*Volume 122 *No. 06*Published by Christian Triumph Co. *Permit # 695 *JUNE 2010
Contents Praise the Lord for a Man Like That! 1 The Blessing of a Clean Conscience 2 High School Graduate…Church Dropout 4 The Illusion of Power 5 What’s the Point in Leading if No One is Following 5 Letters 7
“Praise the Lord for a Man Like That!” Long ago there was famine in the land, and a man moved his wife and two sons to a more prosperous area. There they lived well until he departed this world. The sons married local girls while caring for their widowed mother, but, surprisingly, both of these young men also expired. And it was then that the widow Naomi found herself alone, without family. She decided to return to Bethlehem along with Ruth, one of her daughters-in-law. They arrived at the beginning of the barley harvest. Ruth was no slacker; she immediately set out to pick up the grains dropped by the harvesters. In time, Ruth became thirsty and tired, resting in the cool shade. And there it was that she met Naomi’s wealthy in-law. The first thing she noticed about this man was his kindness and generosity, for he graciously invited her to stay right there in his
fields, gathering as much grain as she wished. In fact, Boaz went a step further; he also warned the young men who worked for him to leave her alone. Ruth thanked him warmly for his protection. Boaz then affirmed Ruth’s special qualities. “I also know about all the love and kindness you have shown your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother in your own land and came here to live among strangers.” Ruth must have wondered, “What kind of man is this?” Lunch time arrived, and Boaz invited Ruth, a stranger and a foreigner, to come eat with him, and then when she went back to work, he told his young men “to snap off some heads of barley and drop them on purpose for her to glean, and not to make any remarks.” When Ruth left the field, she carried home a whole bushel full! Naomi was astonished, praising God for the person who was so thoughtful. It was then that Ruth told her about this fine man named Boaz. Naomi cried out in excitement, “Praise the Lord for a man like that!” Naomi advised Ruth to stay in Boaz’s fields and do as he said. Until the end of the barley and wheat harvest, Ruth remained protected under his care. Boaz was a man who respected God and others. As well, he respected the laws of the land and the rights of others. In time, he married Ruth, and the Lord gave them a son who became the grandfather of King David.
The name of Boaz is also found in the earthly ancestors of Jesus Christ. (Matthew 1) Boaz’s character resembles the love of Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5 speaks of Christ’s love for His Bride (the Church). “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water though the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain, or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
plight of sinners forced to face their past failures. He notes that their consciences bear witness to the moral nature, so that they struggle, their thoughts accusing them or else excusing them. We all have moral standards, whether those standards are biblical or not. And every human being violates the standards he or she holds, even those who act as if they had no conscience at all. What we may not understand is how past acts that trouble our conscience affect our lives. It is not just that we struggle to excuse ourselves or that we tend to blame others. Awareness of past failures is like a bunch of ropes wrapped around our limbs, immobilizing us. We'd like to step out in faith and respond to God's voice, but just as we're ready to tentatively extend one foot, conscience shouts a reminder of our past failures and drains away our confidence. So, being the kind of person we are, we ask, how can our future be any different from our past? And so the testimony of our conscience robs us of hope for the (continued on p.3) future.
The Book of Ruth – The Living Bible
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THE BLESSING OF A CLEAN CONSCIENCE By Bill Allen, Pastor, Hilltop Bible Church, Clarksville, Ark.
I have discovered that the book of Hebrews is truly a remarkable book. I have learned that the book of Hebrews more than any other book in the scriptures repeatedly affirms and underscores the superiority of Jesus Christ. The book of Hebrews continually brings us back to the solid meat of Christianity, the person of Jesus. Hebrews refuses to allow us to stay in the shadows looking for fulfillment in externals. The law you remember, brings us to an awareness of our need, but the law can do nothing to solve our dreaded disease, sin. We have been reminded recently that blood is required to deal with our sin, but not just any blood, it is the blood of Jesus that redeems us from the terrible control of sin. In Hebrews we see that a new arrangement has come about – a covenant between God and humanity. This new arrangement is far superior to the rituals, regulations, and the commandments of the Law. To fully understand this new arrangement, we need to have a general understanding of the concept of “conscience.” This word originally meant remembrance of past acts, but it also involves the evaluation of those acts in terms of good and evil. The trouble is that this kind of evaluation tends to end up with more counts of evil than anything else. In Romans 2:14-15, Paul describes the
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holding some sin against a brother or sister. Aphiemi: This verb is used 146 times in the New Testament. It's used in the sense of forgive 49 times, but the basic meaning is to dismiss or release. When Jesus told a paralytic, your sins are forgiven, Mark 2:5. He was not just saying that his past sins would not be held against him, Jesus was claiming the right to dismiss, or send away, the sins themselves. You and I may be gracious to others who sin against us, but we have no power to rid them of the sins themselves. But this is exactly what God's forgiveness does! Aphesis: This word is used 17 times in the New Testament, mostly expressing divine forgiveness or remission of sin. Again the emphasis is on the removal of the sins themselves, not simply dismissing the charges. Christ's death did more than deal with our guilt. IN DYING, CHRIST PAID FOR OUR SINS AND REMOVED THEM. OBJECTIVELY SPEAKING, OUR SINS ARE LITERALLY GONE! We have all had the experience of going into a motel room and immediately been overwhelmed by the odor of smoke. You wrinkle your nose, you start to cough. There is no one in the room smoking, but the odor from the past lingers on to plague the next non smoker who enters. It is a lot like this with forgiveness. Christ has taken away our sins. Objectively speaking, our sins are gone. But somehow they linger in our awareness, clogging our consciences and robbing us not only of joy, but also of hope for our future. Subjectively we've never claimed the cleansing God has provided, a cleansing by Christ's blood that purged our consciences from those dead works that have taken root and attempt to define for us the kind of person we are. That may be accurate for the kind of person we were, but our sins no longer define the person we are becoming. The sins that once defined us are gone, they are forgiven, they are sent away. The conscience that condemned us, based on what we did in the past, has been cleared. We no longer need to look back and see ourselves reflected in our sins. Now we can look ahead and see
What we desperately need is a cleansed conscience, one that is emptied of the residue of past sins and failures – a conscience that will neither nag us nor trip us up as we try to follow Jesus. And this is just what the writer of Hebrews promises to his readers. The sacrifices of the Old Testament provided an external, temporary purification. How much more, he asks, shall the blood of Christ, CLEANSE your conscience from dead works to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14). What I am seeking to communicate to you from this text is a revolutionary concept. If you can get your mind around this concept, you will be a different person. Let's go back and track a few details from the life of King David. King David, remember, had committed adultery with Bathsheba, then in an attempt to cover up his sin, he had Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, murdered. It is natural for us to attempt to cover up our sins, but this natural response never brings us peace. I so appreciate the statement that David makes in Psalm 32:1-2. After David came to terms with the fact that he had committed sins against God and sins against man and had broken God's law, David confessed those sins and then experienced something that everyone is capable of experiencing: relief. Do you remember that commercial that asked how do you spell relief? When David confessed his hidden sins, he now realized that he was forgiven. When we understand that we are forgiven, then we have joy. Some of us are not experiencing joy because we have yet to take the first step in the process. Begin by confessing your sin. Forgiveness is a huge issue. – there is more to forgiveness than not being held accountable for one's sins and failures. There are three different Greek words used in the Bible to express this concept of forgiveness. Charizomai: The word means to be gracious to. It was used in business to describe canceling a debt. Luke 7:41-43. This usage is similar to David's praise of God for not holding him accountable for his iniquity. When Christians are urged to forgive one another, this is the word that is used to indicate not 3
we experience freedom from our past. It truly is a matter of choice. It is a choice that only you can make.
ourselves for what we are becoming. We all have committed sins, but If you have confessed your sin to Christ, If you are trusting Christ as your personal Savior, then here is the good news: Your sins are forgiven in Christ. That means that they are gone, that means they are washed away by His blood. Those sins no longer define who you are, nor do they determine what you will do in the future. Many of us have come to a road block in our spiritual development because of sins that we have committed in the past. The time has come for us to move on. This moving on is not based on our good deeds, this moving ahead is based on the completed work of Jesus on the cross. The qualities of the fruit of the spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23 may not characterize you right now, but they do define the person you are becoming in Christ. That fruit defines who you will be. You see, when we get a handle on this we are now free to step out in faith and live God's way. Let's see our text of Hebrews 9:14 one more time. Our conscience is now cleansed from our dead works and we are now free to serve the living God. And yet some may still be wondering: How can I experience the cleansing that scripture affirms? We begin to experience this cleansing when we begin to take God's Word for our cleansing. Let's suppose that you have an infection. You have tried to treat this infection on your own, but your best efforts have failed. You make that difficult decision to see a medical doctor, the doctor writes you a prescription, you go to the pharmacy and get it filled. Now you have the medicine in your possession. Will you take the medicine or will you simply look at on the counter. You and I must take the truths of God's Word and apply them to our individual areas of need. When those old thoughts and habits rear up to discourage us, we trust in God's promise and we refuse to be dominated by them. We claim by faith the person that God will assist us to become; we choose to act in harmony with what we are becoming. This is how we experience the joy of our salvation. This is how
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Don't Let Your High School Graduate Become a Church Drop-out Many a parent and grandparent will be sighing in relief this spring to see their beloved teen crossing the stage to receive a high school or college diploma. They made it - our worries are over! Or are they? A 2006 report from the Barna Group revealed that, despite strong levels of spiritual activity during the teen years, 61 percent of young adults disengage from active participation in the Christian faith during their young adult years. Help the young adult in your life remain strong in their Christian faith by connecting them to resources effective in meeting them where they are and addressing the hard life issues young adults face. On My Own Now Ministries, Inc. offers two free online magazines, Genuine Motivation: Young Christian Man and Single! Young Christian Woman, to encourage faith and wise life choices in these critical years of transition to independence. Visit www.OnMyOwnNow.com to read the current issue and subscribe for free. The online magazines can even be read on smart phones with Web browsers - a resource for this generation!
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God’s Word says to us today “My strength is made perfect in your weakness.” (Perfect: complete, faultless) In situations that are beyond our control, where we seem to have no power, God will hear and “get done what needs to be done.” He will always have the last Word… no matter what the situation in life! With our Father, we are conquerors, for He alone controls the events of our lives, no matter the situations or persons.
The Illusion of Power In our world, most of us have power OVER something, although it may just be a dog or a cat. Of course, in the working world, there are managers, directors, supervisors, and even Congress that have (in a sense) power over us. It is interesting to learn that Power is an illusive thing… deceptive… misleading… not real. Dogs can bite their owners; cats can run away. Managers or supervisors can become ill; they can even get fired, and Congress can be voted out! In all of this, it is inspiring to remember that our God, the greatest power in all the Universes, does not necessarily work through POWER anyway. In fact, Jesus said to Peter, John, James: “Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.” Interesting, the King of all Ages telling his students to become submissive and humble! It appears that in humility, we find Great Power! Let’s read the story once again about a little Jewish girl who was kidnapped and made to serve the foreign wife of a great Syrian general. And here is the “beef” as they used to say: This little humble, servant child led her big, powerful Master, one of Syria’s finest Generals, to his greatest victory!
Read Zechariah 4:6 in closing.
What’s the Point in Leading if No One is Following Love and faithfulness keep a leader safe; through love his authority is made secure. Proverbs 20:28 Have you ever held a supervisory position? Even if you haven’t, I bet you know a lot about being a good supervisor. Your whole life has been under constant supervision – parents, teachers, pastors, youth leaders, work supervisors and even the police. Have you thought about what it is that causes you to like and respect some authority figures and dislike others? Being “cool” and having a good sense of humor help to make parents, teachers and work supervisors likable, but if you also respect those persons it is probably because they are really good at their job and they treat you with respect. Anyone can be assigned a position of authority, or in the case of a parent, obtain it through childbirth, but it’s something different to actually have authority. What kind of authority figure are you? Don’t you owe it to yourself to be the kind of person you admire? You don’t want to end up as one of those bosses people are mocking in the break room, do you? In almost every job I’ve held since my sophomore year of college on, I’ve been in a position of authority over at least a couple of people and usually someone older than me. I didn’t go in expecting resistance from my
2 Kings 5:1-14.
Thoughts taken from: The Daily Bread In this old world, no one wants to be weak….so we try to find ways to appear strong and in control…….and yet, true power (greatness) comes when we willingly assume the quality of meekness…..when we give our lives to God….rather than to the praise of prominent, changeable, unpredictable people. Their “power” as well as our own is simply deceptive and short-lived. True strength comes from our Creator! And often His greatest demonstration of power can be displayed when we feel our weakest. 5
employees, and at times I was largely oblivious to it, but it was there. I know this because, time and time again, my employees confessed to me, after I had gained their respect, that when I first came on the job, they didn’t like me. Was it me? No, people don’t like change and a new boss represents change. That’s not to say that I’ve always been the ideal boss. Through trial and error (emphasis on the error), I’ve learned a few things about being in the position of authority. I have a few suggestions I hope you’ll keep in mind when you get your first position of authority.
that you will all do your best to implement these practices, because I’ve come to expect only the best of you.” 3. Last on this short list, but certainly not least, is to respect what you don’t know about other people. When you first take charge of something, you become acutely aware that other people have no idea how capable you are, but you look forward to them discovering it as time goes by. Well, guess what? Other people are highly capable too. Be just as eager to discovering the valuable knowledge and understanding they have accumulated in their lifetimes.
1. Avoid instituting change when you first assume a position of authority. There are two main reasons for this. First, change is what people most fear and when you to begin to institute change immediately, you confirm their worst fear and they will likely resist the changes, even if they are good ones. Second, how can you change for the better something you really don’t understand? It takes time to understand the rational behind the way people do things. They may tell you one thing, but the real reasons may be hard to articulate and may need to be experienced by you, first-hand. Let time be your teacher.
People don’t respect you for your title or what you can do to them if they are insubordinate. If you are in authority over them, they may have to revere the position, but they don’t have to respect the person in it. They can fully comply with all directives and still resent you. The operation may run like clockwork, but you’ll be able to cut the hostility in the air with a knife. Make the air easier to breathe with the only tool that really works to neutralize hostility, resentment and resistance to authority. Shower the people under you with respect. That doesn’t mean you need to bring donuts every morning. People can tell the difference between gifts and respect. Respect is a feeling and a knowledge that you relate to each other as people first. It is the natural outcome of a relationship based in Christ’s love. And like any other relationship, it takes time to develop. In The Message, Proverbs 14:28 is translated thus: The mark of a good leader is loyal followers; leadership is nothing without a following.
2. Expect the best of others. Even if you feel resentment, don’t acknowledge it. I recall once holding a staff meeting and having to dish out some hard pills to swallow. At the end of the meeting, I tried to make light of the situation and said something like, “Okay, I’m leaving now so you can talk bad about me.” Later, I learned that my parting remark had incited more discontent than any of the meeting’s agenda items. These conscientious employees were insulted by my assumption that they were nasty backbiters. Such a misunderstanding! If only I had left the meeting with this remark: “Thanks for your time and I know
By Donna Lee Schillinger, author of On My Own Now: Straight Talk from the Proverbs for Young, Christian Women who Want to Remain Pure, Debt-free and Regret-free. www.OnMyOwnNow.com
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Letter from Idell: Hope you had a happy Easter. Pray God will help many more people to find forgiveness in Him. At …church we were blessed with a wonderful service of music and a very good sermon today on Easter. God bless you all—love in Christ.
LETTERS From Anita H.: I went out while ago near the field where this year corn is planted. Little new corn leaves are poking up above the dirt. This is such a boost, a thrill, and inspiration! St. John 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. When "God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself. . . His word has not failed to this day! -- Praise Him, Give Him glory, honor, acclaim, applause, approval, commendation, compliments, congratulations, ovation, thanks, tribute and anything we want to add to it that is good… adoration, devotion, exaltation, worship. HE IS PRAISEWORTHY! I came back to the house with new inspiration, and PRAISE. I have been inspired by new plants before, but the joy never fails to yield a lift. Just thought I would share. Love and prayers.
ONE MORE MOUNTAIN I've climbed quite a few mountains in my time, And passed through some valleys along the way. But there's one more mountain that I must climb E'er I reach the land of eternal day. From a distance the peak seemed so very steep, But since I'm this near, I think I can make it. So, on the goal my eyes I must keep; I've come too far on the journey to quit. Yes, there's one more mountain that still lies ahead, And I must scale it e'er I lie down to sleep. Then, on that glad day when its summit I tread, I'll be with my Lord, so for me please don't weep. --Byrum C. Lee 03/2007
(Poem dedicated to Rev. Wilbur Hunter, my Dad, who is even now climbing that One More Mountain.) Thanks to Donna Schillinger who helped complete the June Faith Messenger while I care for my Dad. Christian Triumph does not print a July or August issue of this periodical in order to conserve funds. Thanks to each one of you who reads this missionary paper. We appreciate you! Editor
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Happy Father’s Day “Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one's youth. Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their enemies in the gate.”” Psalm 127:4-5 (NIV)
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