Pastor Bob

Jeremiah the prophet was instructed by God (Jer. 18 ESV) to go to the potter’s house. The vessel that the potter was making became spoiled, so he started over and made something else out of  the clay. Then the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah,
“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potters’s hand, so are you in my hand , O house of Israel.” Jer. 18:6)

Of course, God is talking to Israel in this passage but there are principles that we can draw from this passage that apply to us. The sovereignty of God is one. What does sovereignty of God mean? That he is in charge. This is such a difficult principle for us as American Christians to grasp. Our American Christianity has embraced non-biblical principles and added them to our Christianity. This is called syncretism. One such principle was proclaimed by a high-profile Christian on national TV recently. She said “God wants me to be happy.” What does that mean? I have heard people use that as an excuse to divorce his or her spouse. So this person uses a non-biblical principle to override a biblical principle about divorce. Stupid. I’m sorry folks I have a nasty form of cancer and I don’t have time to tickle your ears. This is not true Christianity.

Try telling Paul and Silas that God wants them to be happy as they are being beaten (Acts16). Tell that to John Hus as he is burned at the stake for preaching the gospel. Tell that to Christians in the colosseum as they become the main course for a bunch of hungry lions. The Apostle John’s Revelation shows the price that is paid for following the true and living God. It could cost your life.

God is in charge. Does that mean that He wants you to be unhappy and that everything about being a Christian is painful and bad? Absolutely not!!! God wants to bless us but serving Him is not about the blessings. Many times He does bless us but we don’t realize it and we aren’t thankful. Living for God helps us to make lemon aid out of lemons. It helps us to live life to the fullest in spite of the difficulties we encounter in life. I have an abundant life whether I am in the hospital or out. It is because I have a relationship with the King of King and Lord of Lords, not because He has given me some superficial blessing.

God is in charge. He is sovereign. He wants to make something out of your life but what you can become will only happen as you give Him control of your life. There is so much more that I could say but I will stop. Let God be in charge.  Pastor Bob

During my devotion this morning, I noticed something in Romans 15:14 (ESV) that I never noticed before today. Paul is wrapping things up for his most comprehensive and complete book on the contents of the gospel. He has talked about the image of God and the nature of God. He has talked about sin and our sin nature. He has talked about how you actually obtain right standing with God. But this statement in Romans 15 woke me up like someone shooting a shotgun beside my head. Look what he says, “I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.”

Stay with me now because this is important. Paul is satisfied with them because they are full of goodness. Great, that shows character change. Then he says, “Filled with all knowledge.” That is wonderful, they have the doctrine down. The part I want you to see is this, “Able to instruct one another.” This statement explains why so many Christians never get off the milk of the Word. Let me break it down.

Able to instruct.  We like this part. I was born a teacher. I can’t help it. If I know how to sharpen a pencil, I can teach you how to sharpen a pencil. I can see the potential pitfalls and problems areas in sharpening a pencil and I can teach that to someone, anyone. I just enjoy teaching. It is part of my DNA. We all like to instruct or teach to some extent. I guess it makes us feel like we know something that others don’t know. We possess a secret knowledge that others need. It can almost become Gnostic, but I digress. We need teachers in the church. People that understand the Word of God and are motivated for the right reasons to teach.

One Another. Paul continues but look at what he says. Words are so important. Paul didn’t just say he needed people able to instruct but able to instruct one another. This is where we lose people. Not only do you have to be able to instruct but you have to be able to be on the receiving end of the instruction. This is a problem.

Pastors deal with this problem all the time. This is a problem for new Christians and old Christians. What is the problem? Remaining teachable. We can become so prideful that we are unable to receive instruction from others. Paul is talking about this learning process between believers, not just pastors and congregants. We need to be able to instruct one another and to learn from each other. I understand all the implication about being prayed up and having the right attitude when you talk to sister so-and-so about gossiping, but, honestly, are you teachable? People drop out of church or go to a different church all the time because of the silliest things. We need to remain teachable and learn in our environment.

Being teachable means that you are willing to change, but before you do that you have to admit that you have made a mistake or you have a behavior that needs changing. We don’t like to admit we were wrong. Did you know that if you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ into your heart by the time you are around 12, statistically, the chances are slim that you ever will? Why is that? This is an American statistic and is beneficial to show us about human nature and our culture. People don’t want to admit they have lived all those years wrong. Don’t let pride keep you unteachable. Be like a sponge and receive instruction from the avenues that God sends your way. Pastor Bob

Yesterday was an amazing day. Early in the morning I was introduced to my new student nurse. As I got to know here, I found out that her husband and her are on-fire-for-God Christians. Praise God. Then another nursing student stopped by because she found out I was a Christians. I met a number of people throughout the day and then to cap it off, my evening nurse was a Pentecostal Christian from India. Is my God in control or what? I felt like Elijah did after he told God that he was the only one serving God and God finally told him to get back to work and “By the way, I have 7000 others that haven’t bowed to Baal.” It is so encouraging to see that others are living for God around you and close to you. We are not serving God alone.

On another note, I found out that I can go outside. So yesterday and today I took a walk outside. It was very encouraging to leave the hospital ward after a week. It was a beautiful walk around the U of Penn campus by the hospital. Praise God.