|
|||||||
Tag: Paul
Last Sunday’s Sermon From The Ranch – Enlisting Others To Pray For You
***Sorry this is so late!***
|
|||||||
Yesterday’s Sermon From The Ranch – Instructing One Another
| (Each Sunday, This Day’s Thought is blessed to share Eric Elder’s sermons from his wonderful ministry, “The Ranch“) |
 |
|
Instructing One Another
Lesson 34 from Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind
One way to renew your mind is to teach others what you’ve been learning. It’s a way to both review what you’ve learned, and to bless others at the same time. So today, I’d like to encourage you to consider taking some time to teach others what you’ve learned in life. Sometimes we get caught up in the idea that we haven’t learned enough to be able to teach anyone else. Sometimes we think we need more training, or that others may be more qualified to teach than we are…both of which may be true. But this doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want us to teach others who could benefit from what we’ve learned so far! I’ve been praying for a drum teacher for some time now for my two younger sons. They’ve been wanting to play the drums, and we have a drum set, but they didn’t have anyone to teach them. A few months ago, I ran across a high schooler who played the drums for a worship team in town. I asked if he happened to give drum lessons and he said he did. He pulled out a business card with his name on it. At the top, it said: “Drum Lessons For Beginners” That was just what I needed! I signed the kids up and they’ve been learning and loving the drums ever since. What I loved about this high schooler was that he told us up front exactly what he had to offer: “Drum Lessons For Beginners.” He made no claims that he was the best drummer in town, or that he’d be teaching them advanced music theory. But he did have exactly what we needed: a willingness to teach what he had learned so far. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he told them that he had wanted to come to them many times before, but had so far been hindered from doing so. I’m sure Paul would have been a great teacher for them, and they could have learned a lot from his time with them. But Paul pointed out that they already had people to teach them: they had each other! Paul said: “I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another” (Romans 15:14). Paul was convinced that they were already filled with enough goodness, knowledge and competence to “instruct one another.” What a boost that must have been to the Roman Christians! They didn’t have to be like Paul or wait for Paul to benefit from godly teaching about the Lord. They had what it took to instruct one another! Paul knew the power of an encounter with Jesus. He had taken his own advice from the beginning of his ministry. The book of Acts tells that within days after Paul had his encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus, he was already telling others what he had learned. The Bible says: “Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God. All those who heard him were astonished and asked, “Isn’t he the man who raised havoc in Jerusalem among those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to take them as prisoners to the chief priests?” Yet Saul grew more and more powerful and baffled the Jews living in Damascus by proving that Jesus is the Messiah” (Acts 9:19b-22). Even as a brand new Christian, Paul had something to offer. “Bible Lessons For Beginners,” so to speak. Yes, he preached to anyone who would listen, including kings and the highest religious leaders in the land. But his heart always beat for sharing the gospel with those who had never heard about Jesus before. That is, in fact, why he was so often hindered from going to Rome, where there were already Christians capable of teaching one another. Paul said: “It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation. Rather, as it is written: ‘Those who were not told about Him will see, and those who have not heard will understand.’ This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you” (Romans 15:20-22). Several years ago, I was shopping for a new Bible. I like to read the Bible over and over, and sometimes like to read it in different versions, because I learn something new when I do. But as I was looking for a new Bible, I felt God was saying to me something like this: “You don’t need another Bible, Eric. You need to be writing to others what you’ve learned from the Bible already.” I had already begun writing devotional messages like the ones I send out now every week, like this one. In each message, I simply share a passage from the Bible with others, and share how God has used it to speak into my own life, encouraging others to read their Bibles and let God speak into their lives, too. I don’t make any claims that I’m better at reading the Bible than anyone else, or that there aren’t other people who may be way more qualified to teach the Bible than I am. But what I do have, I’m willing to offer to others. What I’ve learned from God through the Bible has so affected my life that I want to share it with anyone who will listen. Although it’s good to learn as much as you can, and get as much training as you can, and check and recheck your theology and ideas so that you’re not leading people astray, the truth is that the best prerequisite for teaching others about Jesus is that you’ve been with Jesus yourself. This is just what the Bible says about the first disciples. After Peter and John healed a man, thousands of people heard their message and put their faith in Christ. The rulers and elders of the people were astonished. The Bible says: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). Peter and John were ordinary and unschooled men, yet they had one thing that many of you reading these words today have: they had been with Jesus. If you’ve been with Jesus, spending time with Him, reading His words, praying and interacting and learning from Him, He wants you to share what you’ve learned with others. As Jesus told His first disciples: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20). One of the characteristics of being a disciple is making disciples. It simply goes with the package! Don’t let your training or lack of training stand in the way of sharing what you’ve learned with others. When I first graduated from college, I spent five months in Bangladesh teaching some people at a disease research center how to use a computer program for their work. I didn’t know much about the computer program myself, but I had a book about it and was able to read enough as I went along to test out the program and teach them what I learned along the way. I imagine they might have learned more if they had taken a class from a professor in computer programming, or someone who had worked with the software for years already. But there weren’t any professors in computer programming around, nor anyone else who had worked with the software before either! But I was willing to go anywhere and work with anyone, so somehow God sent me. The people I taught were grateful, and I was blessed to be able to use my skills, no matter how limited to help others. I’d like to encourage you to consider sharing with others whatever God may have shared with you, whether it’s drum lessons, Bible lessons, or even these lessons on renewing your mind. If you’ve been with Jesus, through the Spirit and through the Word, and have benefited from your time with Him, you can be sure that others can benefit from what you’ve learned, too! I am convinced, as Paul was about the Christians in Rome, that you yourselves are “full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another.” Take what you’ve learned and share it with others. You’ll be blessed as you review what you’ve learned, just as you’ll be a blessing to those who may be learning it for the very first time. Will you pray with me? Father, thank You for teaching us so much about who You are and how You want us to live our lives. Help us to share what we’ve learned with others so that we can pass on the blessings that You’ve passed on to us. Help us to overcome our fears of speaking and writing, teaching and preaching, so that we can be like Paul, boldly going where no man may have gone before, proclaiming the good news about Christ to anyone who will listen. In Jesus’ name, Amen. P.S. God wants to raise you up, not only for your own benefit, but for the benefit of others here on earth, too. If you need a bit of a lift this week, I’ve posted a beautiful instrumental version of the song “You Raise Me Up” on my website that you listen to and enjoy. I’d also be glad to send you a copy of the single on CD, that you can take with you anytime, day or night. My sister, Marilyn Byrnes, is a gifted pianist, and has recorded this special song to encourage my wife and I as we walk through my wife’s battle with cancer. Marilyn would be glad to send you a copy on CD as a thank you for your gift of any size to our ministry this month. Just use the links below to listen to the song online, read the lyrics, or make a donation and get a copy for yourself on CD. Make A Donation and Get the song on CD
Lyrics for “You Raise Me Up” When I am down and, oh my soul, so weary;
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
There is no life – no life without its hunger; Each restless heart beats so imperfectly;
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains; You raise me up… To more than I can be.
You raise me up, so I can stand on mountains;
You raise me up… To more than I can be. Questions for Reflection 1. Read Romans 15:14-24. What was the message that Paul said he had been preaching everywhere he went? And to whom had he been preaching that message to? To read more from this series, Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind,please visit:
To get more inspiring books and music like this, please visit:
To read Lana’s blog, please visit:
To invite Eric to speak to your group, whether by Skype or in person, please visit:
To find us on Facebook, please visit:
If you’d like to invite your friends to join us in receiving these regular messages directly, just forward this email and invite them to sign up at the link below. |
This Week’s Sermon From The Ranch – Thinking About Sinful Desires
|
|||||||
P.S. If you struggle with temptation, I’d like to point you to some passages in the Bible that could help. I’ve listed several below, and I’ve also included a link to a recording on our website where you can listen to each of these scriptures, read by my wife Lana to some beautiful music. If you’d like to get this recording on a CD, which includes over half an hour of readings from the Bible six other topics as well, I’d be glad to send you the whole CD for a donation of any size to our ministry this month. Your gifts truly help us get the word out about Christ every week to over 35,000 people around the world, and we’re glad to send you this beautiful recording of God’s Word set to music as our way of saying thanks. To read these verses for yourself, just click the links below:This Week’s Sermon From The Ranch; Doing What’s Right
|
|||||||
This Week’s Sermon From the Ranch – Thinking Of Others
|
|
|
Thinking Of Others
Lesson 29 from Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind
By Eric Elder
The story’s told of two friends who were walking through a desert together when one of the friends slapped the other in the face. The one who was slapped wrote a note in the sand saying:
“Today my best friend slapped me in the face.”
But as they walked further along, the one who had been slapped fell into a pool of water and began to drown. This time, his best friend reached down and pulled him out of the water, saving his life. This time, the friend who was rescued etched a note on a stone saying:
“Today my best friend saved my life.”
When asked why he wrote one note in the sand and the other note in stone, the one who had been slapped and then later rescued replied:
“When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand, where the winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone, where no wind can ever erase it.”
Too often, we get this backwards: we write people’s offenses in stone rather than sand, perhaps because they’ve hurt us so much, or perhaps to protect ourselves from being hurt again. Then we write the good deeds that people have done for us in sand, forgetting over time just how significant those good deeds have been in our lives. But according to the Bible, true love keeps no record of people’s offenses at all. As Paul said to the Corinthians:
“Love… keeps no record of wrongs” (1 Corinthians 13:5b).
Last week, we looked at the importance of thinking of ourselves properly, without falling into the traps of pride or low self-esteem. This week, we’re looking at the importance of thinking of others properly, without falling into the traps of conceit or comparison.
When Paul wrote about love to the Romans, he wrote a simple yet profound statement:
“Love must be sincere” (Romans 12:9a).
While this may seem obvious-that if we love someone we should love them sincerely-it’s not so easy to do. For some people, it’s easy to fake love.
I know a man who seemed like he was a friend to everyone, describing himself as having “great people skills.” Yet in private conversations with him, I discovered that he viewed others with various degrees of disdain, resentment and frustration, often thinking of himself as better than those around him. The love he showed to others was based on keeping up his image in public more so than holding those around him in true esteem.
This is just a shallow imitation of what real love looks like. Real love is sincere. In Latin, the word “sincere” literally means “without wax,” (sine meaning without, and cera meaning wax). Apparently, if a craftsman carved a statue in stone and accidentally nicked or chipped the carving along the way, they would fill those spots with wax. For all appearances, the statue looked pure and faultless. But after a while in the hot sun, the wax would melt and the truth would be known: that which appeared pure and faultless at first was in fact quite flawed.
When Paul said that love must be sincere, or without wax, he was saying that love shouldn’t be just for show, but for real.
In the past, I used to think that the word “sincerely” was just a formal way of signing off on a business letter, as I learned in business school back in college. But in recent years, and knowing the meaning of the word sincere, I find myself using it more and more often. When I write a note from the depths of my heart, I sign it, “Sincerely, Eric Elder.” To me, it’s no longer just a formal closing, but a heartfelt statement saying, “I really mean this from the depths of my heart.” It’s much closer to meaning “Love, Eric Elder” than I ever would have thought. And that’s just what Paul said: Love must be sincere.
I find that it’s helpful for me to check how sincere I am in my love for others by substituting the words “true affection” for love. I might be able to say that I love someone, whether a friend or a co-worker, or even someone with whom I disagree or who I’m tempted to consider an enemy. But when I ask myself if I have true affection for them, then the flaws in my love for them are revealed.
When this happens, I have to regroup my thinking, and try to see them as God sees them: as beloved children of His, whom He has created for specific plans and purposes here on earth. When I change my thinking, it changes how I view them, and subsequently how I love and interact with them. It doesn’t always happen in an instant, but I recognize it much quicker now when I do the “true affection” test! In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he includes more than a dozen statements about what love looks like when it’s sincere. Here are a few of those statements:
– Be devoted to one another in brotherly love.
– Honor one another above yourselves. – Share with God’s people who are in need.
– Practice hospitality.
– Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
– Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
– Live in harmony with one another.
– Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position.
– Do not be conceited.
– Do not repay anyone evil for evil.
– Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
– If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
– Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath
– Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
If you reframe each of these as a question, you’ll get some good ideas for what you might do this week, this month, or this year to show more love to those around you. For instance:
– What can you do to show your devotion to another brother or sister in Christ?
– What can you do to honor someone else above yourself? – What can you do to share with other Christians who are in need?
– What can you do to practice hospitality towards someone you know?
– What can you do to bless someone who is persecuting you?
– What can you do to rejoice with someone as they rejoice, or to mourn with someone as they mourn?
– What can you do to live in harmony with others, rather than provoking continual discord?
– What can you do to be humble instead of proud, and to associate with people of low position?
– What can you do to avoid being conceited?
– What can you do to refrain from repaying anyone evil for evil?
– What can you do to do what is right in the eyes of everybody?
– What can you do to live at peace with everyone, as far as it depends on you?
– What can you do to not take revenge on someone else, but leave room for God’s wrath?
– What can you do to avoid being overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good?
I know that I want to keep my love for others sincere, without wax, as pure and flawless as possible. I want to have true affection for others, whether they’re close friends and family or just casual acquaintances or strangers or even enemies.
I want to think of others as God thinks of them: as children of His, created by Him for specific plans and purposes here on earth.
I don’t want to be the kind of person who etches in stone those things that others have done wrong. I don’t even want to write them in sand. I want to be able to keep no record of wrongs, recalling instead only the good that others have done for me in my life.
But I know that to do all of this it will take more than what I can do on my own. It will take the love of Christ, living in me and working through me, to think of others the way God wants me to think of them. If you want that, too, I hope you’ll pray with me today. Pray that God will help you to love others in ways you could never have done on your own. With His help, you’ll be able to express love to others as the Apostle Paul encouraged the Romans to do, saying:
“Love must be sincere.”
Will you pray with me?
Father, thank You for loving each one of us and giving each one of us a purpose and a plan for our lives. Help us to think of others in the same way that You think of them. And help us to treat them with the love and honor that is due them. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Questions for Reflection To read more from this series, Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind, please visit:
To get more inspiring books and music like this, please visit:
To make a donation of any size and choose a book as our way of saying thanks, please visit:
To find us on Facebook, please visit:
To invite Eric to speak to your group of any size, whether by Skype or in person, please visit:
Invite your friends! We’d love to have them study along with us-and you! Just forward this email and encourage them to sign up for themselves at the link below. |
Thinking Of Yourself – This Week’s Sermon From The Ranch
| (Each Sunday, This Day’s Thought is blessed to share Eric Elder’s sermons from his wonderful ministry, “The Ranch“) |
|
|
|
Thinking Of Yourself
Lesson 28 from Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind
By Eric Elder
The way you think of yourself is often affected by what others say about you. One of my favorite stories that shows the power that other people’s words can have over us is a true story by a woman named Eddie Ogan.
Eddie tells the story about how the pastor at their church challenged everyone in the congregation to prepare for a special offering to be taken up at the end of the month for a poor family. Eddie, her two sisters and their mother were so excited about what they could do to help that they went home that night and came up with a plan: if they were to eat only potatoes, turn off the lights, not listen to the radio, get odd jobs and sell what they could, they could help out with this special offering.
Eddie says that was one of the best months of their lives. When the time came for the special offering, they put in all the money they had saved: $70, made up of three crisp twenties and a ten. They felt rich.
Later that afternoon, the pastor of the church stopped by for a visit. He left an envelope with their mother. When they opened it, out fell 3 crisp twenties, a ten, and seventeen one dollar bills. Their hearts sank as they realized that they werethe poor family. They never thought of themselves as poor before, but at that moment, they felt they were and felt that everyone else must see them that way, too.
The next week, they didn’t want to go back to church again, but their mother made them. A missionary was speaking about needing $100 to put a roof on a church building in another country. The pastor asked his congregation if they could take up an offering to help these poor people. Eddie and her family smiled for the first time in a week. They put the contents of their envelope back in the offering, and when the money was counted, it was just over $100. The missionary was surprised and said that the church must have some rich people in it to take up such an offering!
When Eddie and her family realized they had put in $87 of that offering, they realized that they were the rich family in the church! “Hadn’t the missionary said so?” Eddie says that from that day on, she’s never been poor again. (It’s worth reading the whole story if you want, at this link.)
The way you look at yourself can often be shaped by what others say about you…whether for good or bad. But God wants you to look at yourself for who you truly are: a child of His, created to fulfill a purpose here on earth. He doesn’t want you to think of yourself either too highly, nor too lowly than you really are. Pride can ensnare you, but low self-esteem can keep you from reaching your fullest potential.
How can you think of yourself properly? Thankfully, the Apostle Paul gives us some perspective in his letter to the Romans. In chapter 12, Paul says:
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully” (Romans 12:3-8).
When you realize that God has created you for a specific purpose, you can better see how you fit into the scheme of things here on earth. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying:
“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”
God doesn’t compare you to those around you. He compares you to the potential that He has put within you. And that potential is often defined by how you act, or don’t act, “in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.”
If God has created you to prophesy, then prophesy in proportion to your faith. If God has created you to serve, then serve in accordance with the amount of faith God has given you. If teaching, teach, if encouraging, encourage, if giving, give generously, if leading, govern diligently, if showing mercy, show it cheerfully.
By living your life in this way, it releases you from comparing yourself with others, and from the pitfalls of both pride and low self-esteem.
But living this way is easier said than done.
I recently finished reading a series of books called The Hunger Games. It’s a gripping story about what might happen in a post-war America, in which the leaders of the country pit children against one another in a fight to the death for the entertainment of the rest of the country. As these gruesome games go on year after year, one girl stands up to the games, and finds herself at the center of a revolution.
But throughout the book, this girl, Katniss Everdeen, thinks she’s not the right person for the job. She doesn’t want to be the face of the revolution. She doesn’t see how she could possibly lead the charge. Yet everything about her screams out to those around her that she’s exactly the person who can spearhead this effort to make things right again.
At one point in the story, she struggles with a decision about a particular strategy they’re considering, so she asks a friend what he thinks. He says:
“I think… you still have no idea. The effect you can have.”
When I read that line, I was considering fasting and praying about some situations in my own life, and the lives of some people close to me. But I was wondering if it would make any difference anyway. Just then, I felt God was speaking to me and saying, “Eric, I think you still have no idea, either, the effect you can have.” God was right. I had no idea. But I was willing to give it a try. I stepped up in faith, began fasting and praying, and over the next few days watched as God unfolded the answers to those prayers.
I felt like Katniss Everdeen, the girl who had no idea the effect she had on those around her, yet who sparked a revolution to change the course of history. I felt no pride, and I felt no lack of self-esteem. I felt like I was simply acting “in accordance with the measure of faith God had given me.”
Sometimes we’re unable to see ourselves for who we really are, and it takes others to point it out to us. But we have to be careful whose judgments we take into account. As Eddie Ogan found out, she had to choose whose words she was going to believe: the words of the one who said her family was poor, or the words of the one who said her family was rich. Either statement could have been true, depending on how she looked at it. In the end, she chose to believe what God said about her: that her family had acted in faith to help someone else in need, and in doing so, were considered rich.
Sometimes we have to let the words of others sink deep into our hearts so that we believe them. Other times, we have to do as Solomon said in the book of Ecclesiastes and let them just pass on by:
“Do not pay attention to every word people say, or you may hear your servant cursing you-for you know in your heart that many times you yourself have cursed others” (Ecclesiastes 7:21-22).
Not every word someone says about you is true, nor is it the whole truth. Only God has that perspective. Don’t think you’re stupid if you can’t climb a tree if God created you to swim!
Renew your mind today in the way you think of yourself. Take what others say about you with a grain of salt, then take it to God for His perspective. Let God tell you exactly what He thinks of you, without getting puffed up and without getting down on yourself, but with sober judgment. Then do what God has created you to do, “in accordance with the measure of faith that He has given you.”
Who knows? Perhaps you’re like Katniss Everdeen, too. You have no idea…the effect you can have.
Will you pray with me?
Father, thank You for giving us a purpose for our lives, and thank You for giving us gifts to carry out that purpose. Help us to put the gifts You’ve given us into use this week to a degree that we may have never used them before-according to the measure of faith that You’ve given us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Or, if you’d like a copy in paperback to carry around with you or to give to a friend, you can request a copy of any of our books simply for a donation of any size to help us offset the costs of printing, and to expand our reach to even more people around the world. Just use the link below to make a donation and pick a book.
Questions for Reflection How have words spoken to you through others either boosted you up or pulled you down? Take those words to God and ask Him to give you His perspective on them. 2. Looking through this short list of gifts in the book of Romans, are there any that stand out that you feel God might have given to you? Is there a way you could step out in faith and use one or two of those gifts in your life this week, this month, or this year? 3. Paul lists some specific adjectives to describe how we are to use our gifts: generously, diligently, and cheerfully. If you were to use those words to measure how well you’re doing in using your gifts, how are you doing? 4. How could changing the way you think about your gifts change your approach to using them? To read more from this series, Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind, please visit:
To get more inspiring books and music like this, please visit:
To make a donation of any size and choose a book as our way of saying thanks, please visit:
To find us on Facebook, please visit:
To invite Eric to speak to your group of any size, whether by Skype or in person, please visit:
Invite your friends! We’d love to have them study along with us-and you! Just forward this email and encourage them to sign up for themselves at the link below. |
This Week’s Sermon From The Ranch – Being Transformed – Part 1
| (Each Sunday, This Day’s Thought is blessed to share Eric Elder’s sermons from his wonderful ministry, “The Ranch“) |
|
|
|
Being Transformed – Part 1
Lesson 26 from Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind
By Eric Elder
The Ranch I’d like to give you three practical ideas today for how to transform your life. These ideas have been passed on to me over the years, and I’m glad to pass them onto you. They’re based in part on the verse in Romans 12 for which this entire study of the book of Romans is named, Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind. The verse says this:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2a).
This verse contains two distinct thoughts for how you can transform your life, like two sides of the same coin. On one side of the coin, it says: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world…” And on the other side it says: “…but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Two different thoughts, but the same goal. Don’t conform. Be transformed. Today I’d like to focus on the first side of the coin, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world.” Next week, we’ll look at the other side of the coin, “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” When Paul talks about “the pattern of this world,” he’s talking about what might seem “normal” in the world around us. But the truth is that what’s normal in the world around us are thoughts and ideas that pull us in the exact opposite direction that God wants for us. This is why Paul didn’t want the Romans to conform to the world around them, and why God doesn’t want us to conform to the world around us. But how do you break out of what may seem “normal”? How do you break out of “the pattern of this world”? Here are a few ideas that others have passed on to me over the years, and I’m glad to pass them onto you. These aren’t meant to be legalistic “do’s and don’t’s” for your life, but they’re good ideas that I’ve tested out in my own life and found to be extremely helpful. So in that light, here are three ideas that might help you to avoid being conformed to the world around you. And all three have to do with the media that we consume: the TV shows, movies, and material we read. I’m not a TV basher, but before my wife and I got married twenty-two years ago, we read a book that encouraged us not to have a TV in our house for the first year of our marriage. The author suggested that having a TV in your house is like having a third partner in your marriage. It’s always sitting there, always available for a bit of entertainment or distraction, and could take away significant time from simply enjoying each other’s company during the first year of your marriage. The author also suggested that the first year of marriage is perhaps the most important, for in the first year couple’s start patterns that can become habits for the rest of their married life. So we gave it a try. It was radical idea among the people we knew. I remember a family that came over one night and the first thing one of the kids did when he walked in the house was to started running around in circles, looking for the TV. When he couldn’t find one, he started shouting with a bit of desperation in his voice, saying, “This is a house with no TV! This is a house with no TV!” But for us, we were so excited about getting married and spending as much time as we could together that it didn’t seem like we were giving up that much. It was great to just spend our hours talking together, cooking together, and doing dishes together. When we finally did get a TV again, we were shocked at how much the programming seemed to have changed in the time that we weren’t watching. Looking back, it’s hard to know if the programming had gotten so much worse, or if we had just been away from it for long enough to realize that the shows on TV were no longer “normal” for us. It was easy to turn it off and keep it off. Over the years, we’ve gone through various seasons where we’ve watched more TV than others, but in general, that first year of marriage set a pattern for us that has held for more than two decades. We’ve recently moved out into the country where we only get three or four channels at most, and those are dependent on the weather. And for the most part, neither my wife nor I, nor or six kids, seem to miss it too much. Our family has grown up with TV on the “side burner” of our lives, not at its center, an idea that started for us over twenty-two years ago, and has continued to help us avoid being conformed to the pattern of this world. “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world,” Paul said. And by intentionally limiting the amount and type of TV shows that we’ve watched, we’ve been better able to keep God’s view of what’s “normal” in plain sight, rather than the world’s view of life. The second type of media that people have suggested I limit over the years are the types of movies I watch. Prior to becoming a Christian, I would watch all kinds of movies, regardless of their ratings. Someone challenged me, however, on the idea of not watching any movie that was rated R or above, an idea that again seemed radical to me at the time. I was over 17, after all, and why cut out what might be good movies, just because they contained more adult content? But I respected the person who told me, and began to look more closely at the movies I watched. I noticed that whenever I would watch an R-rated movie, the images that stayed in my head the longest seemed to be those images that gave the movie it’s R-rating. There may have been other redeeming qualities to the movies, but those that stuck with me the most were those that were most questionable, whether violence, or cursing, or strong sensuality. I began to realize that if the people in Hollywood, whose morals and values were often much more loose than my own, felt that a movie had questionable content for the general public, then perhaps there was a reason for me to stay away from it, too! A friend of recently told me that he, too, used to watch R-rated movies all the time, not thinking anything about it. He could handle it, he thought. It didn’t affect him, he said, to watch women in little or no clothing, or to watch gruesome violence, or to listen to people repeatedly take God’s name in vain. But then he got married. And when he brought home a stack of movies to watch with his wife, he saw it through new eyes: hers. After trying to watch a few movies together, his wife said, “Why are you watching that?” She began to wonder what kind of man she had married, who thought that these kinds of shows were normal. Now he chooses his movies more carefully, not just because of his wife, but because he realized that the movies he watched were affecting his view of life and what he considered to be “normal.” “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world,” Paul said. By intentionally putting limits on the types of movies that we watch, whether it’s going by the rating systems that Hollywood has put in place, or checking out movie reviews first by people that we trust, such as “Plugged In”, we’ve found ourselves better able to focus on God’s pattern for our lives and less on the world’s. The third type of media that I’ve had to take control over are the things I read-the newspapers and magazines, blogs and books. Words have power, and a writer can steer a person’s emotions and thoughts and viewpoints in ways that can affect us for a lifetime, whether for good or for bad. I remember a national newspaper that I used to love to read. The stories were always interesting and educational. When I read them, I learned so much about topics I never thought about, and I felt like the paper was keeping me “up” with current events, and helping me have the inside scoop on what was going on. But over time, I realized that whenever the paper wrote about topics that I already knew something about in-depth, I found that the authors were surprisingly one-side in their views, leaving out opposing views or slanting the articles towards conclusions that were the exact opposite of mine. I continued reading the paper because I was learning so much about other topics, but began to wonder: If the paper could take such a one-sided view of the topics that I did know about in-depth, what other ideas were they skewing in my mind on topics that I knew much less about? As much as I loved the paper-and my company at the time even paid for my subscription-I decided to cancel it. I didn’t want my worldview to be shaped by an organization that held such different beliefs at their core than my own. The same has carried over into the books I read and the blogs that I follow. My goal isn’t just to surround myself with ideas that are only compatible with my own, but to consider carefully what I’m reading and why, rather than just consuming the material because it’s interesting or intriguing. Books, newspapers, magazines, blogs all come with their own slant, no matter how much they say they are trying to remain neutral. The important thing to find out is whether that slant is in line with God’s Word or not, and then choosing what we read based on that. “Don’t be conformed to the pattern of this world,” Paul said. And by being careful about what I read, making sure it lines up with God’s view of life rather than than the world’s view of life, I find it much easier to resist the pull of the world on my heart and soul. In all three of these areas-whether it’s TV show you watch, the movies you buy or download or rent, or the newspapers or magazines or books or blogs that you read-God wants you to be careful about what you take into your life. You don’t have to be a prude, and you don’t have to be legalistic. Each of these media can have good, useful and redeeming values. But if you want to see your life transformed, you’ll find that the process will be easier when you take control over the media that you consume. You’ll begin to get your life back, your time back, and be able to see the world with a set of fresh eyes. “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world,” Paul said. That’s not just good advice from a first-century apostle to the Romans of his day. It’s good advice for you and me in regards to the world of our day, too. Next week, I’ll share more about the flip side of this coin, with some practical ideas for how to you can “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” In the mean time, I pray that God will use the ideas I’ve shared with you today to spark new ways that you can avoid being conformed to the pattern of this world. Will you pray with me? Father, thank You for helping us realize that You don’t want us to conform to the pattern of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Help us to cut out or limit those things that are harmful to us, causing us to conform to the pattern of the world. Give us ideas for how we can do this in practical ways in our lives and in our world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
P.S. Thanks to those of you who have been praying for us and our ministry. It means so much. Your prayers are powerful, and they’re helping us get God’s Word out to so many people around the world. I’m still adding people to our prayer team who would like to get updates every month or so about our ministry so you can pray for us in specific ways. If you’d like to join the team, just send me a note at eric@theranch.org and I’ll keep you updated about our prayer needs on a regular basis. I know that not only will we be blessed, but many others around the world will be blessed because of your prayers for us. Thanks so much! Questions for Reflection
To get more inspiring books and music like this, please visit:
To make a donation of any size and choose a book as our way of saying thanks, please visit:
To find us on Facebook, please visit:
To invite Eric to speak to your group of any size, whether by Skype or in person, please visit:
|
This Week’s Sermon From The Ranch: Correcting Misperceptions
|
|
|
Correcting Misperceptions
Lesson 25 from Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind By Eric Elder
The Ranch The way we perceive things isn’t always the way they are. Yet those misperceptions can persist for years, causing us to miss the truth of what God might be trying to say to us. But God has a way of bringing the truth into our lives, if we’re open to it, in a way that can renew our minds and change our perspective on everything.
I had an email from a woman who wondered if Jesus could possibly love her–not because of something she had done, but because of who she was: a Jew. She had always been told that Jesus doesn’t love Jews. Yet after reading some of the stories on my website, she was confronted with a new truth. Was is possible that Jesus might love a Jew?
I don’t want to betray her confidence, but I would like to share a portion of her heartfelt letter with you because I feel that her words express something that we all wonder about at times: whether God really loves us or not, too. Here’s part of what she said in her letter. How would you answer her?
I was sent your site by accident, and have been reading the stories. The more I read the more questions I have. I’ve never seen Jesus portrayed as this site does. I should tell you that I’m Jewish and I believe in the one true G-d of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
I’ve read some the stories on your site and have to wonder how they could be true, but I can’t stop reading them either, something just feels right about them. My heritage has ingrained in me that Jesus isn’t for my people. I can’t explain why, but I find some of the stories making me cry and I’m not one that cries easily. It doesn’t make sense. I don’t even know why I’m writing. I’m just really confused. How can this G-d of yours, be the G-d I’ve grown up with? Would Jesus love someone who hasn’t been faithfully reading the Torah for a long time?
I’m sorry, I know this doesn’t make any sense, and I’ve always been told that Jesus doesn’t love Jews. But after reading some of the stories I just don’t know what to believe. Is it possible he might love a Jew?
How would you answer a letter like that? Could you find enough evidence in the Bible to show that Jesus really did love this woman? And even if you could, how could you convey it to her in a way that she would believe it?
As for me, I shared with her that I could understand why she might wonder if Jesus loved the Jews. But the truth is that Jesus was a Jew. His own twelve disciples were Jewish. And the whole New Testament-which talks about Jesus-was written by Jews. Jesus Himself never left the land of Israel to go to any other nation, except for a brief time as a child when His parents took Him to Egypt to avoid being killed by King Herod.
Does Jesus love the Jews? Absolutely! But sometimes it’s hard to see the truth through all of the misperceptions that we’ve been taught or believed for so many years.
The Apostle Paul faced similar misperceptions among the people that he ministered to as well. Some of them believed that God had finally given up on the Jews, because Paul and others were now taking the gospel to the Gentiles.
But nothing could have been further from the truth. In Romans 11, Paul said:
“I ask then: Did God reject His people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah-how he appealed to God against Israel: “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”? And what was God’s answer to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace” (Romans 11:1-5).
God’s heart still beat with love for the Jews, and the Apostle Paul was one of many of them. Paul himself regularly preached and ministered in the Jewish synagogues first whenever he arrived at a new town, just as Jesus did (see Matthew 4:26, 9:35, 12:9, 13:54, Acts 14:1, 17:2, 18:4, 18:19, 19:8).
But Paul, like Jesus, faced a fair amount of opposition in the synagogues, and when they were thrown out of them, they took their message just as zealously to the Gentiles in those areas. After several years of this, it seems that some of the Gentiles began to think of themselves more highly than the Jews around them. But Paul gave them this warning:
“I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them. For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.
“If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, ‘Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.’ Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but be afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either” (Romans 11:13-21).
Paul wisely warns the Romans not to be arrogant about God’s love for them, but to remember that they were grafted into the root because of their faith, and to stand firm in that faith to the end.
We all have misperceptions at times. Whether we’re Jewish and questioning God’s love for us, or whether we’re Gentiles and becoming arrogant about His love for us. In either case, God wants to bring His truth into our lives and clear up any misperceptions we might have. He wants us to know that He loves us deeply, and to respond to that love in faith.
I was talking recently to a father and his college-age son who felt a barrier had grown up between them. The father seemed to feel the son wasn’t interested in a relationship with him because of some of the things that had passed between them, and the son felt that his father was no longer interested in a relationship with him because of the distance that he felt.
During our talk, the father said that not a day went by when he didn’t think about his son, and the son said that he wished he could find ways to spend more meaningful time with his father. Yet these thoughts had gone unspoken for so long that both of them felt the other no longer loved or cared about the other. It was only when the Holy Spirit brought out these deep truths through their conversation that they realized that they both eagerly wanted their relationship to be restored, but didn’t know how to express it. Tears flowed as they prayed together, having come face to face with the truth. I pray they’re on a new path in their relationship with one another.
I also pray for the Jewish woman who wrote to me, that God would continue to speak His truth into her life, and help her to respond to that truth in faith. I know He can do it, for He has done it for me and for many, many other people throughout history. I believe He can do it for you, too.
At the end of Romans, chapter 11, Paul breaks out into one of the most beautiful doxologies in the Bible-an eruption of praise to God:
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable His judgments,
and His paths beyond tracing out!
‘Who has known the mind of the Lord?
Or who has been His counselor?’
‘Who has ever given to God,
that God should repay Him?’
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever! Amen” (Romans 11:33-36).
If you need some of God’s deep wisdom and knowledge in your life this week, I’d encourage you to call out to Him and ask Him to reveal more of His truth to you. Ask Him to correct any misperceptions you may have about Him, or about your relationships with those around you. Ask Him to guide you and direct you and point you in the direction He wants you to go, trusting that He will always lead you along a path that is absolutely the best for you.
Then, when He reveals His wisdom to you, I pray you’ll respond to it in faith, taking the steps that He wants you to take. When you do, I hope you’ll find yourself like Paul, erupting in praise and saying:
“Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! … To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”
Will you pray with me?
Father, thank You for reminding us that we don’t always have the fullness of Your truth, but that if we come to You, You can pour it out on us in abundance. Lord, reveal Your truth to us this week so we can clear up any misperceptions we have about You and about those around us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
P.S. I’ve begun a new prayer team for our ministry in recent weeks, and would love for you to join it if you’d like to pray for us on a regular basis. While it may seem self-serving to ask others to pray for us, it’s actually just the opposite! By having you pray for us, we’ll be able to reach out farther and do more than ever before! We all benefit when we pray for each other. If you’d like to be on our prayer team and receive an update of our prayers and praises every month or so, just send me a note at eric@theranch.org. Thanks so much!
Questions for Reflection
To read more from this series, Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind,please visit:
To get more inspiring books and music like this, please visit:
To make a donation of any size and choose a book as our way of saying thanks, please visit:
To find us on Facebook, please visit:
To invite Eric to speak to your group of any size, whether by Skype or in person, please visit: |
This Week’s Sermon From The Ranch – Trusting The Potter
(This Day’s Thought is pleased to bring you Eric Elder’s new sermon series, “Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind.”)
Trusting In The Potter
Lesson 21 from Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind
By Eric Elder
www.theranch.org
Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the three trees, where each one had a glorious dream for their future. One wanted to be crafted into a beautiful treasure chest, covered with gold and filled with precious jewels. Another wanted to be turned into boards for a mighty sailing ship, carrying kings and queens across the sea. The third didn’t want to be cut down at all, but wanted to grow as tall as possible, pointing people towards God as they looked up into its branches.
A day came, however, when each of the trees were cut down and taken away. The first was turned into a feeding trough, not a treasure chest. The second was too weak to be used for a mighty ship and was was used for a common fishing boat instead. The third was deemed too worthless for much of anything, and was cut into pieces and thrown into the scrap pile.
Rather than seeing their dreams fulfilled, each of the trees felt abandoned and without hope. It’s a tragic story and one that has been repeated many times, in many lives, over the years. It may even be part of your story.
Maybe you’ve had dreams of getting married, raising a family, and serving God with your whole heart, only to see your dreams dashed by divorce, adultery, and kids who have all but lost their faith. Maybe you’ve had dreams of being wildly successful in business, giving generously to the poor and needy, only to find yourself being poor and needy instead. Maybe you’ve stepped out in faith to start a new ministry, or a new job, or a new life in a place where you really felt God had called you to, only to find yourself far from home and wondering why you ever left in the first place.
Rather than seeing your dreams fulfilled, you may feel— like the trees in the story—abandoned and without hope.
If so, I want to encourage you today to keep putting your faith and trust in God. Remember that God is the Potter and you are the clay. Keep trusting that He is molding and shaping you into exactly what He wants you to be. As the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 9:
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, ‘Why did You make me like this?’” Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use? (Romans 9:20-21).
Sometimes we bristle at the thought that we don’t fully control our own destiny. None of us wants to be like a puppet on a string, pulled this way or that by some unseen puppet master. Yet when you put your faith in God and let Him take control of your life, you can trust that He will guide you and direct you in ways that are better than even you could have imagined.
I had a friend this week who was wondering if she had been shortchanged when God passed out the BLT’s—the Brains, the Looks and the Talents. She wondered why others seemed to have gotten so much more in some of those areas. But the truth is, she wasn’t shortchanged at all. First of all, she had actually been given huge amounts of each, but couldn’t see it for herself. Secondly, I assured her that God had, in fact, given her everything she needed to fulfill His plan for her life. As Paul said to the Ephesians:
“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10).
If God has prepared good works in advance for you to do, He will give you everything you need for the walk He’s called you to walk. And He’ll continue to do so, even if it seems like you’re going in a direction you hadn’t planned. The key is to keep putting your faith and trust in the Potter, remembering that He is FOR you and will work all things together for your good. When you put your faith in God, you put a smile on His face. As the writer of Hebrews says:
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
God is pleased when you put your faith in Him, and He will reward you when you earnestly seek Him.
This, after all, is what the whole book of Romans is about. Paul is continually telling the Christians in Rome that it is their faith that matters most to God, not their righteous acts or their heritage—whether they were born Jewish or Gentile. In chapter 9, Paul laments the fact that so many Jews have missed the fact that God wants them to come to Him by faith. Paul begins by saying:
“I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory, the covenants, the receiving of the law, the temple worship and the promises. Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them is traced the human ancestry of Christ, who is God over all, forever praised! Amen” (Romans 9:2-5).
Paul sees the noble heritage that the Jews had been given because of the faith of Abraham. Yet Paul also says that just because someone is a descendant of Abraham doesn’t mean they are actually people of faith.
“For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. Nor because they are his descendants are they all Abraham’s children. On the contrary, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ In other words, it is not the natural children who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring” (Romans 9:6b-8).
Paul then goes on to describe how God raised up various people for various purposes, whether it was Isaac or Jacob or Moses or Pharaoh. Some were for noble purposes, and some for common use, but all were for His glory.
God wants you to keep putting your faith in Him. And when you do, He’ll reward you!
Remember the story of the three trees? It would have been tragic if their story had ended when all their dreams were dashed to pieces. Thankfully, their story doesn’t end there. Their dreams were eventually fulfilled—but in a way that went beyond all that they could have imagined.
The first tree didn’t get to become a treasure chest that it had hoped, covered with gold and filled with precious stones. It became a feeding trough for animals instead. But one day, it was covered with golden straw and when the most precious treasure of all was laid inside it—the Son of God—the tree realized its dream had been fulfilled.
The second tree didn’t get to become the mighty sailing ship that it had hoped, carrying kings and queens across the sea. Instead, it was used for a common fishing boat. But one day, that boat carried a group of men who were caught in a fierce storm on a lake. One of the men stood up and said to the wind and the waves, “Be still,” and they obeyed Him. As soon as the tree realized what had been done, it realized that it was carrying no ordinary man, but the King of all kings, the One who had created the whole universe.
And the third tree, the one that didn’t want to be cut down at all, but point people to God when they looked up into its branches? Eventually its boards were pulled from the scrap pile and used as the cross on which our Savior was crucified. And when Jesus rose from the dead three days later, that tree realized that from then on, whenever anyone thought of the cross, their thoughts would be pointed towards God.
You may feel like your life isn’t working out the way you had dreamed. You may feel like you’re not in the place that you had hoped to be. But don’t give up on God—and don’t give up on your dreams. God has a way of fulfilling them beyond what you could imagine.
I know of families who have weathered the storms of divorce and adultery and have come out on the other side praising God and helping many others along the way. I know of people who have lost their businesses and homes and things of this world who are now giving away more than anyone else around them, because they’ve learned what it means to give everything to God. I know of people who have struggled in faith and sometimes wondered if they were doing the right thing, but eventually discovered that God was in it every step of the way.
Don’t give up on your dreams, and don’t get upset if things aren’t working out the way that you had hoped. Keep trusting in the Potter. Whether He wants to use your life for noble purposes or common use, it’s all for His glory. Your Father really does know best.
Will you pray with me?
Father, thank You for reminding us that You are in control, even when our lives seem out of control. Thank You that You are the potter and we are the clay. Help us to be moldable and shapable by You today. Help us to continue to trust in You, that You will reward us when we believe that You exist and earnestly seek You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
P.S. The Tale of Three Trees is a beautiful picture book written by Angela Elwell Hunt. There’s more to the story than what I’ve told you, and if you’d like to get a copy, you can get it from Amazon.com. While you’re there, you might also want to pick up a few of my devotional books for yourself or your friends for Christmas. These are inspiring books that will encourage you that God is continually working on your behalf, when you put your full faith and trust in Him. To read more about these books, take a look at the links below:
The Tale of Three Trees
Eric Elder’s Devotionals
Questions for Reflection
1. Read Romans 9:1-33. How do you feel about letting God be the potter, and trusting Him to mold you and shape you as He sees fit? What might be appealing or unappealing about this idea?
2. What is it that Paul wishes for his Jewish brothers and sisters in this passage?
3. Why does Paul say in verse 6 that “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel”? What’s the difference? Consider verses 30-32 in your response as well.
4. Read Hebrews 11:6. What does God seem to want from you more than anything else right now, and what can you expect from Him as a result?
To read more from this series, Romans: Lessons In Renewing Your Mind, please visit:
The Romans Study
To get more inspiring books and music like this, please visit:
The Ranch Giftshop
To make a donation of any size and get a CD as our way of saying thanks, please visit:
Get a CD
To find us on Facebook, please visit:
The Ranch on FaceBook
To invite Eric to speak to your group of any size, whether by Skype or in person, please visit:
Booking Information
Invite your friends! We’d love to have them study along with us—and you! Just forward this email and encourage them to sign up for themselves at the link below.
What about God? 