2 Thessalonians 3:1-5 ESV
“Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may speed ahead and be honored, as happened among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men. For not all have faith. But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. And we have confidence in the Lord about you, that you are doing and will do the things that we command. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ.”
When we are sharing the truth of the gospel with others,
some people are going to oppose us. And this will come in many different forms.
Some may mock us, others may attack us, others may accuse us falsely of
teaching “works salvation,” others may attempt to bait us into a needless
argument, some may try to trick us and to trip us up, and still others may
attack our character with lies they have concocted, etc. But we need to respond
with the Word of God and not in our emotions and not via our own opinions.
And we definitely need to be praying that the truth of the
gospel will continue to advance and to go forth and that it will not be
hindered in any way by those who oppose it. For Satan is in an all-out war
against the truth of the gospel, and he is going to attempt to stop it from
going forth any which way he can. And he has many people who are working for
him, some knowingly, and some not, who are helping his cause, for they are
opposing the true gospel in favor of a diluted and altered gospel message.
And when this says that not all have faith, that definitely
includes many who are professing faith in Jesus Christ but who are believing a
lie and not the truth. And so their faith is not genuine God-given faith, but
something from the flesh and probably what is being promoted by other humans.
For many are believing that they can make a one-time profession of faith in
Jesus Christ and that it guarantees them forgiveness of all sins and heaven as
their eternal destiny, regardless of how they live their lives.
But Jesus said that if anyone would come after him that he
must deny self, take up his cross daily (daily die to sin and to self) and
follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to our old lives of living in sin and for
self, we will lose them for eternity. But if for the sake of Jesus we die with
him to sin that we might live to him and to his righteousness, then we have the
hope of eternal life with God. And he said that not everyone who says to him, “Lord,
Lord,” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one DOING the will of
God.
[Luke 9:23-26; 1 Peter 2:24; Romans 6:1-23; Matthew 7:21-23]
But the Lord is faithful! Amen! He will help us to be strong
in our faith, and he will give us the words to say in response to all opposing
forces, but we have to be listening to him speak, and then we must yield to his
wisdom and follow it. And again, we must be very careful to not be ruled by our
emotions and to not let any opposition get us discouraged or disheartened. For
we were told in advance that this is what we should expect. And we need to
believe that God is all powerful and that he already won this battle.
And if people are mocking us or trying to bait us, we don’t
have to respond to those comments. Now the Lord may lead us to respond, but we
are not required to respond to every response if some of those responses are just
trying to stir things up and they have no intention of engaging in reasonable
and biblical dialogue. And the Lord will give us wisdom in these matters so
that we don’t get entangled in pointless discussions that go nowhere and which
are likely to just confuse the issues.
Now I don’t know most all of you who may be reading this. I
have probably never met most of you and I don’t have much information about
most of you. So I can’t write, as did Paul, about most all of you with any
amount of confidence to where I can state with any certainty how you are doing
or not doing. But you know how you are doing. You know if you are walking in
pure fellowship with Christ and if you are obeying his teachings or if you are
wandering from the faith and need to repent and to return to the Lord.
But I can pray, with Paul’s prayer, that the Lord will
direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ. For
we who are the Lord’s via genuine God-given faith, should all be walking in righteousness
and in holiness, and in walks of obedience to our Lord and to his commands (New
Covenant). All of us should have forsaken our lives of sin and we should no longer
be walking in sin, still living as slaves to sin. But now we should be living
as slaves (servants) of God and of his righteousness.
So, I encourage you, if you have not already done so, to
surrender your lives to Jesus Christ today. Die with Christ to sin and live to
him and to his righteousness day by day by day, in his power and strength, and
until the day you die or until Jesus returns and takes you home. And if you are
already doing that, and if the enemy is opposing you, then I pray for your
strength in the Lord to continue in your walks of faith and obedience and in
the spreading of the true gospel so that many others will be saved.
He
Lifted Our Burdens
An
Original Work / February 15, 2014
Based
off Isaiah 9:2-7
People walk in darkness.
They abide in their sin.
It has power o’er them.
True belief escapes them.
Jesus Christ came to save them.
He gave His life up for them;
Crucified; died for our sin,
So we might be forgiven,
And have life up in heaven.
Many come to know Him.
God’s love now o’erflows them.
They rejoice in vict’ry.
Their sin is but hist’ry.
We were once bound in slav’ry.
Jesus lifted our burdens;
Set us now free from Satan,
So we now walk in freedom.
Sin has no more dominion.
Praise be to our Savior!
He showed us His favor.
He took all our burdens;
Cast them all upon Him.
He is our mediator;
The Light which shines in darkness.
Counselor in our troubles;
He gives peace now in our hearts;
Joy which is everlasting.
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