Yes, Jesus Loves Me

I was blessed to attend a Bible study group this week for the first time. As a teacher, it is a rare treat to have someone pour into me for a change. The worship was uplifting, the fellowship was sweet, and the message was timely: the Love of God. The speaker took us through several of the attributes of God’s love and she ended by leading us all through “Jesus Loves Me.” Yes, that is a sweet little song we teach to our children, but let me assure you, it is equally applicable to adults. There is something specials about singing that song with a group of seasoned ladies who have leaned on God’s love through the highs and lows of life.
But something interesting happened. Did you know that there are more verses to that song than we teach our babies? Do you know the words to all those verses? I don’t and neither did most of the ladies there. So we Googled the song. We all knew the first verse – no problem. And we all referred to our phones for the second verse – still good. And then we came to the third verse and we were not all on the same version. Suddenly most of us dropped out and let the leader sing a solo.
What happened? We looked to the world for the words. We trusted the internet to fill in the holes in our song. The lesson was clear to me. Trust no one else but God for truth. Sure it was just a verse in a simple, little song, and the words we pulled up were not blasphemous – they were just not the right words. But words – or rather The Word – matters. Paul urged Timothy to stay in the Scriptures that are the very breath of God (2 Tim 3:14-17). Peter confirmed that the Scriptures are given to man by the Holy Spirit – they are trustworthy and true. They are always the right words.
You may be tired of me beating the Berean drum, but it cannot be stressed enough – always, always, always take everything you hear and everything you read and lay it alongside the Bible and see if it is true (Acts 17:11). Do not take anyone’s word for truth if it does not agree with the living Word of the living God. Too much is at stake to be misled, even by one little, seemingly insignificant word.
Beloved, be a student of the Scriptures. Get to know God’s Word for yourself so that you do not fall for the wrong verse in the song. Because Jesus does love you, and you need to know it.

In the World But Not of the World

Is there any doubt that evil rules the world in which we live? It is impossible to avoid the influence of evil around us unless we hide in a cave. When Jesus prepared His disciples to go out into the world with His message, He said they would be like “sheep among wolves” (Matt 10:16). I feel that constantly just trying to live and survive in the culture of our day. So how do we live godly lives in an ungodly world? The Lord continued: “Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” That’s a rather odd combination – so how do we pull that off in real life?

In the modern context, “shrewd” means “having or showing sharp powers of judgment; astute.” Similarly, in the original Greek, it means “wise, sensible, thinking, understanding.” One of Satan’s most effective tools is to dull our minds and then feed us from the world’s banquet table of ideas and philosophies. We must wake up our sleepy heads and think about the messages we are receiving. We must lay them alongside the Word of God, and see if they are true (Acts 17:11-12). Because we must live in this world, Jesus tells us to think about what we are hearing and make wise determinations.

In contrast to being shrewd, Jesus commands us to be innocent. Again, in the original language, it means to be “pure, not mixed with evil.” We must not attempt to mix the world’s philosophies and ideas with The Truth – Jesus (John 14:6).  God and His Word have not changed despite what the culture says. Men will try to reinterpret the Word of God to make it say whatever they want to hear (2 Tim 4:3-4). We must keep our hearts pure and devoted to Him alone. We must stand firm and not allow the world to mix us up. Paul said, “Stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults” (1 Cor 14:20). In other words, grow up, pay attention, and do not even think about evil.

Jesus said we are “in the world” (John 15:11) but “not of the world” (v. 14). While we live alongside people who do not follow Christ we must live by His Word and for His glory. Beloved, let’s commit to being both shrewd and innocent in this evil world and show them by our lives The One True God who loves them and died for them.

Acts: Funny Money

Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. Blogs. Articles. Books. Everyone has an opinion, and we all want to be heard.  Whether it’s politics, childrearing, fashion, or religion, the world is quick to share its thoughts on any given subject. And yes, I’ve added my own declarations to that loud cacophony of voices. How do you know who to believe? How can you know who is telling the truth?

One of my mantras in 20-plus years of teaching the Scriptures is “Take it back to the Bible.”  If a “truth” cannot be supported by the Word of God – meaning more than one verse taken out of context – then it probably isn’t the Word of God. And it isn’t true. Another you will hear me say frequently is: “You can’t recognize a lie if you don’t know the truth.”  When banks train tellers to recognize counterfeit money, they don’t try to teach them all the ways a bill can be counterfeited, instead, they train them in every little detail of a real bill so that when the fake crosses their path, they can spot it immediately.  If I am immersed in the true Word of the true God then I am less likely to be fooled by a “fine-sounding argument.”

Let’s be honest – we get mentally and spiritually lazy – accepting as truth whatever we are told without bothering to examine the matter for ourselves. The advertising world depends on that. So do politicians. So do false teachers. Jesus said, “Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Shrewd means “wise, sensible” and its root meaning is “thinking, understanding.” Jesus said to think and understand and then make a wise and sensible determination about what you are hearing.

We need to be Bereans. Luke said the Bereans “were of more noble character” than believers elsewhere – not because they gave more money or spoke more eloquently or behaved better than the other churches. It was simply because they “received [Paul’s preaching] with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). Paul was teaching that Jesus was the long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God. They didn’t just take his word for it. They “took it back” to the Word of God as given to the prophets.

Beloved, you and I must wake up our dulled minds and think about what we hear – in the world and even in the church – and take it back to the Bible to see if it is true.

Go To The Word

Everyone seems to have an opinion these days and we all want to be heard.  As a blogger, I am one of the hundreds of thousands – probably even millions – of people on the world-wide-web trying to get a word out to the world. Christian bloggers, of which I am one, seem to be the most overcrowded segment of the species. So, with so many voices out there, to whom should you listen? Who should you trust?

Isaiah was God’s prophet prior to the Israelites going into Babylonian captivity. He had been called and anointed by God to speak on the Lord’s behalf. But just as it is today, there were a lot of people saying a lot of things. But were they reliable? Were they true? Were they clear and righteous messages for God’s people? Those are the same questions we need to be asking today.

In Isaiah’s time, the ungodly messengers were consulting mediums and spiritists who “consulted the dead on behalf of the living.” They whispered and muttered nonsense because that is what the people wanted (Is. 8:19). Paul warned Timothy that men would “gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Tim. 4:3). If you listen to the popular messages coming from many pulpits (books, blogs, podcasts, etc.) today, you will hear much the same.

Paul told Timothy to “Preach the Word” (2T 4:2) and that agrees perfectly with Isaiah’s admonition: “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn” (Is. 8:20). And that brings me to my favorite people, the Bereans, who took Paul’s messages and “examined the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11).

If there is one hill I will die on, it is this: Do not depend on what others say about God. Not even me. Check out every word against the One Word of Truth. You MUST be a student of the Scriptures yourself. That doesn’t mean you have to go to seminary. It means you have to spend time in this divinely inspired Book, searching out truth, wisdom, and understanding and aligning your heart to it. Then you will know how to spot the errors, lies, and false witnesses in the world. Beloved, I implore you – study God’s Word as if your life depended on it. Because it does.

Are You Sure That’s Right?

I goofed up at work yesterday. I ordered a textbook for one of my professors and when I started adding the professor’s information to the online form, the auto-fill popped up because I had ordered textbooks for him before. Yes! I clicked on his name and let the system do its thing. The publisher sent an auto-reply to his email address to confirm the request. He messaged me his thanks – and told me that he had a new address. The book was going to the old address. I pulled up his faculty file in our system and – guess what – he had given me his new address months ago. But the publishing website had the old address and I, assuming it was correct, failed to verify it. Now I had to scramble to contact the publishing company and correct them before the book shipped. All because I didn’t do due diligence. I just assumed what they had was right.

You know where I’m going with this, don’t you? I’ve beat this drum before: Check everything out.  It was a minor inconvenience for me, but not every error is so simple. False teaching has eternal consequences. The culture is teaching “a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all” (Gal 1:6,7). They are teaching a humanitarian gospel that says we are all God’s children and that He accepts everyone who is sincere in whatever they believe. That’s a lie, and people will go to eternal hell sincerely believing it. They are teaching that God only wants us happy, not holy and that he is okay with homosexuality, murdering unborn babies, and changing our gender. That’s not the God of the Bible – the God who is holy, holy, holy.

That’s why the Bereans were applauded in Scripture.  Acts 17:11 says “The Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”  This little congregation checked out everything Paul said before they bought into it.  So should you

False stories on social media can be harmless – like copying and pasting text to change Facebook’s algorithms (p.s. it doesn’t do a thing), but believing a lie about God will always have eternal consequences.  My friends, please don’t let Facebook or Twitter or even me be your source for spiritual truth; check it out in the Bible before you believe it – and especially before you share it.  Beloved, Don’t take anyone else’s word for who God is or what He has said but God Himself.

Pigs and Kings at the Manger

Like all little kids, my granddaughter loves to talk and she has a pretty extensive vocabulary for a 2 ½-year-old. With a few malapropisms which I love. She will say “Will you pick my up?” “I want your cup (meaning her cup).” And she calls Sunday School “Honey” School which it will forevermore be. She will get them right eventually, but for now, I think they are adorable and I have no intention of correcting her.  Sometimes it’s okay to not get things right. But the Bible is something we always want to get right.

Take the Christmas story for instance. Every nativity scene comes with a stable with Mary and Joseph and the Baby in the manger. There are shepherds and angels and some animals. My best friend, a Bible nerd like me, once saw a Fisher-Price Little People nativity set and noticed a pig among the animals. She wrote to the company and explained that a Jewish family would not have a pig among their animals because pigs, according to the Jewish Law, are unclean. Want to hear a Christmas miracle? They took the pig out. The scenes also have three kings bearing gifts. This comes straight from Matthew 2 which reports the visit of the Magi. Only Matthew never said how many wise men there were, only that they presented three gifts: gold, incense, and myrrh.” John Henry Hopkins said there were three kings[1] and we just took his word for it. And they didn’t come to see Jesus at his birth. Jesus was about 2 years old when they made their way from the east after seeing the star (see Matthew 2:16).

Now pigs in a kid’s nativity set and three wise men at the manger don’t seem like such a big deal. But they are the small, seemingly insignificant ways that the culture has altered the truth and the church has accepted it as fact. Which makes it easier to accept other changes, more important changes like Jesus was a great teacher and humanitarian but He really wasn’t God. Mary wasn’t really a virgin. Jesus fell into a coma-like trance but He wasn’t really dead when they buried Him in the tomb. Which leads to God really doesn’t forbid certain sins because He wants us all to be happy. Even Madonna (the singer) said that Jesus would approve of abortion. Do you see what a slippery slope that becomes?

So should you move your Magi away from the stable, maybe put them on a table on the far side of the room? I’ll leave the decorating to you, but I will say that you and I need to be certain we are hearing and believing the truth from the Word of God. There is more at stake than pigs and kings.

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[1] “We Three Kings” written by John Henry Hopkins Ó 1857.

One Way

How do we live godly lives in an ungodly world?

Jesus said, “Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). “Shrewd” means “wise, sensible” and its root meaning is “thinking, understanding.” Jesus said think and then make a wise and sensible determination. Let’s be honest – we get mentally and spiritually lazy – accepting as truth whatever we are told without bothering to examine things for ourselves. The advertising world depends on that. We need to be Bereans. “The Bereans…received [Paul’s preaching] with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). We must wake up our dulled minds and think about what we hear – in the world and even in the church – alongside of the Word of God and see if it is true.

In contrast to being shrewd, Jesus also commands us to be innocent, which means “to be pure, not mixed with evil.” His command here is to not get mixed up with the world’s philosophies and ideas. The Israelites were commanded to keep themselves separate from the pagan peoples around them and not fall into their evil ways nor worship their pagan gods. Yet they tried to compromise with the Lord and the culture, believing that they could dabble in paganism as long as they continued to also follow the sacrificial Law of God. In their dulled minds they believed they were still being obedient to the Lord.

Has anything changed? I don’t care what your bumper sticker says, God’s people cannot “coexist” with ungodliness. It didn’t work for Israel and it won’t work for Christ’s followers today. I’m not advocating separatism; Jesus called us to be His witnesses in the world. We must interact with lost people to tell them about Jesus. But we must also keep our hearts purely devoted to Him alone and not allow the world to mix us up. Jesus left us “in the world” (John 15:11) but “not of the world” (v. 14). We live with people who do not follow Christ or His Word and that is by God’s good design; but we live for the One who died for the world, and we live by His Word and for His glory. How will they know that He is the only Way if we live as if Jesus is just one option among many?

Are You Sure About That?

What do these statements have in common?

“Copy and paste this to your page to circumnavigate the Facebook algorithms and see all your friends again!”
“If you’re being held up at an ATM, put your pin in backwards and the bank will alert the police.”
“My lawyer friend said to copy and share this legal statement to prevent Facebook from using your photos and posts without your consent.”
“When Jesus folded the napkin, it was a sign that He is coming back!”

Besides the fact that they are shared over and over and over on social media, they are all false. They are lies. But because they have been passed on multiple times, people assume they are true. And they keep sharing them.
Paul warned about false doctrine that takes deep root in the church. He said, “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather train yourself to be godly” (1 Timothy 4:7). In the three letters Paul wrote to Timothy and Titus, he prefaced several statements of doctrinal truth with the words: “Here is a trustworthy saying:” He wanted these two young men, whom he had assigned to care for the believers in Ephesus and Crete, to be careful with what they believed and what they taught. He wanted them to only pass along “trustworthy sayings.” My favorite Bible folks are the Bereans from Acts 17 who were considered “noble” because they checked out everything Paul told them. They didn’t take his word for it. They wanted to know if what he was saying was true.
I want you to be a Berean. On Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. In your daily life. In your knowledge of the Bible and spiritual things. In what you pass along to friends and family. In what you teach your children. Check things out. Especially where it concerns the Scriptures. You need to build your faith and your life on “trustworthy sayings,” not “myths and old wives’ tales.” As Paul said, “Train yourself to be godly” through daily Bible study (not just a 5-minute devotional), meditation on God’s Word, and prayer. Fill your mind and your heart with truth.
What do you believe? Why do you believe it? Because it’s what you’ve always heard? Or because you’ve checked it out for yourself and found it to be trustworthy and true? Be a Berean Beloved.

When Everyone’s a Philosopher, How Do You Know What’s True?

In this day of social media, everyone has an opinion and anyone with internet access and a keyboard can become an expert about everything from sports to food to politics to religion. Spend an hour on the web and you will know the deep thoughts of world leaders, celebrities, “influencers,” the media, the local yokel, and even the Kardashians. I’m guilty too, as I flood the cyber-world with biblical commentary. The delivery may be modern, but the idea of sharing ideas is as old as man. The trick is to figure out who’s ideas are worth listening to.

Paul warned the believers in Colossae: “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy . . .” (Colossians 2:8). The Colossians were being led astray by false teachers who claimed that the secret to eternal life was a higher plane of knowledge – a knowledge that was superior to Christ and put one on the level with God. Their philosophies sounded right, but they were wrong, and anyone who listened was led astray. It wasn’t just a first-century problem. That warning still applies today. There are a lot of messages that sound like the Bible, but they are not the Word of God. There are a lot of teachings that sound like Jesus, but they are not the Son of God. They have shades of truth, but they are not the truth.  So how do you know what is true?

When bank tellers receive training to recognize counterfeit money, they are not schooled in every possible way that a bill can be counterfeited. Instead, they are taught every detail of a genuine bill, so that when someone presents money that is even a little off, they can spot it instantly. The key to recognizing a false bill is to know the real thing. The key to recognizing false teaching is to know the truth. Luke commended a group of believers in Berea because they listened to Paul’s teachings and “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). They didn’t take Paul’s word for what God said; they checked it out in God’s Word.

I hope you do the same Beloved. I hope you take what your Bible teacher says, your Pastor, your favorite author or singer, even yours truly, and lay it beside the authoritative, infallible, inspired Word of the Living God to see if it agrees with what was spoken by the Spirit of God. And if it does not, you run from it and run to the truth. And if I said it, you call me out on it. I also hope that you are making Bible study – not just a five-minute devotional reading – a priority in your day. I hope you are digging in and soaking up the truth. I hope you are learning to recognize the ways and words of God so you are not “taken captive through hollow and deceptive philosophies . . .” I hope you know the Scriptures so intimately that anything just a shade off of the truth raises red flags in your spirit. There is far too much as stake to shrug your shoulders and reason that “it sounds okay to me.” Be a Berean. Know the truth. It’ll set you free.

Is That What the Bible Really Says?

One of my responsibilities is to help my sister-in-love create a bulletin board in the church. The Lord gives her the image and I craft it. She is in charge of inspiration and I am the perspiration. This month, we naturally did an “Easter” theme – based on the song, “Love Grew Where the Blood Fell” and on Luke 22:44: “And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.” My husband crafted a wooden cross and we mounted it to the board. Because we wanted to emphasize the Lord’s prayer of surrender in Gethsemane, we talked about adding the “rock” upon which Jesus prayed. But something stopped me. I went to the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, and Luke all speak of the anguished prayer in the garden, but there is no mention of a rock; rather, the Scriptures say “He knelt down and prayed” (Luke 22:41) and “He fell with His face to the ground and prayed” (Matthew 26:39). No rock. But, the prayer on the rock is entrenched in our memory of the story. So where did the rock come from? From the 1886 painting, “Christ in Gethsemane” by Heinrich Hoffman. This classic work of art has become part of the story, just as the “Three wise men” have become part of the Christmas story. But read Matthew’s account again – there were three gifts, but no mention of the number of wise men. John Henry’s 1857 song, “We Three Kings” cements the idea in our minds.
I share this to warn you and me – don’t let side stories and paintings and songs and culture add to or take away from the Word of God. Sure, there’s no harm in having a rock in Gethsemane or three kings in the Christmas story (who, by the way, did not come to the manger, but to the holy family’s house about 2 years after Jesus’ birth). But there are other false teachings that slip in just as easily and can do great harm to your faith and mine. Even if it is something you are sure of, go to the Scriptures and verify it. Our own thoughts and recollections can be colored by something as simple as a children’s nativity play. Friend, we need to be like the Bereans – who listened to Paul’s teachings and “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts17:11). I’ve been a Bible teacher for 20+ years, and my sister-in-love has studied the Bible even longer and we both had a rock in Gethsemane. We were both surprised to discover that there ain’t no rock. Beloved, don’t take anyone else’s word for what God said but God Himself. Even mine. Go get your Bible right now and check it out.