Live out your beliefs

Luke 17:1-4

It matters what you believe, and it matters how you live out your beliefs, for your beliefs are on the stage of this world and your audience is big, enormous!  It consists of your family, teachers, friends, everyone in your business life, church life, neighbors, people who you drive past each day and shop in the same stores with, and then the ones you never see.  The unseen we are told are the angels of heaven who watch to see how we use this freedom of choice, and others like cosmic powers who are over this present darkness, and the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 

My dad would often say: “A word to the wise is sufficient,” the apostle Paul gives us a wise word in his letter to the Ephesians chapter 6:10, “Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might.”  Have you wondered, how can one do this?  It will not happen in your strength, but in the Lord and in the strength of His might.  And verse 11 tells us the devil is scheming to mess-up your life, and you and I must put on this armor of God to stand against the devil’s schemes.  Now remember the battle is taking place in your soul, and the soul is defined as your mind, will, and emotions, it is a spiritual battle, and it is a battle you can win, in the strength of Jesus’ might, never in your own strength.

So how do we fight this battle?  You must guard your heart, for Proverbs 4:23, gives us this counsel: “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”  Doctor Luke tells us in Luke 6:45, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.”

Jesus had the following to say to his disciples, and as a follower of Christ to you and me,  “Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. Pay attention to yourselves!” (Luke 17:1-3a ESV)  You do not want to be the source of causing a young believer or seeker to sin, pay close attention to your heart, for it is clear that what comes out of the mouth, is what is stored up in your heart.

As one who has sinned and fallen short, who has willfully broken the commands of our loving Father, as one who has by the grace and mercy of our Father in heaven been abundantly pardoned, please listen to the words of Jesus: “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” (Luke 17:3-4)

Steve Peace who teaches our adult class on Sunday has said many times “That to not forgive someone, is the same as drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.”  And let me close with this word from Jesus, “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”  (Matthew 6:14-15)

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice