Mooroolbark Church of Christ

13/07/2023

13/07/2023

WORDS OF WISDOM
"Truth, like gold, is to be obtained not by its growth, but by washing away from it all that is not gold."
LEO TOLSTOY

13/07/2023

Where Is God When You Need Him? Devotional by: Elijah Bell

God may seem far away, a distant figment of the imagination of theologians from eons past. But where is God now? How do you feel God at work in your life? How do you experience God in the here and now of the modern frenzy of overbooked calendars, long work hours, and stressful family situations? Where is God when you need Him? Here are four ways you can experience God in your everyday life:

1. You Can Experience God Through Nature

The world is an amazing place. In fact, the whole universe simply baffles the minds of even the best of us. This is because the universe, our Milky Way, the Solar System, and the very planet on which we live, all scream out something utterly remarkable: THERE IS A DESIGNER! From the perfect design of the eye of a trilobite, to the intricate complexities of the body’s thermoregulatory system, design is seen everywhere. The interesting fact of the matter is that these systems could not have evolved, because they do not serve a function until they are completely developed, meaning natural selection would supposedly have eliminated them long before they were completely formed. The Bible speaks clearly that nature is one of the ways that we experience God. In Romans 1:20 it says, “For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” The Bible claims that those who observe nature are without excuse if they don’t connect the dots and come face-to-face with our almighty Designer.

2. We Can Experience God Through Prayer

In Acts 10, there is a man who was not a Christian, and his name was Cornelius. The passage tells us that he “feared God” and that he “prayed continually” (Acts 10:2). God heard his prayers, because in verse 4, he is told by an angel that his “prayers and alms have ascended as a memorial before God.” Cornelius experienced God that day because of his prayers, and he became the first Gentile (non Jew) convert to Christianity. No matter who you are, and what your religion, if you are a truth seeker who looks to please the Creator, God hears your prayers. In fact, Jesus Himself promised us this in Matthew 7:7-8 when He said, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Jesus promised that if we seek with all our hearts, and if we have an open mind toward the truth, we will experience God in our lives.

3. We Can Experience God Through The Bible

One might ask why God does not speak to us today like He did in ancient times. But the reality is that He speaks much more to us today than He did to those of centuries past. The people of old only got a glimpse into God’s eternal plan, and wanted to know more about that plan than what God revealed to them (1 Peter 1:10). But now, through the writings of the Bible, we can know God’s complete plan, something even angels did not know long ago (1 Peter 1:12). 2 Peter 1:3 tells us that God has now granted us everything we need for life and godliness. Romans 1:16 says that we have the “power of God” available to us in the Bible. As we read, we connect with God on a far more personal and intimate level than even did the renowned prophets of ancient times such as Moses, Elijah, and Isaiah.

4. We Can Experience God Through The Church

God’s church is one of the most obvious ways to experience God in your everyday life, since, in the church, you can literally interact with God’s people, feel God’s love, and see God’s eternal plan at work in the lives of mankind. The church is described in the scriptures as being the “body of Christ” (Colossians 1:18). When we interact with the church, we are interacting with individuals who make up different parts of God’s body, and who serve different functions, but all are intended to serve, and build up the body (Ephesians 4:16). You find your ultimate experience with God as part of this body, the church. Until you become a part of this wonderful body of Christ, you can only experience God on a superficial level. The thing is, the body has a place for you. You can fit in wonderfully when you become a part of this body, and you find a purpose in God’s eternal plan. This is the ultimate way to experience God in your life.

13/07/2023

Single-Minded Love
“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded” (James 4:8).

TO LIVE GODLY LIVES, IT IS NECESSARY FOR US TO CONCENTRATE OUR ATTENTION AND OUR AFFECTIONS ON GOD HIMSELF. If we try to discipline ourselves to do what is right outwardly, we’ll probably have great difficulty if we don’t also discipline our love. “Purify your hearts, you double-minded,” said James. What we need to do is develop a more single-minded love for God. We need to eliminate any concerns that compete for our allegiance to God and resolve to give Him nothing less than our whole hearts.

“The basic lesson of the Sermon on the Mount,” Oswald Chambers wrote, “is to narrow all your interests until your mind, heart, and body are focused on Jesus Christ.” In another place, he wrote similar words concerning sanctification: “Sanctification means to be intensely focused on God’s point of view. It means to secure and to keep all the strength of our body, soul, and spirit for God’s purpose alone.” These are perceptive comments, and they reflect an important reality. We must not only learn to look at everything from God’s perspective; we must learn to look at everything only from His perspective. When we do so, we’ll find ourselves living a life that is consistently dedicated to Him.

Jesus said something of great practical importance when He said, “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24). This is the key to both godly character and godly conduct. To look past the worldly appearance of things and see things as they really are — to see them, in other words, as God sees them — this is the essential ingredient in our work and in our worship. Whether our mental maps are correct makes all the difference in whether we get where we need to go.

A worthy and fruitful relationship with God must be more than simply one item on a crowded agenda. It must be the central focus and aim of our lives, the only thing that really matters. And when we’re making decisions, we must do more than simply consider God’s viewpoint as helpful input. In every case, God’s way of looking at things ought to be decisive. A unique, concentrated desire for God’s glory ought to move our every action.

“Healthy eyes are eyes that are focused on a single aim: the kingdom of God” (Richard Foster).

Gary Henry

13/07/2023

Head and Heart
“He who says, ‘I know Him,’ and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him” (1 John 2:4,5).

IN SEEKING GOD, HOW SHOULD “REASON” AND “EMOTION” BE RELATED? What does knowledge have to do with love, and what do both knowledge and love have to do with obedience?

Since God is the ultimate perfection of love, our understanding of love should come from Him. We must allow God’s character to show us what love is and His conduct to show us what love does. Cut off from the knowledge of God, the thing that we call “love” soon becomes weak and misguided. If what we know of God is not accurate, we’ll not be able to put real love into practice. Our attempts to show love will do more harm than good.

But also, it is the knowledge of God that causes us to want to love. He is not only the “what” of love; He is also the “why.” The knowledge of God is our most powerful motivation to love, and no one can really say that he knows God if he has not been moved to greater love. The apostle John said it very simply: “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8).

This helps us to see how obedience is connected to both knowledge and love. To know God is to love Him, and to love Him is to want to show that love. Worldly knowledge and love may be lethargic, but godly knowledge and love are active. And not only active, they are willing to be governed by God’s rule. Knowledge and love are, in a word, obedient. And again, John said it simply: “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome” (1 John 5:3).

In practice, of course, all of this requires a serious study of the Scriptures. Our obedience to God must be grounded in our love for Him. Our love must be determined by our knowledge of God. And our knowledge of God must come from His own self-revelation in the Scriptures. Each of these reinforces the other, resulting in spiritual growth. The more we know of God, the more we’ll love Him. And the more we love Him, the more we’ll want to know of Him. When all is said and done, that is why we want to go to heaven.

“We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of him. When we finally love him, we shall automatically think of him all the time, because our heart will be with our treasure” (Brother Lawrence).

Gary Henry