Author: Daryl Pint

Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

–Hebrews 10:24–25

God has ordered us to make disciples. That’s the only reason we’ve been left here on earth. How do we do that? Paul shared his method of ministry in Colossians 3:16: “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” Paul said we are to be teaching one another the Word of God.

When we think of teaching, we think of standing up in front of a Sunday school class or small group. But in this verse, Paul was not talking about teaching a class. Notice the phrase “one another”–this refers to the ministry of sharing God’s Word with our fellow Christians to help them grow in their faith.

Suppose a friend told you they were contemplating a divorce. Would you know which Bible verses to share with them? Or suppose your child or grandchild said, “I’m getting ready to graduate, but I don’t have any direction in my life.” Would you know where to turn in Scripture to help them discover God’s will? Suppose somebody came to you in debt over their head. Could you share a few biblical principles about how to manage our finances?

Let me give you an assignment that will help you fulfill your ministry mandate to teach God’s Word. Start by making a list of the top five issues you think the people around you are struggling with, such as marriage problems, depression, anger, finances, or knowing God’s will. Then choose one issue on your list and spend a week studying that subject in the Bible. Let’s say you choose finances. An easy way to study what the Bible says about finances is to use a topical Bible. If you look up finances in a topical Bible, you’ll see verses that deal with various aspects of finances–debt, saving, earning, giving, and so on. But whether you use a topical Bible or an online search, make a list of key verses on your topic. Then develop four or five principles that come from those verses. For example, on the subject of finances, God says we’re not to go into debt unnecessarily, we’re to pay our bills on time, we’re to tithe, and we’re to save a portion of our income for future needs. Finally, memorize a couple of the key verses on that topic.

If you follow these steps for all five issues on your list, then you’ll have something positive to share with fellow Christians who need strength and encouragement from God’s Word.

Col. 1:11     “Since His power is so glorious, may you be strengthened with strength of every kind, and be prepared for cheerfully enduring all things with patience and longsuffering”

2 Cor. 12:9     He said to me, My strength is sufficient, for it is only by means of conscious weakness that perfect power is developed”

Our Father does not test our faith so much as He exercises and develops it. In time, He makes us aware of our utter weakness; and, in time, we trust and rest in His all-sufficient strength.

“Until we are carried quite out of our depth, beyond all our own wisdom and resources, we are no more than beginners in the school of faith. Only as everything fails us and we fail ourselves, do we draw upon abiding strength. Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee’; not partly in Thee and partly in himself. The devil often makes men strong, strong in themselves to do evil – great conquerors, great acquirers of wealth and power. The Lord on the contrary makes His servant weak, puts him in circumstances that will show him his nothingness, that he may lean upon the strength that is unfailing. It is a long lesson for most of us, but it cannot be passed over until deeply learned. And God Himself thinks no trouble too great, no care too costly to teach us this.”

“Faith counts on the Word of God outside and apart from everything and everyone here. When you are in faith your life is centered in the Lord Jesus. The moment the heart is detained by anything here, faith is obstructed. The visible is antagonistic to the invisible. If you walk in the Spirit you will be sensible of this in a moment; the effects and influences of the visible are counter to the invisible. Eve had lost faith when she saw that the tree was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes. If she had kept faith – dependence upon God – she would not have looked, but she had parted with the faith which overcometh the world when she saw.’ The moment one becomes occupied with the visible one has parted company with faith.” -J.B.S.

“Since His power is so glorious, may you be strengthened with strength of every kind, and be prepared for cheerfully enduring all things with patience and longsuffering” Col. 1:11

 Luke 23:39-43

 Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed Him, saying, “If You are the Christ, save Yourself and us.”  But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?  And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”  Then he said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.” And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

The cross means different things to different people. For some it’s just a pretty piece of jewelry. To others it’s a decoration for their home. To Christians it is a symbol of the sacrificial love of Christ and His conquering of the grave.

However, to criminals under Roman rule in the first century, and those who witnessed the punishment, the cross was a symbol of torture, cruelty, death, and humiliation.

We can learn a lot from a man on a cross. This individual’s name is only known to God. We find this man—a criminal sentenced to death—hanging beside Jesus in Luke 23:39-43.

The first lesson that we learn is that he had a correct view of reality (Luke 23:40-41) and a correct view of himself. He saw himself as a criminal who was rightly condemned for the deeds he had committed. He correctly realized that he deserved death.

Further, he had a correct view of Jesus. He recognized Jesus as the spotless Lamb of God and he testified to this while hanging on the cross. He knew he was a sinner, and Jesus was innocent.

The second lesson that we learn is that this criminal had a correct view of life after death. Though he was sentenced to death and hanging to life by a thread, he believed that his soul would continue to live after he died.

Many people today live as if this life is all there is, but the Bible says that your soul lives forever and that it will abide in one of two places—heaven or hell (Matthew 10:28; Luke 12:5; John 3:1-21).

Finally, we see that this criminal had a correct view of salvation (Luke 23:42). He saw himself as totally helpless. He could do nothing to improve his odds in life or save himself. He was now bound to death and could not escape. Yet he cries out to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom.”

He wanted to offer the last thing he had to give (his soul) to Jesus. He realized that Jesus was the Son of God and that he wanted to be a part of Christ’s kingdom.

The criminal on the cross: he knew who he was and who Jesus was, he knew that his soul would continue after he died, and he knew that Jesus was the Savior. He could do nothing but cry out to Jesus and place his faith in Him for his salvation.

To which Jesus replied, “Today you will be with Me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Have you seen the world through the eyes of this condemned criminal? Do you understand your need for the Savior, and—more importantly—have you looked to Him for your salvation? If not, visit PeaceWithGod.net to learn how you can have the hope of eternity with Jesus.

If you have made that decision, look for opportunities God puts in front of you to share that same hope with those around you. Jesus saved the criminal on the cross, and He wants to save each of us as well.

In the ancient world, salt was an expensive valuable commodity. Households used salt to preserve and protect meat from decay. Salt was the medicine of choice among physicians to ward off disease and infection. Employers even used salt to pay workers for a job well done. But if an employee were unproductive, he would be declared “not worth his weight in salt.”

Notice in the text that every offering was to be salted. Salt was the opposite of leaven, a symbol of evil and sin, meaning all we offer to God must be pure, sincere, and purged of hypocrisy. Every spiritual offering must be free of earthly contaminates before it can be offered to a holy God. When you and I worship God in our giving and service out of pure hearts and undefiled motives, we do so with a well-salted offering worthy of Him.

Jesus also stressed the importance of salt when He challenged His followers to be the salt of the earth (Matthew 5:13). Our world is extremely ill and prone to sin. The Christian, therefore, is to be a salty preservative to slow down and counter the rottenness and evil so pervasive in our day.

However, there is another aspect of salt that is of supreme importance in fulfilling Jesus’ commission—salt generates thirst. Christ-followers are to make the unbelieving world thirsty. May we be used not only to preserve what is just and pure but also to make all those we encounter thirsty for the things of God.

What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

–1 Corinthians 4:7

In Colossians 3:12, Paul listed six character qualities that are essential for every Christian if we are to become like Christ. The third quality on the list is humility.

Throughout Scripture, God places a premium on humility. In Isaiah 66:2, God said, “To this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” And in Matthew 23:12, Jesus said, “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.”

We tend to go to one of two extremes in terms of how we view ourselves. One extreme is to think, I’m so wonderful! How could this world ever get along without me? The other extreme is to think, I’m just a lowly worm; I’m absolutely nothing in God’s sight. Neither extreme is biblical. In Romans 12:3, Paul said, “I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith.” You need to have a balanced view of yourself. Yes, apart from God, you are nothing. But God has saved you and given you a unique spiritual gift.

So what does it mean to be humble? Let me give you four characteristics of humble people:

1. They credit others for their successes. Every good thing in your life is the result of what either God or other people have done for you. In 1 Corinthians 4:7, Paul asked, “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?” Everything you have ultimately comes from God.
2. They refuse to hold on to their rights. When you understand that everything comes from God, then you understand that you’re here to fulfill God’s agenda–just like Jesus, who gave up His rights to meet God’s agenda (Philippians 2:6–8).
3. They resist the need to always be right. You don’t have a corner on the truth. God has given other people different spiritual gifts and therefore different perspectives than yours.
4. They demonstrate an interest in serving other people. We tend to view other people in terms of what they can do for us. But not Jesus. Matthew 20:28 says, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.” The most powerful being in the universe came to earth not to meet His own need but to meet our need for salvation. We are to have the same attitude of humility.

Romans 5:1-2   Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we^[ have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Ephesians 6:2    And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,

Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. (Genesis 28:12)

The sins of Isaac, Rebekah, Esau, and Jacob all combined to make a big mess, so big that Jacob had to flee from his twin brother who had vowed to kill him. Jacob traveled eastward toward Haran, in the ancestral lands of his grandfather Abraham (Genesis 11:31-32) and his mother Rebekah (Genesis 24:3-4).

Traveling alone through the desolate landscape, Jacob had a significant dream as he used a stone for a pillow. One can only imagine the strange flood of feelings in Jacob at this moment: the fear, the loneliness, the isolation, the excitement, and the anticipation. This was an important time in Jacob’s life.

Jacob’s dream presented an interesting image. He saw a ladder on the earth, one that reached to heaven. Jacob saw in his dream the angels of God going up and down (ascending and descending) on the ladder.

Through this dream, God told Jacob that there was a way to access heaven – that heaven and earth were not permanently and completely separated – there was access to heaven. Jacob now knew God was closer than he had ever before believed and there was real interaction between heaven and earth. Heaven is not shut up, and God concerns Himself with what happens on earth. All this was a life-changing revelation to Jacob, who previously seemed to have litter interest in or regard for God.

In the New Testament, Jesus made specific reference to this dream of Jacob when He said to Nathanael: Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (John 1:51). Here, Jesus said that He was the fulfillment of the ladder that Jacob saw in his dream. Jesus is humanity’s access to heaven, and Jesus is how heaven comes down to people and by which people can go to heaven. Jesus the Messiah is this ladder, the way to heaven.

Remember the great words Jesus spoke to His disciples the night before He went to the cross: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me (John 14:6). Jesus didn’t say that He knew the way; Jesus said that He was the way. Jesus didn’t say that He pointed to the way; Jesus said that He was the way.

Jesus is the ladder, the way to God – and there is no other ladder or way. Jesus is the bridge between heaven and earth, and the way was made through His own sacrifice. it is in this sense that Jesus could say in John 1:51 that those angels were ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. He made the way Himself, by His own sacrifice.