True Truth

As many faithful defenders of the Christian faith have pointed out, the truths we speak of as Christians, are claims we assert to be “true truth”. We do not presume to be proffering religious preferences or personal values. We are boldly claiming that our statements regarding God, life, death, heaven, and hell are realities – “real realities”. Of course, that only pertains to those statements that accurately reiterate, reflect or replicate the statements we find in God’s word. “God’s word” – that is a big claim. But it’s one that we Christians allege can be backed up by the evidence we find on the pages of the Bible. It is no ordinary book. Actually, there is not another book like it. It was penned over a 1,500-year span and is generously punctuated by precise depictions of future events given years, decades, and in some cases even millennia before they happened. The Bible bears the marks of being a book that was ultimately “breathed out” by the only one who could have so specially “declared the end from the beginning” (2 Timothy 3:16; Isaiah 46:8-11). So if God himself was the governing force behind the production of this information, then we can and should be much more confident when we present biblical truths to our confused, conflicted and desperately needy society.

For more sermons and devotionals on God's Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org

Sharing Meals

God can accomplish a lot of good in the lives of his people when they take their meals together. Think of how often throughout the Bible a feast, a banquet, a breakfast, lunch or dinner serves as the setting for some profound lesson, as an opportunity to give thanks, as a celebration of an important work of God, or simply as the setting for his people to deepen and strengthen their camaraderie as a spiritual family. From the festivals of Israel to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, common meals persistently reappear in the pages of Scripture as God’s means of doing something important and advantageous for his children. Sharing meals was not only a routine part of the church’s formal gatherings in the first-century, but it was also their practice to informally eat together in each other’s homes with glad and generous hearts (Acts 2:46). Often the encouragement, comfort, joy, thanksgiving and mutual support we need as Christians in the twenty-first century is deficient because we neglect this simple yet effective means of connecting and relating. So before you plan your menu for the week, or decide what errands you’ll run on your lunch breaks, make a couple of calls or send a couple of emails to see if you can’t take a few of those meals with some fellow disciples of Christ. It may just be the context God uses to do something good and important in your life.

For more sermons and devotionals on God's Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org

Dependence

Comprehending something of our real and absolute dependence on God is foundational to everything in the Christian life. It is where Paul began with the Athenians when, after proclaiming that God was their Creator, he asserted that “he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:25). That is a kind of moment-by-moment, breath-by-breath involvement of God that seems to be easily forgotten by most Christians these days. And yet, this is certainly not because the Bible doesn’t persistently declare God’s involvement. We see it from the beginning, when it is said that humanity commenced with God’s personal issuance of “the breath of life” (Genesis 2:7). It is sung in the Psalter of Israel that God himself “is the fountain of life” (Psalm 36:9). Job said that if God “should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together and man would return to the dust” (Job 34:14-15). Paul told the Colossians that it is Christ who “is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Colossians 1:17). So when we are tempted to think that the triune God is distant or disconnected from our lives, we need to remember that nothing could be further from the truth. He not only created us, he actively sustains us. Were he to ignore us, even for a moment, we would cease to exist. So then, especially as Christians, we must live with a perpetual awareness that God “is not far from each one of us, for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17:27-28).

For more sermons and devotionals on God's Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org

Preparing for God's Word

Responding appropriately to God’s word, whether it is being read or it is being preached, requires an important preparatory step that is often neglected. God’s word is said to be “living and active” and sufficiently able to have a transforming impact on our lives (Hebrews 4:12; Jeremiah 23:29; John 17:17). Often the difference between the times it impacts our lives and the times it doesn’t, Jesus told us, is not a question of the quality of the word, but a problem with the receptivity of the heart (Luke 8:15). Being receptive requires some prep. So before we open the Scriptures in church or at our kitchen tables, we would do well to echo the words of King David who prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). That kind of prayerful prelude to any encounter with God’s word can dissolve our stubbornness, soften our defenses, and eliminate any obstinate resistance we may have to being transformed by his truth. It is a simple yet vulnerable step, which will yield tremendous dividends in our lives. Therefore, let us always be careful to prepare to welcome the Lord’s truth, accepting it “not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work” in us (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

For more sermons and devotionals on God's Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org

God's Truth

The Bible is full of severe and hard realities. Its propositions aren’t fuzzy or soft; they’re strong, stern and unambiguous. Its heroes aren’t hailed for being sensitive and emotional; they’re lauded for being principled, unyielding, zealous warriors who unapologetically stand up for what is right. Its assessments and judgments do not oscillate based on feelings, sentiments, syndromes or disorders. The strategies of today’s defense attorneys, which sway acquiescent juries would never have worked for Israel’s ruling elders, the New Testament’s apostles, Church history’s councils, and they certainly will not work at the forthcoming Great White Throne Judgment. Like many other things that we’d prefer to be more malleable, but by nature cannot be, the truth is what it is and God’s revealed instructions are not up for negotiation. Yes, there is grace for sinners, but God’s mercy and grace are dispensed according to his clearly prescribed terms. The Bible is replete with warnings about the futility of gambling on the hope that what God has inscribed is transient, provincial, or mere suggestion. So don’t allow our culture’s relativistic droning impair your sobriety or diminish your respect for the absolute truthfulness of God’s truth.

For more sermons and devotionals on God's Truth, please go to the Focal Point Ministries website at www.focalpointministries.org