Tag Archives: world

June 5, 2024 · 6:51 PM

Who Tells You What To Think?

We love Vacation Bible School! The Bible verse for VBS this year is Romans 12:2. “Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God” (CSB).

This present age will tell us what to believe, what to value, how to spend our time and our money, who we should be trying to impress, how to ‘get ahead,’ and how to define our identity.

Social media, internet, sitcoms and movies, news reports, influencers and popular opinions, celebrities and political leaders, all these and more tend to pull us in their direction, to conform us to this age. This age has a thousand avenues into our hearts and minds.

This evil age will not encourage us to believe God’s word, to value God’s ways, to spend time and money seeking and serving our Maker and our Savior. This wicked world cares nothing about pleasing the Lord or advancing his kingdom. This world avoids talking about or thinking about eternity, accountability, or judgment.

This wicked world is so pervasive and so invasive that it seems impossible to resist. In fact, without help, we get swept away by the beliefs, values, ideas, and lifestyle of this world. What can we do?

First, we decide not to give in, not to be conformed to this age. Second, we present ourselves to God to be transformed. Note that Romans 12:2 does not say, “transform yourself.” It says, “be transformed.” We don’t have the strength to overcome the ways of this world. We need someone who has the power. God is the one who is able.

God’s transformation starts with our thinking. It says that we must be transformed by the renewing of our minds. In this world, people tend to be skeptical of God’s way of thinking. They tend to believe and trust friends, feelings, influencers, celebrities, anything but God or Jesus or the Bible.

As Christians, we have decided to trust Jesus. We believe his words and meditate on them. We think about how to live according to his words. God’s Spirit enables us to discern his will. In other words, we learn to recognize what is truly good, what pleases God. As Romans 12:2 says, we realize that God’s will is perfect.

Those who are conformed by the wicked ways of this evil age may have some fun for a season, but they are chasing the wind. The things of this world always leave us unfulfilled, needing more, endlessly searching but never satisfied.

In contrast, God’s will is perfect, whole, complete, without error or omission. We need nothing more than God’s will. God’s good and pleasing will touches every part of our lives, every circumstance, every need. When we pursue and practice God’s will, we need no supplements.

We no longer see social media as the world does, or the internet, or sitcoms and movies. We don’t decide how to spend our money and our time based on the world’s values and ideas. We choose to do what pleases God. We choose God’s good and pleasing and perfect will.

We pursue God’s will not because it makes our lives easier. In fact, we find ourselves at odds with the ways of this world. Nevertheless, we choose to be transformed because it is right in God’s eyes. It pleases God and that pleases us!

May God bless our kids and bless us with a fun and fruitful VBS in 2024,

Brother Richard

Satan Is As Real As Evil

A recent news story reported that an after-school Satan club now meets at a high school in Pennsylvania. This is not the first after-school Satan club. Others have already been established at public schools in our nation.

No surprise that one of their core issues is abortion. The Satanists teach kids that they are empowered to end the lives of unborn children. They compare abortion in Satanism to baptism or the Lord’s Supper in Christianity, a solemn ritual – outrageous!

They teach kids a song that includes lyrics saying that Satan is your friend, he wants you to have fun, and there is no hell. The song ends by saying that Satan doesn’t really exist. Sounds confusing and evil.

The Bible warns us that believers have three enemies: the ‘flesh,’ the world, and the devil (Satan). The ‘flesh’ is not a reference to our physical bodies. It is Bible terminology for the corrupt sinful desires that tempt us to disobey God and rebel against him. The ‘flesh’ threatens our peace and blessings from God.

The devil appeals to our ‘flesh,’ our sinful nature, stirring up the desire to disobey God. As followers of Jesus, however, we have crucified the ‘flesh’ with Christ. We are no longer in bondage to the sinful nature. We can choose to follow Christ instead of our sinful desires. We have God’s Spirit in our hearts empowering us to grow in our victory over sin.

The second enemy of believers is the world. In this case, “the world” is not creation, but the cultures, institutions, ideas, and attitudes of sinful humanity. This broken world is like a tide that always goes out to the sea of confusion and destruction. The devil exerts great influence on the world, using it to pull people away from God through skepticism and unbelief.

We face the temptation to be like the lost world around us instead of distinguishing ourselves as followers of Jesus, as a people with an eternal perspective. Jesus warns that the road to destruction is broad and many find it, but the path to life is narrow and difficult and only a few travel its way.

The third enemy of believers is the devil himself: Satan.

In Genesis 3, Satan makes his debut into the biblical account. He appears in the Garden of Eden and tempts Adam and Eve to disobey God by eating the forbidden fruit. Sadly, they were easy to persuade. And, sadly, people are still easily led astray by Satan and his lies.

Evil is real. It is not a human or cultural idea that we can redefine. Good and evil are defined by God. The standards for right and wrong are established and uncompromising.

Evil is powerful. We are helpless to stop it without God’s intervention. By any reasonable standard, humanity is not making progress at defeating evil. War, hatred, violence, deception, immorality, they still grow like weeds everywhere. No continent, country, community or culture is free of evil.

Evil is personal. Satan is a living personal being. He is a fallen angel who led a third of God’s angels astray and into rebellion against God. Now he wants to deceive us and lead us into tragic rebellion against God.

We cannot destroy the devil, but we can resist him and his temptations. James tells us that the first step in resisting the devil is submitting to God (James 4:7). With God’s power, we are able to stand against our enemy. Ephesians 6 urges us to put on the full armor of God so that we will stand and not be destroyed (Ephesians 6:10-20).

Once fitted with the full armor of God, we pray in the Spirit at all times with all kinds of prayers and requests. Our power to overcome is in our Lord. Let’s submit to God, resist the devil, stand against evil, and walk in victory!

May God’s Holy Spirit always inspire us and enable us,

Brother Richard

Don’t Go Halfway To Church

Jesus promised to build his church. He assured his disciples that the gates of Hades will never prevail over his church. This wonderful promise is recorded in Matthew 16. It is the first appearance of the word “church” in the Bible.

The underlying term used for church in the ancient Bible language is ekklesia. Bible teachers sometimes point out that ekklesia consists of two parts. The first part is ek, which means from or out of. The klesia part of the word is closely related to klysis,the ancient word for call or calling.

When we put the two parts of ekklesia together, we get something like “called out.” Some Bible teachers conclude from this combination that church means the called out ones, or those who are called out. In other words, “church” means those who are called out from this world of unbelief, called out from those who are in rebellion against God.

Come out of the world and be different! Be holy! That’s certainly an important part of God’s call to his people, his church. Believers are called to come out and be distinct from the unbelieving world. However, the word ekklesia means more.

First of all, we should note that combinations of words don’t always determine or even hint at the resulting meaning. For instance, butterfly does not mean that dairy products sail through the air on wings. The combination of butter and fly creates a completely new meaning: a delicate little critter with beautiful markings.

The word ekklesia is not bound by the meaning of its parts. The combination creates a fresh emphasis. Ekklesia is not focused entirely on what Christians leave behind, called out of the world. Instead, it points to what we are called to. The word emphasizes the fact that followers of Jesus are a people who gather together in an assembly.

We are the “assembly” of believers, so we assemble. We gather. Another English word that expresses the meaning of ekklesia well is “congregation.” As followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, we congregate with one another.

If we limit the word ekklesia to a negative connotation, being called out from, then we could stay at home alone and convince ourselves that we are being the church. After all, we have left the world behind, right? But leaving the world and being alone is not the meaning of church.

Staying at home to worship alone is halfway church. Retreating alone to a favorite place in nature for private worship is only going halfway to church. It is retreating from the unbelieving world, but it is not gathering with believers.

When we follow Jesus, we gather with brothers and sisters in the Lord. We congregate with Christ’s people, his church. We assemble for Christian fellowship and God meets with us in a special way.

When we assemble for Christian fellowship and worship, we send a message to the world: God is alive and well and working in us and among us! Our meetings are meant to be a positive witness to the world. Our meetings are meant to show the world the love of Christ.

Every enemy we have tries to keep us from church. The world works to lure us away by planning its best activities during church time. The devil whispers in our ear about what a failed and pathetic group God’s people is. Our own flesh, the sinful nature, urges us to pursue personal fun instead of public faith.

When we listen to God’s Spirit and follow his ways, we fellowship with our brothers and sisters in the Lord. We grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We worship and serve God together. We are a light in a dark world. We fulfill our eternal calling.

Going halfway to church is not far enough. Let’s be faithful in our generation. Let’s go all the way to church!

Brother Richard

Tag Archives: world

Who Tells You What To Think?

Satan Is As Real As Evil

Don’t Go Halfway To Church

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