Category Archives: Christian Life

Some Thoughts on Worry and Fear – Part 2

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Another key verse to help us along is this one:  “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). Temptation here should not be thought of as only a temptation to sin, but a testing or trial. The promise here is that God will not allow a testing or trial that you are not able to bear. So when you are going through something really difficult, don’t say things like, “I don’t think I can take this.” Or “This is way too much for me.” Those would be lies because God has said that He won’t test you at a level more than you can handle with the strength He provides.

Here are some other thoughts that might be of some help in taming fears. Jesus said, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?” (Matthew 6:25). He goes on in this section to tell us that it is wrong to worry and He finishes the section talking about the fact that each day has enough worries of its own so don’t borrow from tomorrow. There needs to be a good level of thankfulness for what God has given us today. We’ll take care of tomorrow’s issues tomorrow. That doesn’t mean we don’t plan and prepare, we shouldn’t grab a hold of tomorrow’s cares. Most of the things we worry about never come to pass anyway.

Here are a couple of thoughts, then, about Matthew 6:25. First, He starts with “therefore.” That means He is relating it to something. Just before verse 25, He had said that we cannot serve two masters. We will be drawn to one but will despise the other. Then He says, “Therefore do not worry about your life…” As hard as it is to accept or to grow in this area, I think He is telling us that worry is related to trying to have another master besides the true God. Idols have been erected. You cannot serve two masters so stop worrying! That’s what He is saying. And I think if we really think about it, that is what is going on. The things we worry and fret about are things we are trying to hang on to regardless of whether God is trying to take them away or curb our desires or attraction for them. They don’t have to be bad things. They just have a priority higher than God and so we worry that we will lose them. We sing songs such as “Christ is all I need,” but in reality we think we need more than Him. How would we feel if He took everything away but himself? I think most of us would not be satisfied with that. So little by little we need to meditate on the glory of Christ so that He truly becomes all we need.

Some Thoughts on Worry and Fear – Part 1

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There are so many things happening these days that it all tends to increase our level of fear. We hear of shootings, we watch all of the political shenanigans and we begin to worry about the future, especially for our children. When we begin to fear, it is always good to go back and refresh our hearts concerning the truth given to us in God’s Word. Certainly we know these things. They’re not new, but we sometimes forget when we take our eyes off of what is true. So let’s review a few things.

The first thing we need to remind ourselves of is that “God has not given us a spirit of fear” (2 Timothy 1:7). If the spirit of fear is not from God, we surely know where it is from. It is from the one who Jesus called the father of lies. Not believing the lies but believing the truth is where we need to start. In order to believe the truth, we need to know what the truth is, and have it firmly planted in our minds and hearts. All the while we understand that “faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:6). That means our faith will seem to defy what things look like all around us. What we see and hear doesn’t give us peace. And it is not generic faith that dissipates fear. It is believing in the God of the Bible that keeps us secure.

One of the key truths we need to keep in mind is that God is with us. Jesus promised to be with us until the end of the age. In Isaiah 41:10 we read, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Through all of the perils of life, God has promised to be right there with us, to give us strength, to help and to uphold. Whether it appears that way or not, it is true and we should believe it. Now I realize that this is more easily said than done. So we need to not just glibly say that God is with us. But we need to reassure our hearts over and over with this truth until there is strong settled belief.

A couple of chapters later, Isaiah writes this to the people of God, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, Nor shall the flame scorch you” (Isaiah 43:1-2).                One of things I know we worry about is that although we know God is in control of all things, some of the things he controls actually do hurt. But His promise here is that when we go through the tough things, He is right there with us to help and sustain. God is working all things together for our good and His glory. Sometimes we begin to focus on what we think is our good, but I think that God’s opinion of what is our good, or the goal He is shooting, for is often different from what we think it should be. God is working in us to conform us to the image of Christ for the glory of Christ. We often forget that, or at least we minimize it because our focus is on health, safety and comfort. When these are threatened we feel like our “good” is being attacked when in fact it is being enhanced. That’s why James can tell us to count it all joy when we fall into various trials because these help produce other positive characteristics that God is looking for (James 1:2). Paul also writes the same thing in Romans 5 where he tells us that character, endurance and hope are the result of suffering. Somehow we are to learn to rejoice in these things because we become firmly convinced that the results will be good. And this is true for our children as well. So while it is difficult to see them go through hard things, if we work with them through it, these things will make them stronger.

One of the things I especially like about the Isaiah 43 passage is that God says that he has called us by our name, and we belong to Him. We are His treasured possession and He is not about to allow anything to happen that will thwart His ultimate goal of increasing our good for His glory. What God sets out to do He accomplishes. God says, “Do not fear little flock, for it is the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). We are someday destined to rule and reign with Him and therefore, although the preparation period is sometimes difficult, it should not generate fear in us but rather faith and hope in what God is accomplishing.

Part 5 – God’s Remedy

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In these blog posts, I’ve been musing about the purpose of life and how God fits into the picture. The Bible clearly describes our condition as one of rebellion and sin against God. He is our creator, and we have rebelled against Him. The punishment for that rebellion, or sin, is death – eternal separation from God forever.

But the Bible presents us with it calls the Gospel – the Good News. The good news is that Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity, took on human flesh and came here to live among us. He did not do this merely to be a good example. What good is a good example if we don’t want to follow that example, or are incapable of following that example?

The gist of the Good News of the Christian message is this:

1) Jesus Christ came and took our punishment on Himself when He died on the cross.

Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the [cross], that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness – by whose stripes you were healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. (Isaiah 53:5)

For [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

2) God offers salvation and forgiveness as a gift to everyone who repents and believes the Gospel.

Repent and believe in the gospel. (Mark 1:15)

Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)

3) God offers to give us His righteousness in exchange for our sin.

For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” But to him who does not work, but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but also for us. It shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. (Romans 4:3, 23)

And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. (Philippians 3:9)

4) God offers eternal life to those who trust Him with their souls.

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. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. (John 3:16, 17)

Part 4 – God is Not a Grandpa

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So far in my musings about the meaning and purpose of life, I have tried to show that there is a God who exists, and that he is greater than all that we can imagine, and he created and owns everything and doesn’t need our advice and counsel to figure out how to run the world. The second thing we looked at is the Bible’s teaching that God’s purpose for all he does is his glory. We were created by him in his image in order to reflect his glory and majesty, and when we get side-tracked from that we lose our focus and then find ourselves without meaning and purpose. Finally, I tried to explain the Bible’s point of view that all of us have sinned against God by not acknowledging him and by not being thankful for his provisions for us and finally disobeying his just commands.

Most people view God as being a kind old man who doesn’t really expect much of us. He wants us to be happy and helps us now and then, but pretty much stays out of our way. When it comes to some sort of final judgment, God realizes that we all pretty much do our best, and nodding his approval, welcomes us into his home. The problem with this is that it is not at all the way the Bible describes God. The Bible describes God as being a just God. Being just means that he cannot just ignore sins against him. He loves people, but in that loving, his character of justice cannot simply overlook sin. Think about it this way. How would you feel about a judge who freed the same criminal over and over because he really liked the guy. Suppose the criminal was in court for his 50th murder in the act of committing a robbery. Would you be pretty content with that judge if he just kept letting this man go because he was a nice guy and was really likeable? We all know that such a judge is not just and should be removed from the bench. And yet we are hoping that God is like that judge.

The God presented to us in the Bible is completely just and will not overlook sin.  He has already demonstrated that to us in this world by putting all creation under a curse. We know something is wrong. We have a sense about how people should ideally get along, and yet we see so much abuse, fighting and killing in the world that we know something is wrong. We picture what an idyllic garden should be like, and yet there are constant attacks on that garden by weeds and pests of one kind or another. We are trying to grow a few beautiful roses right up next to our sunroom, and suddenly one morning every bud was gone. A deer had come up to the house and had eaten every bud that was available. That same deer has to be careful to avoid being attacked by a predator or killed by a hunter or run over by a car.

We know things are not like we think they should be, and it’s not because we’re just lazy and want an easy life. We know things are out of whack somehow.  The Bible explains that God cursed the ground because of us – because of our sin. Paul writes in the book of Romans, “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”

So my thoughts today are aimed at understanding that God is a just God and he will and has responded to our sin and disobedience with appropriate punishment.

Numbers 14:18 “He will by no means clear the guilty.”

Ezekiel 18:4 “The soul that sins shall die.”

Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.”

Next time we’ll look at God’s solution to our problem.

Part 3 — Who Then Can Be Saved?

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So far in my musings about the meaning and purpose of life, I have tried to show that there is a God who exists and that he is greater than all that we can imagine, and he created and owns everything and doesn’t need our advice and counsel to figure out how to run the world. The second thing we looked at is the Bible’s teaching that God’s purpose for all he does is for his glory. We were created by him in his image in order to reflect his glory and majesty, and when we get side-tracked from that we lose our focus and find ourselves without meaning and purpose.

Within ourselves we know that something is not right with the world, or even with ourselves for that matter. We have a sense of the kind of love that should pervade human society, and yet that love is woefully missing. There are some glimmers of it, but there are an awful lot of dark places. This is true on a global scale, and it is true within our own circle of family and friends. Things often seem pleasant and people seem happy, but there is a lot of friction, discontent, abuse, and anger around. We know this is true and we know it should be better than it is.

In addition to interpersonal and international frictions, it seems as though nature is messed up. In many ways nature is beautiful, but even there we see death, violence and a sort of unsettledness both in the living world and in non-living aspects of the world such as weather and geological instability. How are we to explain this? Atheists and naturalists have their ways, but to me these are not satisfactory.

The Bible’s explanation is that God gave one specific negative command. Human beings, in the person of the first man, Adam, disobeyed God’s command and rebelled against the creator and owner. As a result, he brought the curse of death upon the whole human race and upon creation itself. The Bible says that the whole creation groans (Romans 8:22). We as people groan because we are plagued with sickness and decaying bodies. We groan because making our living is not easy. Nature resists our attempts to grow food and to build a decent life for ourselves. We find rust and decay affecting virtually everything we make, and it takes work to keep things in good repair and working order.

When God cursed us, he told us that disobedience would cause death. And that is what we see all around us.  As time went on God gave us more and more commandments in order to show us his character and to allow us to see just how far from his path we have wandered. Through the ten commandments and other moral instructions given in the Bible, God shows us where the line is, and we can see clearly how far we’ve fallen, and how impossible it is to live the way God designed us to live. Sometimes we look at commandments as overbearing and authoritarian, but God is the one who designed us along with the rest of the world. He is the one who knows how these bodies, minds and spirits work best. His commands are to provide a way of living that works best. Ultimately, we find that we can’t live by those standards even if we try. We don’t have it within us to comply. That too is part of the consequences of our fallen nature. We don’t really want to live like God wants us to. We don’t want God to be telling us what to do. We want our independence.

God tells us in Romans 1:18 and following that the crux of the problem is that even though we know God is there and that he is powerful, we naturally do not give him the glory that he is due and we are not thankful to him for all that he has provided. We just assume we have a right to everything. We end up worshipping and serving created things, such as ourselves, or the stuff we can own, more than we worship God. This leads to sins of every kind that Paul lists for us in this passage. The chapter ends with these sobering words, “who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

This is where many people jump ship. They say, “I just can’t believe that being disobedient to my parents, or living in sexually immoral ways, or being selfish is worthy of the death penalty.” The neat thing about living in America is that we are free to believe anything we want, and no one else can dictate our conscience to us. We can live in the ways described here and believe that we are just fine. We’re allowed to do that.  The thing we need to ask ourselves is whether all of this is OK with the God who is actually there. God is either like he is described in the Bible or he is not. At some point each of us has to come to grips with the possibility, and I would say reality, that God actually does have standards, and that he actually does care how we live, and that he actually does impose the death penalty on those who fall short of his standards.

Having said that, though, we need to resist the temptation to think that it is those other people who have the death penalty on them while we walk free. You see, the argument Paul is trying to make in the book of Romans is that every single person is guilty. In fact, in the next verse after citing the death penalty, he makes this statement. “Therefore, you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are who judge, for in whatever you judge another you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things” Romans 2:1. I used to think this verse was not true of me. I would look at people who were doing terrible things and judge them and congratulate myself for not being like that. But this verse tells me quite clearly that I do the same things. Jesus, for example, tells us that to be angry is like murder in God’s eyes. Lusting after a woman is like committing adultery. The standard is very high, and I have fallen short. The death penalty looms.

Thus, we end today’s musings with the conundrum that God’s standards are so high and so strict, that we find everyone in the world is guilty before their creator and are under the just condemnation of God. Who then can be saved?

What is Life all About? Part 2

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What am I doing here?  That’s the question many people struggle with. What is my purpose in life? Isn’t there some overarching plan that would explain where I fit in?

The answer is yes. There is a plan, a design, and purpose. The purpose and plan is that the Almighty God who created all things, did so for his own enjoyment and glory. He wants us as rational creatures to also delight in that creation, to praise him for it, and to enjoy it with him. He made us in his image, and part of that image is that we ourselves are creative, thinking, and enjoying individuals. God delights in relationship and he wants us to delight in it as well.

God has always existed in three persons and even before creation, the three persons of the God-head had fellowship, communication, and love between them. When they said, “Let us make man in our image” (Genesis 1:26) they wanted to extend that love and fellowship with a particular part of the creation, namely human beings.

Everything God does is ultimately for his glory. In Psalms 4:2 God asks, “How long, O you sons of men, Will you turn my glory to shame? How long will you love worthlessness, and seek falsehood?”

Isaiah 42:8 I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, Nor My praise to carved images.

Isaiah 43:7 Everyone who is called by My name, Whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I have made him.”

All the way through the Bible God does things for the sake of his glory and for his great name’s sake.

At this point some may think, “That’s what I don’t like about God. He is focused on himself, and seems to go around trying to prove how great he is.”

The problem with this kind of thinking is that if it were a man making these claims it would definitely be egotistical and self-serving. But here’s the point: God was and is all in all. Before he created, there was nothing but him. He made creation for himself. We show a small part of God’s image when we create something for our enjoyment. And when we make something like a piece of artwork, it is for us to enjoy and for others to enjoy with us. Now suppose this piece of artwork somehow had a mind of its own and said that it didn’t want to look as it does, or it doesn’t want to be hung where you decided to hang it, or it didn’t want to be sold for the price you had agreed to. Wouldn’t it be ludicrous for a man-made project to try to dictate its own character and value? This is exactly what God thinks about our reasoning.

In Romans 9:20, God asks, “But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’”

So my point today, is that we need to remember that all of this is not about us. When we’re asking the question as to why we are here or what is the meaning of life, we need to remember that the meaning at its core is that we are here for God’s glory and everything we do and say is meant to exalt him and make him look good to others. If we’re running around looking for ways to have the focus shift to ourselves, we will be sorely disappointed and find life to be ultimately meaningless. But if we look for ways to exalt him and demonstrate his greatness to others, we will find meaning and fulfillment in life.

What is Life All About? — Start with God!

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When we begin to try to figure out what life is all about and where we fit, we always need to start with the Bible. What does it say about God, the universe, and us? The Bible starts with God – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” I believe that we won’t have a true perspective of who we are as people and what our predicament is, until we consider who God is and what he is like. The Bible presents that for us throughout its pages. So let’s look at that a little bit. What is God like?

In Job chapter 38, God responds to Job’s questioning by basically asking, “Who are you to try to counsel me?” God goes on to ask Job where he was when God laid the foundations of the earth. He wonders if Job knows how the planets work or how the sea stays within its bounds or how light and darkness work and on and on it goes. God created everything there is and he owns it all. In the poetic language of Isaiah 40, God says that he has measured the waters of the earth in the hollow of his hand. He says that the nations to him are like a drop in the bucket.

So throughout the Bible we have God presented to us as an all-powerful, all-knowing spirit who has always existed. He is the one who created all that we see around us. He is described as a being who is actually a person in the sense that he thinks, creates, knows, and communicates. In other words, he has a personality, and is not just a force.

This God does not need our counsel or advice. We live at His discretion. Paul told the Athenians that God has given us life and breath and all things. He is Lord of heaven and earth, and he does not dwell in temples made with hands. He doesn’t need anything since he is the one who has provided everything we have. He is the one who has made all people from one blood and has determined their preappointed times and boundaries for their existence on the earth. See Acts 17 beginning with verse 24 for the complete account of this discussion.

The thing I want us to think about today is the fact that we often go around defining everything the way we want it to be and flaunt our opinions as though they were significant in the whole scheme of things. Bring up any topic related to religion or morality and you will get countless opinions. Sentences start something like this, “My God would never …. !”  “It wouldn’t be loving for God to….”  “God would never forbid such-n-such because he wants us to be happy and to be self-fulfilled.

I think it would be wise for us to take our many thoughts and opinions and submit them to evaluation by God’s own statements of the way things are. We can wish all we want to have the God of our own creation, but that’s actually not possible. We need to live in the real universe with the God who is really there, not in some imaginary place where there is a god of our own invention.

Our Resolutions or God’s Promises

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Personal change comes about more from believing who God is and what He has done and promised to do, than what we try to do to please Him.

This is the concept I tried to share with our men’s group last week. January is often the month when we review our lives and make new resolutions. However, if you are like the rest of us, you find that the resolutions dissolve away before we get to March.

Christians tend to make resolutions about praying more or reading the Bible more, or even reading the whole thing through in a year. Usually we end up feeling like failures when we approach life in this way. There’s no question that disciplined habits in the Christian life are essential and useful just as they are in any area of life. Being undisciplined is not a productive way to live. But where we go wrong, I think, is in thinking our efforts at being disciplined are going to increase our acceptability to God.

As I began this new year, I began to think about what it would take to have a greater delight in God and His Word so that my desire to read the Bible and pray would come from a delightful desire rather than a laborious duty. Job said, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food” Job 23:12. Jeremiah wrote, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart” Jeremiah 15:16.

So where does delight come from? How do we gain delight in something we have never seen, heard, or tasted before? If someone tells us of a delightful little restaurant on the edge of town, what has to take place for us to find it delightful as well? Don’t we have to go there and try it out?

In order for me to have a greater delight in God and in His Word, I need to taste it, not because I’m trying to follow some rule, but so that I can find the delight that Job, Jeremiah, and so many others have found. The Bible says, “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!” Psalm 34:8.

Another part of the process is knowing and believing the promises that God has made toward me as one of His followers. When we think about and meditate on the promises of God, our motivation to dig deeper and know Him better increases, and our progress in the Christian life increases, not because of discipline itself, but from knowing and believing in who God is and what He has promised and done.

To wrap this up, here are some truths and promises Christians would do well to think about:

1 John 3:1 Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!

Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Colossians 1:12 The Father … has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.

2 Corinthians 2:14 God…always leads us in triumph in Christ.

Philippians 2:13 God works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

1 Corinthians 10:13 God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Ephesians 1:3 God…has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.

Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Romans 8:26 For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us….

God’s Mystery – Our Salvation

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In Colossians 1:26 Paul speaks of a “mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations.” What kind of mystery would God have that he would keep it hidden for ages? According to Scripture, this mystery has now been revealed to His saints. “Now” means at the time Paul wrote this. That means that for ages past there has been some truth that God purposely waited to reveal until the time was right. In Romans 16:25, Paul tells us that the mystery was kept secret since the world began, but is now made manifest by the Scriptures and made known to all nations.

Whatever this mystery is, God already had it in mind when He created the world! We get glimpses of what this mystery is in several passages. Romans 11:25, for example, says that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. In Ephesians 1:9ff. Paul writes, “having made known to us the mystery of His will … that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth – in Him.”

We see further in Ephesians 3:3-6 that this mystery was not made known to men in other ages, but now has been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel. There we have it! In the Old Testament it appeared that God had chosen one people, one nation to be His special people. But now we learn that since the beginning, God intended to bring the gentiles into the blessings of Christ offered in the gospel. In verse nine he continues, “and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

It’s amazing to me to think that God wanted to show His wisdom to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. From Ephesians 6:12 we know that our battle is with the principalities and powers in heavenly places. So, it seems to me that God is using this mystery of the inclusion of the gentiles in his eternal plan to demonstrate his wisdom to his enemies – the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. This is the plan of salvation that began with the people of Israel in the Old Testament era, but once Christ had come and completed the work of redemption, the mystery was unveiled in all of its splendor as the gospel was announced to all peoples everywhere. I wonder what the principalities and powers thought when once they only had to focus on one small people, but now their doom is sure as they see the manifold wisdom of God spreading like wild-fire throughout the world.

Faithful Leadership

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A passage in Isaiah stuck out to me because of the implications it has for us as men, especially in our leadership role. Isaiah 9:16 says, “For the leaders of this people cause them to err, and those who are led by them are destroyed.” The next verse speaks of God’s judgment on young men, orphans and widows alike because of the failure of the leadership.

It doesn’t seem to matter that perhaps the leaders were sincere — they were wrong and caused the people to err. Perhaps they were weak or uncertain in their leadership. Even so, they caused the people to err. The result was that not only did judgment come to the leader, it came upon those who followed as well. Leadership is a powerful thing as I’m sure you have seen in the events of the Old Testament kings. The fate of the whole nation depended upon the quality and direction of the leadership.
How does that relate to us? We’re not kings, presidents or corporate managers. We are just simple men — husbands, fathers, church workers. Isn’t it true, however, that in our positions we are leaders, even if there are only a few who look to us? Doesn’t that mean it is crucial for us to be careful not to cause other to err because in so doing we bring judgment not only on ourselves, but on them as well? Let’s be faithful men in our leadership roles no matter how many or how few people it impacts.