The Carpenter's Chapel (4)

Roger,

Thank you for that devotional. How wonderful that our Lord is only a prayer away.

God Bless

Sheila

 

To the Word - our guide in all times even the dark times

Thank you Roger!

 

Saturday May 15, 2004

"If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds."
(2John:10-11)

Okay, there are false teachers, how are we to deal with them?
There are two possible applications for this passage, or, perhaps, both:
1.On the Church level, that is, bringing these teachers into the Church services.
2.On the personal level, that is, extending the hand of fellowship, even to the point of welcoming them into your home.
The one-chapter epistle of 2John, was addressed to "the elect lady and her children" by John, who also extended greetings from "The children of your elect sister" (vv. 1,13) These unusual phrases, together with the general tone of the epistle, it would seem to suggest that John is not speaking of two individual Christian women, but two churches, symbolically personified as two noble ladies with the "children" being the new converts in the churches.
This would support the first view (1.), about the dangers of allowing a false teacher to come into the church, as a pastor, a teacher, or even as a visiting speaker.

Comparing different versions, looking at the Interlinear Greek/English New Testament, and considering the context of verse 9, verse 10 could be rendered:
"If anyone comes to you and does not teach, nor live by, the teachings that Christ taught, do not receive him into your house or home"
This would more support the second (2.) view, that is, to have nothing to do with such people. Today, it seems, that the false teachers that go door-to-door the most are the Jehovah's Witnesses.
(Perhaps the most miss-named people on the planet, because they certainly are not His witnesses!)
So, when they come knocking are we to be so inhospitable that we do not welcome them in? This would seem at first to conflict with the many Biblical exhortations to show hospitality.
I feel there are two points to ponder in order solve this problem:

First, John did write to "children" No, it makes no difference if the new believer, the "babe in Christ" is physically 9 or 90, if one is new to the faith, these should not take on a "J.W" (Or any false teacher for that matter). These false teachers are very well trained on how to promote their views and can wreck the faith of the babe in Christ. One should be in the faith for a while and rooted and grounded in God's Word before taking on a J.W.
Second, it would seem that John is giving advise, not a commandment from The Lord. From Strong's Definitions I learned that the word in or text for "greet" can also be rendered "rejoice". This speaks of regarding them as friends and treating them as one of your buddies; folks, they are not.

So, if you do open that door and invite them in, always be wary of who you are dealing with.

 

Thanks for the timely warning Watchman!

 

Watchman,

Thank you. As you say, JW's are very clever at how they present the Gospel. We need also to be very wary of mormons too.

God Bless

Sheila

 

A missionary - who is supported by my church - offers the following recommendation.

Make a deal with them - give them the opportunity to speak (for a set amount of time) without interruption.

Then you speak for the same set amount of time (without interruption).

When they are speaking - don't interrupt - when you are speaking - hold them to the interruption rule!

 

Great idea Dan. Tho', when they come to our house they tend not to stay to long if Rob speaks to them. We were blacklisted by them once, a few years ago. We used to watch them go to every other house in the close except ours. Then we changed our car and they thought we had moved... ...and Rob answered the door to them

 

Sunday May 16, 2004

"If anyone wills do do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on my own authority."
(John 7:17)

The apostle Paul, in the last epistle that he wrote, speaks about certain philosophers who would be, "Always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (2Tim. 3:7) Paul makes it clear why such people, no matter how scholarly or well educated they seem to be, are still incapable of accepting real truth. "So do these also resist the truth." (vs. 8)
This is certainly nothing new, Hosea wrote:
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being priest for me."
(Hosea 4:6)
They could not learn the truth because they were not willing to believe or obey the truth when they learned it. For example, a very vexing controversy among modern Christians is whether or not the Genesis account of six-day creation can be so interpreted as to accommodate the billion-year, geological-age system of earth history.
In spite of overwhelming scientific evidence against evolution, "Christian evolutionists" stil argue (or at least allow) that evolution could be God's method of creation.
Such a fence-straddling position is logically untenable, however, and gravely dangerous spiritually. There are numerous Biblical and theological reasons why evolution, under any guise, must be unequivocally repudiated by Bible-believing Christians.
God "formed man out of the dust of the ground."
(Gen. 2:7). Many theistic evolutionist have asserted that this phrase could be applied to the long process of evolution, as imagined by modern scientists. This, of course, is fantasy. But whatever argument might be made for this strange interpretation, there is simply no way at all for the record of Eve's subsequent formation out of Adam's side (Gen. 2:21-22) to be so interpreted.
The Lord Jesus Christ Himself quoted from the Genesis account of the creation of man and woman (Mat. 19:4-6) as literal history. Both man and woman are special creations of God, with no evolutionary connection whatever, to any kind of animal ancestry.

Knowledge of God's truth depends, first of all, on a heart genuinely willing to believe God's truth and to do His will. Such a heart does not try to twist God's word to accommodate a human philosophy, nor does it try to accommodate one's personal will by persuading himself that it is God's will. God's will is always consistent with God's word, which is written to be easily understood by anyone who is willing to believe His word and do His will.

I would like to mention something here. It will not be very often that I will refer back to a previous devotional, but I felt it good to do so here. Yesterday I mentioned the J.W's. Now their view of Jesus is, of course, that He is none other than Michael the archangel, the first thing created. To Him God gave the power to create and so, as in John 1:3, "All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made." Strange that He was both made and was the maker of all that was made, without exception. This is nonsense, and is another place where J.W. doctrine falls flat on it's face.

As a matter of introduction: Coming soon;
The Gospel According to John.
I look forward to that.

 

Thank you Watchman.

God Bless you

Sheila

 

Brother Watchman - Thank you so much for your devotional today!

 

Monday, 17th May, 2004

“Consider your ways”
Haggai 1

For this mornings thoughts I want to once again go to one of the books we call the “Minor Prophets.” Although that may be the name, and they may for the most part not be very long, they are by no means “minor”

Haggai was written at a desperate time for the nation of Judah. Although they had been allowed to return to the land after a seventy year captivity, their spiritual condition was not good. They had given up working on rebuilding the Temple and fourteen years had passed. They needed a wake up call and Haggai was just the man to do it! For the next couple of days we want to apply that call to our own lives.

As the book opens, God tells Haggai to go to the people because they were saying, “Its not to do the work of God and build His house.”

Haggai voice thunders to the people:

Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your cieled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. (Haggai 1v4-5)

This is the first time in the book that we see the phrase, “consider your ways,” and that is the core of our message this morning.

It is easy to be critical of these people. We might say “Why didn’t they keep working? They deserve whatever they get form God. Bunch of wimps, not serving God for fourteen years. Of course God tells them to consider their ways.”

But that would be the easy way out, wouldn’t it? How about if we take these words to heart and consider our OWN ways? What is their in your life that you have left undone? What work for the Lord is there that you have said, “The time is not come?”

Are you willing to take these words to heart and truly “consider your ways?” Lest we think that this is an “Old Covenant principle” let us be reminded of Galatians 6v4; “But let every man prove his OWN work, and then he shall have rejoicing in himself, and not in another.”

Notice the phrasing in Habakkuk and Galatians is personal, it is not “consider your neighbour’s way,” or, “Let every man prove his brother’s work.” It is clearly directed at each one to examine himself.

This morning, hopefully, we each looked in the mirror and considered our appearance before we went out to face the world. How many of us took the time to consider our spiritual life the same way?

Consider your ways. How about starting today?

 

Thank you Roger.
Just yesterday evening our pastor spoke on those who have quit the work for the Lord that they were doing, even former pastors that he knew.

 

Excellent message Roger - thanks!

 

Thank you Roger.

Sometimes we all need a "wakeup call" to get us back or keep us on track. I for one certainly needed that message today.

God Bless

Sheila

 

Thank you Jim,

God Bless

Sheila

 

Preach it brother!

 

First, what a great reminder by Jim, thank you!

Wednesday, 19th May, 2004

“Consider your ways” part 2
Haggai 1v6-7

“Ye have sown much, and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink; ye clothe you, but there is none warm; and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways.”

The problem here is not really doing without. The problem is one of priorities and contentment. The people of Judah were not content with what they had, they had begun to use their perceived lack as a reason not to serve the Lord. Whenever we get discouraged or “whingey” (a good British Isles word for moaning and complaining) about our situation it is because we have lost focus on what should be important to us.

The Bible has a solution for each of the situations mentioned above.

“Ye have sown much, and bring in little;” The answer is to focus on sowing the word of God – Psalm 126v6

“ye eat, but ye have not enough;” The solution is to feast on the bread of life – John 6v31-35

“ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink;” – Then drink of the water of life - John 4v13,14; 6v35

“ye clothe you, but there is none warm;” – Be more concerned about being clothed with humility than your apparel – 1 Peter 5v5

“and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.” – The answer is simple – stop trying to lay up treasures on earth, instead lern to lay up treasures in heaven. Matthew 6v19,33

Is you perception of lack holding you back from serving God? “The Lord knows what things you have need of.” Since He knows what we need why do we even worry about it. If our concern was more on serving Him and less on our needs we would never realise that we were “doing without.”

Again Habakkuk repeats the words, “consider your ways!”

 

Thank you Roger.

Again it all comes down to trust doesn't it? To what extent to we trust in our Lord and our God. I pray my trust is growning in HIM day by day.

God Bless

Sheila