Handling Disappointment

But that doesn't matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice. And I will continue to rejoice (Philippians 1:18 NLT).

For us to experience disappointment we must first have an expectation. Sometimes our expectations are unclear, maybe even to ourselves. This realization may not help us feel a lot better, but we should at least consider the possibility of our unclear expectations being the reason why we are disappointed. Furthermore, it may also be that we are disappointed because of unrealistic expectations — more often about what we expect of or from others than ourselves.

The apostle Paul reminds us to “not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart” (Galatians 6:9). Paul probably understood disappointment and even discouragement — especially when it came from brethren — more than almost anyone, except maybe the Lord himself.

Paul also mentions “danger from false brothers” (2 Cor. 11:26). It’s one thing to have to undergo hardship because of those who do not love the Lord, but it’s quite another level of disappointment — and possibly despair — when hardship comes from false brothers.

It’s hard to imagine that there were brothers who wanted to make Paul’s imprisonment worse, but there were. Paul briefly addresses his situation, and brings up a rather idealistic turn:

And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. (Philippians 1:14–18).

Writing to his preaching protege, Timothy, the apostle Paul reminded him of the reasons why he suffered, and that Timothy’s expectation should very well be the same:

You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra — which persecutions I endured; yet from them all the Lord rescued me. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. (2 Timothy 3:10–13)

Timothy’s imprisonment can be inferred from the writer of Hebrews as he delivered the good news of Timothy’s release — “You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon” (Heb. 13:23). We know nothing about the details surrounding his being detained: whether it was to visit Paul (cf. 2 Tim. 4:11, 21) or for something else.

Getting back on point … We are going to suffer disappointment. Whether it comes from a coworker, neighbor, or friend; and, yes, it will feel worse when it comes from a brother or sister in Christ because we obviously expect better things from them.

So what can we do?

• We can begin by looking for spiritual stability and friendship with the Lord: He is the anchor of our souls (Heb. 6:13–20) and remains the same (Heb. 13:8–9).
• Prayer works (Luke 18:1 / Rom. 12:12 / 1 Thess. 5:17).
• We also need to remember that we, too, disappoint others — and we should give them the benefit of the doubt when we are disappointed by them because of God’s love for us all (Ecc. 7:21–22 / 1 Cor. 13:7 / 1 John 2:1–2, 4:19 / Rom. 3:23).
• We need to remember that God will judge, it’s not our place to exact revenge (Rom. 12:14, 17–21 / Heb. 10:30–31).
• Wait for the Lord (Psalm 27:13–14).

Just Because It’s Green Doesn’t Mean It’s Grass

Driving through my neighborhood recently, I noticed a number of lawns being watered despite a recent rain. What really caught my attention was one lawn that was, from a distance, green and being watered, but when I drove closer I saw that the green wasn’t grass, but weeds — and then the thought came to mind: Just because it’s green, doesn’t mean it’s grass.

No one likes a hypocrite, because we know they’re deceptive pretenders. And, yes, we’ve all played the part. Back in the first-century day the term hypocrite was applied to actors because of the interchangeable faces they would literally use to convey the different characters they pretended to be in their tragedies and plays. We sometimes say of a hypocrite that they’re “two-faced,” and this is where that notion comes.

We know that Jesus was no deceiver (1 Pet. 2:22). Jesus never play-acted, He never pretended to be or feel something different than what he was conveying to others. His love was genuine (Rom. 12:9). Now this doesn’t mean He got along with hypocrites, but that He was merciful to them :
Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his words. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away. (Matt. 22:15–22)

In the following chapter of Matthew (ch. 23), we read a lengthy diatribe from the Lord against the scribes and Pharisees — in the scathing rebuke, Jesus calls them hypocrites 6 times (vv. 13, 15, 23, 25, 27, 29).

In what we call the sermon on the mount, Jesus taught, “Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19–20).

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. (Matthew 23:25–32)

It’s safe to conclude that the Lord did not enjoy dealing with hypocrites and their hypocrisy — “In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed on the housetops” (Luke 12:1–3).

One of the dangers of hypocrisy is that anyone can be guilty of it, including an apostle! Paul accused Peter of such (Gal. 2:11–14). Later, Peter writes, “So put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander. Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation — if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good” (1 Pet. 2:1-3).

Do we want to be in heaven? Then don’t be a hypocrite — “The wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy” (James 3:17). God knows our hearts, and is not impressed by appearances (1 Sam. 16:7 / 1 John 3:19–24 / John 7:24).

And, yes, congregations are indeed filled with hypocrites, from the pulpit through to the pew: the fact is we’re all going to spend time with hypocrites — whether for the short term in life under the sun, or for eternity in hell.

The Blatant Hypocrisy Of Knowing The Right Thing To Do, But Refusing To Do It

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name (Acts 22:16).

Shocking. Stunning. Stupefying. These words come to mind when thinking about people who know the right thing to do, who refuse to do it themselves, but then tell other people that they need to do it! I’m not sure this phenomenon can be explained satisfactorily. And I’m not sure how what they are saying is coming across to those who see the blatant hypocrisy.

The rather benign example is that of a fat doctor telling his patients how important it is to lose weight. The doctor might even defend himself by saying you can be fat and super-healthy … just like him, but since you’re not him, you’re in desperate need to lose weight. Another fine example is that of a lazy coworker who tells you how important it is to show up to work early and leave late; but he never does it himself!? Okay, then—crazy much?

What is much worse—because of the eternal consequences of hellfire and brimstone—is that there are people who know what they need to do to have eternal life (e.g., hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized, and live faithfully) but who simply refuse to do it while simultaneously telling people that if they don’t they’re going to hell.

Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing (James 1:21–25).

Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:19–20).

PRACTICING WHAT WE PREACH

Jesus said, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice” (Matthew 23:2–3). This blatant hypocrisy of not practicing what we preach is not modern: it is the plague of mankind.

For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. … But if you … boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you” (Romans 2:13, 17–24).

Virtue is imperative to our lives as Christians—in other words, living the life we say we believe we should is far more effective than listening to (or having to endure listening to) hundreds of sermons. So then, if we don’t live it, then we really don’t believe it!

Again Jesus said, “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:36–37).

“So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin” (James 4:17).

“And that servant who knew his master’s will, and did not prepare himself or do according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. … For everyone to whom much is given, from him much will be required; and to whom much has been committed, of him they will ask the more” (Luke 12:47–48).

Did Jesus Ever Sneeze?

I realize that the title will cause some to be a bit hesitant to read any further, but I am not trying to be ridiculous.

My point in asking if Jesus ever sneezed is to emphasize what the Scriptures do about Him: that He was "being found in appearance as a man" (Philippians 2:8). On earth Jesus didn't enjoy such divine protection from physical suffering. As a matter of biblical record, He suffered much (e.g., the cross).

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls (1 Peter 2:23–25).

Remember that God became flesh; that's actually the meaning of the name Immanuel—"God with us" (Matthew 1:23). And the reason why He became flesh was to save us from ourselves by becoming what we were supposed to be from the beginning when God saw that everything He had created was very good (Genesis 1:31).

And the only way for us to overcome these frail bodies is by walking by faith, and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). I don't believe faith is blind—faith is directed by God's word (Romans 10:17; 14:23).

See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1 John 3:1–3).

"The End of the Matter"

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil (Ecclesiastes 12:13–14).

Many people say they believe God exists and that there will even be a day of judgment, a day of reckoning, but that God will save most despite how they chose to live. This doesn’t even make sense, but the devil has successfully convinced people it is true — “When [the devil] lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).

Jesus made it clear that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). As James put it: “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves” (James 1:22). Notice the deception is to oneself — “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:7–9).

In a different letter, the apostle Paul urged Titus to “insist on these things, so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people. … And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful” (Titus 3:8, 14).

The Bible does not teach that when a person is forgiven of all their sins (Acts 2:38) that they can go back to living in them!

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. (Romans 6:1–7)

The process begins and ends with God’s grace. We should never try to deny His grace because without Him and what He did through His Son and Holy Spirit we would have no hope at all (see Romans 5:6–11; 8:23–32;  1 Corinthians 2:9–16).

For some, the problem is that we act as if once saved, always saved. We might not go so far as to think that we cannot sin, but we might act as if our sins “in Christ” don’t have the same dreadful consequences of death (Romans 6:23). We rely on ourselves to earn eternal salvation through checks and balances — as if that were even possible. We come to Bible studies and worship, but our heart is elsewhere. What’s the difference between what we are doing and what Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing: “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me’ ” (Mark 7:6; see Ezekiel 33:30–33).

“To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work” (Titus 1:15–16).

If we believe God exists, and that He judges everything, then we should live like it.

God Is Not A Man

Many have reacted to Peyton Manning's declaration after winning Super Bowl 50 that he was going to drink a lot and then offer a pray of thanksgiving to "the man upstairs," not God, but "the man upstairs." I realize he intends the same thing, but God is not a man (Numbers 23:19). All-in-all, a huge irony.

Who is always in trouble? Who argues and fights? Who has cuts and bruises? Whose eyes are red? Everyone who stays up late, having just one more drink. Don't even look at that colorful stuff bubbling up in the glass! It goes down so easily, but later it bites like a poisonous snake. You will see weird things, and your mind will play tricks on you. You will feel tossed about like someone trying to sleep on a ship in a storm. You will be bruised all over, without even remembering how it all happened. And you will lie awake asking, "When will morning come, so I can drink some more?" (Proverbs 23:29-35 CEV)

To me the bottom line is that Manning said the wrong thing at the wrong time. And the combination of saying he's planning to drink a lot and then praying to his god in thanksgiving for winning a big game is just stupid—yes, it's the American way, which seems to me to say we need to change that too: as if God is really interested in the games we play.

To Do Great Things …

Microsoft’s has recently been running a series of commercials advertising their updated larger tablet, the Surface Pro. I don’t really pay attention to commercials—thankfully I can usually fast-forward through them. But watching more playoff football lately, I have seen their commercial too many times: and I finally paid a little attention to what they said: “To do great things, sometimes you gotta break the rules.”

What? One initial thought I had was: “What great things have they done by breaking the rules?” Another was: “What great things have they done at all?” Maybe I kid, maybe not.

I guess if you don’t think about it, then what they’re saying makes perfect sense … Actually, it makes no sense at all. I presume Microsoft is trying to seem “hip,” but it seems to me that they are missing the target completely.

The main point to me is that if we really want to do great things — like making it to heaven forever — then we won’t accomplish that by breaking the rules, but rather, by keeping them:

• 1 John 2:3–6  By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.
• 1 John 3:22, 24  … Whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. … The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
• 1 John 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.

Jesus taught that there’s a vast difference between those who do what He commands and those who don’t:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell — and great was its fall (Matthew 7:24–27).

Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does (James 1:21–25).

God wants us to know His will and do His will. As the Lord said to His apostles: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. … You are My friends if you do what I command you” (John 14:15; 15:14).

To do great things, sometimes you gotta keep the rules!