Singing From Joy

Singing From Joy

Acts16:22-25
22 Then the multitude rose up together against them; and the magistrates tore off their clothes and commanded them to be beaten with rods.
23 And when they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, commanding the jailer to keep them securely.
24 Having received such a charge, he put them into the inner prison and fastened their feet in the stocks.
25 But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

The scene: The Philippian Jail
The Time:  11:40 PM
The “Guests” of the jailer: Paul of Tarsus and Silas

   Had it been many of us, the scene would have played out much differently. The questions about what happened and why it happened.  We had a permit.  We had a flag flying in plain sight. Placing blame on the Jewish leaders for stirring up the crowd and blaming the common folk who rioted even though they probably didn’t really know what was going on.  The magistrates and city elders deserved some blame, too, for having them beaten without a trial and thrown in this prison.  And that cold-hearted jailor for putting us into these uncomfortable stocks and not in a soft bed in the infirmary.  There would be a time of self-pity when the bruising and lacerations began to hurt.  And fear of what would happen tomorrow!  Would there be more beatings?  Could we get off with a warning and flee this wretched city?  
   So why did Paul and Silas act like they did?  Why the singing and prayers and praising God?  They were human like us and had passions and fears and hopes just like us. Their bodies would be bloody and bruised and in pain.  We would have been in misery and I doubt singing praises would have been my first thought.  But they sang.  It was midnight and they probably couldn’t sleep with the pain and the uncomfortable stocks they were in would only add to the misery.  But they chose to express themselves in singing.  They glorified God and were loud enough for the other prisoners to hear.
   I think the answer is one little three-letter word.  Joy.  They were filled with a love for God that rose above their pain and rose above their circumstances and filed their hearts with joy.  So they sang out and filled that jail with praises of God.
   Many times I’ve been in the middle of a pity party and had the mood ruined by thoughts of this incident. I want to wallow in my misery but I’m reminded of two guys beaten and sitting with their feet in stocks singing praises to God.  How can I work up a good misery then? I can’t come up with an excuse big enough to compare with what happened to them.  There are times I can say I’ve had a bad day and maybe even a bad week but not that bad compared to their week.  I’ve witnessed to people who have become hostile but never once have I been dragged to a judge who ordered me beaten.  The worst that I have experienced was one man who slapped the Bible out of my hand and cursed me.
   Where is my joy?  I want to sing praises more.  I want a song to bubble up out of my heart and come out of me in praise to God.  I want more joy in my salvation.  I pray that as I work on my one word resolution to embrace God more this year that somewhere in that journey I find that joy in being His.


   Stephen Cram                            February 24th, 2013                Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8

When Life Gives You Lemons

When Life Gives You Lemons

Acts 17

2 Then Paul, as his custom was, went in to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 

3 explaining and demonstrating that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ.”

   Paul had a bad summer.  He was on his second missionary journey and had come to the Greek city of Philippi.  He had been preaching there when a young girl possessed of a demon began following him.  He cast out the demon.  Her master was using her for occultist purposes and now he faced losing all the income from her.  He complained and the magistrates had Paul and Silas beaten with rods and imprisoned in jail.  They were miraculously delivered and the magistrates demanded that they leave the city so Paul and Silas went to Thessalonica.  There he preached for only three weeks and then some envious Jews stirred up a mob in the marketplace and pretty soon the whole city was in an uproar.  They attacked the house Paul had been staying in and dragged his host out of his home and bought him to the city magistrates.  Some faithful friends of Paul’s helped him escape and he went to Berea.  But then this same group from Thessalonica heard that Paul was in Berea and went there and stirred up another mob and another faithful group of friends urged him to leave and he had to flee.  So then he went to Athens and tried to explain Jesus and the Gospel to the philosophers there but failed to persuade many of them.  So he left Athens and made his way to Corinth, where he arrived in fear and weakness.  Next time you think you’re having a bad week, remember Paul’s second missionary journey!

   But of all this, there is a very interesting thing to note. In Corinth, Paul writes his first letter to the church he had left behind in Thessalonica.  He was concerned for them and wanted to be sure they were believing the truth and not getting lost in errors.  So he wrote what we call First Thessalonians.  When you read and study First Thessalonians you see that Paul touches on many subjects ranging from basics like salvation to advanced subjects like the Second Coming of Christ.  Paul was truly the first Full Gospel preacher!  In three weeks he preached the whole gospel to the believers at Thessalonica. 

   Paul had every reason to pack up and head back home after Philippi.  Paul and Silas, according to Acts 16:23, had many stripes laid on them.  A few years ago, a young American was caught damaging a car in Singapore.  The news media reported that he was to be beaten with a rod and showed what happened to people beaten like this.  Beating with rods leaves welts, bruises and cuts on the person and it takes weeks to heal.  They did not get weeks to heal; they were put in jail with their feet in stocks. This usually involved sitting on a hard floor with your feet stretched out awkwardly and secured in stocks made of either rough wood or metal.   

   After their miraculous rescue by earthquake, they took their welts, bruises and cuts and left to Thessalonica, and then to Berea, and then to Athens and then to Corinth.  Not only did they not retreat to Jerusalem but as they went from dangerous situation to dangerous situation they still left behind them believers beginning new churches.  As the saying goes, “when life hands you lemons, make lemonade.”   Not allowed to preach in Philippi?  OK, let’s walk to Thessalonica; it’s only about 100 miles. 

   Paul was a serious evangelist!  He was called to spread the Gospel and he was excited about telling people about Christ.  No opposition was enough to make him stop.  He was determined to tell others about Christ no matter what.  After being arrested and chained to a Roman guard he worked to convert the soldiers.  In 2 Corinthians 11 he revealed some of what he endured. 

24 From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; 26 in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; 27 in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness— 

   He and Silas were accused of “turning the world upside down.”  Or was it that they were, rather, “turning the world rightside up?”

Stephen Cram                            February 17, 2013                      Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8 

Repurposed

Repurposed

2 Corinthians 5:17-19

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 

18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 

19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

   On occasion, I watch reality shows, mostly the ones about renovating and saving businesses like failing restaurants.  One show has the host bringing in a decorator and a builder and giving them only 2 days and $10,000 to rebuild and renovate the restaurant while the host is teaching the owners how to run their business.  Often the decorator and the builder have a lot of work to do and not enough money to buy everything that they need for the job.  What usually happens then is that the decorator will find cast off items in thrift shops and salvage yards and repurpose the items into nice looking decorations.  For example: One episode showed a long, plain wall and the decorator found a stack of old, weather-beaten doors that were knocked apart and the weathered wood was repurposed to make the plain wall attractive. 

   The dictionary defines “repurpose” as “to give a new purpose or use to.”  Repurposing something means that a thing that was discarded and considered useless and out for the trash can be brought back and become useful once again.  This worthless item can once again have value and have a new usefulness.     

   When Adam and Eve sinned and were told to leave the garden, they were still alive outwardly but their hearts were dead from the effects of the sin.  They passed this deadly condition on to their children and to their children’s children.  Sin had come into the world and we all were born with this death in our hearts.  Sin spread into every part of the lives of the sinful people, so that according to the Bible, Genesis 6:5-6 (Lexham English Bible)

5 And Yahweh saw that the evil of humankind was great upon the earth, and every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was always only evil. 

6 And Yahweh regretted that he had made humankind on the earth, and he was grieved in his heart.    

   Here is the Builder of the world and Creator of all mankind looking at the wreck of the world and regretting what it had made of itself.  He had a decision to make:  discard this which was useless and corrupted, or repurpose it somehow.  And I thank God He chose to repurpose this world. 

   He had had plans in place from before He had even created Adam and Eve and now He pulled out His blueprint of redemption.  It took years of planning and countless reworking of people’s lives but at last the plan was in place and He sent His Only Son to be born and to live and to die for our sins.  And then the crowning moment of this plan - He rose from the dead.  He was triumphant over death and brought life to our stony hearts.  The greatest work of repurposing was changing our sinful hearts that were filed with evil thoughts, evil impulses, and evil desires and repurposed them into tender hearts filled with love and with joy and with life.  John 10:10 NKJV The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.   

  

Stephen Cram                            February 10, 2013                Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8 

Does God Hate Sinners?

Does God Hate Sinners?

God hates sinners!

I was web-surfing through church’s and pastor’s websites I found on Google and one site had that emblazoned across the top.  Another site said that God hates Islamics and that He was “stoking” the fires of Hell higher and hotter just for them!  Yet another said that the spreading of the Sahara Desert into formerly lush and tropical central Africa was a result of God’s wrath on the devil worshipers living there. You’d think that God was mad at unsaved people.        

John 3:16 

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

   From these verses I would be led to believe that God loves sinners and wants them to come to him so they don’t perish and spend eternity separated from Him. Verse 16, the most popular and most quoted verse of all the 31,373 verses in the Bible, makes a strong and positive declaration of God’s love.  I’ve read this verse over and over using many different translations and none say, ‘For God so loved the world, except Moslems, devil worshippers and religious fanatics ……..’  This verse declares that God loves the world.  By implication, “the world” means everyone.  That means all the nice people and all the jerks and all the old people and all the young people, (even the ones who let their pants hang too low and show their underwear,) and He even loves the overweight people who wear their PJs to the store.  He loves the whole world in its entirety.  God did not wait for the world to turn to Him before He loved the world; He loved and gave His only begotten Son to the world while it was still alienated from Him!

   The expression of this great love is in the fact he gave a truly priceless gift.  I’ve read of times when some rich man would give a woman a diamond the size of Rhode Island and the press would write it was a “priceless gift.”  God’s gift to the world is so big and so valuable and so magnificent it can’t be described by a word as small as “priceless.”  He gave a one-of-a-kind gift – His only begotten Son.  His love didn’t just lead Him to feel sorry for the plight of a fallen world; He moved to do something about it.  He gave His only Son to reconcile the world to Himself.

   So who benefits from this expression of God’s love?  Does it get bestowed on everyone automatically?  No.  God loves the world, but the world does not receive or benefit from that love until it believes in Jesus, the gift that the Father gave.  When He says, “believes in,” He means much more than just knowing about the gift or some intellectual agreement that the gift is real.  To receive a gift at Christmas you need to do more than get up Christmas morning and walk to the tree and see the pretty wrapped packages and squeal, “Oh goody!  I got gifts!” And then walk away leaving them piled under the tree unopened.  You need to take up the gift and open it and use it and keep it for it to be a useful gift.  You need to not only believe Jesus is real but you need to go to Him and receive Him to yourself.  Only then can you receive God’s great gift.

   So what is God’s intention in giving this gift?  God’s gift will save people from eternal destruction.  God’s gift gives eternal life.  God saw a world full of people who were destined to spend eternity separated from Him and offered a bridge to let them cross from this destructive path to the path leading to eternal life.  This bridge is God’s only begotten Son.  No other bridge exists.

   How long will this gift last?  Just for eternity.  I’ve said many times that we really don’t understand eternity.  We are finite beings living in a world slaved to time.  All we see is this world and all we experience is the movement of time.  We cannot see or experience any other way of life.  But God’s gift is outside of this experience and when we pass from this life we will see and experience this timeless life we call eternity.

   How can anyone read John 3:16 & 17 and say, “God hates sinners?”

   In closing I pass on this chart I found and it sums up John 3:16 so well.  

The Seven Wonders of John 3:16:

God - The Almighty Authority

So loved the world - The Mightiest Motive

That He gave His only begotten Son - The Greatest Gift

That whoever - The Widest Welcome

Believes in Him - The Easiest Escape

Should not perish - The Divine Deliverance

But have everlasting life - The Priceless Possession

Stephen Cram                            February 3, 2013                      Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8