Luke 5:31 – “And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick.”  NASB

I preached from this passage many years ago and had a man come to me afterward and say, “Preacher you missed it completely today, we are not sick.”  I understood his view but was somewhat surprised since we have a very powerful time of ministering to people who came forward for prayer.  God healed bodies, hearts, and relationships in that service.  So, this man’s view of the condition of the church was different than those who came for prayer and ministry.

He considered himself a religious man, and he was.  However, simply being religious is not necessarily without the need for ministry.  Jesus was addressing the self-righteous Pharisees and Scribes in His statement.  Recognizing the need for ministry is somewhat like being lost if you don’t know you have a need you will seek no help. 

There is a key principle taught in the Bible regarding ministering to others.  Jesus illustrated who our neighbor is in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.  He addressed the need of serving others in His washing the disciples’ feet.  Paul brings this into focus powerfully in Galatians 6:1 as he spoke of discovering a brother or sister entrapped in a spiritual or moral failure.  What is the right biblical response?  Restoration!  Restoration with ourselves in mind, realizing that we could easily be in their shoes.

God’s purpose is always Restoration!  God’s purpose is not condemnation, judgment, and punishment, but restoration.  That should be our view as well.  I ask that you call to mind the declaration of Jesus in Matthew 7 as He spoke about dealing with others who have issues.  His instruction was that we are to ‘seek healing for our own sins’ before trying to correct others.  In that declaration, He made it clear that, from time to time, we all need a doctor, spiritually.

I remember as a young Christian and a fledgling preacher developing a sense of personal piety and falling into the trap of comparing myself to others.  I would look at people who did not look right, talk right, dress right, or, in my view, live right and would piously think, “Thank God I’m not like that.”  One day the Holy Spirit rattled my cage and said, “No, you are worse.”  That shook me more than I can describe.

I attempted to argue and present my good works and abstentions as qualifiers for my belief that I was somehow better than those I was looking down on.  The more I argued the more I realized that I was nothing but a Pharisee and had lost the view of God’s purpose for people.  I was elevating myself, thinking I was whole, when there was a hole in my heart that needed the loving attention of God’s balm of Grace. 

I wanted to please God more than I wanted anything.  I had my list and was checking all the right boxes.  However, in that process, my heart was growing cold toward my brothers and sisters.  I was not as compassionate as I thought I was.  I was not as loving as I envisioned myself.  I was judgmental although I would have argued that I was just inspecting the fruit not judging.  As, I realized my own deficiencies and need, in repentance, I was brought into the Emergency Room of God’s Love and the Healing Balm of God was applied.  I was transformed in a very real way. 

I could, once again, speak of sin with a broken heart.  I could, once again, speak of love out of a heart overflowing with love.  I needed a doctor and thank God the doctor was in the house and willing to treat me and bring me back to health.  In that experience, I discovered that it would not be the last time I needed a doctor, Doctor Jesus to come and address an area in my life.  Thank God, that I have learned that if I have a need, my heavenly doctor is always ready to minister healing.

God bless you as you reach out to Doctor Jesus in your time of need.

Luke 17:3-4 – “Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.  4 “And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”  NASB

I realize that this passage will and does cause a very complex problem for many people.  On one hand, it authorizes you to “rebuke” someone who commits an offense against you and on the other it instructs you to “forgive” them if they repent.  It goes beyond that. It uses the directive that we are familiar with where the disciples asked Jesus how often we are to forgive, and he gave what amounted to a command to give unlimited forgiveness just as our Heavenly Father has given us.

How do you meld rebuking and forgiving and maintain your Christian integrity?  Well, you certainly dare not take the instruction or authorization to “rebuke” the trespasser as a license to retaliate, be mean-spirited, or vindictive. That approach would assuredly would violate all the teachings of our Lord everywhere found in the New Testament.  The better understanding is that God does not expect you to be a doormat.  He wants you to address evil and wrong without denying its existence but to do so with the view and purpose of securing redemption and restoration.

I have been told and unfortunately told others when an offense has taken place and repentance was offered – “Don’t worry about it, it doesn’t matter.”  Yes, It Does!  That is a slap in the face of the person and an insult to their attempt to secure forgiveness and obtain reconciliation and restoration. 

You should never suggest to them that they do not matter enough to you for that to have had any effect on you because you know it did! We endure hurts in the events of life. We are wounded.  We may have even allowed anger to fester for a time in our hearts and wished we could retaliate in some way.  We might have even enjoyed seeing them struggle when the shoe was on the other foot in some situations.  But, to tell them “It didn’t matter,” is an insult and far from the truth.  It Did Matter!

What we are to do when trespassed against is, to be honest about the situation.  It hurt, we were wounded, and God wants us to make the other person aware of their actions and the effect of those actions. However it is always to be in a spirit that has as its core the ultimate desire to see reconciliation and restoration. 

If that is our heart, then we can address or “rebuke” them without being mean-spirited or vindictive.  We must do so in a spirit of love with a genuine desire to see restoration and reconciliation.  That attitude and desire will shine through our “rebuke” and while the other person may or may not ‘REPENT’ we will have addressed the issue in a godly manner thus preserving our integrity and a right heart.

I am convinced that too often we fail to address the trespass and allow “roots of bitterness” to spring up in our hearts and when that happens, Many, are Defiled because of the poison produced.  God’s wisdom is to meet it head-on with a right heart, attitude, and objective.  At that point, there is hope for reconciliation and a real likelihood that this type of thing will not happen again.  We will have saved a friend, restored a relationship and prevented a wound from becoming cancerous spiritually.

May God bless you as you go through your day!

Jeremiah 1:9 – “Then the LORD stretched out His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.”  NASB

When I first became a Christian, I observed something interesting in many preachers that prompted me to inquire of the Lord and seasoned veteran ministers about what I was seeing.  What I was seeing, and hearing was men standing in the pulpits emulating the current popular preacher of the day or in the particular denomination, I was associated with.  I wondered if that was how it was supposed to be done. 

The Lord, shortly after my conversion, impressed upon my heart that He was calling me into the ministry and I too would preach the Gospel.  Since it seemed that the common practice was to copy and mimic mannerisms, speech, and messages of the “current flavor of the month” preacher I tried that.  It would have been comical if it were not so sad.

Although I began simply speaking what I felt God would have me speak I soon transitioned into doing what I was seeing others do and failed miserably at it.  It was distasteful, disappointing, and most unsatisfying for me and I’m sure for those hearing me speak. 

I went to prayer and asked the Lord for a clear directive and felt that the Holy Spirit whispered in my heart – “I want you to be a voice, not an echo.”  That resonated with me in a way that I cannot find words to describe.  It was what I desired all along without really knowing that was it.  Later I felt that the Holy Spirit whispered – “I don’t need copies, I need people who will be obedient to what they hear and speak what is in their hearts with passion and compassion.”  That became the foundation of the ministry that God gave me and has remained so through the years.  My driving desire is to be a Voice and not an Echo! 

I do not want to just speak ABOUT God, I want to Speak for God or on God’s behalf.  Simply, I want to speak only what the Holy Spirit whispers in my spirit not the latest and most popular subject, topic, or method.  I have found that no matter how simple and seemingly shallow that message might appear, It Gets Results!  On the occasions I have copied someone else it was Like Rain on a Tin Roof and accomplished about as much. 

God did not call any of us to be “echoes” He called us to be “voices” speaking what He has spoken and revealed to us through prayer, the Word and the Spirit of God.  It is a driving passion and desire of my heart to have what comes call a “Now Word.” What I mean by that is a word or message that is relevant to the current congregation, situation, and need!  God knows exactly where the people that I speak to are spiritually, emotionally, relationally, etc.  He knows every detail of our lives and sometimes uses other people to speak words that provide the needed help even though they had no idea that what they were saying was having that effect.

Therefore, as you go through your days here on earth seek to Be a Voice rather than an Echo.  Allow the Holy Spirit to speak through you to whatever situation might be before you.  You don’t have to understand it just be obedient to His nudging and urging.  That’s the desire of the Father for each of us.

May the Lord bless and be with you as you go through your day!

Proverbs 8:33-35 – “Hear instruction and be wise, And do not disdain it. 34 Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at the posts of my doors. 35 For whoever finds me finds life, And obtains favor from the LORD;”  NKJV

When I first became a Christian and acknowledged God’s call to preach, I had an elder statesman in the Kingdom tell me, “Son, you need to read on Chapter in Proverbs every day for the rest of your life.”  He went on to tell me that it would be in those daily readings that I would gain more wisdom and knowledge about life than I would in any other endeavor that I could engage in.  I have concluded that he was right because I have found answers to so many questions in life and relationships in Proverbs that I never cease to be amazed at the wisdom compacted into such a small portion of writings.

Here we find a nugget that is incredibly powerful and beneficial.  It is true wisdom to “hear instruction” providing you do not “disdain or ignore” it.  The Lord, speaking through the writer probably Solomon, informs us that we are Blessed if we Listen to Him and that our daily objective should be to Watch at the Gates and Wait at His Door.  He tells us that whoever finds Him (GOD) finds life and obtains favor from the LORD! 

FINDS LIFE – -The most critical thing for any of us spiritually and eternally is to “find life.”  We will either Live Forever in Heaven with God or we will Die Forever in hell with the devil.

OBTAIN FAVOR WITH GOD – -In living that life here in the natural it is difficult enough doing so “knowing God” but to live in the Favor of God is most important and powerful.  That places us in a position where when things go sour for others around us, we can Hope in God because He is our Refuge and our Fortress.  We can live life without Fear and in Perfect Peace no matter what storms may come our way.

The key to this is “Listening to the Lord.”  If we diligently Watch for Him and Wait on Him, we will Hear Him and as we Hear Him, we are to Heed Him.  In that condition, we not only draw near to Him, but we find His Spirit leading us in the paths of righteousness and we find the Divine Favor of God resting upon us and what He has placed in our hands to do.  That is a place that we should all desire!

May God bless you as you go through your day!