Faithful Sayings

How important is the spiritual discipline of daily Bible reading and study? Let's answer that question by looking at Paul's words to Timothy, a young man whom he personally trained and sent to Ephesus to preach the Gospel.

The Bible is beautifully consistent in calling God’s people to see suffering for what it is–preparation and progress, not punishment and defeat. “For momentary, light affliction is PRODUCING for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison...” (2 Cor. 4:17)

We might wonder why the language of Scripture can be so cryptic at times. The Bible is the inspired Word of God, and it is made up of several different genres, including poetry and prophecy. The apostle Peter himself acknowledged there are "some things that are difficult to understand" (1 Pet. 3:16ff), so why didn't God make them plain? Why did Jesus use parables to reveal so much about His kingdom? Scripture offers us the answer if we have the patience to find it.

As we conclude this section of Romans we find more words imparting great comfort and hope to God’s people–those “in Christ Jesus” (8:1). We come to see that even though we are finite, sinful people who cannot give adequate (or even intelligible) words to our sufferings, God still understands the groaning of our hearts (vv. 26-27). We find assurance that God can use all things Paul has afore mentioned–the law of the spirit of life, putting to death the deeds of the body, being led by the Spirit of God, present sufferings, our hope, etc.–all these things He causes to serve our redemption (i.e. our spiritual good, v. 28). Furthermore, those who conform to the image of His Son are justified (righteous) and will be glorified when He comes in judgement (vv. 1, 29-30). Finally, there is no earthly or demonic force powerful enough to separate us from the love our God (vv. 31-39). Let’s meditate on these these points in more detail.

Having money isn’t wrong, neither is having a lot of money. The prevailing formula from some in our society seems to be: Rich = Evil. This simply isn’t biblical. One can be wealthy and righteous just as one can be poor and sinful. Abraham, Job, and David, among others were wealthy people, but these men are also remembered for their faith. The Bible is not so concerned about wealth as it is one’s attitude towards it. The love of money, not money itself, is the root of all sorts of evil (cf. 1 Tim. 6:10). Money can be used wisely to glorify God, or it can be used to dishonor and spent in pursuit of pleasure.

As one preacher once said, “The time of our suffering is short, but the bliss and reward of Heaven is eternal.” Paul’s main point here (vv. 18-25) is that this suffering will be well worth it. It’s a message that will help us persevere in the faith and cling to our hope. So how does Paul go about strengthening our faith and deepening our hope? That’s the question I want to answer. Paul puts the suffering of God’s people in context so that we might have the right perspective.

We’ve all made purchases we wished we could take back. Either we invested in a product that we thought would be fantastic and make life easier only to discover that it would work better as a paperweight. We’ve all committed to something that, at a later time, we desperately wished we could undo. A man named Esau stood to gain a great deal from his father Isaac, but Esau was impulsive and imprudent. If we aren’t careful, we can easily make the same mistake that he did. We, too, may awake one day to find that the inheritance promised to us will have passed by forever—lost for an eternity.

"The price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand, and the determination that whether we win or lose, we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand." –Vince Lombardi While Solomon had much to say by way of warning against laziness, he spends much time exhorting us to be diligent and proactive. In Scripture, regardless of one’s economic status, all are called to be diligent workers.

How does Scripture define those who are truly the sons and daughters of God? There are a number of places we can look to find the answer, but we're going to be focusing on Romans 8. If I want to be a true child, a true heir, and a true brother to Christ, what is God calling me to do?

As we move forward our study is going to be more topical in nature than exegetical. Solomon addresses so many aspects of life within the book–money, debt, marriage, work, parenting, relationships in general–so our approach will be to take one of these topics a week and consider what Proverbs teaches us about them.

In this part of our series, Paul reveals the importance of having a mind set on the spirit. Let's hear how he describes the spirit versus the flesh, and reflect why it is vital that we have the proper mindset.

“Show me a thoroughly satisfied man, and I will show you a failure,” said Thomas Edison. How painfully and dreadfully true this is in spiritual matters. Paul knew that he had come up short in his obedience to Christ, as we all do, but he would never be satisfied with coming up short! He knew that he was wretched, but he also knew Christ could and would save him so long as he strove to be faithful.

As we begin to look at God’s wisdom on various subjects in Proverbs, it’s important to remember that it’s God’s wisdom. There are other ancient and modern collections of wisdom literature with their own sayings and ideologies, but the biblical book of Proverbs stands apart from them because it alone declares that true wisdom is rooted in the knowledge of God (1:7; 9:10.

On the night He was betrayed, Jesus revealed to His disciples that one of them would betray Him. Upon hearing this, all were deeply grieved, and “they each one began to say to Him, Surely not I, Lord?” (Matt. 26:22

For so many, “freedom in Christ” is synonymous with “freedom to do as I please”, yet this is wholly antithetical to the Truth. As we can quickly see in the verse cited above the Christian is dead to the Law (i.e. the Law of Moses), BUT he or she has been joined to Christ wherein there are new obligations. Namely, that “we might bear fruit for God.” Freedom in Christ does not grant us the right to do as we please; freedom in Christ grants us the opportunity to do what is right–to serve God with a clear conscience. Christians are joined to Christ for a purpose–“For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.” (1 Thess. 4:7).

“I respectfully decline the invitation to join your hallucination,” Scott Adams once said. Not all invitations should be accepted, and Solomon certainly thought so. In this final section of his introduction to Proverbs, we’re treated to the last words of Lady Wisdom and Madame Folly–each offering us an invitation to come and dine with them. One invitation we must accept, the other we must refuse at all costs.

What stands in our way as we seek the Truth? I don't necessarily mean the Bible, but the Truth in general–the Truth about anything. What do we allow to stand in our way, what hurdles are before us? I'd like to discuss what the Bible offers as hindrances to seeking and adopting Truth, as well as how we can overcome these obstacles.

We gain access to God’s grace through faith in Christ, as Paul taught (Rom. 5:1-2), yet faith is not acceptable without obedience (Jas. 2:20ff), therefore grace cannot be had without obedience–grace demands it. Grace demands obedience not only to be accessed initially–“for by grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph. 2:8), but it demands obedience after one is reconciled to God, lest the Christian “fall short of the grace of God” and “receive it in vain” (Heb. 12:15; 2 Cor. 6:1).

It’s been said that “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.”1 There can be no understanding without the desire to understand. Paul spoke of a category of people who would “always be learning but never able come to a knowledge of the Truth.”2 Why is that?

What does it mean to be close to God, or to "feel" close to God? Is this a biblical concept, if so how is it defined? We often hear folks speak in these terms, and perhaps we use the same terminology to describe our relationship with God. Let's go to the Bible and test, not only the language, but the very idea of "feeling close to God."