Jim Wilson's Blog, page 31

To See as God Sees

“While Paul was waiting for them in Athens he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols” (Acts 17:16).

The Apostle was not in awe with the beauty of the Parthenon; he was distressed.

Some of us have been to parts of the world where there are beautiful minarets, Shinto gates and shrines, and beautifully carved statues housed in ornate temples. Do we think like the Apostle? If not, is it because he saw things as God sees them, and we see them like the rest of mankind? May God help us to be distressed with false gods.

        “In vain with lavish kindness the gifts of God are strown;

        The heathen in his blindness bows down to wood and stone.”

        (Reginald Heber 1783-1826)

This post coordinates with tomorrow's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

Written February 1984.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

The Wonderful Kindness of Repentance

“So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life” (Acts 11:18).

“And turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18).

“I preached that they should repent and turn to God and prove their repentance by their deeds” (Acts 26:20).

“Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing God's kindness leads you toward repentance” (Romans 2:1).

“When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you by turning each of you from your wicked ways” (Act 3:26).

“Those who oppose him he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:25-26).

The above verses have been going through my head in the last few minutes,* so I thought I would share them with you. Repent and turnkeep recurring in these verses, but also notice the words that precede repent and turn. They are grant, kindness, and gently. Repentance is not a harsh word. It is a wonderfully soft word.

 

*Written January 1988.

This post coordinates with tomorrow's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

A Place of Prayer

The time and place of public prayer does not seem to be commanded in Scripture, but times and places do occur in Scripture.

“One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer, at three in the afternoon” (Acts 3:1).

"One day" makes it look like there was daily prayer at three in the afternoon. There is no indication that it was limited to the Sabbath.

Here is another occurrence in Acts 16: "On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer… Once when we were going to the place of prayer…” (vv. 13, 16). These statements sound like they went to the place of prayer daily, including the Sabbath. In the first Scripture, the place was the temple in Jerusalem. The second was a riverside in Macedonia.

In these two recorded instances something wonderful happened. In the first, a crippled man was healed and two thousand people were converted. In the second, Lydia and her household believed and were baptized.

Do you have a fixed time and place for public prayer? It does not have to be in church or on Sunday, nor does it have to be with many people.

 

Written March 1990.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

The Real Solution to Our Problems

“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified…. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power” (1 Corinthians 2:1-2, 4-5).

“I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone—for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1-4).

These two texts bring us back to first priorities: preaching the cross and praying for kings. Both of these texts have to do with the salvation of men. God in his wisdom decided that proclaiming and praying was our partnership in the Gospel. It is easy to get sidetracked to things like constitutional amendments and a Christian government. Paul did not have that luxury; neither does most of the world today. Let’s get our focus back on the real solution: the gospel of Jesus Christ. Let us change the nation by proclaiming and praying.

 

Written November 1992.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Be Holy

 

“But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’" (1 Peter 1:15-16)

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).

There are several common things in these two commands. First, they are not suggestions. Second, they are "be" commands, not "do" commands. Third, they are in each case related to the holiness and the perfectness of the Father.

We can assume that God does not command us to besomething that He will not provide the means to be. Therefore, we should not think that these commands are impossible. If we think that way, then we do not believe or obey God. We are following the suggestions of the enemy.

We can start by believing and wanting to be holy.

 

Written February 1993.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

The Conquest of Canaan

"Then the Lord said to him, 'Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure’” (Genesis 15:13-16).

This text was fulfilled in the time of Joshua. It also gives us a reason for the conquest of Canaan by Joshua. The sin of the Amorites had now reached its full measure.

“After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, ‘The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.’ No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob” (Deuteronomy 9:4-5).

This is reiterated as God's reason for war all of the way through the Old Testament. When Israel was overrun many times during the period of the judges and later by the Assyrians and the Babylonians, it was because of Israel's sin of forsaking God, turning to other gods and many immoralities. God used unholy, pagan nations to discipline Israel. These unholy, pagan nations were in turn destroyed (not chastened) because of their sin. Israel repented after the discipline. Nineveh repented before and prevented their own destruction.

 

Written February 1991.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Making Excuses with God

“And He said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition’” (Mark 7:9).

Rather than dwell on the specific instance mentioned by Jesus of evading the commandment, I would like to draw attention to His admiration of their abilities when He says, "You have a fine way." J.B. Phillips translates this, "It is wonderful to see how."

Jesus may have been speaking in sarcasm, but regardless of how He spoke, He was pointing to the sophisticated effort the religious people made in order to disobey. Jesus quoted Isaiah: "This people honors me with their lips but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me," teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.

Non-religious people do not need sophisticated reasons in order to disobey. They deliberately disobey, or remain ignorant of the commandments, or do not care. Religious people not only come up with involved reasons to make their own wrong look right, but they are not satisfied unless they also teach it. I have used the word religious instead of Christian, but this also is true of Christians.

Here is a suggestion. Pay attention to the commandments as you read the New Testament (there are many—Colossians 3, 1 Thessalonians 5 for examples) and then write down your explanation of them. Is it an involved explanation of why you do not have to obey?

 

Written December 1985.

This post coordinates with tomorrow's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

All for the Sake of the Gospel

“I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the Gospel that I may share in its blessings” (1 Cor. 9:22-23).

St. Paul’s versatility was a versatility of choice, decision. He gives the reason for his decisions: “to win as many as possible” verse 19; “to win the Jews” v. 20; “to win those under the law” v. 20; “to win those not having the law” v. 20; “to win the weak” v. 22’ and finally, “that I might save some” v. 22. His decisions were made in order to identify with the people he sought to win. He identified with opposites, and he did it without compromise.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

Written August 1984.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Your Conscience

A pure, clear conscience is a wonderful thing. A guilty conscience is an awful thing. We desire the one and do not want the other. However, there are guilty consciences that are filled with false guilt instead of true guilt. There are also seemingly clear consciences that are clear only because the conscience does not record; it has become seared.

Even when a conscience is working well and is clear, that does not mean it is working perfectly according to God’s standards of right and wrong. The Apostle Paul said it this way: “My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God” (1 Corinthians 4:4-5).

A person may say that his conscience does not hurt, as if that were proof that he was innocent. It does not hold. The conscience is only an aid, and an imperfect one.

Written November 1984.

This post coordinates with tomorrow's reading in the To the Word! Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Our Raison d'Etre

"We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete. This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:3-7).

"He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Peter 2:24-25).

I selected these two very clear expressions from the writings of John and Peter because in a succinct way they tell us about God—who He is, what He did, why He did it, and the resulting fellowship we have with Him and with each other. To declare all of this is our reason for being.

 

Written November 1990.

How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships