Category Archives: Morning Thoughts

Morning Thoughts (II Corinthians 11:28)

Morning Thoughts,

II Corinthians 11:28, "Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches."

This morning, life can be much like the songwriter declared a "tangle of toil and care, doubts and dark fears so hard to bear."  Satan's devices today are the same as they were at the beginning.  Oftentimes, adversaries and opposing forces have to change tactics, but Satan has had little reason to change his, for they remain – regrettably so – as successful as ever.  The more anxious, fearful, discouraged, and confused he can encourage someone to feel, the closer they are led to defeat.  Satan delights and takes great pride when confusion abounds in the life of God's children, for that confusion will deter their fellowship with God and lead them into paths of destruction instead of righteousness.  Truly, it would be a great comfort to know that Satan is prevented from the courts and house of God.  However, he lingers around and comes through the gates on the minds and doubts of the congregants.  If he is successful at taking up abode, he will find the pinnacle of his success here in the earth when a local church dries up and eventually dies.

Paul, in the context of our study verse, lays out a list of things that he endured for the sake of the gospel and the Lord's people.  The list basically has two categories that he briefly outlines in our verse.  Everything he has mentioned to this point is a thing "without."  The rest of the verse deals with things "within."  Those things that were without that Paul so heartily endured were vicious and frightening to the flesh.  No one welcomes a stoning or a really effective beating.  No one wishes for perils from all those that he is around.  Yet, Paul laboured faithfully in the face of all these things and gloried in the Lord in the midst of all his tribulations. (Romans 5:3) And yet, as discouraging as all those things must have been for him at times, they do not equal or compare to the endurance it takes to deal with the things that are within.

While I – nor any minister that I am personally acquainted with – has ever endured these outward tortures of the flesh, all ministers to a man freely confess that they feel a kinship with Paul about the labours and enduring that come with the care of the churches.  We pray that the day never comes that outward torture becomes a reality in our lives (though it might), but make no mistake, there will never be a day when the care of the churches is not evident and manifest.  Something just always seems to be going on.  As a dear elder once said, "Preaching and pastoring might be easy if there were not people involved, but it sure would be a lonely affair."  Perfect churches do not exist.  People without problems do not walk this earth.  Emotions spring up at all times in all seasons.  Therefore, churches will always need care.

Since we have noticed above that this care is never out of season – it happens daily – what does it mean to have "care?"  The word here for care comes from a word that bears connotations of thoughtfulness, being memorable, and accompanied by anxiety.  So, Paul's care of the churches required a great deal of thoughtfulness that came with remembering them.  However, it was not without some anxiety involved as he contemplated and meditated about what the best course of action was in certain situations and prayed about how to approach different things.  So, the care of churches is not always a pleasant thing, but the effort is worthwhile when considering the glory that accompanies it. (Verses 30-31)

One of the things that I never understood – even as a boy – is how people thought that being a minister somehow was a glamorous life.  Being the son of a minister, I saw firsthand how painful being a minister could be at times.  Many days I watched my father and saw him give his very heart in situations only to discover that certain people simply did not appreciate the effort (at least not at the time).  I watched him labour faithfully to teach and preach those things which are most surely believed among us only to end up broken in spirit on occasion when people just seemed "to not get it."  Furthermore, I experienced the sacrifice that he made when time he planned for us had to be forgone to help people with marriage problems, talk people out of suicide, try to mediate between offended brethren, and many other things that one would desire never be found in the church kingdom.

As a minister now myself, I have not experienced the level of care to which I witnessed my father endure, but I do now share a feeling of kinship with him that I previously did not.  Reading passages like this from Paul give a feeling of brotherly labour with the apostle.  What pains he must have endured knowing that not one but many "churches" looked to him in that fashion!  Whether churches that he visited or helped constitute, he had thoughts, feelings, meditations, and some anxiety over them when he considered their state.  In his farewell to Ephesus in Acts 20, he mentions his warning to them about wolves coming in after his departure.  Yet, his warning was not just a sermon coupled with the attitude of "here it is and hope you get it."  Rather, Paul's warning was both night and day accompanied by tears.  Paul told the Thessalonians that they were dear unto him, and his attitude toward them was like a nurse cherishing children. (I Thessalonians 2:7-9)

Any minister worth his salt cares for the people that he serves.  Even when the anxiety mounts as he has doubts about whether they understand the preaching, heed the instruction, or whether certain matters of confusion will ever resolve in peace, he cares.  As I have told younger ministers before, the man sometimes experiences sleepless nights coupled with a heavy heart and burdened soul.  When the minister sees Satan at work in the lives of the church folks (including himself), he earnestly desires that all such influences be removed and trouble not the flock.  One of the greatest heartaches a minister can have is to see Satan's influence rob some sheep of the joy of the gospel, particularly when he feels that the Lord blessed him to preach.  A greater heartache though stems from looking out at hungry faces, only to know deep down that Satan has had the advantage over him, thereby impeding the gospel food to go forth in power.

Moving into some of the more pleasant fields of labour in the care of the churches, consider why Paul willingly and joyfully endured for the glory of God in the churches.  One of our hymns has a borrowed line from Scripture "one day in His courts is better than a thousand beside."  When a minister labours and endures these hardships and anxious moments in the church, it is all worth it when he sees the glory of the Lord coming forth in the lives of the sheep within the courts of Zion.  Sleepless nights disappear from view when they come forth brilliantly and vivaciously as mature plants in the church of the living God.  Burdened souls can be lightened in short order when it seems that folks finally "get it" and see the beauty of the kingdom a little clearer and let loose of the worldly things a little more.

The Bible teaches us that the church is much like a family.  Sometimes it is compared to a single body, while at other times, we see familial connections being made – such as calling one another "brethren."  The church is described in Scriptures much like a mother-figure to us (Galatians 4:26), and the Bible also teaches that mothers forget about labour pains when children come forth. (John 16:21) Putting all of this together, we see that all the labours of the minister for the family's sake can be quickly forgotten when the man child comes forth.  While the child was already alive long before the hour of travail, so the sheep are born again long before all the travail and pains of labour in the kingdom.  However, when the tender plants go through those growing processes, all the pain, care, and anxiety is well worth the effort to see them standing as sturdy trees to the glory of Almighty God.

Friends, the church is worth the effort.  Like the man who bought an entire field for the treasure within it (Matthew 13:44), we have to buy a lot of things (field) for the joy of God's house and service (treasure).  No matter how bleak things appear at times, there is great joy and hidden treasure to be found.  As I have told people across the country, "The worst drought in the house of God beats the best plenty out in the world."  If you are a minister, may these thoughts serve to encourage you in your care of the portion of the Lord's vineyard that you are in.  If you are not a minister but going through a rough season in the house of God, may these thoughts encourage you to keep seeking the joy and blessing to be enjoyed in the Lord's church.  May all of us be renewed in our mind to seek to advance the Lord's name and see the beauty of His holiness with all of its associated glory.

In Hope,

Bro Philip

Morning Thoughts (Luke 16:31)

Morning Thoughts,

Luke 16:31, "And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead."

This morning, we live in a "not good enough" world.  Economically, people's financial situation is never good enough as they always want more.  Socially, people complain about things not being good enough with their spouse, children, friends, etc.  Politically, those in offices of authority over us do not ever measure up to either expectations or their own promises.  Sadly, these ideas of culture spill over into church thinking.  Today, people in church desire the "good old days" when preachers preached a certain way, buildings had more attendants than they do today, and meetings seemed "more spiritual."  While there are generally kernels of truth in most of these thoughts – politicians could do a better job, our relationships with family and friends could be improved, and churches could certainly be more vibrant than we are at times – that does not excuse or justify that we fail to follow the injunction from Scripture to have godliness and be content. (I Timothy 6:6) However, a prevailing mindset with some today about God, His church, His Book, and spiritual matters in general is seen from the lens of the "not good enough" viewpoint.

Our study verse is found at the end of Christ's discourse on the rich man and Lazarus.  Since it is not our point of the study today to examine this story in detail, we suffice to say that this account reads like a literal account of two real men that lived and died.  Christ shows not only their life on earth but the end result in eternity: one is in heaven and the other in hell.  Before moving to our thought of the day, should one read this as a figurative story that is not talking about two real people, consider that such a premise still does not change the fact that Christ's parables are never based in imagination.  Whether He is talking about a sower of seeds, net with fish, labourers in a field, etc., He always takes real situations to teach His points.  So, should this story not be about two real men, we have every Scriptural precedent and pattern to believe that His description of the afterlife is nothing short of a real situation that will be experienced just as He laid it out.  People will really live in the comfort, peace, and love of Abraham's bosom (heaven), while others will really and truly experience the flames and torments of punishment (hell).

Leading up to our verse, the rich men begs Abraham to send Lazarus back to earth to warn his brethren to "save themselves" from coming to the awful place he now inhabits.  Abraham's response to him is that they have the law and the prophets.  Let your brethren hear them.  When the rich man makes a second plea, he exposes the faulty logic that our study verse will then address.  His logic is that the law and the prophets are not good enough.  One coming back from the dead will be good enough to accomplish this – he thinks.  In our verse, Abraham informs the rich man that if what he thinks is not good enough will not work, what he thinks is good enough will not work or be good enough either.

While the rich man's thoughts come from a non-elect suffering the flames of hell, his mentality is not regulated to the wicked unregenerate man.  All of us – even post-regeneration – carry the vestiges of the depraved old man that lead to this kind of faulty and unreasonable thinking.  Whenever we get in the "not good enough" mindset, we fall prey to not being able to see things honestly and clearly.  Have you heard people today, even professed Christians, make the claim that the Bible is not good enough?  Just having the written word of God to go by is not sufficient for them?  They follow after people that talk about dreams, visions, revelations, etc.  More than anything, they seem much like the mob on Mars' Hill that wanted to hear something new.

These people oftentimes will make the claim that if they saw some great sign like the Bible talks about, they would be amazed and follow it wholeheartedly.  Truly, they would declare that if someone came back from the dead, they would believe.  If they had seen Lazarus come back in John 11 from the dead, they would rejoice and accept the message.  However, that mindset of thinking is never permanent.  People who follow after amazement and emotional tickling never perpetually follow what they rejoiced in for a season.  Permanence comes from something that we follow for reasons other than those.  Whenever people's "amazement and 'Wow!' meter" is ramped up, they expect it to stay that way, and when it goes back down, they look for other ways to ramp it up again.  Maybe a resurrection today is seemingly good enough, but does that heightened sense of emotion content for tomorrow or the next day? 

What did our examples do?  Paul tells us in I Corinthians 10 that the children of Israel in Moses' day were an example for us not to follow.  They saw repeated signs, miracles, and wonders, but after the "Wow-o-meter" went down, they quickly forgot the glory and majesty of the experience.  Things became not good enough anymore.  Are we any different today?  The Lord blesses repeatedly, and sometimes we stand back in wonder at the gracious kindness of the Master.  Then, things are never good enough anymore.  Eventually, it takes more and more to even impress us anymore.  So, how do we take Abraham's words to the rich man and see that what we have is sufficient for our present needs?

Obviously, the rich man also had faulty logic in thinking that his brethren could do something to save themselves from hell, as the salvation from hell is accomplished by Christ wholly apart from human aid or action.  However, passing over that point, Abraham's statement is applicable generally to all today.  If someone refuses to hear the law and the prophets, they will not hear one though he came back from the dead.  Why?  When people refuse to accept Biblical testimony (law and prophets included), why does that insufficiency immediately condemn the sufficiency of a literal resurrection?

Considering the testimony of a resurrected person, that testimony will only be believed if one truly believes their circumstance.  In other words, do they really believe he was dead?  Do they really believe that he has been resurrected?  What evidence would it take for them to accept it?  Seeing him come out of the grave?  There has to be some measurable amount of faith (confidence) that his case is true for one to accept his testimony.  To believe the man's case takes some amount of faith.  To believe Biblical testimony, it takes faith to see and accept the evidence that these accounts within the pages are verily real and infallible.  It takes faith to perceive that references to the dead rising are in fact real.  It takes faith to perceive that the story of Jesus Christ – as testified and prophesied by the law and the prophets (Romans 3:21-22) – is verily a true story about His majesty, greatness, and power.

To draw the two points together, the heart and soul of the law and the prophets is a testimony of Jesus Christ.  The heart and soul of His course here on earth for us centers on His literal and bodily resurrection.  Paul staked his gospel message on the testimony of the Scriptures of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (I Corinthians 15:1-3) The testimony of Scriptures are hinged upon the reality of Christ's resurrection.  Without that, the whole story is not worth anything.  Everything in Scripture points to that blessed event and takes from that a forward looking glance to the final resurrection of the family of God to righteousness and joy and the wicked to everlasting punishment.  If someone denies that testimony, they are – in fact – denying the power, reality, and manifestation of the resurrection of the dead.  So, why would they believe another testimony about the same thing?  Point of fact, as Abraham declares, they would not, nor do many today.

Friends, we live in a world that is never satisfied, never content, and will never be in peace.  Since there will never be a utopia on this earth, may we seek to live contented lives looking forward to complete satisfaction in the world to come.  Do we have all we need?  Positively and certifiably we do.  The evidence of our sufficiency is found within the cover of the Book we call the Bible that tells of One who conquered over death, hell, and the grave for us.  Because He triumphed, we triumphed with Him and through Him.  We do not need the testimony of anyone else as we have His.  We should not be looking for something new, as the same old story grants all the necessary information to live contented lives walking and talking with the Saviour.  Instead of saying, "Things just aren't good enough," may we instead declare, "Thank God that things are not only good enough but greater than anything we could possibly ask or think."

In Hope,

Bro Philip