Trinity Baptist Church

Everybody meditates on something.  Meditating is nothing more than bringing your mind to dwell on a specific thing.  There are many verses that teach us the value of meditating on God’s word.  One of my favorite passages about meditating on the word is Psalm 1.  That Psalm says that meditating on God’s word  is the key to being blessed, and it is the key to success in every area of life.  That sounds like an awfully big claim, doesn’t it?  But, when you think about it, it is consistent with everything you know about the Bible.  God’s word is already blessed, and as we bring ourselves in agreement with the word, we bring ourselves into blessing.  Meditation on the word helps us to get God’s word down into our being in such a way, that we look at the circumstances of our life, as well as the world around us, through the filter of God’s word.  When that happens, we cannot be conformed to the world, but we will have been transformed by the renewing of our mind, just as we are commanded to do in Romans 12:2.  But, more than that, the filter of God’s word through which we look at things, will cause us to make the kind of decisions that God will bless; therefore, Psalm 1 says that everything we do will prosper!  Now, that’s a good deal.

Most of us have experienced something that we thought was bad, but with a little time, we were able to see that it was actually good.  One of the great verses of comfort, in the Bible, is Romans 8:28, where we are told that “…God works all things together for good to them that love God and are the called according to His purpose.“  Recently, a man told me of applying for a job and not getting it.  He said that he felt very disappointed when he was not hired, because he knew that he was well qualified, and that the person who was hired didn’t see as qualified as he thought himself to be.  Knowing the Scriptures, he prayed, committing his trust to the Lord, and after what seemed to him like a long time went by, another job, a much better job,  came to his attention to which he applied and was immediately hired.

Can you see how God has turned things around in your own life?  It is exciting to trust the Lord, being confident that He will take care of you.

What do you believe, and perhaps just as important, why do you believe it?  If you ask me those questions, I can tell you what I believe and why, but those beliefs are subject to change a bit, as I gain understanding of certain biblical passages.

It is true that no theological doctrine is to be built on a single verse of Scripture, but at the same time, no single verse is to be ignored.  I have discovered that I can learn from almost everybody, and that no one group has a complete corner on the truth.  With that said, I also realize that I must have something as my ultimate authority for forming my belief systems, and I am quite convinced that the Bible is unlike any other religious book, and I have long since settled in my mind that it is the word of God; therefore, I will ultimately form my belief systems on the teachings of the Bible.

Again, I say that none of the Bible is to be ignored, but some doctrines are more essential than others.  For instance, one’s beliefs concerning the end-time prophecies are not nearly as essential as his beliefs about how to have peace with God.

There is a constant temptation to put all of our doctrines in neat little boxes that are comfortable to us and never consider that those boxes are not sufficient to contain true biblical doctrine.  The Jewish people were looking for a Messiah, when Jesus walked among them, but they weren’t looking for one like Him.  They had formulated in their own minds how the Messiah would be, and they were closed to even consider that they might not have it right.  Years ago, I heard someone say that it is a good idea to read the Bible like it is the first time you have ever seen it.  I am thankful for the theological training I have had the privilege to receive, and I have benefited greatly from it, but sometimes I just enjoy taking a fresh new look at God’s word.  It’s amazing what you can see, when you stop looking for the things you’ve grown so accustomed to look for.

So, what do you believe, and why do you really believe it?

The unsaved world has always been going in a different direction from Christianity.  Before it was called Christianity, it was called, “The Way,” because it was clearly a different way of living and a different way of looking at life.  It was that difference that brought persecution on Christians, many of whom were put to death for their commitment to “The Way.”

It seems that there was a time, however, when even unsaved people had a “moral compass” within them, and there was that certain “honor among thieves.”  Today, however, that moral compass seems to be lost, and just as the Bible foretold, people call bad, “good,” and good, “bad.”

The church has a tremendous opportunity in these days of spiritual darkness.  The greater the darkness, the greater the impact of even the smallest light.  This is our time to seek God’s power upon our lives through prayer, then to rise up and boldly proclaim, “Thus saith the Lord.”  Most of the Christ-rejecting world will despise the message of God, and His gospel, but there will be some whose hearts will be opened to believe.

As believers in Christ, we are in “The Way,” and we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

I don’t mean using your feet to get where you are going, nor am I talking about exercise.  The Bible uses the word “walk” multiple times in almost every book of the Bible to refer to the way we live.  In this sense, everybody walks through life.

In Genesis 5:24, we are told that “Enoch walked with God, and God took Him, and He was not.”  That last phrase, “He was not,” primarily means that he was not there any longer, he was gone to be with God.  The Bible also gives us some insight about Enoch in Hebrews 11 and in the little one chapter book of Jude.  In looking at those passages, we can see that he also was not conformed to this world, he was not controlled by this world, and he was not condemned with this world.  We are told that he pleased God.

Throughout this walk through life, it is extremely important that we please God.  Every aspect of our life will be better for doing so, because it is what we were made for.  When the walk comes to an end, it will be very important to us that we have pleased God.  Pleasing God is a one day, one minute at a time endeavor, and it is a decision that we must make.  One song says, “Daily walking close to Thee, grant it Jesus, is my plea; I’ll be satisfied with Thee, as I walk, let me walk close to Thee.”

It is true that all sin is equally bad in the eyes of God, but it is also true that some sins have a greater effect on society, than others.  It is true that political correctness and biblical correctness are most often opposed to one another.  It is true that we are to love people and treat them with dignity and respect, but it is equally true that we are not to sanction sin, whether in our life, or in the lives of others.  So what are we to think about homosexuality?  The short answer is that the Bible is to be our final authority for faith and practice.

In spite of all the “how to” books, helps, and seminars that tell us how to achieve the desired results in churches, church is not at all what it used to be.  In some ways, it is perhaps better.  We’ve surely got more resources and opportunities than ever before, but still, there is a missing element.

In Revelation 3:20, Jesus is outside knocking on the door of the church of Laodicea.  In their lukewarmness, they were going right on with their church doings, and Jesus wasn’t in their midst.  Is that the case in all too many churches today?

The invitational hymn, “Just As I Am,” holds forth the truth that we come to Jesus simply trusting Him to empower us to make the changes that would be pleasing to Him, but it may be that some people have the mentality that the Lord is satisfied with us just as we are.

We need a sin-killing revival that would turn people’s hearts back to God.  We need a revival of old-fashioned holiness.

We all have dreams and plans, along with a general idea of how we think things ought to go in our life.  We all know that there are times when life takes a different turn than we had hoped.  We may see our retirement account melting away under the current adverse market, we may find our job being dissolved, when we are past the age of easy job finding, or we may get a jolting diagnosis from the doctor, just when we thought we were beginning to get control of some things.  On and on the list could go, but the truth is, there are times when we face great disappointment.

First, to rebound from disappointment, we must accept completely that God knows and cares about our situation.  He did not cause adversity in our life.  Jesus came to give us life, and that more abundantly.  It is the devil, who is the thief who has come to steal, kill, and destroy.  We live in a sin-cursed world, and bad things do happen.  It may very well be that we have made some bad choices, and the adversity in our life has come as a result of those choices.  I remember one man who was in the hospital with lung cancer, after a lifetime of smoking, and he looked at me and said, “I know the Lord will not put more on you than you can stand.”  Well, the Lord did not put that on him.  He put it on himself by direct disobedience to the teachings of God’s word, concerning how we are to care for our physical bodies.  Yet, in spite of bad doings, God is good, and His mercy endures forever.  Even when we have done it to ourselves, God loves us and can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.

We also need to understand that God’s blessing is attained by meditating on the word of God, the Bible.  We must know it before we can meditate on it, but most people know enough to meditate on.  To be blessed is to be inwardly happy.  Not a superficial happiness, but a deep knowledge that everything is alright, because God is in control.  To be blessed is the God-given ability to live in the exceeding great and precious promises of God.  Disappointment melts quickly away in the light of the promises of God.

Practically every church has experienced times when the atmosphere was not exactly “the spirit of unity in the bond of peace,” as Ephesians 4:3 says.

No doubt, there are times that the absence of peace is due to a “church bully,” either in the pulpit, or in the pew.  We need to understand that God’s way of becoming great is to be a servant, and that each of us are to esteem the other better than ourselves.  We are to be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us. 

Since it is really not possible to change someone else, church unity must start with us, as an individual.  This doesn’t mean to always step back and give a church troublemaker an open road to do things that the majority of the church is not in favor of doing, but it means we would do well to check our attitudes concerning how we respond to these matters.  There are proper procedures to which we would be wise to adhere.  Let all things be done decently and in order.

Better communication is often the needed ticket to a more peaceful church situation.

One thing is for sure: if there is any place in this world where people ought to love each other, it’s church.

Could anything be better than perfect peace and still be living at the same time?  Perfect peace would mean that you have no aggravating conflicts, no worries, fears, doubts, or any such thing.  Is it possible?  Isaiah 26:3 holds forth a promise to those who will receive it, saying, “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon You, because he trusts in You.”

In order to have your mind stayed upon God, you must make a decision to free your mind from the necessary clutter.  You may not know everything that is going on in Washington, you may not know all the sports statistics, and you may not know who’s who on American Idol, but you know something of God’s word, because you have deliberately put your mind there.  When you are in your car, choose a radio station where the music and talk is about God, or maybe spend that drive time praying (with your eyes open.)  Meditate on God’s word.  Let your mind just keep going back to a particular verse or passage.  Purposefully think about how good God has been to you, and give Him praise and thanks.

The verse also says, “Because he trusts in You.”  To have perfect peace, you must completely trust what God has said.  It is things like relationships, health, and money that the devil most often uses to steal, kill, and, destroy your peace, but God has said things about all of those areas of life.  God has done everything necessary for you to have perfect peace.  Keep your mind stayed upon Him, and trust Him completely, and it is yours.