Why Good Works Are Necessary for the Christian

Why Good Works Are Necessary for the Christian
I read this blog a few days ago and it struck me as being very important. I agree with DeYoung and the fact that good works do not get us justified before God. But it is very important to understand once we get saved by Christ's blood applied to our lives through faith in Him, we should show by our life and our works we love Jesus for dying for us. If our life does not show we love Jesus and live for Him and His glory daily, how could we ever say we are a Christian. We must show by our works that we have an inheritance waiting for us in Heaven someday when the love of our lives comes back to claim us as His own.

Trials

"In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed."

1 Peter 1:6-7

I have been rolling these verses over in my head all week. This week in my Sunday School class we are starting a series from 1 & 2 Peter. The purpose of Peter writing his first letter was to encourage and strengthen the members of the church as they faced trials and suffering in this life. So these 2 verses are important to the flow of Peter's thought and letter as they give encouragement but also to challenge the church to a stronger faith.

Everyone that is alive will at some point in this life face suffering and troubles of some sort. If we are true lovers of Jesus and telling others about Jesus we will also face some persecution to go along with our suffering and troubles. So what is it that challenges us, is it money problems, health problems, family issues, work issues, or even church problems? We all have some things that give us frustration, if we are not facing anything right now, I can guarantee that sooner rather than later something in this life will creep up. So how do we look at these trials? Do we cry out to God in pain or do we bury our feelings deep down inside? How we view our trials I have discovered says a lot about who we are as a person and who we are in Jesus. 

What if we never faced a single trial in this life? These verses in 1 Peter show us that trials and suffering in our life make our faith genuine and true. So if we had life always going our way could we actually say we have faith? I do not think so. The faith we have is strengthened and made genuine by the facing of trials and sufferings. God walks right beside us as He allows us to face these trials. God is holding our hand because He know that as we face trials in this life and overcome them in Him our faith is made true. Jesus death and our faith in Him is what saves us. But how can we know we have faith in God without it ever being tested and made genuine by trials. So I would say that the trials and suffering we face in this life proves our faith and is part of our salvation in God. 

So next time you think about the suffering you are in the middle of or the trial that is right around the corner, realize that these things make our faith genuine before God and hold us fast into His hand so our future salvation in Him is true and secure. That is why it is called perseverance of the saints.

Personal Reflection

My new goal this year, or a new years resolution as come people call it, was to live every day as if Jesus was coming back tomorrow. As I have been try to gauge how I am doing with this goal and thinking about my life as a lover of Jesus, I have tried to come up with personal questions I can ask myself. I have found 10 questions I ask myself each day as I try and reflect how I am doing in my walk with Christ and living as if each day is my last. Some of the questions I  have come up with and some I have taken from random sources as I have been reading. Here are the 10 questions I reflect on.

1. Am I spending time slowly reading God’s word and memorizing Scripture?

2. Am I having consistent, focused, extended times of prayer, including interceding for others?

3. Am I disciplined in my use of technology, in particular not getting distracted by emails and blogging in the evening and on my days off?

4. Am I getting enough rest and down time?

5. How has my eating habits been today?

6. Have I exercised in the last week?

7. Am I patient with my kids or am I angry with them when they disobey or behave in childish ways?

8. Where is my focus when I am with my family?

9. Is my study time focused enough on God or am I distracted and not fully in tune?

10. Have I done anything out of the ordinary to cherish and help my wife?

I have discovered that reflecting on my day and last few hours over some of these issues helps me understand where I need to grow. Some of these questions are not necessary spiritual but all of them are connect to the state of my spirit and walk with God. I pray that some of these questions help you as you walk with God each day to.

Favoritism

A good friend of mine asked me to write a few thoughts on favoritism. So here it goes. The Websters dictionary defines favoritism as 1) the showing of special favor, 2) the state of or fact of being a favorite. When I think of favoritism I think of 2 things.

First, everyone knows what favoritism is because we all know someone who has been shown favoritism by someone else. Or maybe we are the person that is the one who is a favorite of someone else. Favoritism happens all over the planet. In work settings, in church settings, family times, friends gathering, even among our pets. When I was growing up I had a fish tank with 5 fish in it. I will be honest, I had a favorite fish and I still to this day claim that the other fish knew it because they would leave him alone and not swim around him. But yes favoritism happens all over and some people are the favorite and others are not. When we think of favorites we need to realize that they are no different than us and still deserve our love of Jesus even if they do not realize they need it. We need to honor God by showing love to those people because the favorites and non-favorites alike deserve our love and great news. And if the favorite is a Christian help them realize they are a favorite. Next if we are the one favorite person we need to fight against this human tendency by showing love to everyone, not just a select few. If we are the favorite we also need to let the person who seems to favor us know to stop it and show kindness and favor to everyone around us. If we are the favorite we need to look out for the attention of all and point out to other people the greatness of others around us. We need to do everything in our power to stop the favoritism.

The second thing I realized about favoritism is that we are all favorites if we are known and loved by Christ. The first definition of the word can help here. Favoritism is the showing of special favor. What is more special is favor than to die for your enemies while they hated and wanted nothing to do with you. Jesus showed us special favor when he came to earth and lived the life we could never live and then died the death we could never die and then called us to be His own. We, as lovers of Jesus, are the favorites of the King. And thinking about that I realized how amazing it is to be a favorite of the Almighty Creator, the person who spoke and things happened. And knowing that I am a true favorite of Jesus makes me convicted about standing up for the non-favorites around me in this world and letting them know about the One who Favored me.

"Pastoral Rule"

First, thank you to all who prayed for me today as I was taking my final exam in Church History part 1. It went very well and I never realized I could type over 3,000 words in less than 2 hours. God is good. But as I was taking this class and studying for this test I came across something that intrigued me from my notes and Professor. I came across the "Pastoral Rule" by Gregory the Great who was a famous Bishop in the church from 590-604 A.D.

In this rule he lists 5 things that ever Pastor must or should have as qualities.

1)Pure in thought
2)Active in serving others
3)Discrete or confidential
4)First in Compassion
5)Last in bribes or falling prey to sin

I found this not only interesting and convicting for me as someone who is pursuing the ministry. I found this convicting me as a Jesus lover and witness to the world. The world and those who do not know Jesus should be seeing all of these in every Christian because then they will see Jesus the Savior and Redeemer.

Pride

It has been a busy day for a Sunday in my world. I met with a church search committee today and continue to search where God is leading my family and I. Thank you for those of you who knew and prayed, it went very well and I enjoyed getting to meet some other great believers in Christ, very encouraging. I also have a final examine tomorrow for a master's class so every free moment I have been studying too. But I wanted to take a few moments tonight and jot down a few thoughts on the sin of pride that have been flouting around in my head tonight thanks to the conviction for the Holy Spirit.

I have discovered that I think the sin of pride is the most devastating and influential sin a person can commit. The sin of pride is first one of the biggest areas of idolatry in a persons life. When someone is prideful they have set themselves on the throne of their lives and they think they run the show. The sin of pride takes Jesus out of the center of a persons life and puts themselves in His place. The sin of pride leads right into selfishness and a self centered attitude which is a sin also. Pride is connect to selfishness. So pride will stop us from focusing on others and serving their needs but feeling like everyone should be serving us. Pride will stop the outward focus to those in the world who do not know Jesus. So pride stops us from loving the world and also from loving one another in the church. Pride hurts all those around us.

The sin of pride will stop us from worshiping God and Jesus. We are called in Scripture to be worshipers of God but when we are filled with pride we stop worshiping who we are supposed to and we end up worshiping ourselves because we are IT. Pride keeps us from truly worshiping God as the King of our life and Jesus as the Savior and passion of our hearts. Pride hurts God so to speak.

So the sin of pride hurts everyone we know even when we cannot see it. OUCH

Jesus the Man

All day I have been pondering and contemplating Jesus and what His life means to me. Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the one sent to die and take my place. Jesus is the life and through His resurrection gives us hope that we too will beat back death some day. Jesus is the life everlasting and our great redeemer. Jesus is all these things and I think because of all of that, we sometimes miss some of the ways Jesus through His life on earth gives us great examples and inspires us in certain ways. Jesus is the perfect leader. Jesus is the perfect teacher. Jesus is the perfect example of a loving friend. But the best example of Jesus that I have been thinking about all day is Jesus as the perfect man.

Jesus through his actions, words, and life gives us the best and perfect example for what it means to be a man, a male human being.

Jesus was tough. He defended the weak, oppressed, abused, and the poor. Jesus fought for justice and mercy. Jesus defended the truth and stood against those who opposed the truth or were lying cheating hypocrites. Jesus was tough enough to die in our place without cursing out in pain or shedding a tear.

Jesus was also tender. Jesus comforted those who were hurting. Jesus encouraged those who were downcast and depressed. Jesus looked out for the children and provided for the women around Him in His life. Jesus was tender and loving to those who were already broken about their sin. Jesus walked lovingly with those in His life who needed Him the most. Jesus was tender enough to weep at the death of His friend, knowing He was about to raise Him.

Jesus was a provider not a consumer. Jesus came and provided first, life for all mankind. Jesus also provided truth for those He met. Jesus provided for the 5,000. Jesus provided safety in the storm, a water that always gives life, and a chance for a tax collector to repent. Jesus came to provide for us rather than take from us. And the only thing Jesus would ever take from us was our sin in His act of provision.

Jesus was a creator and cultivator. Jesus nurtured and grew the life and spirit of His followers. Jesus created new life in Mary Magdalene, and the women at the well. Jesus created healing for the women with the flow of blood and He created new life for Jarius' daughter. Jesus as the man created for those around Him and cultivated a life that could also grow and flourish after He was gone.

Jesus also took responsibility. Jesus came to take responsibility for our sin. But He also took charge of His disciples, even when Satan was trying to sift Peter. Jesus took care of the Pharisees when they were trying to distract His mission. Jesus would always take the bull by the horns and deal with the issue at hand.

Jesus was not lazy, always in prayer with God, never got angry, put children first, was generous, and was a man's man. Just a few things I have been pondering and then praying about as I looked at the life of Jesus as a man and compared it to mine. Jesus was perfect so we will not be truly like Him until were are perfect with Him in heaven, but we should at least try and be transformed more and more into His image each day.