the gospel of God, (Which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,).

Paul's life calling was to preach the gospel of God. It's a common misconception that people in the Old Testament were saved by works and in the New, saved by Grace. No doubt, there are two covenants (that's the whole reason it's called the Old Testament and the New Testament), but that doesn't mean that God changed his mind about the way people are saved.

In the Old Testament, the people of God offered sacrifices after the pattern of the Heavenly. The sacrifices pictured the way God would redeem His people. Moses was saved by grace, through faith, like all other of the saints of God. The Old Testament sacrifices, ceremonies, prophesies, and poetry, pointed God's people to the future Messiah. God promised to save his people from the very start. When man fell in the Garden, God cursed man, women, the earth, and the serpent. In the judgment of the serpent, in Genesis 3:15, God said, "And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." This is a promise. God promised that through the seed of the woman, a man would come to crush the serpent. The Devil will be defeated. All things will be made right by this man. This is the first gospel. The first "good news" and who preached it? God.

Listen to Christ Jesus Himself. After his resurrection, on the road to Emmaus, Jesus met with some disciples and began to preach to them. In the gospel of Luke 24:26-27;44, it says, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." Then later he said, "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me." Jesus started in the Old Testament, and opened up the Scriptures, from every book, and taught and expounded how Christ suffered and entered into His glory. The Old Testament is about Jesus. The Old Testament preaches God's gospel.

Do you read your Bible like Jesus? Do you see God's gospel in the Old Testament? Do you take the light of the New Testament and see the glory of Jesus Christ and his gospel in the Old? Yes, Paul gets very deep, and very specific in His teaching in the epistles. It's not a different gospel, it's a deeper examination of the gospel of God. It's always been there, we just have more light. Paul gets very deep,  in the epistles, but it's not a different gospel, it's a deeper examination of the gospel of God.

Hi, I'm Paul

Hi, I'm Paul

The Apostle Paul is one of the great men in history. The Christian men and women we often admire in history and look up to as being great, were people hated in their own time, and lived not for their glory, by for God’s. Paul's humility and service to Christ is exemplified in the way he introduces himself in the book of Romans, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God."

Paul introduced himself first as a servant of Jesus Christ. Ethnically, Paul was a Hebrew and nationally, a Roman citizen. Paul enjoyed all benefits and privileges of Roman citizenship and appreciated and used those privileges, recognizing  God's blessing. But he didn’t identify himself here with his family heritage or his nationality. Paul didn’t deny who he was, and was not ashamed of his family or lineage, but that is not the most important thing about him. Paul was a servant of Jesus Christ. Paul did what his master wanted him to do. He thought the way his master wanted him to think. He lived in a way that pleased not himself, but his master, Jesus Christ. And he loved it.

You'll also notice Paul was not a servant of the church. He never identified himself a servant of other men, but a servant of Christ, unto the church. The church did not give him the office of apostle. Paul didn’t earn this position making his way up the ranks, but rather, Jesus called Paul to be an apostle. Paul continually had men trying to deny his apostolic authority (his authority is still challenged and attacked today by liberals and unbelievers). Paul went from persecutor of the people of God to the Lord’s chosen vessel to spread the good news of Jesus Christ and he says he was separated or set apart for that good work. The whole mission of Paul’s life was to make Jesus Christ known. It is good to point out that being separated unto the gospel does not limit one to preaching only a gospel message. Consider the book of Romans. Paul preaches about sin, about justification by faith, the relationship between the believer and the law, election, predestination, the end times, Israel, the church, how to live under the rule of a government and much more. A truly “gospel-centered” church must not only preach the gospel, but also doctrine, law, and applications of the gospel. If a church neglects teaching on all the truths of scripture they are not Christ centered.

Paul sometimes called the gospel he preached, “his gospel”. Here, he calls it the gospel of God. The good news didn’t come from the mind of Paul, which is another way liberals attack the apostle. The good news is God’s message of salvation through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. God's gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. Believe God's message – "The just shall live by faith," (Rom 1:16-17).

The Amen

"[Jesus]was also “the Amen” in all His teachings. We have already remarked that He constantly commenced with “Verily, verily.” The Pharisees in their teachings began with insinuating doubts, beclouding the mind with mystifications, and raising needless difficulties. It was considered to be the right thing for a philosopher never to teach dogmatically, but Christ never spoke in any other way. You find Him beginning, “Verily, verily, I say unto you.” Christ, as teacher does not appeal to tradition, or even to reasoning, but gives Himself as His authority. He quotes indeed the authority of “It is written,” and speaks of the things which He had seen and heard of His Father, but this He states upon the authority of His own oneness with the Father. He comes clad with divine authority, and He does not deign to dispute or to argue, but He claims for His words that they are Amen. We have accepted His teachings I hope in that same spirit. I do not open the evangelists to find Christ’s words to cavil over them. I do not turn to the epistles to criticize the teachings of my Lord, nor to raise difficult questions wherewith to wrangle with the great Teacher. The position of a Christian is at his Master’s feet, not disputing but receiving; not questioning, but believing; and in this sense Christ claims, as a prophet and teacher to be “the Amen.”

Charles Spurgeon, The Amen

An Essay on Anger by John Fawcett

I'm working my way through a little treatise "An Essay on Anger" by John Fawcett. One profundity after the other, to where it would almost easier to mark the passages that are not striking.

OK, perhaps I overstated the case a tad, but it is really good. If you have a Google account, you can read it for free by clicking right HERE.

Otherwise, you could sample these quotes. Chew them up and ruminate on their truth.

"It is pride that makes men passionate. They cannot bear the least slight, or that which hath the appearance of it, because they think themselves of so much importance."

"A weak mind is easily kindled into resentment."

"Let us learn to expect injuries and affronts, that we may not be surprised when they occur. — We do not live among angels, nor among men free from perverseness, and unspotted with impurity : we dwell among a people of irregular tempers and unclean lips. If we would have no provocations, we must needs go out of the world."

"The mettle of a young and vigorous steed is not only harmless, but serviceable, when under due regulation. Much the same may be said of anger in the mind of man. When meekness is the bridle that restrains it, and wisdom the hand that guides it, we are safe ; but if it be not under proper government, it breaks through all decorum, grows headstrong and outrageous, and threatens mischief to our selves or those about us. So the unmanage able horse tramples on those who stand in his way, and perhaps throws the rider headlong on the ground : it should be restrained, there fore, with bit and bridle. We are not to submit to anger as to our master, but to govern it as our servant. It should never appear but on proper occasions, nor then but under the strictest guard. We should never suffer it to carry us beyond the bounds of decency. our resentment should never be either deep or lasting."

Life

Lazarus has been dead for four days. His cold, dead, body is laid in a tomb. His family, especially his sisters, are heartbroken at the loss of their dear brother. He's gone. Death is a separation. It's a very unnatural thing that happens. It's seems like the most natural thing. But in the beginning, it was not so. When sin entered the world, death followed. It's most natural for the body, soul, and spirit to be united. But because of sin, death separates the body and soul.

Death also separates the living from the dead. Mary and Martha were upset because there brother was gone. It's a separation of loved ones, a separation of family relations. It feels like a hole is left in your life because of the absence. Life will never be the same since that person is gone. After my Mother passed away, for almost a year, I would grab my phone to send a text, a picture, or to call her about something and then it hit me afresh, she was gone.

Martha rebuked the Lord for not showing up in time to save Lazarus. Jesus responds by telling her Lazarus will rise. She agreed, but the hope of the resurrection and eternal life was no comfort because she knew the truth, but didn't rest in the truth. Then, in John 11:25-26, Jesus said, " I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die."  Eternal life. Death doesn't end eternal life. Eternal life begins when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and are united to Christ by faith. Knowing God through Jesus Christ is eternal life. Death isn't the end of life because those who believe in Christ, even though the body dies, the soul lives. Better still, the body will be raised and reunited with the soul. Whosever believe in Christ shall never die.

When they arrive at the tomb, and Jesus says to roll away the stone door of the tomb, Martha reminds Jesus that it's too late. His body has already been dead so long, it stinks with corruption and decay.  But when Jesus calls for Lazarus, he came out of the grave. Jesus is the resurrection. Jesus is life. Lazarus' soul was reunited with his body and he lived.

Death is the great separator, but the sting of death has been taken away by the life of Christ. Jesus Christ defeated death, when He died and rose again.  Death separates, but what a glorious truth in the gospel, that the soul goes on to be with Jesus and the body of death will be raised and glorified. For the Christian, the separation of a child of God is only temporary. One day, at the resurrection, body and soul will be reunited. Loved ones will be reunited. The family of God will be gathered, and never again experience the pain of death.

Great and Precious Promises

Do you have peace in your life? Do you know God? In Christ, there is peace that passes all understanding, but for the child of God, there is a multiplication of grace and peace through the knowledge of God (II Peter 1:1-4). The more you know God the more peace you’ll experience. You cannot get "more saved" or "more forgiven" but you can experience more of God's peace and reap more benefits of God's grace in your own soul. Knowing more about God gives us more peace. That's a motivator to get after it and read your Bible. You don’t need anything else. No matter what hobby you have, there is likely a whole industry designed to cater to all the “needs” that come along with it. I heard one astute gentleman recently say, “Half the fun of fly-fishing is buying and using all the gear.” Fishing is one of those hobbies that it can get as expensive as you want it to get. Makes me embarrassed catching fish as a boy with my Zebco 33, I obviously didn’t know at the time I should have been using the latest $500 carbon fiber rod. God has given us “all things that pertain until life and godliness, through the knowledge of him,” so you are equipped, child of God, with all you need.

The more you know of God, the more confidence and assurance you’ll have in your salvation. When you leave behind your natural feelings about religion, and understand true sovereign grace, then will you experience more peace. We are given “exceeding great and precious promises” in so many aspects of our lives, not the least the promises of salvation. The more you know God’s character and the more you understand his promises to you, the more joy and peace you’ll have when this life isn’t going like we want it to, or when we sin and fail in the midst of temptation.

These promises are not for the saints of old only, but for all God’s people. Peter was an apostle, but he wrote Second Peter to those who have “obtained like precious faith” and are saved by and have the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ our Saviour. Are you saved? Then you have the same promises Peter had. You have the same Lord, the same Saviour, the same covenant, the same promises, and the same assurance. Though we live in a fallen, sin-cursed world, we have escaped the corruption that is in the world and by God’s grace, will be parkers of the divine nature. One day, we’ll stand on golden streets, breathe the air of the New Earth, always and forever in the peace of eternal life. Oh, what great promises we have! Christian, do you look for the promises in the Bible? They are yours! Read them, think about them, and believe them. If you want to be fruitful in this life, know what God has promised you and live in joyful confident assurance.