In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus addresses the issue of how best to spot a false prophet, and He uses the example of a fruit tree (Matthew 7:15-21).  He teaches that a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree good fruit.  Jesus states clearly, “Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.”  In His next statement, Jesus says that not everybody who calls Him Lord will enter heaven but “only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven (Matthew 7:21).” Being obedient to the will of God is a determining factor in what sort of fruit, good or bad, we bear here on earth.   Paul writes in Galatians, “So I say, live by the [Holy] Spirit… since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-26).”  Paul encourages us to live by the Spirit of God and not satisfy our sinful desires, and he insists that walking under the leadership of the Holy Spirit, not contrary to it, will produce the fruit of Holy Spirit obedience.  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control; these fruits are in stark contrast to the sinful acts listed in Galatians 5 (jealousy, selfish ambition, factions, envy, etc).  Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew 3:7-9, John the Baptist called the Pharisees a brood of vipers and told them to bear fruit in keeping with repentance, as though the fruit they were bearing was not in keeping with a repentant life.  Apparently, our actions seem to tell stories about what is really going on inside of us.  The good fruit of the Spirit comes through a life of repentance from the sin that comes so naturally to us all.

The Lord’s brother James made a strong statement in James 2:24 where he writes, “a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone.”  This seems to indicate that the things we do for God work together with what God has done for us, and without our work, we may have no hope.  However, this is not what James is trying to say.  For a key to how to interpret verse 24, we must look to the verses that precede this statement beginning at verse 14.  James is making a stand for authentic faith in Jesus, a faith that is defined by activity and intentionality.  James writes in verse 17 that faith is dead and no real faith at all if there is not a desire to be led by God and the Holy Spirit.  James is making the statement that actions speaking louder than words.  Earlier he made a powerful case for believers to not merely unenthusiastically listen to the Word of God and go about their business, but to allow the Word to compel them to action (James 1:22).  This echoes what Paul was writing to the Galatians.  As believers we are to keep step with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to lead our lives; that is the mark of a true faith in Christ.

God shows His unmatchable grace to believers through the sacrifice of Himself in the person of the Son, Jesus Christ.  In Ephesians 2:8-10, Paul writes that by God’s grace, believers are saved by faith alone.  Salvation comes to the believer only through faith in Jesus Christ and not through deeds.  He goes on to say that believers are created in Christ Jesus to do good works.  The believer’s salvation is solely dependent on the work of God and not on the work of the believer.  There is no room for the believer to boast about their good deeds and erroneously believe that good deeds are the basis for their salvation.  Faith in Jesus alone is the basis for salvation.  Good works are a symptom of a repentant and authentic faith in Jesus that is lived out as an obedient response to the indwelling leadership of the Holy Spirit in the life of the faithful.  This same obedient faith is what James makes reference to.  Faith and works go hand in hand.  Faith in Jesus Christ is the means of salvation; works are a realization of a life changed by that faith and the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

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How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. Blessed are you, O LORD; teach me your statutes! With my lips I declare all the rules of your mouth. In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.

Psalm 119:9-16 ESV

Possessing God’s Word in our hearts and committing it to our memories can be rewarding. Scripture memory exercises cause us to meditate on God’s revelation of Himself to humanity. In the process, we grow deeper in our understanding of who God is and His heart of mercy for the believer. Thinking about scripture will alter the way we see the world around us and our actions and thoughts will begin to reflect what has been memorized. We will be quicker to share the Word of God with others; we will know what God has to say and His living Word will hold more value for us than any other thing; and we will soon realize, that by memorizing scripture and meditating on it, our focus from earthly things to the things of God will shift.

You may know some Bible verses in part or you may know what the Bible says (sort of), but not remember exactly where you could find it again. Scripture memory can correct both of these problems. Here are some practical tips for the person who wants to store up God’s word in their heart:

• Try it! Many people stop before they start. We may fatalistically believe that we could never memorize scripture and therefore don’t even try.
• Start with a verse that is meaningful to you. Start off by memorizing a Bible verse that has special meaning to either your receiving Christ or relationship with Him. Maybe this is a verse you already know in part.
• Pray. Invite God into the process of scripture memory.
• Know the context. Identify what the verse is saying and try to visualize its setting. What is the verse communicating?
• Book, Chapter, Verse. Memorize the reference of the verse and attach it to the beginning and end of the verse each time you repeat the scripture in your mind or verbally. For example:

Psalm 119:11, “I have stored up your word in my heart that I might not sin against you,” Psalm 119:11

• Review the verse frequently. Keep a list of the verses you have committed to memory and check back regularly to test yourself and check for accuracy. The more you review, the more you know what you know.
• Write it down. Writing scripture out repeatedly not only works your memory but also your eyes and your muscles. Writing brings sentences in your head out and onto paper and your eyes may help your brain keep the words straight. Typing may help too. You may consider using different color pens as you write to highlight specific phrases, words, or voices; this technique may help you if you are a visual learner.
• Say it. Repeat the verse you are memorizing out loud as you meditate on it. This will help you “hear the song” in the verse and move your meditation away from being strictly a brain function. If you are creative, you may even set the verse to an easy tune that you can sing.
• Get a recording. You may want to find a recording of someone else reading the verse or record your own voice reading the passage and listen to it over, and over, and over, and over…

These are just a few tips to get you started. Undoubtedly, you will find some that help and some that do nothing for you in committing scripture to memory; you may even come up with ways that help you that are not listed here. Great! The important thing is that you begin. Then watch to see how you benefit from storing up God’s word in your heart.

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Each of us has experienced the feeling of hopelessness and the emotions that come with being alone, abandoned.  You may have been mistreated by your parents or siblings, been ignored on the play ground by your best friend, perhaps your husband has begun spending more time with another person and is home less frequently.  There is a world of confusion around us where people have their wires crossed regarding themselves, their relationships to others and where they stand with God.  You may feel similarly.  I have some questions for you to consider: Do you only feel good about yourself when people like you or give you compliments?  Do you feel like a failure or become defensive if someone doesn’t like what you are ______________ (fill in the blank)?  Does your past haunt you; are you not willing to forgive yourself even though Jesus says that all your sins are forgiven because of your faith in Him?

God’s heart is rich with mercy and His love is steadfast, unwavering, unchanging, that is, not dependent on what your perception of His love is.  Not only is God’s love steadfast, He delights in maintaining His constant love (Micah 7:18).  Out of the 150 Psalms, the phrase “steadfast love” appears 123 times!  Psalm 31:7 says that God sees what afflicts you and what distresses you.  In the midst of your trials, in the midst of your confusion, God is steadfast and faithful in His love.  His faithfulness is not dependent on your circumstances, because God is a constant: His love is a constant.

Romans 8:39 reminds us that there is nothing in the whole of creation that can separate the believer from the love of God.  As believers, we will encounter many emotional highs and lows.  We may even need to seek help outside of ourselves for counseling or advice.  But when it comes to Jesus Christ and our relationship with Him:

1. We must always remember His mercy was expressed to us through His death on the cross, which was meant to make a way to unite us with Him for eternity.
2. We must see that, for God, we were worth dying for.  Our self worth must be dependent on what God says our worth is and NOT on what other people, or even ourselves, say our worth is.
3. Faith is faith because we believe even when it feels unbelievable!  Your emotions are part of you and they will take you for a wild ride sometimes.  But God’s love for you is not dependent on your emotions.  Have faith, even when you find God’s love unbelievable in your life.
4. Remember, every single one of us has fallen short of the glory of God.  We have missed the mark and we always will.  True joy comes through knowing that because of Jesus Christ’s death on our behalf, we are forgiven.  This is not because we are no longer sinners or have some special power, it is because of God’s love expressed through Jesus Christ and our faith in Him.  Receive God’s forgiveness.  Make today a new day.  More importantly, make today a new day in which you are becoming more like Jesus Christ and extending to yourself the same forgiveness that He has already blessed you with.

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You’ve heard it said before… “I know I’m going to heaven because I’m a good person.”  And guess what, whoever said this may have been right; they probably are a good person.  But, no matter how you shake it up, trying to be a good person isn’t where God wants us to focus our attention as much as he wants us to focus on Jesus Christ.

At the time the apostle Paul was writing Romans, he was addressing issues of the Mosaic Law, you know, those rules and rituals that Israel, as God’s chosen people, were given beginning with the Ten Commandments.  In Judaism, the Mosaic Law was much bigger than the Ten Commandments.  To be sure to not break the Law in anyway, one had to work very hard, have substantial will power, and so much more.  You may have not broken all of the Ten Commandments, but you may have broken some.  Consider “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor’ (Exodus 20:16).”  Well, I’ve broken that one before.  I have lied in order to deflect blame onto someone else, or exaggerated a situation to not make me look as bad as another person.  You may not have broken that one, but what about “You shall not covet your neighbors house, you shall not covet your neighbors wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox [or his car], or his donkey [or his leaf blower], or anything that is your neighbor’s (italics were added by me).”  I’ve seen HGTV… I wished my house were awesome… I want a 15-head shower… you get the point.

Paul’s main message in Romans is this: We all are Lawbreakers, not one single human is able to keep the Law fully and therefore, we are Lawbreakers.  So what is the purpose of the Law?  The Law’s purpose is to train God’s people about righteousness and show us that there is no way we could ever be righteous enough to enjoy peace with God for all eternity.  We all have fallen short somewhere (Rom. 3:23).  This is what God desires most, for people to recognize their need for him and to want to be in relationship with him.

If we are all Lawbreakers, then the Law is a dead end.  We can’t achieve enough holy living to be righteous enough for God.  Enter Jesus!  The Son of God, and God in the flesh who paid the penalty for everyone who has ever broken a Law of God.  Through his sacrifice we find forgiveness, righteousness and are declared NOT GUILTY!  This is why Jesus is said to be the fulfillment of the Law.  Because what the Law was powerless to do (justify us, making the faithful righteous before God), Jesus did (Rom. 5:6, 8:3)!  Isn’t it good to have amnesty, to be forgiven and find hope, peace and joy in God?

So what about people who don’t even know what God’s Law is?  Paul tells us that ‘good people’ are actually living out the Law of God, which is written on their hearts and they don’t even know it.  When they know murder is wrong, it just so happens that God says murder is wrong.  When they break the Law of God, their conscience bears witness (Rom. 2:12-16).  The law of morality, nobility and human kindness shows the thumbprint of God on every human heart.  If it is possible for anyone to be good, it is because God is good.  But guess what… we’re still all law breakers.  Even in the world where ‘good people’ live their lives donating to charities and volunteering at the food bank there is opportunity to fall into sin.  Regardless of your knowledge of God’s Law, you will break one at some point in life no matter how hard you try, we are just not perfect beings.

This is why Jesus came, to resolve our problem of falling short, to hold out the hope of forgiveness, to insure an eternity of peace with God.  This only comes through Jesus Christ (John 14:6, Rom. 2:16).  God’s Laws point to Jesus; he is the point the Law exists, he fulfills the Law; he finishes the job and declares it finished.  You might be devoted and faithful, but salvation lies in what Jesus does, not what you do.  You might be a real good person, but salvation lies in how good Jesus is, not how good you are.  Jesus.  He should be our focus.  It is through him and him alone that we find peace with God.

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Not all of us do or say the right things at the right times.  We may not even desire to speak or act in an “acceptable” way.  As we read through scripture we can see how obedience and submission to Christ is the only prerequisite for us to enter into a loving relationship with Jesus and experience transformation through him.  A good example from scripture is seen in the person of John the apostle.

John was a hard working young man from a hard working family. His father, Zebedee and brother James, both worked in a lucrative family business as fisherman in the town of Capernaum. Both John and another of Jesus’ disciples, Andrew, were followers of John the Baptist before Jesus called them to be his disciples and must have been passionate young men of faith.  Jesus’ call was for them to come and follow him; to leave their nets and their old life behind.  How scary would that be to turn away from everything you know, understand and depend on to follow Jesus?

In addition to John as being a religious, devoted man, we also see a young man who is a hard worker, who probably calls things likes he sees them.  Jesus recognized in the Zebedee brothers an underlying passion and zeal that was ready to break free at any moment; this is why Jesus nicknamed these brothers the Sons of Thunder in Mark 3:14.  When Jesus was not received in a Samaritan village, John and James asked if they should call on fire from heaven to rain down on the town (Luke 9:54).  When another man, who did not travel among the disciples, was found to be casting out demons on Jesus name, John was among some who tried to stop the man’s ministry outside of the group of disciples (Luke 9:49).  Both John and James were probably raised as very competitive boys; after all it is under their mother’s leadership that they approach Jesus with questions about who will be greater among the disciples (Matthew 20:20-22).

Although there are aspects of John’s character that seemed hasty, shellfish, maybe fool hardy at times, Jesus desired to draw John close to himself and to disciple him.  This was Jesus’ plan to bring transformation into John’s life; he invited John into his inner circle, his group of close companions that were permitted to accompany Jesus through many key experiences of his earthly ministry.  With John was his brother, James and Simon-Peter.  As part of this company, John was with Jesus on the mountainside during the time of his transfiguration and John was with Jesus at Gethsemane.  Jesus invited the trio into times of private lessons, counseling, healings and other ministry.  John was shown Jesus’ divinity, his humanity and his love.  It was through these experiences, these interactions with Jesus, that John learned the magnitude of God’s love for humanity.  It will be these aspects of God’s character, expressed through Jesus, that will rise to the top of John’s writings later in his life: Divinity, Humanity, Love.

Now is a good time to look closely at the man that John was, in his youth; zealous, proud, courageous, passionate.  It almost seems as though his mind was more focused on the ideal of the Truth of Jesus and the Kingdom of God than his heart was with concern for the people whom Jesus came to love, build community with, redeem, save, transform.  Through the time spent walking with Jesus, John learned what the heart of God’s love is.  Transformation came to John, not to replace those things that shaped his character, but to give those qualities direction and trajectory.

We can take some encouragement away from this reading by seeing that we have been summoned by Jesus.  The invitation is to follow Jesus; that’s it, put down our nets and follow him.  God calls us to walk with him and learn from him.  He calls us to learn his heart and see the people around us as he sees them.  He calls us even when our attitude, at times, seem un-Christlike.  He calls us to join him in his work, because Jesus knows that if we are obedient and if we follow him transformation will occur.  Our attitudes and our perspective will be replaced, bit by bit with Jesus’s.  So… put your nets down.

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At the turn of the year some people like to make resolutions.  Perhaps they resolve to stop a particular habit or start a new one.  The resolution often results from a feeling of not doing what one ought to be doing or the desire to change and become a “better” person; maybe it’s simply the desire to “turn over a new leaf.”  You may have made a resolution like this.  Personally, I have failed at every resolution I have attempted to make; not a single resolution I have made at some point in my life is still in force today.  Well, whatever the motivation, as believers we should remember one thing: Jesus has declared us not guilty before the father.  Because He died for our sins on the cross and rose again to new life, He has established for us eternal forgiveness and eternal fellowship with Him.  With every new day we are forgiven.  With every new day the past is in the past.  With every new day sin no longer has mastery over us.  With every new day, God’s love is the same as it was the day we put our faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

If you do feel the pull to change something, try resolving to be more prayerful.  Confession of sins is very powerful and God wants to hear from you.  He wants you to know how much He has forgiven you for all the ways you have put yourself under sins yoke.  It is a good exercise to confess our sins to God because it shows our true heart and compels us to honestly examine ways that we have worked against the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.  I am including the poem that follows for your reading pleasure.  I hope that it is an inspiration to you and reassurance that you are not alone.

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As followers of Jesus Christ, Christians bound together by the commonality of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we must always be aware of the fact that the Church, composed of those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ around the globe, is the physical representation of Jesus on earth, to the world and to our local communities.  We are Christ’s eyes, mouth, hands and feet.

A quick read through the gospels will reveal what Jesus did during His time on earth and how He, God in the flesh, interacted with the world of which He willingly became a part.  Jesus actively engaged individuals in the culture around Him.  He interacted with co-habiting adults like the women at the well who was not married to the man with whom she was currently living.  He defended the ridicule and abuse of a woman who had been caught in an illicit affair.  Jesus wept at the death of a friend and restored some who were ill to health and raised some who had died, to life.  He had a heart for the marginalized of the culture and those who endured suffering; He had a heart for those whom the average person would over look or not think twice about.

Everyone knows that when you are sick you go to the doctor for help.  It is easy to identify illness in our own bodies when we feel crummy and our nose will not stop running.  It is even more apparent that something is wrong if one endures chronic pain or physical ailment and disability.  Read this account from the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 9:20-22):

And behold, a woman who had suffered from a discharge of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his garment, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

What a beautiful picture of faith in Jesus this passage represents.  The woman’s faith is based on the fact that she has lost hope and she is desperate for her physical problems to be remedied.  She must have struggled with self-esteem issues and embarrassment dealing with such a private and personal illness.  The Gospel of Mark (Mark 5:24-34) tells us that this woman suffered for years and had been to doctor after doctor, but she only grew worse.  Something inside this woman’s heart told her that if she were to “only touch his garment, [she would] be made well.” Jesus’ power to bring healing and His reputation to do so was enough to cause this woman to come to Jesus for help.  She did not merely come to Jesus, as Mark tells us, she fought through a crowd to get close enough to touch Him.  I can picture in my imagination her hand extending between bodies just far enough to allow her fingertips to brush Jesus’ cloak, because she was desperate and Jesus stopped to look around to try and find the one who touched Him. She then fell at His feet, trembling and fearful, but Jesus kindly and with the fullest of compassion told her to be at peace and free from suffering. Who Jesus is and what He is capable of doing is what this woman needed to know in order to struggle through a crowd to get close to Him after 12 years of misery.

We are the Church and the Body of Christ on earth.  There are thirsty people in this world, hungry people, imprisoned people, suffering people, orphaned people, lonely people; there are people clinging to the last thread of hope and dignity.  How can we, as an expression of Jesus Christ in our local communities, be to them what Jesus was to this woman?  How can we emulate Jesus and minister to the lost and hurting in a way that they would fight through the crowds of this world to get to Jesus, to hear Him say: “Your faith has healed you.  Go in peace and be freed from your suffering?”

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