Church Arise!

1 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. 3 In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. 4 For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. 5 And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? 7 The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. 8 Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. 9 And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath. 10 The Jews therefore said unto him that was cured, It is the sabbath day: it is not lawful for thee to carry thy bed. 11 He answered them, He that made me whole, the same said unto me, Take up thy bed, and walk. 12 Then asked they him, What man is that which said unto thee, Take up thy bed, and walk? 13 And he that was healed wist not who it was: for Jesus had conveyed himself away, a multitude being in that place. 14 Afterward Jesus findeth him in the temple, and said unto him, Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. 15 The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.  John 5:1 – 15 [KJV]

You may look at my title and wonder “how on earth did Steve come up with this title, from this passage?”

Let’s look at verses 2 &3: There is a pool called Bethesda which has developed a reputation for being a place of healing; Verse 4: in the original this verse is reflected as a “footnote”, an explanation of a custom or tradition, that had formed this reputation of the pool. Verse 5: this certain man had been there a long time (38 years) trying to get his miracle the same way for a long time, without success because he was not first into the pool.

We’ll stop here for a moment and set the stage; In life, we all have traditions of one type or another, and some of those are also present in our churches. Now traditions can be based on what is tried and true; based on fantasy and wishful thinking; or formed to establish control in an environment.

Not all traditions are bad, some are very good; the ones based on the “tried and truth”. But traditions based on superstition, fantasy, and wishful thinking are deceptive and ultimately yield defeat and discouragement. A tradition formed to establish control, usually limits the expectations and the outcome of what may be actually possible, to achieve the institutors desired result.

The man at the pool, was depending on a tradition that was based on superstition, fantasy, and wishful thinking, because in truth, the pool healed no one! All healing comes ultimately from the Creator Himself! Nevertheless, for a “long time” he repeated the same method top try and achieve his healing, never making it to the pool. His faith was in the wrong thing!

In the same way, many churches have placed their faith in their methods rather than in the person of the Holy Spirit, who will “teach us all things”. He is the one who speaks to our heart, in harmony with God’s Word to pursue the course that God desires us to operate in. Traditions have their place, but moment by moment direction comes from God in the person of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We must yield to His leading and not depend on “the way we have always done things”.

If the lame man at the pool had not followed the “non-traditional” command from Jesus, he would not have been healed. From the command from Jesus, he took action (in the manner of faith) in Jesus statement, got up, took up his bed, and walked. It took action, and faith to believe it was ok to try something different, because God said so.

We need to understand the parameters of scripture, while allowing ourselves to think outside the confined box we built for ourselves….

Something to ponder on….

Have a blessed day!

Ministry & Motives

When a person sets out to examine motive in their own life, it begins with an exhaustive inventory of everything.

Do I sing to entertain and be noticed, or am I singing because I worship and adore the Savior?

Do I preach or speak because I want to be affirmed, admired, heard, or am I delivering the message given to me by the ministry of the Holy Spirit?

Do I do things for other people, give of my resources to appear benevolent, purge my conscience, redeem myself, or are my actions out of a love for others and a conviction to do what is right?

Do I write these devotionals to appear smart, educated, establish a mark in history, or am I writing out my experience and God’s work in my heart?

These are questions I must ask myself regularly, not to thwart how God may use me, but to be better used by God, so that “I must decrease and He must increase”, be in obedience, not become a “clanging bell or crashing cymbal”, “lift up His name throughout all the earth”, “sing of the mercies of Lord forever”, and “make a joyful noise unto the Lord”.

When Christ gave Himself for us, He made it all about us; As we live and minister, it must be all about Christ.

Something to ponder….

Have a blessed day!

Don't Discourage the New Believer!

When it comes to evangelism, the church can be the biggest obstacle! I believe that while ironing out the  finer points of doctrine are essential to discipleship, and occasionally some methods can be helpful, nothing is quite as infectious as newness, exuberance, sincerity and a changed life.

If the woman at the well had been at one of our churches, she may have been disqualified for the following reasons:

[1] She’d been married 5 times (too many past skeletons in the closet)

[2] She was the wrong ethnicity (or too much of a street person)

[3] Her encounter with Christ was too fresh (didn’t understand everything yet)

[4] She was a woman [yep, that’s still a problem today in some churches!]

[5] She didn’t look the part [didn’t have her “holier than thou duds” on]

Yet despite all these obstacles, John 4:39 tells us: “And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.””

The witness of a changed life, cannot be replaced by all the methods and instruction in the world, and we must not ever forget that.

Methods and instruction are essential at some point of growth, but new believers should not be discouraged from sharing a changed life, the power of God in them and the new creation it has wrought.

Encourage a new believer to let their light shine! For if it has truly happened, you’ll be hard pressed to keep them quiet!

Something to ponder…..

Have a blessed day!

(John 4 text below)

John 4 New King James Version (NKJV)

 Therefore, when the Lord knew that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John ² (though Jesus Himself did not baptize, but His disciples), ³ He left Judea and departed again to Galilee. ⁴ But He needed to go through Samaria.

⁵ So He came to a city of Samaria which is called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. ⁶ Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from His journey, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

⁷ A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” ⁸ For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

⁹ Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.

¹⁰ Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

¹¹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? ¹² Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw.”

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”

¹⁷ The woman answered and said, “I have no husband.”

Jesus said to her, “You have well said, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the one whom you now have is not your husband; in that you spoke truly.”

¹⁹ The woman said to Him, “Sir, I perceive that You are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where one ought to worship.”

²¹ Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. ²² You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.²³ But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.²⁴ God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

²⁵ The woman said to Him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When He comes, He will tell us all things.”

²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am He.”

27 And at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, “What do You seek?” or, “Why are You talking with her?”

28 The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, 29 “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 Then they went out of the city and came to Him.

31 In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.”

32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.”

33 Therefore the disciples said to one another, “Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?”

34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! 36 And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together. 37 For in this the saying is true: ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors.”

39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of His own word.

42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ,[a] the Savior of the world.”

Everything in context...

If I were to say to you, “you have a great thumb”, and never ever said anything else positive, or even descriptive about you, others as well as yourself could assume either I only liked your thumb, or perhaps, a thumb was all that existed. Sounds pretty silly doesn’t it?

But to the husbands I would say, try only exalting one aspect about your wife, and discover how unappreciated she feels in the other areas! (Obviously not a wise thing to practice) If you do this there is a gross distortion of the person you should care the most about! (very, very unwise!)

The same is true about scripture, because according to the gospel of John, chapter 1, Jesus, the Christ, is the living manifestation of all of God’s Word.

For this reason, an extraction of scripture, apart from the context from which it is placed, is completely invalid, unless you have read and considered the accompanying text, in context. A single extraction of scripture without this consideration cannot stand on its own.

In the same way, no portion of scripture stands on its own, without the consideration of its context of the entire Word of God, because since Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever, all scripture must fall in line with who He is, ultimately. This is the basis of the inerrancy of the Bible, because Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.” (John 14:6 KJV)

For this reason, we must examine a good portion of the doctrines that are out there, that are based on extractions of scripture, completely out of context, and realize these unfounded teachings are a deception, and intended by Satan to destroy the church, destroy lives and ultimately turn people from Christ rather than draw them to Him.

To withdraw scripture from its context to support an otherwise unfounded doctrine, is to falsely portray Christ, the Living Word. Let us be diligent, and “study to show ourselves approved, workmen who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

Don't play "Bible roulette", randomly opening the scripture picking a verse, and building a doctrine from that lone verse; ....plan your reading , and read it in context.

Something to consider…..

Have a Blessed day…..