A Must Read

If you're involved in teaching in any way, you should definitely check out William Yount's book, Called to Teach. It is excellent! Stay tuned for posts next week on the Lord's Prayer!

Update

Just wanted to let you faithful readers know that I am at Southern Seminary this week and next in seminars. I hope to start a study soon on the Lord's Prayer. Please check again in the next few days!

Consider Your Leaders

Hebrews 13:7 says, "Remember those who led you, who spoke the Word of God to you; and considering the result of their conduct, imitate their faith."

This verse leads us to the idea that we are to consider our leaders. We are to remember them, think on their life, and contemplate their ways. They are the people who have spoken, literally preached, the Bible to us. Take a moment to think back on your Christian walk and those who have held any type of impact on your walk with Christ. Remember them in prayer, and seek to be an encouragement in some way to them today! I truly believe that a mark of a growing and godly person is support of pastors and ministers. So many Christians today are willing to gossip, slander, and roast those who serve the Lord in ministry. Yet they are unwilling to go to God in prayer for servants of the Lord. I will try to say this as lovingly as I know how - these type of actions are sin. As a seminary graduate, I seek constantly to not judge ministers but to pray for them. It is a struggle and those close to me know that at times, I have failed in this area.

The second half of the verse says to consider the result of their conduct and then imitate it. The writer of Hebrews wants us to think about how preachers of the Word live their life. For those readers, it could have meant looking at the Apostle Paul and imitating his faith. For us, it means looking at a godly minister and learning from him. He can set the precedence for how faith is applied to our daily lives. Does he witness weekly or daily? Does he tithe? Does he seek to live a worshipful, spirit-filled life? Is he a student of the Word? Is he a Christian that is ever growing and non-complacent? While a preacher may not do all these things at all times, surely by God's power he is able to walk victoriously and achieve a God-focused, God-glorifying life.

May we seek to learn from our ministers that God has blessed us with! Think of one characteristic of a minister in your life and imitate it today. An example of this in my own life is to imitate the life of Dr. Gray Allison. His ministry and his life is all about devotion to Jesus in all things. While the list can go on and on of those who have dedicated their lives to the work of God, may we praise the Lord for his mercy in blessing us with godly men to lead us in the faith.

I'm falling in love...with money?!

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6

Another command or virtue is found here in Hebrews 13:5-6. We see that the Christian is to not love money. Uh oh. Did I read that right? Yep, I think it says don’t love money. This verse was written for the persecuted believers, so that they would understand that it is not money that saves them or provides a safe haven in life. God is to be our refuge, our strength, and the Helper to which we look.

You may be wondering, “what constitutes a love of money?” This is something that the Spirit of God will have to show you. It could be that you are constantly thinking of how much you’re making now and how much you could be making. You may simply be obsessed with money itself. Or you may be obsessed with the status it brings. It is possible that you have this type of thought, “If I make more, I’ll have more friends.” Or it may be that you are obsessed with the things that money can buy. You may be continually searching for new clothes, gadgets, houses, and cars to buy.

Just remember, we all most likely struggle with one of these types of love for money. However, when you slip into this sin, seek God. He is the One Whom our hearts should long for. He is the One that our minds should be obsessed with. If anything takes place in life over Him, then we are breaking the first commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

Hopefully we can come to a place in our walk with Christ that we are confident in the Lord and nothing else. There is nothing to fear because God is our Father. When we realize this, we will boldly say with the writer of Hebrews, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?”

The Honor and Holiness of Marriage

Hebrews 13:4 states, “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.” This fourth virtue that characterizes the Christian walk is truly relevant in our day and time. The verse does not say that marriage should be honored only by those who believe in it or only by Christians. It says it is to be “held in honor among all.” Marriage was instituted by God in Genesis 1 for all of mankind. Yet many in the world today do not esteem the institution. The divorce rate in the United States speaks to this. It is estimated that 40-50% of marriages end in a legal divorce. So as Christians, we must seek to honor marriage.

Albert Mohler says that marriage is “for our holiness, happiness, and our health.” This is a nice little quote that helps us to understand why God designed matrimony. If you look at the second half of the verse, it speaks of the marriage bed as being “undefiled.” This simply means that it is to be pure and holy. There is no place for adultery or sexual immorality in the life of the Christian. I am not here to condemn anyone, for we are all aware of Jesus’ statement that if a man has lusted in his heart then he is guilty of adultery. Rather we may see this as the essence of our need for a Savior, which calls us to depend on Him more everyday. We cannot obey the command of Hebrews 13:4 without the Spirit of God at work in our minds and our hearts. This is how we keep marriage holy.

Christian, seek to honor marriage and keep marriage holy in your life! Married and unmarried persons alike can doe this by standing up for marriage being between one man and one woman. We may also honor it by not making jokes about it. It is a serious issue, and one that God commands us all to respect. Sometimes Christians are more like the culture than the Bible. We no longer bat an eye at homosexual couples on television. Yet this act (not the people) is to be something that is appalling to us, not something we are used to.

(Click on the link, the Albert Mohler program, and you’ll see that his radio program discussed this topic this past week.)

Prayer for the Persecuted

We are reminded of our relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ once again in Hebrews 13:3. It states, “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.” This verse is speaking of the Christians who had been imprisoned for their faith. The author of Hebrews was reminding the church to not ignore those believers or to be concerned with “guilt by association” (from The Believer’s Bible Commentary).

It says to recall them in your memory, just as if you were in prison with them. This is strong language. To me, it means that those Christians were to be mindful daily of the hardships and struggles that the imprisoned believers were experiencing. When I first began to think on this, it seemed as if there wasn’t much application for us today. Are there really that many people in jail for Christ? I did not think so. Until I read a story of a young believer in China (see link below.) There are many online just like the above.

Persecution is not a thing of the past for Christians. It is an ever-present reality. The fact that we do not know it here in the US (yet) enables us to become apathetic and lackadaisical. Yet we have a command from the Bible, “remember those in prison.” This is something truly new for me. I hardly ever think about prisons around the world and the followers of Christ that they contain. Each one of us may seek to remember them in different ways but certainly the most obvious way is through prayer.

The last part of the verse speaks of those being mistreated, which also reminds us of imprisonment, and other forms of persecution. We are instructed to think about them as if we ourselves were suffering. Imagine what you would feel if you or a family member were beaten and abused for the cause of Christ everyday. There would be deep pain and sorrow, even though there is victory in Christ. Pray that these believers would sense God’s grace, His love, and His victory everyday.

Link to Article