johnmarkharris.net

do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

“I don’t need to exercise today” “I can eat this junk food” “this cigarette won’t kill me…” and on and on and on. Just because something doesn’t have an immediately recognizable effect, doesn’t mean it does not add to the cumulative effect of our lives. “hey, why do I need to follow Jesus, my life is pretty good…” “I’m a Christian, I’m already going to heaven, why do I need to go to church?” Be careful, it is very easy to “presume on the riches of his kindness.” No, God has not sent a lightening bolt to punish the unrighteous… but that doesn’t mean he won’t. In fact, one day he is going to return, will we have repentant hearts that honor Jesus, or will all those years and years of ignoring God’s call to live a holy life reveal a big pile of “wrath” that we have been “storing up” for ourselves? Me personally, I’d rather have Jesus take that away. Jesus took the wrath we deserve on the cross, be sure you’re following Him, otherwise, it might just land on you.

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes

The good news of Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, and assertion for our sins according to God’s word and His plan is powerful! That is what saves us, the truth of what God has done for us. All we need do is believe it, and we will be saved. Now, this belief is not simple intellectual assent or some kind of head-knowledge that we might want to call “belief,” it is much more. It is knowing it’s true to the extent that the belief changes your life, it makes you different. The gospel is the power of God for everyone who believes. That’s why, no matter what else we choose to do, we must always tell people about Jesus… He’s our only hope.

19 Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? It is in the sight of God that we have been speaking in Christ, and all for your upbuilding, beloved.

We don’t have to defend ourselves. The point of trying to show someone the truth is not to try and justify our choice to follow Jesus, it is in the hopes that they too will be saved. Sometimes I hear people arguing and it seems more like they are trying to convince themselves their position is true, that’s not a good reason to start a Facebook battle 😉 Look, God’s Word is absolutely true and there’re no mistakes in it. We don’t have to defend the Bible, as Spurgeon once said: “I’d sooner defend a lion.” I don’t have to try and convince people of my choice to follow Jesus, I honestly don’t care what people think about me, I just want people to come to know Him. That’s our motivation, seeking to create more worshippers of God by fulfilling our commission in the world… not our ego.

7 So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Have you ever wondered why bad things happen to someone? Maybe you’ve wondered why they have happened to you? Have you ever been tempted to think “If I just had more faith, I’d be healed” or perhaps “If I could just find the secret sin in my life, I wouldn’t struggle with this sickness.” That’s not the way it works. Sure, we do have to live with the consequences of our sins, but it is a false premise to think that if we lived a “perfect life” we’d have no issues, that’s just not true. Look at the Apostle Paul. He could definitely have boasted of being the most godly man in the Bible (outside of Jesus), and yet he had a physical ailment. He pleaded with God to heal him, and God would not. Rather, God promised to give Him grace sufficient to bear the difficulty, and this showed Paul that God would use this difficulty to teach him something productive. God’s grace is more than enough for us through the pain… it’s perfectly fine to ask Him to remove our struggle, but at the end of the day, we let that be God’s choice… we’ll trust him for the results.

 I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me!

Do you know anyone who is open to the idea of becoming a Christian, but they find some aspect of faith to be (literally) unbelievable? “Oh I just can’t believe all those animals fit on the ark” or “How can you think the earth was created in 6 days” or “you mean to tell me you believe ‘that’” or maybe even “Science has completely disproven the Bible!” Well, I certainly beg to differ with that last one… but I think you get the idea of what I’m saying. It can be helpful to encourage people to “slow down… back up…” I find that what most people actually object to is rarely something that is an explicit teaching of the Bible or perhaps it’s something they don’t really understand. The fact of the matter is, Christianity is the best explanation of the world around us, it may sound like foolishness at first, until you start comparing it to the alternatives. The Bible is true, if something in the Bible sounds like it can’t be true, bear with me in a little foolishness, there is a good answer to your question.