Thought for the day
Continuance from yesterday
DOINGS
You probably heard about Larry Walters several years ago. Larry was a 33-year-old man who decided he wanted to see his neighborhood from a new perspective. He went down to the local army surplus store one morning and bought forty-five used weather balloons. That afternoon he strapped himself into a lawn chair, to which several of his friends tied the helium-filled balloons. He took along a six-pack of beer, a peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich, and a BB gun, figuring he could shoot the balloons one at a time when he was ready to land.
Walters, who assumed the balloons would lift him about 100 feet in the air, was caught off guard when the chair soared more than 11,000 feet into the sky -- smack into the middle of the air traffic pattern at Los Angeles International Airport. Too frightened to shoot any of the balloons, he stayed airborne for more than two hours, forcing the airport to shut down its runways for much of the afternoon, causing long delays in flights from across the country.
Soon after he was safely grounded and cited by the police, reporters asked him three questions:"Where you scared?" "Yes.""Would you do it again?" "No.""Why did you do it?" And I love this response. He said, "Because you can't just sit there."Now, don't get me wrong. What Larry Walters was a terribly stupid thing to do. But I wish more Christians had the attitude that we need to do be something -- "because you can't just sit there!"Yesterday, I wrote about the importance of knowing, doing and being in our Christian lives. Yesterday, I expounded on the idea of "knowing." Allow me this morning to say a few words about the need to "do".James wrote, "But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves." (James 1:22).
He goes on to describe a man who reads the Bible, but he doesn't put it into practice. He says he is like a man who looks in the mirror. He sees his hair is messed up, he needs to shave, he has a dirty smudge on his cheek, but he goes his way and does nothing about it. Looking in the mirror has done him no good. So is the man who reads God's Word, but makes no effort to put what he reads into practice. But, "He who looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does." (James 1:25).
In Matthew 25, Jesus described the scene of the Day of Judgment. He describes the separation of the sheep from the goats (and our eternal destiny) based on what we have done. It is clear from the words of Jesus that Christianity is a series of verbs, action words -- visit, feed, clothe, go, teach, encourage, give, love.So, what are we accomplishing for the Lord? What are we doing? The Lord doesn't demand the unusual or the sensational, but he does expect something. What are we doing? We're not truly living Christian lives unless we're doing the work of Christ. We don't just need to know; we need to do.
We need to strive for balance in our spiritual lives. There are some Christians who spend all their time learning God's will. Constantly studying, learning, getting a handle on every obscure passage and an argument against every false doctrine. But they never get around to doing. And there are others who are busy doing good works, but they haven't spent enough time with God's Word to know if they're really following God's will. But God's desire is that we have both knowledge and obedience:"That you may have a walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." (Colossians 1:10).
May God make you "fruitful in every work" as you "have a walk worthy of the Lord."
BECOMING
The famous actor Gregory Peck was once standing in line with a friend, waiting for a table in a crowded Los Angeles restaurant. They had been waiting for some time, the diners seemed to be taking their time eating and new tables weren't opening up very fast. They weren't even that close to the front of the line. Peck's friend became impatient, and he said to Gregory Peck, "Why don't you tell the maitre d' who you are?"Gregory Peck responded, "No, if you have to tell them who you are, then you aren't."
There's a great deal of wisdom in that statement. There's a big difference in who we think we are, who others think we are, and who we really are. Someone has well said that, "Reputation is who others think we are. Character is who we really are." As Christians, we ought to be more concerned with character than with reputation. Christianity is more than just knowing the right facts. It's more than going through the right motions. It begins in the heart; it's who we are.
There is a continual process of growing and adding Christ-like virtues to our lives. Peter wrote, "Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love." (2 Peter 1:5-8). We never stop "becoming"; it's an ongoing process. There's always something positive to add to our lives, always something negative to try to get rid of.
We have different ways of measuring growth. When you used to take the children to see the pediatrician, the nurse would always check their height and weight. Then that information was written onto a chart that gave us a picture of how they were growing. When we get to be adults, we measure our growth by whether or not we can fit into last year's pants.
But how does a person measure his growth in Christianity? In Ephesians 4:15-16, Paul says, "…but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into him who is the head -- Christ -- from whom the whole body…causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." Paul says that it's time for us to grow up, it's time for us to mature. But what is the goal of our growth? Jesus Christ is!My favorite picture of the growth of Christianity is found in 2 Corinthians 3:18: "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." Paul says it's as if we're holding a mirror in our left hand, and a picture of Christ in our right hand. Now when we look in the mirror and see our reflection, and we then we look at Christ, they don't look much alike. But every day as we mature, we grow up, we become more like Christ, striving for the day when we look in the mirror and see the reflection of Jesus Christ.
Knowledge, conduct, and character must always go together. We learn God's will so that we might obey it; and in obeying it, we serve him and grow in Christian character. While none of us is perfectly balanced in these three areas, we ought to strive for that balance.May God bless you as you seek to "know" His will better, "do" more in service to Him, and "become" more like Jesus Christ!
Verses
2 Corinthians 4:18
meanwhile I fix my view not upon the visible, but upon the invisible world, for the visible world is destined to pass away, but the invisible is imperishable.
Deuteronomy 7:14
"You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock.
Matthew 23:12
"And whoever exalts himself will be abased, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
John 15:7
If you remain united to me, and my words remain within your hearts, request what you will, and it shall be yours.
Prayer
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the Word of Truth, the gospel that has come to you.
All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. You learned it from faithful followers of Jesus Christ. For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of His will through all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to His glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light.For He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Amen. Adapted from Colossians 1
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