December 1 Acts 5-11 Being Unmarried is Preferred

Coming down the home stretch - you are in the last month of completely reading the Bible in a year. Praise God for your diligence.

In Chapter 7, Paul urges single people to stay single if they can remain celibate. Too many times, culture teaches us that being married is the preferred - Biblically, it is not. Now hear is the caveat: Singleness is preferred so that a person can focus on serving the Lord. Paul's assumption is that all of the time that one would spend taking care of his/her family would be invested in serving God and His people, instead.

I see single people in the US many times spending even less time than married people on God and His people. Instead, too many young people waste their time with their unbelieving friends on activities that have no eternal value - that time is literally an eternal wasted of time.

If you are single - align yourself with other married and single people - serve God and His people together. If you can spend the rest of your life celibate, you will meet others in the same life. If you are unable to be celibate, you will meet other committed single Christians - and find a suitable partner. If their aren't enough single people in your church align your church's singles with one or more area churches.

November 30 I Corinthians 1-4 Against People Pleasing

A common problem for all of us - to varying degrees - is living to people please rather than to please Christ. We are all apt to do some things in our life to garner the affirmation of men over the praise of Christ. I Corinthians 4:1-5 speaks powerfully to this tendency.

We are simply called to live to please Christ and to forget about trying to please men. In the end, it is only Christ's judgment that will bear any significance.

People pleasing is a tiring goal - it is never satisfied. Give it up - and do what Christ would have you do in EVERY situation.

November 29 II Thessalonians 1-3; Acts 18-19 Burning Our "Scrolls"

In Acts 19:17-20, sorcerers got saved and burned their scrolls that were used by them as sorcerers. The open market value of these scrolls was great. now, they probably could have sold those scrolls to unbelieving sorcerers, but they destroyed them instead - so as to stop the evil themselves and not to have others continue evil.

When we become disciples of Christ, we have to burn our "scrolls," too. We have got to go through our home and office and destroy all things that we used in the commission of anything evil. But we shouldn't stop there. We should also get rid of anything that keeps us to commit sins of omission. If golf clubs keep us from church on Sunday, we should sell them! If an Xbox keeps us from teaching our children the Scriptures, then we should get rid of it. But we shouldn't stop with physical things, only. We must remove everything from our life that is sin - perhaps stop going to bars if that causes us to get drunk and do whatever.

The text tells us that the people who burned the scrolls held Jesus' name in high honor and openly confessed their sins - we too often hide our sins - and that gives them power - bringing them into the light causes us to stop sinning.

In v. 20 - "In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power."

November 28 I Thessalonians 1-5 How To Disciple People

1 Thessalonians 2:5-12 You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed-- God is our witness. We were not looking for praise from men, not from you or anyone else. As apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you, but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us. Surely you remember, brothers, our toil and hardship; we worked night and day in order not to be a burden to anyone while we preached the gospel of God to you. You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you who believed. For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.

Our church is a couple of weeks away from having our 1st elders. I have always thought that the verses above depict a beautiful picture of spiritual shepherds leading and caring for their spiritual flock. Too many times, Elders see their position as a "board" position similar to a corporate board. Although there is an "overseer" or managerial aspect of eldering, it is not the complete picture. Shepherding people is an essential aspect of being an Elder Council and not just being an Elder Board.

Let's look at some of the aspects of Paul's, Timothy's, and Silas' shepherding:

1. "not looking for praise from men": Our church is really Christ's church. Elders are undershepherds that should be committed to pleasing God, not doing popular things. Sometimes people want to move the church toward being a club that is comfortable and they lose the urgency of being disciplemakers. Elders need to keep the flock focused.
2. "gentle among you": Gentleness should never be confused with weakness. Gentleness is strength applied humbly. Elders must never lord their titles/authority over people. Elders need to be instruments of the Holy Spirit to move people along as disciples as shepherds (lead out in front), not sheepdogs "(those that drive from behind).
3. We loved you so much...delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well, because you had become so dear to us": Elders must be willing to mix with people in many phases of their life - not just at church. Private people make terrible elders excluding themselves from the everyday struggles of their flock and depriving their flock of seeing how they navigate life. Elders must consider the people of their church as "dear." Elders must love their people and be delighted to share their lives.
4. "how holy, righteous and blameless we were among you": Very simply, Elders must be committed to living a solid, Christian life - that is visible to all!
5. "dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God": Elders must see themselves as fathers to each of the people in the flock. Fathering requires different parenting skills at different time and a father must be willing to be implement the right skills at the right time. Fathers and Elders have to treat each of their children/congregants individually. Sometimes and Elder needs to encourage the willing, other times he must be willing to comfort the hurting, and sometimes he needs to courageously urge the unwilling/ignorant/rebellious.

Shepherding is an investment of an Elder's whole self; then again, so is effective discipling. An effective discipler shares their whole life with those that they are mentoring.

May God make Calvary Church's Elders and all of its people willing and able to share their lives making disciples who make disciples that love God, love others, and share Christ.

November 27 Acts 15-18 Making Trouble on a Daily Basis

"Lord, give me what I need to be as courageous, bold, and fruitful as the early church." This should be all of our prayer.

Please dwell on the implications of Acts 16:5 - "So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers." For this to happen, all of the believers had to be sharing their faith continuously and God was giving them great fruitfulness.

Now combine this witnessing with the impression of outsiders stated in Acts 17:6 - "These men who have caused trouble all over the world." The world sees evangelizing as causing trouble. people don't like trouble - they work to oppose it and stop it. We must be courageous and not be worried about causing "trouble."

Pray:  "Lord, give me what I need to be as courageous, bold, and fruitful as the early church."

November 26 Galatians 1-6 Works Righteousness Alienates from Christ

Galatians 5:2-4 Mark my words! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

Faith in Christ alone saves. Faith in Christ plus anything is a false gospel - this is the argument Paul presents in this letter. Faith alone in Christ (Protestant gospel) is a different gospel from the faith plus works gospel of Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, and Jehovah's Witnesses. These false gospels are actually more insidious that the false messages of Buddhism, Hinduism, etc. because they combine some truths about God and Christ with their false gospel. Too, too many Biblical Christians are soft on this important distinction.

Paul clearly says that those "trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ." Hear clearly what Paul is saying:

1. He says "trying" to be justified by law. The law can justify a person - IF one could keep it perfectly - as Jesus did - but NOBODY can. 
2. When we try to justify ourselves before God by keeping the Law (or any set of rules), we are declaring that what Jesus did on the cross was insufficient. In fact, we are saying that it wasn't even necessary. In that case, we have fallen away from - rejected - the grace of Christ.

The gospel is one. Anything different "is no gospel at all."

November 25 Acts 13-15 Adding Works Makes A False Gospel

Acts 15:1 Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." Adding works to the requirements of salvation makes a false gospel. Although the Jerusalem Council was focused on the circumcision and the many, many laws of Moses, they established a precedent for all works. What they teach us is that this is false: "Unless you  ___________, according to the custom taught by ________, you cannot be saved." Some churches teach you must be baptized to be saved - FALSE! The Catholic Church teaches you must be baptized and do certain things according to the traditions of the Catholic Church - FALSE! What Christ did on the cross is sufficient - TRUE!

All false religions (including false gospel churches) preach this formula:

• Faith + Works = Salvation
• Works must be added to faith to be saved
• Works merit salvation - they are meritorious

True Biblical Christians preach this formula:

• Faith = Salvation + Works
• Faith alone in Christ's finished work on the cross is all that is needed for salvation
• Works are a grateful response to the work of Christ applied to our lives. 
• Works are NOT meritorious. 
• Works do not get you saved, they do not keep you saved, they do not make you more saved.
• Works are evidence that you are saved. Again, they are not meritorious.

Am I arguing details? No.

If you preach works are required to earn salvation, then you are saying that what Christ did on the cross is insufficient. In the final analysis, your motivation for doing the works is selfish - you are trying to save yourself. The grace of Christ is no longer sufficient.

Paul will later write about a gospel that includes works:

• Galatians 1:6-9 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel-- which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!  As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!

Paul wasn't wishy washy - we shouldn't be either.

FYI What an individual Catholic believes may be very different from what Rome teaches. What an individual Protestant believes may be different from what his church teaches.