Mincing the Word

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
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SCRIPTURE:

One final word of counsel, friends. Keep a sharp eye out for those who take bits and pieces of the teaching that you learned and then use them to make trouble. Give these people a wide berth. They have no intention of living for our Master Christ. They're only in this for what they can get out of it, and aren't above using pious sweet talk to dupe unsuspecting innocents. Romans 16:17-18 [MSG]

OBSERVATION: God has presented us with His inspired Word in sixty-six books.

APPLICATION:

Written by God through those He selected to pen the Word, The Bible is a guide to the life God wants us to live. It is the owner's manual meant to accompany us through this earthly walk we call life. But just as any work can be quoted, paraphrased, snipped, altered, and used in ways that were never intended for purposes that have never been approved, The Bible has been, can be, and will probably always be misused by those who find justification for their selfish pursuits within a verse or two of it's pages.

It's an easy thing to pull out one verse and say that it is permission from God to do something that the full context makes clear was never what God intended. As our world rockets toward increased depravity and immorality, we will surely see the Word of God misused in ways we could never have imagined. Keep a sharp eye out and don't fall victim to those who would fictionalize the Word to meet their needs. They're only in this for what they can get out of it.

PRAYER:

Father, open my eyes to the ways of the world around me. Help me to see through the smoke and mirrors of those who would inappropriately invoke Your Name for their own sinful causes. Use me as a beacon, Lord, to share the Message as You have intended, to dispel the lies and illuminate the Truth. Your Words through me, Lord, not my own.

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Joe

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Words -vs- Actions

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}
This blog is not intended to be a political blog, but when I feel the Spirit of God moving me to discuss a specific topic -- whether of a political nature or not -- after reading a passage of Scripture, I must obey that calling.

• S: Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-begotten. If we love the One who conceives the child, we'll surely love the child who was conceived. The reality test on whether or not we love God's children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep His commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep His commandments and they are not at all troublesome. 1 John 5:1-3 [MSG]
  
• O: The evidence is in our actions.
  
• A: We see it in the current political scene right now in the Presidential campaign. The candidates can say whatever they want about their faith. They can label themselves as Christians. Anyone can say he or she is a Christian -- a believer and follower of Jesus Christ. But it takes more than just the claim to make it so. To be a follower of Christ is to believe that Jesus came and died for our sins and that, as the Son of God, He arose and went to prepare a place for us with the Father. Actually believing it, not just claiming to believe it. And having that belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, our lives become changed -- renewed. We live a life that exemplifies our beliefs. We are a model of what Christ taught while He walked on Earth among us. We strive to obey God's commandments in all that we do. All of them, all of the time. God's principles are reflected in our own. No one is perfect -- just forgiven. It is the forgiven who understand the gift of forgiveness and want to live a life that pleases God -- not the voters. Don't fall for the rhetoric of the campaign ads, debates, and news reports. Talk is cheap, and anyone can say what is politically correct for the situation. We live by faith, and our actions display that faith in a tangible form. Hear their words, but believe their actions.
  
• P: Father, open my eyes -- and the eyes of voters all across America -- so that we might see through the pretense and choose wisely when casting our ballots in November.
  

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All Bark, No Bite

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: You can't pick and choose in these things, specializing in keeping one or two things in God's law and ignoring others. The same God who said, "Don't commit adultery," also said, "Don't murder." If you don't commit adultery but go ahead and murder, do you think your non-adultery will cancel out your murder? No, you're a murderer, period. ... Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense? I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department." Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove. Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That's just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up with a corpse on your hands? Wasn't our ancestor Abraham "made right with God by works" when he placed his son Isaac on the sacrificial altar? Isn't it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works? That the works are "works of faith"? The full meaning of "believe" in the Scripture sentence, "Abraham believed God and was set right with God," includes his action. It's that mesh of believing and acting that got Abraham named "God's friend." Is it not evident that a person is made right with God not by a barren faith but by faith fruitful in works? The same with Rahab, the Jericho harlot. Wasn't her action in hiding God's spies and helping them escape—that seamless unity of believing and doing—what counted with God? The very moment you separate body and spirit, you end up with a corpse. Separate faith and works and you get the same thing: a corpse. James 2:10-11, 14-26 [MSG]
  
• O: Faith without works is dead.
  
• A: Good deeds don't earn us a place in Heaven. We are saved by faith. But what is faith? Defined as "belief in something without proof," faith requires us to accept as fact that which we cannot provide evidence of. But what of good deeds then? If good deeds don't earn us a place in Heaven, why bother? If it's just enough to believe, what does it matter what we do? ANSWER: Real faith changes you. How can you have faith in God -- believe in God -- and not believe in His Word, or not want to follow the example He set through His Son Jesus Christ? If you just don't care what God says, what kind of faith do you have? By the same token, if you do have the kind of all-encompassing faith that makes you want to please your Creator by following His examples and obeying His direction, how then can deeds not matter? If I truly love my wife and am devoted and committed to her, it stands to reason that I would want to please her. And if I want to please her, then, would I not please her by doing things that make her feel good and happy and loved? Does my love for her alone please her? No! To just say that I love her isn't enough. I have to show her my love by doing something. My deeds are the acts that validate my love for her. It is just so with God. Although he knows my heart, and doesn't need to see proof of my faith, others are not omniscient. It is my faith and love for God that make me want to share Him with others. If I share only His Word but don't live an example of it through my actions, what is my faith worth? It is by setting an example through living the kind of life that God would be pleased with -- by these acts or deeds -- that others can see His Glory. Without those deeds, it's just words. Words without action are meaningless.
  
• P: Father, I want to please You in all that I do. Use me as a tool however You see fit so that I might reflect Your Glory upon others.
  

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Joe

podsafe music network | ioda promonet | magnatune | airplay direct
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Words

I turn to several sources every morning when doing my daily devotional. I don't just pick up a book, read, write down a few things, and call it done. I look through a devotional Bible and several online resources, first. Some mornings, even though I might find a passage that speaks to me, it's difficult to translate into my own words just what I feel the passage is saying. Some mornings, I guess, when a long day before, or the lack of sleep, or just the stress of day to day life, makes it just a little harder for me to focus on what I would say about what God is saying. This morning is feeling like one of those mornings.

When all else has failed me in my devotional, I pick up the Bible, close my eyes, and just flip open to a page, and read. Today I share with you what I read, and a brief prayer, and hope that it speaks quietly to you.

P: Lord, help me to find in Your Word the guidance and direction I need along my path each day. Help me to live as an example, and to find comfort in Your Word when challenge arises.

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Lead By Example

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: Matthew 23:1-12
• O: Jesus told his followers that the religious leaders of their day were more show than go, and that although they must follow their direction, they were not to follow their poor example.
  
• A: Basic leadership principles dictate that one should never ask those who follow him to do something that he will not, cannot, or has not done himself. It is imperative to lead by example. As I stated yesterday, our actions are critical, because what we do speaks louder than what we say. Do we rebuke our employees for being late to work, but never show up on time ourselves? Do we drive them as a taskmaster while never doing any tasks ourselves? Have you, as a leader, ever cleaned the restroom? Small things, sure, but they speak big words. In your walk with God, do you go to church on Sunday, sit in the sanctuary, sing and Amen along with the service, then go to work on Monday and use foul language, tell suggestive jokes, and drink to excess during lunch? Do you try to tell people that Jesus saves while all the while living your life like you could use a little salvation yourself? Words are just that, words. We can all use whatever words we like. But they can be very shallow things if your actions don't have a little meat to them. You must live the example that you would want others to follow. Your words only take on importance after your actions have set the tone for what you say. Your words should reinforce your actions rather than contradict them. Are you all bark? Or do your actions have a little bite?
  
• P: Lord, help me to lead by example, at home, at work, and in public. Help me to examine my actions before others can to make sure that my actions and words are in agreement and present the best possible example for others.
  

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