Blessings and Honor

Blessings and Honor

by | Nov 24, 2019 | Gratitude

There is a sobering but meaningful verse in the Book of Malachi regarding the blessings we have been given. In this scripture God says: “If you do not listen, and if you do not resolve to honor my name … I will send a curse on you, and I will curse your blessings … because you have not resolved to honor me” (Malachi 2:2).

​Notice that Malachi does not say God will necessarily take away our blessings, but that our behavior leads to those blessings becoming curses. Why would this be? Malachi’s words allude to the great “Blessings and Curses” narrative (Deuteronomy 11) in which God reminded ancient Israel that faithfulness and obedience to His laws would result in individual and national blessings – whereas turning from God would lead to many resultant curses.  The prophet’s words also have a specific reference to the priests who had become corrupt and were not honoring the God they were supposed to serve – but the principle is one that can apply to all of us, in our marriages, families, careers or finances.

The Bible shows that we can lose blessings or see them become curses for a number of reasons; the Old Testament may even be described as a book of the giving and losing of blessings – from Adam and Eve’s expulsion from Eden to the expulsion of Israel and Judah from their homelands. Many of the Old Testament prophets elaborate on this theme (see for example, Malachi and Haggai), but it is not just an Old Testament concept.  The New Testament also shows we can lose God’s blessings – the fact is stressed throughout the Bible.

Look at a few examples.  We can lose blessings by putting them – the physical things themselves – before God. We don’t necessarily do this by making idols of them, but sometimes just by focusing on them to the point that our character suffers and our spiritual lives decline.  This idea is found in the words of Solomon: “A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that makes haste to be rich shall not be innocent” (Proverbs 28:20) and Jesus: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15).   We can miss the point of these scriptures if we think this only applies to avaricious greed and not to letting such things as desire for promotion in our careers or “trying to make a comfortable living” come between us and God. It’s a matter of focus.

We can lose blessings or have them become curses by being unwilling to share them where we can (Romans 15:27, 2 Corinthians 9:9). We can also lose blessings by taking them for granted (Hebrews 12:17).  In all these ways, and others, we can fall into the trap that Malachi warns of – that our focus is not on honoring God by keeping him first in our lives.

It’s something we can think about this Thanksgiving season. Is our focus on the blessings or on the One who ultimately gives them?  Our Thanksgiving should perhaps be about more than just  enjoying our blessings – and the big game of the day. Psalm 50:23 tells us that “Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me” and the principle of offering sacrifices of thanks certainly applies to the Thanksgiving holiday. But Thanksgiving is a wonderful opportunity not only to give thanks for physical and spiritual blessings, but also to remind ourselves to live our thanks by honoring God, as Malachi urges us to do. ​

A Shortage of Good Women?

A Shortage of Good Women?

by | Nov 17, 2019 | Difficult Scriptures

Scripture in Focus: Ecclesiastes 7:28
 
“while I was still searching but not finding – I found one upright man among a thousand, but not one upright woman among them all” (Ecclesiastes 7:28).
 
On the surface of it, the author of the biblical book of wisdom called Ecclesiastes seems to give women a pretty bad rap. While this writer – probably the wise King Solomon (Ecclesiastes 1:12) –  admits there are few good men to be found (“I found one upright man in a thousand”), he seems to have been unable to find a good woman at all!

But is that what this verse is really saying?  There are actually a number of possibilities that the verse is not putting women down at all, and we will look at three of these individually.

First, we should notice that the writer is referring to himself in the first person in saying “While I was searching … I found …” This is important as the book is giving the writer’s personal experience from its  introduction almost to its conclusion. He continually stresses his own personal reactions and feelings – as when he writes: “I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me” (Ecclesiastes 9:13).  As a result, it is perfectly possible that the writer is simply talking about his own experience rather than making a statement about all women everywhere.  The fact that he was a king might make this more likely, as we will see next.

Second, the Hebrew word translated “woman” (ishah) can mean wife as well as woman and the phrase “to find a woman” can mean to look for and find a wife. If that is the meaning in this verse, the king evidently could find an occasional man who made a good friend, but was unable to find a good wife. 1 Kings 11:3 tells us that Solomon had one thousand wives and concubines, but it is entirely possible that most of these women were striving to win position or favor for themselves or their families.  As someone who admittedly was primarily seeking pleasure in life (Ecclesiastes 2:1, etc.), he may have cut himself off from women who he would have respected more. From this perspective Ecclesiastes 7:28 is simply applying the fact that money  (even kingly riches) cannot buy happiness in the realm of marriage.

Yet another possibility can be seen in the fact that the Hebrew word translated man in this verse (adam) can often mean “human.” If that was the intended meaning, the writer could simply have been stressing that his experience was that only one in a thousand people were good individuals – though admitting that his “sample” consisted entirely of men and no women.

There are even other possibilities for the original meaning of this verse, but we can see from the three mentioned here that whatever the writer of Ecclesiastes meant specifically, he need not have been putting down all women.  It is more likely that he was complaining of his own sad experience based on his own particular circumstances.  Additionally, if the author of Ecclesiastes was indeed Solomon, we should also compare this verse with the many proverbs of Solomon that do show a high regard for women (Proverbs 12:4; 18:22; 19:14; 31:10; etc.). 

A New Website (with Free Books) for You!

A New Website (with Free Books) for You!

by | Nov 10, 2019 | Updates

We are very happy to announce the launch of our latest website:   Free Christian E-Books! Our new site brings you more food for the soul – in the form of  Christian e-books that you can read on any computer, e-reader or smartphone.  

Naturally the new site carries all of our own e-books (including the latest 2nd editions and new titles) and also carefully selected books ranging from classics like The Pilgrim’s Progress to recent titles by some of the leading Christian writers of today.   Books have been chosen to reflect our non-denominational perspective, and while some authors are affiliated with specific denominations, the works we have selected do not focus on denominational topics.

Also in keeping with the philosophy behind our website ministry, all the books we offer on the new website are completely free and do not require any registration or email address to download.  The site is newly launched, but there is  already a wide selection of titles to choose from, and new books will be added regularly. Why not come on over to visit and pick up a couple of free books while you are there!  You can visit FreeChristianEBooks.org here.

How Do We Please God?

How Do We Please God?

by | Nov 3, 2019 | Discipleship

​The more we grow spiritually, the more we desire to please God; but how do we most effectively do that?  The New Testament mentions a number of ways in which we should please God – that we cannot please him without faith (Hebrews 10:38), without “walking in the Spirit” (Romans 8:8), etc. But in his letter to the Colossians, the apostle Paul makes a statement that summarizes the many answers to that question (Colossians 1:9-12).  Paul tells us he prayed that believers “… may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way…” (vs. 10, emphasis added), and he then follows this thought by speaking of four specific ways that, taken together, please God in “every way.”

Paul’s statement is almost startling in both its reach and its simplicity. No other passage in the New Testament claims to tell us how to be completely pleasing to God, so we should look very closely at the characteristics the apostle tells us fulfill this goal.  The four things are:

1. Bearing fruit in every good work (vs. 10). Paul makes it clear throughout his epistles that although good works do not save us, God expects us to produce good works as a result of being saved (Titus 3:8, 14, etc.).  Throughout the New Testament the expression “good works” primarily refers to works done to help others (Hebrews 13:16, etc.), but it also includes our obedience to God (1 Thessalonians 4:1, Hebrews 13:20-21, etc.). We should also notice Paul’s stress in Colossians 1 is not that “some” good works will please God, but that we are urged to “every good work” – to as many good works as possible! 

2. Growing in the knowledge of God (vs. 10).  Paul next cites our ongoing growing in the knowledge of God and his ways as being central to our ability to please God. It is only as we come to know God that we can learn to properly love, fear, trust, and obey him (Psalm 147:11). Knowledge itself is of no use without application (1 Corinthians 13:1-2), but growing in knowledge can enable us to better grow in good works (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

The first two points  Paul gives for how to please God correspond directly with the apostle Peter’s summary admonition that we should “…grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18, emphasis added). Paul also stresses these same two characteristics elsewhere in his writing (Philippians 1:9), but in Colossians 1 he goes further to add two more points that we need in order to fully please God:

3. Being strengthened by God (vs. 11).  This is not strength for its own sake, of course, rather  “… that you may have great endurance and patience” (Colossians 1:11, Ephesians 3:16, etc.). Given what Paul says in this verse, there is no question that this strengthening is actually something God must do in us: “being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might,” yet we must make this possible by asking God’s help and trusting him in faith to supply his strength. In that sense, this characteristic includes the quality of faith itself, as the basis of our strength, endurance and patience (Hebrews 11:6).

4. Giving thanks to God (vs. 12). The final characteristic that Paul tells us is pleasing to God is deep gratitude on our part: “… giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” In fact, thankfulness is a theme to which the apostle returns numerous times in this short epistle (Colossians 2:7; 3:15, 17; 4:2) – in this way reinforcing our understanding of its importance in God’s eyes.

So Paul’s four summary characteristics of believers who truly please God are not what many of us might guess. Humanly, we might suppose that never-failing obedience, great sacrifice, frequent or long periods of prayer, or any number of other things that relate to our own lives might be what please God. But Paul’s four characteristics do not focus on our lives – they are all primarily outward looking toward others and God himself.    
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Perhaps we should not be surprised that the things Paul says greatly please God are all expressions of our love for others and love for God.  That is basic enough, but the four specific characteristics Paul enumerates are worthy of our careful study – if we want to please God, they are among the highest goals for which we can aim.