Wordless Wednesday

Communicating the Answer

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Everyone is a communicator. Some people are very good communicators. Others are not. This world is full of problems caused by sin.  Is. 64:6 tells us, “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” The answer to the world’s sin problem is found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ died for our sins, He was buried and He rose again. (1 Cor. 15:3-4) Faith in Him brings eternal life.  (John 3:16-18, John 3:36) It is the Christian’s job to communicate the answer of the Gospel to a lost and dying world (Matt. 28:19-20, Mark 16:15, Acts 1:8, 1 Pet. 3:15) One of the greatest communicators of the Gospel was the Apostle Paul.  He provides us with some pointers on how to communicate the Gospel.

I hope you have your Bibles and will read 1 Cor. 2:1-8.

The first thing we see is that we need a proper mind set. In order to effectively do anything, you must have a proper mind set. We need to think correctly and be determined to accomplish a specific goal. When Paul went to Corinth he didn’t go as a tremendous speaker and he didn’t use great human wisdom.

He went in order to communicate the testimony or message of God. Paul’s mindset was to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul knew that Christ was the answer. His whole goal was to communicate the crucified Christ to these people. Actually, this wasn’t just Paul’s mind set for preaching, but for everything he did. In Gal. 6:14, Paul said, “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Paul didn’t entertain silly questions; he focused on the message that could change someone’s life.

Christians often fail to communicate the Gospel effectively because we separate the cross from the rest of our lives. Communicating the good news of the cross to other people is a low priority in our lives. According to a recent Barna survey, 50% of people believe if you’re good enough, you can earn your way to heaven. 45% of born again Christians did not share their faith in the last year. With Paul, sharing the good news of the cross was the vital part of his life. He gloried in the cross.  It was his lifeblood, his aim, his focus.

Not only do you need a proper mindset, but you need a method of communication. In v. 3 Paul said, “I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.” This doesn’t seem like the bold Paul we all know. Fear and trembling? Paul used that phrase in several other passages when referring to an urgent matter of great concern. Think about where Paul is. Corinth was an ungodly, immoral, pagan city. Sexual sin abounded. The Greek verb translated to corinthianize meant to practice sexual immorality to the extreme. Paul wasn’t fearful and trembling because the Gospel had lost its power, he was fearful and trembling because he knew the results of rejecting the Gospel.

Paul didn’t use man’s wisdom. V. 4 says, “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” He did not use his vast education to persuade men to come to Christ. Paul used the power of God, the dunamis power.  The explosive power of God to get his message across. Man’s wisdom didn’t save Paul, so he didn’t use it. Instead Paul demonstrated the Spirit and power of God. I think that’s where we lose it.  We talk about the power of God, but our lives don’t reflect it. Paul’s life reflected the power of God. Our lives, our manner of life say a whole lot more than our words. Words are just that. Living the words is where your faith is borne out. Faith in the Gospel is not an emotional appeal. Emotions fade away. That’s why you see so many people who get “saved” go on living the same way they always lived. Churches preach an emotional Gospel where people are entertained rather than equipped; where grace overrides holy living; where tolerance overrides truth; where busyness overrides prayer, study, and meditation; where the power of the Gospel is reduced to an hour or two on Sunday. That’s why Paul said in v. 5, “So that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”

In order to effectively communicate, you need a proper mindset, a proper method, but you need a message. Look at vs. 6-7. Paul spoke a message of wisdom to those who were mature in Christ. It was not the wisdom of this world that Paul communicated. The wisdom of this world comes to nothing. People of the world do not, cannot understand the wisdom of God. “But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.” (1 Cor. 2:14) Unfortunately, many Christians don’t have and don’t understand a real passion for Christ. George Barna says that half of those who attend a Christian church (50%) say that they are absolutely committed to the Christian faith. What about the other half? What is your passion? Is it your job? Your family? Is it your possessions?

If the leaders of this world had understood God’s wisdom, they would have never crucified Christ. We must make sure that the message we communicate is God’s wisdom of the cross. Take a look at one final passage of Scripture found in 1 Cor. 1:18-25. This is the message will bring people to maturity, the message that will cause people to grow in their relationship with Christ.

For life’s problems, what is the answer you communicate?  Is it the cross of Christ and His Gospel? That is where true hope rests.

Wordless Wednesday

Cool Greek Verb Tense, No Really

I had the privilege of teaching the importance of Greek verb tense as it relates to the proper interpretation of difficult bible passages in a class called “Contextual Principles” at this past weekend’s Inductive Bible Study Training conducted by In Worship at Mt. Hebron Church in Mobile, AL. Before you read on, please understand I am no Greek scholar and these are basic principles I gleaned from research I conducted to prepare for teaching this subject. A great resource is Kay Arthur’s book, How to Study Your Bible: The Lasting Rewards of the Inductive Method available here. Another great resource is Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study New Testament available here.

Understanding Greek verbs is instrumental in the proper interpretation and application of Scripture. Since verbs express action, they are often the most significant elements in the expression of thought and are key to understanding what the author is trying to say. Greek verbs tend to clearly show who is doing the action, whether as a command or suggestion, whether the passage is speaking of reality or possibility. The major features of Greek verbs are known as the mood, tense, and voice.

Tense shows the kind of action and points to a time of occurrence relative to the time of utterance. English has only past and non-past forms and uses non-past forms to indicate future time as well as present time. Greek indicative verbs can point to three different times: past, present or future. In considering tenses, you need to understand the aspects of verbs too. Aspect is the characteristic of a verb indicating how the user regards its degree of completion or result (beginning, duration, repetition, achievement, permanent effect, etc.), but not relative to the time of utterance. Greek verbs identify actions or states as having one of three different degrees of completion or result: ongoing, completed (with continuing results) and simple occurrence (completed but not marked as to whether the results are continuing). Thanks to this site for putting all this info in one place.

Tense-aspect: an indicative verb form in Greek must express both time and aspect. Three possible times and three possible aspects yield a grid of nine possible tense-aspect combinations. The seven named grammatical tenses of Greek are really tense-aspect combinations in the indicative, covering eight of the nine possibilities.

		Tense
		Past	Present	Future
Aspect	Ongoing Action	Imperfect	Present	Future
	Simple/Unmarked Occurrence	Aorist	None	Future
	Completed with Continuing Results	Pluperfect	Perfect Future	Perfect

So what does all this mean? When observing the text of Scripture, a proper understanding of verbs is essential to proper interpretation and application. Unless you understand verb tense, your interpretation may not be accurate.

Let’s look at some examples. In the difficult passage of Rom. 7:14-25 we need to consider the relationship between a believer of Jesus Christ and sin. Paul had just written in Rom. 5:20 that, “Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” And he asks in Rom. 6:1, “Are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound?” Here’s where you need to understand about tense. Present tense is a linear action, one that is ongoing. Sin (Strong’s #266) here is a noun and is defined as missing the true goal and scope in life; offense in relation to God with the resultant guilt. The key word here though is not sin, but continue. Continue (Strong’s #1961) is a present (or future depending on the resource) tense verb that means persist in an activity or process. Present (future) tense indicates that it is occurring now. So Paul asks the rhetorical question in v. 2, “How shall we who died [past tense] to sin still live [present tense] in it?”

Let’s look at 1 John.  First in 1 John 2:1. “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” Both uses of the word sin(s) are verbs that are in the aorist tense. That means it is a one-time event from the past.

Look now at 1 John 3:9. “No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” There are a couple of key verbs here.  Born is in the perfect tense indicating a completed action with continuing results: “born of God.” Practice is the present tense indicating this is occurring now. Sin is a present tense verb. Born is in the perfect tense again. From the New American Commentary, “The life of the child who has been born of God is marked by the purity and righteousness of the One whom he follows. The child of God does not live a life of habitual sin because (1) the seed of God remains in him, and (2) he has been born of God. Although the Christian still falls prey to sinful acts, John insists that it is impossible for sin to become a believer’s pattern of life.” The conclusion from this verse indicates that no one who is a child a God can continually, or habitually engage in sin. There is no such thing as a Christian “wilderness period.” Maybe you’re familiar with the term back-sliding. It’s a made up doctrine for people that are habitually engaged in sin to make themselves feel better about what they’re doing. It is not consistent with the teaching of John and Paul.

Back in Romans 7:14. “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.” Sold is in the perfect tense meaning an event that occurred in the past with continuing results. Paul is not talking about himself. He understood and wants us to understand that a real, true, born-again Christian does not practice sin as a habit of his life. There is a marked difference between one time sin (aorist tense) and habitual sin (present tense).

Isn’t it interesting that we don’t often hear it taught like this? That’s why we let Scripture interpret Scripture. That’s why studying Greek verb tense is important to correct interpretation of Scripture.

Wordless Wednesday

Top Reasons Jack Bauer is Like Jesus

Summer is not a great time for TV so I normally take to watching DVDs. I received Season 7 of 24 for Christmas and broke it out to catch up with what Jack Bauer has been doing to help his country. Then I re-watched Season 1, then 2, and am now into Season 3.

I got to thinking about  Jesus and how Jack Bauer is like Jesus.

Here are some reasons Jack Bauer is like Jesus.

• You may not like his methods but he always gets the job done.
• Sometimes suffering is necessary to accomplish the job.
• He thinks about long term goals.
• He is fiercely loyal.
• He finishes what he starts.
• He is willing to lay down his life for a friend.
• He never gets tired.
• Sometimes he doesn’t work as quickly as we’d like him to.
• He often works with information we don’t have.

We need to be about the business of the Father because we are running out of time.

What Impresses Jesus?

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When we think about how we are doing spiritually, most of us think about things on the surface, we think in terms of behavioral patterns: am I going to church? Have I been reading my Bible? Am I praying, giving, and serving? We look at outward works and forget that they are the results of a deeper spiritual factor. We are a people that seek approval or validation from others. That validation often comes in the form of what we do.

What impresses the world? Occupations impress the world. Society has determined that we are what our occupations are. Certain jobs have more value in society’s eyes than other jobs. Doctor, lawyer, policeman, and fireman are some of the most respected professions in America. You never hear a parent encouraging his child to grow and be a garbage man, yet without the garbage man, society would break down. When meeting people for the first time, the subject of jobs comes up quickly. What do you do? There is a competition to see who has the best job. I see people on Linked In, a professional networking site that have MBA, or PE or similar tags to set them apart. Do you have a degree? (College, University, or Votech?) High School diploma.  Public, private, or GED?

Where you live and what type of house you live in play a major role on the world’s view of success. Do you live in a brick, stucco, tabby, or vinyl house? What neighborhood do you live in? How big is your house? How many square feet?  One story or two? Swimming pool?  In ground?  Above ground?

Power is important to the world. The most powerful man in the world makes $400,000 a year. That’s a pittance compared with athletes, entertainers, or big corporation CEOs. Does all this impress Jesus? “God is not one to show partiality.” (Acts 10:34) 1 Cor. 3:18-19 tells us, “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, ‘He is THE ONE WHO CATCHES THE WISE IN THEIR CRAFTINESS.’” Earthy treasures and power do not impress Jesus.

What Impresses the Church? Programs seem to impress the church. The more the better, something for everyone. Babies, toddlers, pre-school, youth, young adults, young couples, singles, single men, single women, college, parents without partners, seniors, homebound. Programs are important, but if the Holy Spirit were to leave the program, would it stay alive? If programs draw people to a church, what happens when the program changes or ends?

Being a volunteer impresses the church. The most “spiritual” people are involved in everything, right? Sometimes we’re so busy with the things of the church, that we don’t have time for ministry. Some believe if you’re not busy in the church, you’re not a good Christian. The material things of the church impress the Church.  You hear people talk about their multi-million dollar church budgets and church buildings. Does all this impress Jesus?  No. In Rev. 3:1 Jesus told the church at Sardis, “I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead.” This church was well known in the community. From all appearances, the church in Sardis was thriving, it had a great reputation. There is nothing recorded about problems or division yet Jesus declared them dead. They were not Kingdom focused. What goes on in our churches today does not impress Jesus. He doesn’t care about all the hustle and bustle of the modern church. The things of the world don’t impress Jesus and neither do the things of the church.  So what impresses Jesus?

Let me remind you about the Thessalonians. When Paul sent Timothy to Thessalonica, he didn’t tell him to check on Sunday School attendance, the size of their choir, or their annual budget.  No mention is made of the size of the church staff or how many small groups they had. Take a look at 1 Thes. 3:5-10. The one thing Paul was really concerned about is faith. Why? Paul knew that when people grow cold for the Lord, it stems from a lack of faith. It could be a life altering event or crisis that causes people to doubt. I often say nothing surprises Jesus, but there is a case of Him acting really surprised. Luke tells us the story in Chapter 7 of the Roman centurion that wanted his servant healed. Jesus tells him that they’d go to his house, but the centurion says he wasn’t worthy to have Jesus in his house, but if Jesus would just speak the words, his servant would be healed. “Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled at him, and turned and said to the crowd that was following Him, ‘I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such great faith.’” (Luke 7:9) When they arrived at the centurion’s house, the servant was healed.

Remember the Canaanite woman in Matt. 15:21-28? Jesus concluded by saying, “O woman, your faith is great.”When Jesus went back to his hometown, he had trouble there. Mark 6:5-6 tells us that Jesus was amazed at their unbelief, incredulous is probably a better word. The Son of God had his hands tied because the people lacked faith. Have you ever tied the hands of Jesus?

Faith is the key by which His incredible power is released. 1 Pet. 1:5 says we, “Who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” Our trying, struggling, or promising won’t work; God is seeking our faith. I often say struggling is delayed obedience. When we struggle, we focus on our own ability instead of God’s. Only faith and complete trust would give Job the conviction to say, “Though He slay me, I will hope in Him.” (Job 13:15) “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Heb. 11:1) We pray by faith that Jesus is listening. We go to church by faith, that we will built up and edified. We give by faith trusting that God will provide for our needs. We witness by faith knowing that the Word of God never returns void. We study our Bible, by faith, knowing that, “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” (Rom. 10:17) Are you thinking that you don’t see God moving in your life? “We walk by faith not by sight.” (2 Cor. 5:7)

Do you want to impress Jesus? Have some faith. Heb. 11 is the great hall of faith in Scripture. After listing 16 people by name (Abraham and Moses are listed twice), 3 people groups, and the walls of Jericho, the writer of Hebrews concludes in v. 32-40 by telling us what happened to these great men and women of faith. The bottom line is that “Without faith it is impossible to please Him.” (Heb. 11:6)

Wordless Wednesday

The Power of Influence

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In Matt. 15, Jesus performed many miracles: He healed the, “Lame, crippled, blind, mute and many others.” He fed the 4000 with seven loaves and a few small fish. Amazing things were happening. Sending away the crowds, Jesus heads to Magadan, also known as Magdala. In Chap. 16, Jesus teaches the disciples and challenges them about the principle of influence. Some might call it discipleship. I want to challenge you to be a discipler and a disciple.

Who will influence your behavior?  You need to be on guard, so here are some principles to follow. So how do you get involved? Let’s see.

I hope you have your Bible so you can read Matt. 16:5-12.

We need to choose carefully who we listen to. Just because someone comes in the name of God, doesn’t mean you follow them. If that is the standard, you will follow after any cult or schism that comes along. Choose who you listen to carefully. This applies to every area of your life. If you’re a business person, there are thousands of people out there just waiting to tell you how to do it. There are experts in every area of life. Anytime a crisis erupts, the experts come out of the woodwork. If you want to improve your marriage, there is a conference for you. If you want to be a great husband or wife, there are tons of books for you. Having trouble raising children?  The bookstores are full of ways you can be the model parent. With only minimum effort, you can find something on any topic under the sun. But whose opinion really matters?  Who’re you going to listen to?

When it comes to securing eternal life in Heaven, there are hundreds of ways out there, but they can’t all be right so who’re you going to listen to? Oprah talks about finding the divine within you. Others say you must be a member of a certain church. Still others will say unless you are baptized, or baptized in a certain way, you cannot get into heaven. Some say you have to pray to gods other than the true God to get to heaven. Others will say you can’t get into Paradise unless you pledge loyalty to Mohammed.

In choosing carefully, there are two standards that must be followed. First there is biblical authority. Not in the sense of someone that can quote Bible verses for you. Biblical authority in the sense that what someone says lines up with the teaching of the entire word of God.

The second is results in their lives. Don’t misunderstand. I’m not talking about what the world calls success. Has God radically transformed the person? Don’t you just love the people that like to tell you how it should be in your life, but they don’t practice what they preach?

Exercise caution when looking for a discipler. If I want someone to help me raise children, I’m not going to consider someone that has no children. If I want to someone to help me be a great student of the Bible, I’m going to find someone that is a great student of the Bible. When choosing a mentor, you need to look not only at the results in their lives, but how that person produces results in others. Not every great athlete becomes a great coach.

Consider the Pharisees and Sadducees. In the fruit and results test, the Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t measure up. They didn’t exhibit the love of God, the mercy of God, the compassion of God, the forgiveness of God. Both groups preached a sour, lousy, legalistic approach to God. They wanted everyone to look and act just like them. Jesus said, “Watch out and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” (Matt. 16:6) A little leaven influences the whole batch of dough and continues to influence it. Choose your mentors carefully and listen with a filter. When you make coffee, you use a filter so the grounds don’t get into the coffee. If your filter has ever folded over and you swallowed grounds, you know why you use a filter.

You need to learn to discern when something doesn’t fit with God’s Word and you filter out what doesn’t fit. My wife is preparing to teach Bible study leaders about handling a difficult passage. She found a good resource online and at the end of the article, it presented an about the author bio. It said, “The author,  . . . . helps those grieving the loss of a pet to understand the Biblical evidence that proves they live on.  His most popular book, ‘Cold Noses at the Pearly Gates’ delivers hope and comfort to the reader in a very gentle, yet convincing way.” I’m pretty sure we don’t need to take the time to dig into whether or not our pets are going to be in heaven. Just because the author has a doctrinal position that I don’t agree with doesn’t mean I disregard all of his teaching.

That’s what Jesus was saying about the Pharisees and Sadducees. All of their teaching was not bad. If it was, Jesus wouldn’t have said “Beware.” He would have said, “Don’t listen to a word they say.” The Pharisees and Sadducees taught some correct things. They taught that people should be obedient, should worship God, should look for the Messiah. They should pray, tithe, and fast. They also taught some things that were way off the mark. They taught that the oral law or traditions of man were of equal weight as the written Word. We have groups today that teach the same thing. Col. 2:8 says, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” They taught that following God was not a matter of mercy and grace, but a legalistic code of rules filled with do’s and don’ts.

The Pharisees and Sadducees didn’t even get along with one another. The Sadducees were a small elite group composed of the priestly family. They denied all aspects of the supernatural; angels demons, miracles, and the resurrection. They rejected all but the first five books of the O. T. They were liberal in order to gain the favor of Rome. The Pharisees were more closely associated with the common man. They accepted the entire O. T. as well as the oral law. Neither group was always wrong and neither group was always right. Jesus didn’t tell his disciples to completely ignore and reject them, He told them to, “Watch out and beware.” In 1 John 4:1, John says, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” Test what you hear. How does it measure up with God’s Word? When someone opens the Word of God, is it consistent with the teaching of the Word? No matter the source, TV, radio. . . is it consistent with the Word?

There is one overriding principle. If you are going to listen with a filter, then you must KNOW the Word of God. No mentor, no teacher, no preacher, no pastor can ever substitute for your personal study of God’s Word. No one should take that place, and no one absolves you of your responsibility to carry out the command in 2 Tim. 2:15. The Pharisees and Sadducees wanted to spoon feed their followers so they could control them and give them just enough information so there was no discussion, no disagreement, no objection. Not everyone agrees with me an that’s okay. Know your position and why you believe that way. We should be open to discussing and studying the Word of God, but the Bible must be our authority.

Lots of people today don’t believe in spanking.  What’s the Bible say?  It’s our authority. There are so called experts that say to improve your sex life you should fantasize about relationships with others. That doesn’t line up with the Word of God. There are pastors and ministers who during counseling, advise their counselees to divorce their spouse. That doesn’t line up with the Word of God. Find a mentor, but listen with a filter . . . the Bible is your filter. You won’t be able to blame your mentor for your decisions. You can’t blame your parents if you wind up in jail. You can’t blame your spouse if you have a lousy marriage. You are the one that is responsible for your actions. You are the one responsible to discern truth. We are a society that points the finger of blame at everyone except those truly responsible.

Who are you going to listen to? Who will you allow to influence your life? Who will you allow to influence your child’s life?

Wordless Wednesday