December 31, 2017
Hymn 381 - I’d rather have Jesus
Prayer
Proverbs 28:30. It’s always nice to see places where God says He will bless us for doing a certain activity or a having a certain character quality. Here, He says that He will bless the faithful person. A faithful person is loyal and trustworthy. We should be faithful to God; He is faithful to us.
There was once a dog named Duke who was very loyal to his master. So loyal, in fact, that he wouldn’t listen to commands from anyone else. Duke’s master was a doctor, and everyday they would walk to the hospital. Duke would wait outside while the doctor made his rounds, and then they would walk home together. This one day, however, the doctor left by a side door to give some instructions to a nurse who was out in the garden. He went home, and completely forgot about Duke! The hospital manager did what she could, but Duke wouldn’t budge. Finally they had to call the Doctor, and get him to tell Duke to go home over the telephone! Duke was faithful to his master; let’s look at some people in the Bible who were faithful, and see what they can teach us about faithfulness.
Genesis 12:1-4. God told Abraham to leave his homeland and move to a new country. Abraham was faithful to obey God’s instructions. It was the same when God later asked him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Abraham was up early the next morning, ready to do what God had asked.
Ezra 7:10. Ezra was faithful to God by delighting in the Scriptures. He wanted to know and follow them. This reminds us of Psalm 1 and Joshua 1, where God talks about the importance of meditating on Scripture. Ezra would have been blessed for knowing the law, and it’s important for us to know our Bibles if we’re going to be faithful to the Lord.
Daniel 1:8. Daniel was a captive in a foreign land, and his captors were training him to work for the king. They wanted him to eat the king’s food, but Daniel knew that—for certain reasons—it would be wrong to do so. For us, it’s not things that we put in our stomach that will defile us, but rather things that we put in our hearts. We put things in our hearts with our eyes and ears. If we are going to be holy like Daniel, then we need to be careful about what we see and hear. There is a lot of bad things available to our eyes and ears today!
Ruth 2:7. Gleaning is hot, tedious, slow, hard work; but Ruth worked at it diligently all day. We may have a lot of work to do, but we should do it for the Lord, and work away at it bit by bit. Ruth worked for herself and her mother-in-law, and God blessed her diligence and faithfulness through Boaz.
Genesis 39:9. Potiphar’s wife tried to get Joseph to sin, but he resisted her temptation and stayed pure. We should pray that the Lord will preserve us from the many temptations in the world today. We must keep our bodies pure for the Lord. Joseph was faithful, and was able to be a blessing to many people. He honoured the Lord, and the Lord honoured him. 1 Corinthians 10:13. We can look to our faithful God to help us to be faithful and honour Him.
Acts 11:22-23. Cleaving (holding tightly) to the Lord is part of being faithful, and we will be blessed if we do so. When you read the epistles, you find people who are described as being faithful. May the Lord help us to be known as such!
James 2:10-26
The royal law is to love others as you love yourself. He’s not saying we shouldn’t love our selves, but we should love our neighbor just as much. If we despise the poor just like those in the world we’re not following the royal law. With a law you’re either keeping it or transgressing it. If there’s no law there’s no transgression. If you transgress one point of the law you break all of it. You don’t have to break all of them to be a transgressor. It only takes one sin to become a sinner. In verse ten it doesn’t say you’re a sinner, but that you’re guilty of all. You’re just as much of a transgressor as if you broke them all. Mr. Hole likens it to breaking a chain. Even if you just break one link the whole chain is broken. Maybe it’s not judging clothing for us, but maybe we find it harder to love certain people. May we have the right spirit in there things.
The law of liberty is not a law of demand, but of supply. The rest of the chapter seems to go into this with validating faith with works. Faith and works are usually contrasts. Salvation can’t be earned by works; it’s obtained through faith. But when you have faith there must be evidence of it and it is shown by works.
Hymn 234 Saviour, lead me, lest I stray
Prayer