by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015 | Articles
After Jesus healed a deaf/mute man, he charged those who watched, “tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.” Mark 7:36 On more than one occasion, after healing someone, Jesus expressly commanded that they tell no one about what He had done. As far as I can tell, not one of these healed people obeyed Jesus. They may have been grateful for what He did, but they saw no reason to do what He said. Evidently, telling others about what Jesus did for them was more important than obeying Him. How easily we ignore the commands of God when we believe it to be for a noble cause – a classic illustration of the end justifying the means. Why not spread abroad the fact that Jesus can and does heal the infirmed? We disregard the commandments regarding the qualifications of an elder, because we believe the commandments are punitive and we need to forgive. Women disregard the wishes of their husbands when they believe they have the moral high ground, since the wife is obviously right and the husband is obviously wrong. Illustrations of this phenomenon abound. The one “willing to justify himself” concludes that his perception of what is right is a legitimate excuse for ignoring the wishes of authority, even though if he thinks about it, he knows that he should not try to be more holy than...
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015 | Articles
“Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the LORD; for the men treated the offering of the LORD with contempt.” 1Samuel 2:17 In 1Samuel 2 God describes the wickedness of Eli’s sons. In essence they abused the privileges of the priesthood, violating the specific instructions of the Lord. When they failed to adhere to the specific instructions of God, He charged them with holding His Word in contempt. The Old Testament Law is filled with great detail on how things were to be done. The greater the detail, however, the greater the temptation to modify the instructions. “God doesn’t really care about the details; it is the spirit that counts,” is how we rationalize. Like the sons of Eli, such people frequently get into trouble with God. In the New Testament, by and large, God does not give a great deal of detail. In rites such as baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and congregating in His name, no specifics are given. Thus we are free to improvise as we please. But instead of enjoying our freedom in Christ, we fragment over the details. Denominations come into existence over mode of baptism, the exact meaning of the bread and wine, and what we do when we congregate in His name. Unity is lost in violation of His wish that we be one. On the other hand, we ignore with seeming impunity the specific commands of God with which we do not agree. It seems that no matter what God asks, we want to argue with Him. Instead of obeying His simple commands, we emulate...
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015 | Articles
“Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling, and honor your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the choicest of every offering of My people Israel?” 1Samuel 2:29 Because of the sin of Eli’s sons, God sent His man to rebuke Eli. These were not sins that Eli committed, but the sins of his children. Because Eli refused to discipline his children and hold them accountable for their crimes, God disciplined Eli. As you read the narrative, the consequences are severe: “A time is coming when I will break your power and that of your father’s house, and there shall be no elder in your house…And this shall be a sign for you: The fate of your two sons Hophni and Phinehas — they shall both die on the same day. And I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest, who will act in accordance with My wishes and My purposes…And all the survivors of your house shall come and bow low to him for the sake of a money fee and a loaf of bread, and shall say, ‘Please, assign me to one of the priestly duties, that I may have a morsel of bread to eat.’”[1] Paul spells out in I Corinthians 5 the steps we must take when the commandments of God are broken. If Eli teaches us anything, it is that when a man refuses to exercise biblical discipline with his children, God comes looking for the father. [1] 1Samuel...
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015 | Articles
“And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” John 3:19 Intrinsic to sin is a sense of shame. You see this in Genesis 3, “They knew they were naked and they hid.” [Genesis 3:10] Before sin Adam and Eve had nothing to hide. With the transgression came a loss of innocence. Most crime is committed under the cover of darkness. Instinctively children seek to hide whatever wrong they commit, either by lying about it or hiding the stolen object where it can’t be found. Occasionally you find people who, in an act of defiance, call evil good and openly confess and commit what others, in their embarrassment, seek to hide. The philosophy of “free love” a number of year ago encouraged open sin. People quickly fall beyond the pale of redemption when they lose their sense of shame when sinning. Paul, cataloging the sins of the human race said, “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie.” [Romans 1:25] Never sanction or give approval to what God calls evil. When you cover disobedience with the cloak of righteousness, as for example with euthanasia, you engage in the most insidious form of hiding. God again and again calls to mind the foolishness of such endeavors, for although you can hide your motives and actions from people, you cannot hide them from God. He will bring them to light “In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.” [Romans 2:16] Assuming that you agree that you cannot hide...
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