Talking to a rock is like beating one’s head against
the wall and yet some of us never learn to be honorable and leave the rock
alone. So if a quarrel begins it might just be necessary to take a look in the
mirror on the wall to determine just who that fool might be! Proverbs 20:3
Comments and challenges
I am sometimes challenged with thoughts like; “okay
Jesse you have a lot of stories of the past when you could see the outworking
of God in your life and the life of people around you, but just what do you see
going on currently”? So say I to myself, “Jesse that is a good question”!
Today I finally answered my souls longing to read
the epistle of Philippians in one sitting, now mind you that this is not the
one and only epistle that I long to read in one sitting, but it is the one that
is most urgently on my mind. I did read the epistle but at first I could not
get past verse one before I fell into a prayer of thanksgiving and
encouragement through the Holy Spirit.
I read from the NKJV or the KJV since both are on my
desk, but lately I have been carrying a pocket Bible (New Testament, Psalms and
Proverbs) which is the NASV. So while I was waiting for some work to be done
for my boss, I began reading Philippians from that pocket Bible. Verse 1 –
“Paul and Timothy, bondservants of Christ Jesus”
The KJV and the NKJV read, “Paul and Timothy,
servants of Jesus Christ” now there is nothing wrong with any of the three
versions but what struck me is the word that the NASV uses “bondservant” the
Greek word is “doulos” and can be translated servant or bondservant. The point
is that our Father uses His Word to touch us and in this case for me it was a
touch of blessing.
He sees us as “bondservants” in that we serve Him
out of love, love that is revealed through His word, like that of Romans 5:1-8
a love that bonds us to Him through the indwelling Holy Spirit. In Acts 1:1-2
we see the outworking commandments of Jesus Christ to the early church, all the
epistles which are written are references of that early church planting. The
apostles Peter, James, Paul and John in their writings to us would not have
anything to say if it were not for the Holy Spirit who provided the faith, hope
and love to move forward.
Speaking with our pastor recently we talked about
the universal church of today in that is somewhat removed from the Acts of the
Holy Spirit, which is the backup title of second book of Matthew that is called,
the Acts of the Apostles. The church today is mostly full of the black smoke of
disagreement and the white smoke of religion; both are the deceptive work of
human viewpoint and not the Devine Viewpoint of the Holy Spirit.
The true Church of Christ suffers also because many
have fallen into the work of master and servant, rather than that of a personal
relationship with the Father and outworking of the Holy Spirit through bondservants
who serves out of faith, hope and love the theme of the book of Acts
No comments:
Post a Comment