Chatsworth Baptist Church

“Hear this now, O foolish people, without understanding, who have eyes and see not, and who have ears and hear not: Do you not fear Me? Says the Lord: (Jeremiah 5:21-22).

We learn from this text what is the best frame of mind with which to entertain God’s judgments. We are to adore the perfections of the glorious God who is displayed in them. We are to be afraid of them, deeply abhorring the divine displeasure and humbling ourselves under His mighty hand. We are to stand in such awe of Him that we renounce and abandon every evil way and rush to the Lord Jesus Christ as our only place of refuge.

“Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and you perish in the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in Him” (Psalms 2:12). We learn from this text that it is not cowardly to be afraid of God’s judgments, but very agreeable to true Christian courage.

God is no fit match for us to contend with. No one has ever hardened himself against Him and prospered (Job 9:4). He is our Creator; we are His creatures. We are as clay in the hands of the potter. He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. God cannot ere on His end, as the princes of this world may in execution of their displeasure through impotency or want of knowledge, for He is infinite in knowledge, wisdom, and power, and there is no comparison between infinite and finite.

It is not cowardly, then, to fear God.

(Matthew 5:44 NKJV)

“But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…One of the things I had to learn and am still working on every day is learning how to love the person when I don’t like their actions. Seriously… how many times do we look at a person, watch their actions, and look at their outward appearance before making our decision to accept them?

God does not tell us to love someone just because they look good, dress nice or act the same as us. He tells us to love our enemy…OUCH!

This kind of love takes a changing of our heart. It takes learning, discipline and action on our part to love and accept people for the person they are. We can’t do this on our own, but we can do this with God’s help!

If they are our enemy, if they curse us, if they hate us, if they spitefully use us and persecute us, we STILL need to love them. Not after they apologize or change their behaviour, but in the state that they are in. It doesn’t mean we love the things they do, but we love the person. As God’s children, we need to look beyond one’s errors, mistakes and disadvantages and love the person. How do we learn to love the person and look beyond their actions?

We have to surrender our feelings toward the person and let God’s Word change our heart. We have to follow His example. He loved us first and sent His Son for us in spite of our terrible, sinful nature. We too must love in this way.

We can’t just say we love someone; we have to show them we love them. It is by our actions that love conquers all!

Is there someone in your life today that you struggle with? Do you love them deeply but have a hard time showing them, because you’re afraid of the hurt you feel when you’re around them?

Let God teach us how to show our love for others without getting hurt by their actions.

2 Kings 4 : 2

” What can I do to help you? Elisha asked. Tell me what do you have in the house. Nothing at all, except a flask of olive oil, she replied. “

How do you measure your life and the progress that you have made in the Lord as you make every effort to journey away from the past.
When we sit back and look at how far we have grown and improved in the Lord we gain an indication of just how awesome He is in us. Imagine if you were told five years ago that you would be where you currently are now, would you have believed it or would you have laughed it out.

The same correlation is found in todays scripture where we find a widow who has nothing, not even enough oil or jars to add more yet Elisha tells her to borrow more jars and to go home, ” shut the door and pour the olive oil. ” The important characteristic is she did not question, she responded by faith and by Elisha telling her to shut the house door behind her, he effectively told her not to allow the plot or sarcasm of the world to ruin her faith and trust.

How many of us have doubted Gods good plan for our lives ( Jeremiah 29 : 11 ) – you see we may be limited individuals but the God that we serve is awesome and ever faithful. Notice the last instruction that Elisha gives the widow is to set the jar aside once full – for us we may triumph or excel at a particular event / task and want to remain in that comfort zone, yet Elisha tells the widow to move onto the next one.

It is time we opened our eyes to the things beyond us – we need to operate on a faith platform and from a point of victory.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has given us every reason to believe and we will not surrender until we meet our God face to face.

John 8:32 (NKJV) And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

The truth can be a tough pill to swallow sometimes. It very rarely tastes good and it can sometimes be very painful.

Because of this, many people want to avoid the truth, whether it is about something in their own life, or in the life of someone else. So the truth gets replaced with something sweet in an effort to make it easier to swallow.

Sweet things might taste better, but the problem is that they will never fix a problem or bring healing where there is something broken, sick or injured.

Most times, what we need the most is for someone to sit us down, look us in the eye and give us the truth, even when it hurts to hear it. And we need to be mature enough to listen and receive it, even if we don’t like what’s being said.

As we grow and mature, we can (and should) learn to receive the truth, if someone is presenting it to us, and ask God what we can learn from it and how we can grow from knowing the truth.

And on the other side of the coin, we should never hesitate to share the truth with others, in a kind, loving way, when it needs to be spoken. It can be hard to say things to others sometimes, for fear of offending them, but if the words you speak are truth and they are presented properly, they can bring new freedom to the person you’re speaking to.

So don’t let the the half-truths of political correctness overshadow what you know is right and prevent you from speaking truth when truth needs to be spoken.

And never, ever push the truth aside when it is being spoken to you in an effort to show you where you might have gone wrong or you need to change.

And remember… words spoken in love are the key to making the truth work in your life and the lives of others.