4SpiritualSecrets

“And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came … and the door was shut.” (Matthew 25:10)

The story is told of a farmer who called an insurance agency in the middle of a hurricane and said “Hello, hello I’d like to buy some insurance for my silo—O my Lord there it goes!”

In The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins Jesus teaches that the wise virgins had oil in their lamps when the Bridegroom returned but the foolish virgins did not. Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. When those who had no oil came to those who had oil to get some they were told they had to get oil of their own, but it was too late. The Bridegroom had come and the door was shut! The teaching of Jesus is that there are two kinds of people in this world – spiritual and secular. When He comes the spiritual people will be taken and the secular left – and it will be too late then to become a spiritual person.

When I was a child in Sunday school a teacher put a black velvet tablecloth on a card table. On that cloth she had thousands of straight pins and matchsticks all mixed up together. She then passed a powerful magnet over the table. The straight pins were caught up and stuck to the magnet while the matchsticks were left on the table. This illustrated the teaching that when Jesus returns one will be taken and the other left. I stood in front of that table with big eyes and decided that I was going to be a “straight pin!”

Are you a matchstick or a straight pin? Don’t let the plague of procrastination keep you from being taken when He returns.

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

The founding elder of the first church for which I was the pastor was a home builder. He did beautiful work and when a couple wanted him to build their home he would take them to a beautiful home he had built and say to them “By the grace of God this is by workmanship.” The verse above is saying to all of us who are followers of Christ that our risen living Christ would like to point to each of us and say “This is My workmanship!”

We are all a work of Christ in progress. In addition to that thought this verse is stating that when we came to faith and were saved by grace through the faith our Lord gave us, He created us for good works. In fact we’re told that before He saved us he had already planned that we would do those works for Him.

I don’t know about you but that truth excites and inspires me greatly! We’re so selfish and self-centered that when we come to faith our focus is often on what trusting Christ to be our Savior is going to mean to us. Many followers of Christ have the attitude “What have you done for me lately?” The Apostle Paul had the right vision when he met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus and asked the question, “Lord, what do you want me to do for you?”

As a follower of Christ have you been asking and seeking to know what those works are your Lord and Savior had planned for you when He saved you by grace?

“… And He Himself gave some to be … pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry…” (Ephesians 4:11, 12)

According to these words of Apostle Paul, “the work of the ministry” is not committed to the pastor, or to a staff of professionals, but to the saints. Paul’s nickname for those who are sanctified, or set apart to following Christ was “saints.” In many of our churches today people believe the work of the ministry has ended when the benediction is pronounced. This job description of the pastor declares that the work of the ministry begins when the benediction is pronounced and hundreds, or even thousands of saints are commissioned and equipped to go out and do the work of the ministry. This means that the role of the pastor/teacher is like that of a coach.

Which is more productive? To give an invitation and have half a dozen or more people respond to it, or to equip a sanctuary full of believers to go out and reach people who desperately need to hear the Gospel? Is the church a soul saving station or a base from which a multitude of believers are equipped every Sunday to reach people in the neighborhoods where they live or the marketplaces where they work?

It is not merely because it is more effective but because it is God’s plan that we who are pastors should accept our role and calling to be a coach and not just a player. If we will equip, instruct, encourage, challenge and inspire believers to go out and do the work of the ministry it could wake the sleeping giant of the Church.

“… For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:2)

From about the middle of the seventh to the middle of the eighth chapter of his letter to the Romans the Apostle Paul profiles four spiritual laws. The first is the law of God which is the Word of God. One of the many functions of the Word of God is to reveal the law of sin and death. James describes this when he tells us the Word of God is like a mirror which shows us our imperfections.

These first two laws are the bad news and they get us ready to hear the good news which is quoted above. The third law is the law of the Spirit of life in Christ and it can free us from the law of sin and death. It’s almost as if the law of sin and death is a law of spiritual gravity and the law of the Spirit is a law of spiritual aerodynamics because it can raise us above the law of sin and death. If that is true, why are some believers like a 747, lumbering down the runway for 40 years and never overcoming gravity?

The fourth spiritual law is the law of the mindset. Six or more times according to your translation, Paul writes that those who live in the Spirit have set their minds on the Spirit and those who live in the flesh have set their minds on the flesh.

Athletes and many other professions critically depend on the law of the mindset. What is your spiritual mindset today? It can make all the difference, according to these four spiritual laws of the Apostle Paul.

“…those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:17)

In the context of the Scripture quoted above the Apostle Paul is telling us about four kings. Each of these kings enters, abounds and reigns. The first is King Sin. (He sounds like a Chinese king.) When he enters our life he abounds until he reigns. The next is King Death. He is the consequence of sin and he enters, abounds and reigns right behind King Sin. Those two are the bad news but the next two are the good news. King Jesus enters our lives. He wants to abound in our lives until He reigns in us. The fourth king is King You and King Me. The ultimate good news is that we can reign in life through Jesus Christ!

At the beginning of this fifth chapter of his letter to the Romans, the Apostle Paul writes the Good News that we have access by faith into grace that makes it possible for us to stand for Christ in this world and live a life that glorifies God. He then tells us that we should rejoice in our sufferings because they force us to access the grace God has made available to us by faith (vs. 3-5). In the verse above he writes that when we receive an abundance of this grace we will reign in life through Jesus Christ.

Do you understand this profound Good News Paul is sharing with us about these four kings? What sounds like a good hand at poker can give you and me the dynamic we need to stand for Christ, reign in life and live lives that glorify God and exalt Jesus Christ.

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked …
Stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.
But his delight is in the law (Word) of the LORD,
And on his law he meditates day and night.
He is like a tree planted by streams of water…” (Psalm 1: 1-3)

The First Psalm establishes a pattern. The blessings of the blessed man are not a coincidence. They are a banquet of consequences. He is blessed because he is no mocker; he is a believer. This man is blessed because he loves the Word of God and he walks in the counsels of God he finds in the Word of God. This means he knows that the way to convert the Word of God into a power and a force in his life is to obey and apply the Word of God.

This is described metaphorically when we’re told he resembles a tree which has its roots in watery soil. The Scripture is described metaphorically as water and that helps us understand this metaphor. A blessed man has his view of life and his value system firmly planted in the Word of God. He is in the Word and the Word is in him and that explains his blessings.

Perhaps his greatest blessing is that he does not stand in the way of sinners. Over the last 60 plus years I have picked up the pieces with many sinners. That experience has confirmed the teaching of Scripture that the way of the sinner is the pits.

Would you like to be the blessed man or woman? Read, believe and meditate in the Word of God regularly applying to your life what you are reading.