Jim Wilson's Blog, page 51

The Peace of God

“Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:5-7).

At different times in my life, this paragraph has had both immediate and long-term results. As I look at it again today, every word seems to be charged.

Here are a few words from the paragraph to focus on to aid your study and your meditation: gentleness; anxious; thanksgiving; transcends; guard. Consider these. I think you will find this method of study and meditation—concentrating on certain words—to be a major help in your Christian life.


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. We would love to have you reading with us.How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Sound Judgment

 

"An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends; he defies all sound judgment. A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions" (Proverbs 18:1-2).

When I am estranged from the Lord, the last thing I want to hear is sound judgment. I will barricade myself against it. But since I cannot protect myself from sound judgment with sound judgment, I must do it with pretexts—shallow, weak arguments which deceive only me. If the searchlight of sound judgment breaks into my hideout, I find myself confessing, forsaking, and being restored to the Lord.

During my estrangement I take no pleasure in understanding, but I am very eager to express my opinion. After I am back in fellowship, I am amazed how stupid I was. How I regret my big mouth. Truly it is foolish.

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. We would love to have you reading with us.

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

Proverbs 18: Three Conversation Problems

 

"The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts" (Proverbs 18:8).

"He who answers before listening¾that is his folly and his shame" (Proverbs 18:13).

"The first to present his case seems right, till another comes forward and questions him" (Proverbs 18:17).

These verses on conversation touch on three great problems in the church today: gossip, not listening, and listening to only one side. All of these can be corrected by a simple choice. However, that means that there will be no more “choice morsels,” no “ego talking,” and no choosing up sides. Here are two passages from the New Testament to help you in your decision:

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen" (Ephesians 4:29).

"My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry" (James 1:19).

Our speech should be for others, and our listening should be for others.

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

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

Teaching Obedience

“For Ezra had set his heart to study the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach his statutes and ordinances in Israel” (Ezra 7:10).

Notice three things: study, do, teach.

In the Christian church, we have studiers and teachers. We can study and acquire information. We can teach and impart information. We can get As on our knowledge.

The strong point of the three is to do. Doing validates the studying and the teaching. Teaching, biblically, is not just imparting information. The neglected phrase in the Great Commission is the one on teaching: “teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:20). Jesus gave the commands. We are to teach obedience to His commands. We are not just to teach the commands. We are not to teach information without teaching obedience. If we are going to follow Ezra’s example, we need to study, obey, and teach to obey.


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. We would love to have you reading with us.How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Christian Teaching: More Than Just Information

"For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel" (Ezra 7:10).

Ezra devoted himself to three things: studying the law, observing the law, and teaching the law. We can study to acquire information. We can teach to impart information. But the strongest of the three is doing. Doing validates the studying and the teaching.

Biblical teaching is not just imparting information. The most-neglected phrase in the Great Commission is the one on teaching: "…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:20).

We are to teach obedience to God’s commands. We are not to teach information only. If we follow Ezra’s example, we will study, obey, and teach obedience.

I know several churches that seek to teach obedience to the saints. Amazingly, they have picked up a reputation for being legalistic, works-righteousness churches. But they are only fulfilling Christ’s command to teach obedience.

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. We would love to have you reading with us.How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships

Thoughts on Correcting Others

 

·    I will walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1:7).

·    I will forgive others as God has forgiven me in Christ (Ephesians 4:32).

·    I will only judge others if I have taken the splinter out of my own eye first (Matthew 7:1-5).

·    I will correct him only if I am spiritual and gentle (Galatians 6:1). If I feel like correcting him, I am probably neither.

·    I will correct another with the intention of restoring him or her to close fellowship with God. I will do it in a biblical manner (Matthew 18:15, 35).

·    I recognize that there is a difference between those who are forgiven and those who are qualified to be teachers.

·    I will not talk about the life of a fellow believer unless his life is a positive testimony to God’s saving grace. If there is a negative rumor, I will check with the person himself.

If a believer is a public figure and there is a rumor of moral impropriety about his life, that rumor should be brought to his attention. He should be encouraged to straighten out the story if it is untrue. If it is true and he has repented, he should be encouraged to make that known to the public. If it is true and he has not repented, there should be an attempt to restore him to fellowship. If the man is an elder and has repented, he should be forgiven and restored to fellowship, but he might have lost his qualification to be an elder.

*Excerpted from Being Christian. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore. 

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

Keeping Confidences

 

“I can keep a confidence. It’s the people I tell it to who can't." - Unknown

I hardly ever promise to keep a confidence before I hear the story. I may promise to keep one after I hear the story, and I do keep the confidence. Idetermine which ones I keep, not the person who shares it with me. This lack of promise is not the same as gossip, although it could be gossip.

We are required to speak to the assembled believers if someone is unrepentant. The assembled believers are to take action on the unrepentant believer (Matthew 18). If I promise to keep the information secret, I might hobble myself so that I cannot obey God and tell the church.

Many years ago, a professional person came to see me. I did not know him, although I knew of him. He wished to tell me something awful about a friend we had in common, but first he wanted me to promise to keep it confidential. I told him that I did not make those kinds of promises. He was astounded. Wasn’t I a minister of the gospel? Didn’t I have to keep confidences? I told him yes, but I determined which ones I kept after I heard the story.

“Then I cannot tell you.”

“That is alright with me. I do not need to know.”

He kept repeating that he could not tell me if I would not promise ahead of time, and I kept telling him that was alright. Each time he got angrier. Finally, he left in hysterical anger, slamming the door behind him. In anger he told someone else what an idiot I was. This opened that person’s eyes about the angry man’s character. I never did find out about the evils he wanted to tell me.

That is the best way.

*Excerpted from Being Christian. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore. 

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

The Sin of Listening to Gossip

"They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them" (Romans 1:29-32).

 

I wish to draw attention to just one of these awful sins—gossip. Paul lists it with murder, slander, deceit, and malice, among other great evils. It is part of the complete depravity and dissolution which man falls into as the result of refusing to glorify God:

"Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done" (Romans 1:28).

What does Scripture tell us to fill our minds (and therefore our speech) with?

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things" (Philippians 4:8).

Gossip is very seldom about praiseworthy things. It is about bad things, and it is harmful to the people who are talked about. Telling and listening to these things give pleasure, but gossiping is not an innocent pastime. It is a great evil.

"A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy man keeps a secret" (Proverbs 11:13).

"A perverse man stirs up dissension, and a gossip separates close friends" (Proverbs 16:28).

Many years ago we knew a U.S. Air Force Chaplain named Augie Kilpatrick. On one occasion, my wife Bessie asked Augie how he handled gossip. He had a ready answer.

“I take out my pocket notebook and write down, word for word, what I am being told. After I have taken it all down, I read it back to the person and ask him if it is correct and if it is true. Once I have an affirmative answer, I hand him the notebook and my pen and say, ‘Please sign here.’”

Many years ago we arrived in a new town and found a church. We had barely settled in when Bessie got a phone call from one of the church ladies. She had some gossip about someone else in the church.

Bessie asked, “Is that true?”

“Yes.”

 Bessie said, “Let’s you and I go see her and correct her.”

 “If you go to see her, don’t tell her I told you!”

This does not stop gossip, but it does keep you out of the circuit. We are normally left out of the loop. When people bring gossip to my attention, they know I am going to tell them to go to the person directly. They also know that Iknow they are not going to do that.

"Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them" (Romans 1:32).

Practice and approve. Gossip is approval of sin. It is vicarious enjoyment of someone else’s transgressions. It is a means of enjoying sin without actually doing the sin. The talk may even have the tone and content of disapproval. The gossiper appears innocent (at least to himself) because 1) he is not doing the sin himself and 2) he is voicing disapproval. He deceives himself and his listeners.

"For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret" (Ephesians 5:12).

 

These are the consequences of rejecting God:

"They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity…They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful…they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless" (Romans 1:29-31).

Read through the full list again. Alongside the terrible sins of murder and God-hatred are the things we enjoy—gossip, slander, envy, and boasting.

There are always opportunities to gossip at work, online, at parties, church, and over the back fence. Newspapers and magazines capitalize on the great demand for gossip. Gossip is not limited to the teller. Listening to gossip is as bad as talking it. Our need to share in gossip is immense, and it is great sin.

"Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down" (Proverbs 26:20).

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

Like Grasping the Pacific Ocean

 

"The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with faith and love that are in Christ Jesus" (1 Timothy 1:14).

Paul was a man of great wisdom and knowledge, but he played it down. In fact, he wrote it off: "Knowledge puffs up but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God' (1 Corinthians 8:1-3).

 

It almost looks like knowledge is the opposite of love. If it were, we would have to stay ignorant in order to be loving. Having knowledge is a temptation. Being puffed up is the sin. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. He is in sin. 

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.' Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe" (1 Corinthians 1:18-21).

There is a “knowing” that goes far beyond knowledge:

"And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:17b-19).

Knowledge can be measured on a written exam. Knowing love cannot be measured at all. We are to grasp it by the power of God. It is like grasping the Pacific Ocean in our hands.

When we speak, do we display our knowledge, or our love? Are we conscious of the abundance of grace, faith, and love that was poured out on us when we received Christ? Do we show it and speak it?

*Excerpted from Being Christian. To purchase, visit ccmbooks.org/bookstore. 

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

Whole-Hearted Devotion

1 Chronicles 28 records David’s charge to his son Solomon. It is great!

“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with whole hearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.”

Notice that the reason for whole-hearted devotion is that “the Lord searches every heart” and the reason for a willing mind is that “the Lord understands every motive behind the thoughts.”


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. We would love to have you reading with us.How To Be Free From Bitterness and other essays on Christian relationships