Safetypinlove

The original meaning for the Greek word for “things that cause people to sin” is a trigger on which the bait is placed so that when an animal touches it the trap swings closed on its victim. Jesus is telling His disciples here that such sin is bound to happen in a world filled with depravity and wickedness, but deplorable and wretched is the person who would intentionally entice another to fall into such moral and spiritual ruin. So in other words, that person was the trigger of the trap…the cause of another’s stumbling… with devastating results for both.

The city of Sardis was a very wealthy and prosperous place…and the same kind of apathetic arrogance that characterized the city was also very evident in the early Church there. Its members had become complacent, and self-satisfied with the status quo…resting on their laurels of past importance among the early Churches…which led to a spirit of smugness and opened the way to sin. The Church of Sardis had drifted into spiritual unconsciousness…or as it’s called today – nominal Christianity. Quite simply put…it’s someone who professes faith, but has no fruit to show for it. John’s letter to the Church of Sardis is a cautionary tale for many a Church today if they’re banking on what they once were, and not on what they’ve become. What’s needed John wrote is a moral reorientation of hearts and minds, and a turning back to Jesus and our first love.

From the very beginning, there have been people speaking God’s message and those declaring words that just sound good to them or to the crowd they’re part of. Jeremiah speaks of these two types of prophets here…the true prophet of God and the false prophet. Deuteronomy 18:21-22 speaks to discerning between the two this way, ” You may say to yourselves, ‘How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?’ If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken.” Also remember, prophesy has to be consistent with all prior revelation…an example would be if a prophet instructed Believers to serve another god, he would be a false prophet. Finally, be careful of people who claim their message is from God but when it doesn’t happen will rationalize, explain away, or in some way justify what they said was true…when it wasn’t.

To illustrate what Paul was trying to get across to Timothy, I will ask you this. Does your next-door neighbor know that you’re a Christian? Or when a group of friends get together and the conversation goes into the sewer do you say something, or just squirm uncomfortably? Paul is exhorting Timothy to not just stand there in embarrassed silence, afraid of persecution because he doesn’t conform to worldly standards, but to boldly give witness through his “story” of how the Lord has worked in his life. People need to hear the “Good News” of the Gospel Message…they need to know God loves them and has a wonderful plan for their life…so what’s so shameful about that?

Simply put, this verse is a warning against unbelief…a stubborn attitude and unwillingness to be receptive to the voice of the Holy Spirit…or as Isaiah 6:10 calls it, a calloused heart, dull ears, and closed eyes. Either way, this hardening of the heart mutes the very voice of Him who is convicting, wooing, and persuading us towards obedience and right standing with God. The Holy Spirit is persistent, but as our conscience becomes more and more hardened to the sound of His voice, it’s easily drowned out by the world.

Just as Jesus said to each of the disciples, He says to you today…”Follow Me.” But for many, following Jesus will become a very lonely road. Family members may become hostile and critical of your new found faith…friends may find your new life-style too stuffy and stifling to want to be around you anymore. In these verses Jesus acknowledges the sacrifices the disciples had to make…and that following Him was not an easy journey. But for all the sacrifice and self-denial…for all the loneliness and pain… Jesus promised abundant blessings both now and forever.

In all honesty, King David’s desire to build a permanent structure for the Ark of the Covenant probably came out of guilt. There he was firmly established in his kingdom, living in a lovely palace while the Ark was still residing in a tent. So with enthusiasm and passion he started to make preparations on his grand plan. But then God stepped in, scrapped David’s plan, and instead gave him a very limited role of just gathering building supplies. During my Christian journey this has happened to me many times. I get these wonderful ideas, (or at least they sound wonderful to me), of things I can do for the Lord, only to have Him shut them down soundly. It’s at that moment I have two choices to make…I can sulk or I can accept. I can pout or I can move on acknowledging God knows best.

Throughout his letter to the Romans, Paul argues against the idea of getting “Fire Insurance”. What do I mean? It’s accepting Jesus into your life but refusing to actually conform to the moral Will of God. It’s trying to pull one over on the Lord…of having your cake and eating it too. It’s banking on God’s loving kindness and gracious disposition towards us that He’ll continue to forgive, and forgive, and forgive…regardless of what wickedness we do. But begging forgiveness after the fact, (particularly only when/if we get caught) rather than changing our ways in the first place is what ” becoming a new creation” is all about . (II Corinthians 5:17)

Bad things do happen to good people everyday. That doesn’t mean though God’s sovereignty and innate goodness towards His children is somehow lessened. We must remember that we live in a very broken world, full of very broken people, who behave in very broken ways. But to the defense of Job’s wife here, she too had experienced with Job the death of all her children and loss of everything they owned…but now seeing her husband, in serious physical condition, her faith faltered…probably fearing she would be left a penniless, childless widow. She also may have always relied on her husband’s faith rather than her own in times of trouble, and now seeing him in such mental and physical pain it shook her to the core. So when Job called her foolish, he was talking about her failure to keep the faith, and to keep her perspective of God.

Zacchaeus was a loathed outcast of the Jewish community in his home town of Jericho after he had sold out to became a Tax Collector for the hated Romans. He had heard that this Jesus person was passing through and wanted to catch a glimpse of Him…so he climbed up into a Sycamore-fig tree for a hidden vantage point. But Jesus had other ideas. As He approached the tree Jesus stopped, looked up into the branches and called Zacchaeus by name to come down…and then Jesus shocked the gathered crowd by inviting Himself to his house. Jesus was looking past the sin to see the soul…He was searching the heart and mind of Zacchaeus rather than looking at just the superficial. That’s because Jesus knew the inner man of Zacchaeus and loved him just as he was. And this unconditional love dramatically changed Zacchaeus.