Praying Pint

 

 

Jhn 16:33  I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

1Pe 3:10-11    For “Whoever desires to love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit; let him turn away from evil and do good; let him seek peace and pursue it.

Php 4:5-8  Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.   Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Psa 4:8  In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

2Th 3:16  Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

 

 

Matthew 5:9 ~ Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

John 14:27 ~ Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

Romans 12:18 ~ If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Colossians 3:15 ~ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

2Co 13:11  Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

 

2Timothy 3:2-5   For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,  heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

2Ti 3:16-17  All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

John 16:33 ~ I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

2 Thessalonians 3:16 ~ Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

Isaiah 26:3 ~ You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.

 

Acts 6:3    Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business

Have you ever noticed how life’s distractions and temptations can change your spirit?

Think about it. You go into work in the morning with a smile on your face and a song in your heart, only to overhear a colleague denigrating your abilities in front of your boss. How do you react?

“Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.”
—Acts 6:3

Later you have an opportunity to work your way out of a difficult situation by bending the truth to fit your needs and cover your back. How do you react now?

Finally, you see an accounting error that could add some extra money to your paycheck if you simply stay quiet and do nothing. With all of these frustrations and temptations piling up, you probably would not be feeling overly spiritual at that point.

The fact of the matter is that in our fast-paced society, with so many different distractions around every corner, it is easy to be filled with a worldly mindset and not be filled with the Holy Spirit. That, however, is no excuse.

Frankly, we are commanded to be filled with the Holy Spirit. What does this mean? It means that you are to be under the total influence of the Holy Spirit—God, dwelling in you, ordering your steps.

Stephen, the first Christian martyr in the Scriptures, provides a beautiful picture of someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit, especially when compared to the Sanhedrin (religious/political leaders of the day). Acts 6:3 and 7:54-8:1 offer a few key characteristics of a man who was facing the cold reality of death at the hands of an angry mob.

1. Be of Good Report

First, someone who is filled with the Holy Spirit is of good report (Acts 6:3). It is not that having good report—being known by others as virtuous and pure—fills you with the Holy Spirit, but it is the Holy Spirit that allows you to have this trait. The members of the Sanhedrin were the opposite of this. They were called murderers, betrayers, stubborn, and disobedient (Acts 7:51–53).

2. Welcome the Truth

Second, unlike the Sanhedrin, those who are filled with the Holy Spirit welcome the truth (Acts 7:55–56). Stephen sees Christ standing at the right hand of God, and he was glad to commit his spirit to God. Conversely, those who were not filled with the Spirit began to “cry out in a loud voice” because they heard the truth and wanted to drown it out by their own words (Acts 7:57). They also covered their ears, trying to prevent the truth from affecting them.

3. Intercede for Others

Finally, those who are filled with the Holy Spirit will intercede for others (Acts 7:60). Stephen was falsely accused, falsely arrested, and was about to be stoned, and yet he prayed for those who were about to murder him. What compassion! The only way Stephen could do this was because he was filled with the Holy Spirit.

Eternity Is at Stake

Like Stephen, being filled with the Holy Spirit needs to be a way of life for us. Too often we only want to be filled with the Spirit on Sundays, and as soon as we leave our church service, we return to our worldly routines of mundane tasks, acceptable temptations or angry confrontations.

However, a Holy Spirit-filled life has a lot to do with your effectiveness as an evangelist for the cause of Christ. If you are someone who truly wants to reach the lost (a motivation all believers should share), you need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk. If you have been witnessing to a friend from work, but live a sinful life indistinguishable from the nonbelievers around you, you are likely doing more harm than good for the Kingdom of God.

Conversely, if you take the distractions, frustrations, and temptations of this world and handle them with the purity, truth and compassion of the Holy Spirit, others will want to know what it is that makes you tick. They will want to know what is missing in their life that is present in yours.

My friends, be filled with the Holy Spirit. Eternity is at stake. (Graham)

 

2Peter 2:12-15  But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction,  suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.  They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray.

In our society today, false beliefs and teachings are often accepted without ever being tested. People believe that social media memes and TV talking heads are the source of truth. They latch on to rumors, myths, and hearsay like it’s the final word.

Sadly, heresy (non-Biblical or anti-Biblical teaching) is even creeping up in our churches.

While we’re seeing this a lot in our modern world, it is not a new phenomenon. Even in the first century, false teachers were making their way into churches, and people were buying the lies they were selling.

Nearing the end of his life (likely in prison and soon to be executed by the Romans), the Apostle Peter had become very concerned about the heresy that was creeping into the churches in Asia Minor. False teaching had actively led followers of Christ away and was causing dissension.

It troubled Peter so much that he wrote a letter to these churches (his second letter to them, actually) in which he called out the heretical leaders that were causing so much trouble.

In doing so, he gave us several characteristics of false teachers. Nearly 2,000 years later, 2 Peter 2:10–16 still serves as a warning and guide in the church today.

First, pride is a sign of false teaching. Make no mistake about it. Pride is a serious and dangerous malignancy. The Scripture says that a false teacher is “presumptuous” and “self-willed.” In other words, they view their own authority as taking precedence over the Bible’s authority.

Perhaps they view the Bible as “inspired” by God, but feel like it needs to be updated to their modern understanding of societal norms. In doing so, their pride causes them to pervert the Holy Scripture in a way that was never intended.

Second, a false teacher is willfully ignorant. Whenever I see false teaching, I wonder how supposedly “Christian” teachers could say something that is so totally at odds with the Bible. However, Peter tells us in verse 12 that false teachers “speak evil of the things they do not understand.” They are willfully ignorant of Scripture on one hand, while claiming the moral authority of the Bible on the other.

In reality, they are much like Paul described in Romans 1:25. They “exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.”

Third, lust is a sign of a false teacher. The passage describes false teachers by saying they:

• “walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority,”
• “count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime,” and have
• “eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls.”

Lust is a result of loving ourselves and pleasure more than God. The false teachers that Peter described were so brazen that they didn’t even wait until the cover of night but were openly pursuing depravity during the day. Further, they used sexual pleasure as a way of appealing to their flock with their heretical messages.

Finally, false teachers are covetous and are driven by greed. The passage says, “They have a heart trained in covetous practices.” In other words, they desired other people’s property and worked to exploit those around them.

As an example, Peter referenced the Old Testament prophet Balaam, who preferred wealth and popularity over obedience and righteousness. His covetous ways produced teachings of immorality and sin instead of truth and purity.

My friends, as followers of Jesus Christ, we must always view everything through the lens of truth itself: the Bible. I encourage you to spend time in God’s Word, digging deep in Scripture, meditating on it, and committing it to memory. The more you understand and internalize the Bible, the easier it will be for you to discern truth from lie and solid doctrine from false teaching.

Though heresy has been around for millennia, it’s as important as ever before to be on guard against it in today’s culture.

 

Rom 12:2  Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Exo 23:2  You shall not fall in with the many to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit, siding with the many, so as to pervert justice,

 

Jas 4:4  You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

 

2Co 6:14-18  Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?  What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.”

 

1Jn 2:15-17  Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.  And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.

 

Eph 2:1-3  And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

 

Eph 4:20-24  But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

What fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? § Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him … The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

You once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience. § You have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him … as the truth is in Jesus. (Bagster)

 

When it was evening, His disciples came to Him, saying, “This is a deserted place, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves food.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away. You give them something to eat.” (Matthew 14:15-16)

The multitudes followed Jesus to a deserted place (Matthew 14:13) outside the larger towns of Galilee. This crowd was a mixture of sincere seekers and the casually curious.

As the day wore on, Jesus saw the crowd was getting hungry, and He said to the disciples: You give them something to eat. This challenged both the compassion and the faith of the disciples. Having already seen Jesus perform a miracle of provision at the wedding in Cana (John 2:1-11), the disciples had a reason to believe that Jesus could meet the need of thousands of hungry stomachs.

Both Jesus and the disciples were aware of the great multitude and their needs. Yet it was the compassion of Jesus (mentioned in Matthew 14:14) and His awareness of the power of God that led Him to go about feeding the multitude.

The world is hungry, and whether they know it or not, they are hungry for Jesus.

– The people are hungry, and the empty religionist offers them some ceremony or empty words that can never satisfy.
– The people are hungry, and the atheists and skeptics try to convince them that they aren’t hungry at all.
– The people are hungry, and the religious showman gives them video and drama and light effects and cutting-edge music.
– The people are hungry, and the entertainer gives them loud, fast action, so loud and fast that they don’t have a moment to think.
– The people are hungry – who will give them the bread of life?

With Jesus among them, the people did not need to go away to have their hunger, their need, satisfied. If these were mostly casual, not-very-committed followers of Jesus and there was no reason for them to go away to receive what they needed, then there is even less reason for committed disciples of Jesus to go away for true life satisfaction.

Nevertheless, there are several reasons – or maybe excuses – why people look outside of Jesus for the satisfaction of the deepest needs of in their life. When we feel the pull to set Jesus to the side and meet such needs in other ways, we need to challenge ourselves and think about it.

– Circumstances don’t need to make you go away. You won’t have things so hard or so easy that you don’t need Jesus.
– There is nothing in Jesus that would make you want to go away.
– There is nothing in the future that will make you need to go away.

Our needs are satisfied in Jesus, through Jesus, and by Jesus. He may use many instruments, but we thank Him for it all. Don’t go away – go to Jesus. (Guzik)

 

Colossians 2:8  See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Early on in their development, caring parents teach their children the phrase “stranger danger.” It’s not that Mom and Dad are paranoid or afraid of everybody, just cautious and safe. Spiritually speaking, adults should adopt that same level of caution.

When new people come into our lives, getting to know their doctrine is wise before we form spiritual bonds. It is essential to be on guard because false teachers don’t say, “Hey, I’m here to lead you astray.” Heresy never presents itself like that. It’s more like a virus—small, easily shared, and sometimes deadly.

Viruses need a living organism to survive, making every human just another opportunity to covertly infiltrate, duplicate, and dominate. Once inside, a virus hijacks the host’s cells and spreads its infection—a tactic that resembles that of false teachers. It’s an ugly word picture, but an effective one.

Doctors say washing your hands is the easiest way to ward off a virus. Water won’t dilute the pathogen, but it doesn’t allow it to stick. Likewise, if you saturate yourself in the whole counsel of God, deception will not take hold. You can fight off false doctrine by cleansing your mind and heart with the pure water of God’s Word. Read it, study it, memorize it, pray it into your life, and keep yourself spiritually strong by discussing what you’ve learned with like-minded believers.

Be cautious and wise, and you’ll recognize false teaching for what it is—an attack upon the health of your soul. (Hibbs)

 

Colossians 3:2–6  “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience …”

One of the things that I found remarkable about the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 was how it took away many of our idols. Those cultural, political, and athletic icons that we emulated and revered suddenly came to a screeching halt.

There were no concerts, no football games, and no new theatrical releases. Work and school were canceled. 401(k)’s quickly plummeted. Politicians seemed as confused as the rest of us. The things that people clung to as anchors in life were suddenly gone.

In their absence, many realized their need for God instead.

Almost all of us have idols in our lives, which have taken a place of honor that should be reserved for our Lord and Savior. These things are mortal and temporary, yet we give them priority in our lives and follow them almost religiously.

The Bible—from the beginning of the Old Testament to the end of the New Testament—repeatedly issues warnings to avoid idolatry and focus on the One True God. The admonitions are not quaint suggestions, but forceful proclamations regarding the eternal risks of turning from God to the things of this world.

The contrast is clear. If your mind is set on Heaven and your eternity is surrendered to Christ, glory awaits. Conversely, if you make the pleasures and desires of this world your idol—if you turn your back on God and worship temporary “things”—you are traveling down a path that leads to eternal separation from God.

The blessing, my friends, is that it is not too late for you! If you recognize areas of your life where you’ve elevated worldly elements into a place of power in your life, I beg you to reorder your priorities today and return Christ to the throne of your heart. Jesus died to take away the idols which once controlled you.

As you surrender those things to Him as Savior, He will give you a new life and the promise of eternity with Him in Heaven. (Graham)