Tag: Baptist Church

Let It Die Already

Hebrews 8:13 KJV

In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

 

Years ago I pastored a young lady who had a childhood friend who was battling what turned out to be terminal cancer. Since this lady and her family were brand new in our church, they were excited about our church and anxious to get their friends to come there with them. One of those friends, of course, was this woman with cancer. She never came to our church but we got regular updates on her declining condition from the family who had recently joined.

 

The battle with the cancer was brutal. At one point the friend in our church blurted out to me, “Why doesn’t she just give up and die already?” I knew what she meant. I knew she meant well and that death would end the unbelievable suffering her friend was enduring. Still, it struck me odd, almost cruel. As far as I could tell this new member in our church was about as gracious and compassionate a person as I have ever been blessed to know. But she wanted this struggle to be over.

 

The incident reminds me of the very emotional struggle of replacing Old Testament laws with New Testament faith.

  • There is no question that the new is here
  • There is little debate that it is better

But some refuse to let the fight die.

 

As strange as it may seem, the gracious and the compassionate position is to urge the old to simply “vanish away.”

  • It is not unkind or hateful to urge Jews, especially those who claim to have faith in Christ, to make a clean break from the Old Testament Law.
  • It is an act of love to push Christians who are Gentiles by birth away from Judaistic rituals and toward a Bible believing New Testament Baptist church.

 

God has a plan that will one day restore Israel’s holy and rightful place. But that is the business of the future. Today’s business is to lead all men, Jew or Gentile:

  • to Christ,
  • to baptism and
  • to common fellowship in a local New Testament Bible believing Baptist church.

 

 

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Baptist Hebrews 8:13

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Stay Free of Corruption

2 Timothy 2:20-21 KJV
But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

 

One must remember the simile being employed is the local church. Paul speaks of that church as a great house and reveals, as surprising as we may find it to be, that not every vessel in that house is a clean and honorable one. A toilet basin has a purpose in the house but it would not be satisfactory to use it as a salad bowl.

 

Even so, even those members in the church who are less godly than we would like have a purpose even if it is only to humble us as they revile our walk or to drive us to prayer as they hinder our advance. (As Moses often resorted to prayer when, in the wilderness, he met opposition within his own camp.)

 

That they have purpose, however, does not mean we should allow ourselves to be corrupted by them. Sometimes they are there only to prove us, whether we will be true despite them. Paul said there must be heresies among us that those who are approved or faithful might be manifest. The temptations of the heresies tend to separate those faithful from those who are only leaning on the faithful. Those who stay free from the corruption of the less honorable vessels are themselves, the honorable ones.

 

faithfulness

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Please consider helping our church’s teen department by signing up for cash back shopping at http://www.dubli.com/T0US1C6RE?mID=6311. This program is free to you. Receive a free one month membership upgrade after signing up by pasting the promo code PP153-ZYUPWKSNM in your redeem voucher area.

Saved But Not Faithful

Colossians 1:2 KJV

To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ which are at Colosse: Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

There are times in the Bible when the conjunction and is meant to weld two terms together as one as in a statement such as “the great God and our Saviour…”[1] Other times it couples two distinct entities.

 

It is difficult to determine which is the case in this verse. Bible students have differing thoughts concerning it. I tend to take the position that, if God hasn’t made something clear, then there is likely something to learn in all of the possibilities. Thus I would observe that:

Faithful brethren are saints.

Not that being faithful makes a person a saint for the term saint denotes one who has been saved and that is entirely the work of Jesus Christ. Faithfulness does not make a saint. However faithfulness can certainly help to distinguish a saint. All saints are brethren for that moment of salvation places each of us into the family of God and in brotherhood with Christ.

 

On the other hand,

Not all saints are faithful brethren[2]

It is a fact sadly observed that some of those who have been saved are not as faithful in their faith as they ought to be.

  • Some forsake the things of Christ for the world
  • Some develop a contention and go their own way
  • Some neglect the salvation that was given them

There is a relationship between the saints and the faithful brethren as they are both saved and, in this case, likely both members of this church. But there is also a sad disconnect that exists between those who are saved and not faithful and those who are saved but fully engaged in that which is Christ’s. Toward the faithful brethren Paul may thankfully pronounce grace and peace. Toward the saints who are not so faithful Paul may be praying that such grace and peace might one day be theirs as they become faithful.

[1] Titus 2:13 KJV

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

[2] A note in Jamison Fawcett and Brown reads, “.. ‘saints’ implies union with God, so ‘the faithful brethren’ union with Christian men [Bengel].” It is possible for a man to be united with God but to not be so united with Christian men.

For this and more than 3000 earlier Daily Visits with God visit Marvin McKenzie’s blogger page. There you will find daily visits going back to 2007.

Christian faithfulness