| Whatsoever
Things Are True
by Dan Coburn Pastor, Emmanuel Baptist Church pastordan@mtida.net What is everyone talking about today? State sovereignty, individual rights, overstepping government regulation, taxation, absence or denial of “day of prayer” in favor of Muslim celebrations, mosques at ground zero, politics, apocalypse, natural disasters, conspiracies, proposition 8 (or the lack thereof). What is the answer to all these questions? Can they indeed be solved? Will they? Will all Christians someday agree on everything? What ultimately, do you seek? The right President? Secured borders? Would that make you happy? If you could be King of the world for a year, could you clean up the mess? Would you be able to sway all those who don’t believe the way you do? What would you do to the balance that doesn’t? They could be potential trouble makers, and after all, you are charged with protecting the peace, aren’t you? Let’s turn the Spiritual Switch: Last week we talked about “dying to self”. A subject that the world can not grasp at all, while Christians tend to avoid altogether. What you have to realize, is that dying to self is the only pathway to the answer to all the above questions. What you seek is called in the Bible - “Rest”. Nugget: In Christ, you are not promised deliverance from bad circumstances, but rather deliverance Through bad circumstances. There is a rest (peace) that is available Only in a deep relationship (involving repentance) with the Savior Jesus Christ. “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.” Heb. 4:9-11. Die to live, labor to rest; I see a pattern developing. The first three “fruits” of the Spirit are Love, Joy and Peace (Gal. 5). If you are living on a sustained basis in absence of these, perhaps your relationship is not what you thought it was. “For thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel; In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength: and ye would not.” Isaiah 30:15. Clear as mud? Here is the answer in a manageable bite size morsel. “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths”. Prov. 3:5-6. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Matt. 11:28. Do you have rest? Do you have peace? Do you long for it? Do you acknowledge that you can’t “fix it”? Has it ever occurred to you that nothing ever occurred to God? God bless. |
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