Putting Things in Perspective

ALL – Psalm 24:1-10
ALL – Proverbs 20:12
OT – 2 Chronicles 29:1-36
NT – Romans 14:1-23

Interesting passage for the day: You have no right to criticize your brother or look down on him. Remember, each of us will stand personally before the Judgment Seat of God. – Romans 14:10, The Living Bible

Thought: I’m about to preach on 1 Corinthians 5, a passage where Paul (the same author who wrote Romans) says that it is our business as Christians to judge those inside the church. So how can he say both? How can it both be our business to judge fellow believers and not be our right to criticize our brothers?

One reason for the difference is that the “sins” to be judged are different. In 1 Corinthians, a man is being sexually immoral—and with his own father’s wife! If ever there were an obvious sin, this would be it. Here in Romans, the issue is that some people are eating meat sacrificed to idols, and some people are observing Jewish religious days. The “sins” are less obvious—in fact, Paul says that they don’t exist!

So in 1 Corinthians, Paul was dealing with real sin. Real sin is serious. But in Romans, Paul was dealing with consciences. It is important that we all stay within the bounds of our consciences. But Paul insists that we should not impose our consciences on other people. We are not to judge and criticize others for things that are not sin. Instead, we are to love one another enough to bite our tongues and trust that God is able to guide all of us! The second greatest command must be our guide: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” One of the ways we like to be loved is to have other people assume the best about us. Let’s do that for one another.

Question: I’m someone who tends to impose my conscience on others too quickly. What lessons have you learned that might help someone else to be less critical and more understanding?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Are You (Really) A Christian?

ALL – Psalm 11:1-7
ALL – Proverbs 19:10-12
OT – 1 Chronicles 19:1-21:30
NT – Romans 2:24-3:8

Interesting passage for the day: For you are not real Jews just because you were born of Jewish parents or because you have gone through the Jewish initiation ceremony of circumcision. No, a real Jew is anyone whose heart is right with God. – Romans 2:28-29a, The Living Bible

Thought: By the time the Holy Spirit inspired the writing of the letter to the Romans, there were no second-generation Christians—or at least, there were very few of them. Christianity was still counter-cultural, uncommon, different. The idea that Christians were the people of God was still a new idea.

The Jews, on the other hand, were not only a religious group, but a nation. And even though they were taught that each of them individually needed to obey God, the fact of the matter was that many of them felt as though being part of the Jewish people and being moderately aware of God and His expectations was enough to make them the people of God.

Almost two thousand years later, these verses no longer apply only to the Jews. Christians and their religious culture have spread globally for generation after generation. Even among those of us who teach our children that they must have their own relationship with God, there is almost a Christian-nationalistic expectation that our children will, in fact, put their lives in God’s hands. And our children have learned that other Christians are satisfied to accept them into the church if they claim to have prayed to Jesus for salvation—even if they continue to pursue their own desires and show little other devotion to Jesus.

So for us this verse could be re-phrased: You are not real Christians just because you grew up in a Christian home or because you prayed a prayer of salvation or were accepted into a Christian church, or even baptized! No, a real Christian is anyone whose heart is right with God.

Question: Why do you believe your heart is right with God? Is your reason only about your past interactions with God? Or is your heart right with God today?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Knowledge Puffs Up

ALL – Psalm 10:16-18
ALL – Proverbs 19:8-9
OT – 1 Chronicles 16:37-18:17
NT – Romans 2:1-23

Interesting passage for the day: You are so proud of knowing God’s laws, but you dishonor him by breaking them. – Romans 2:23, The Living Bible

Thought: This was originally written to Jews. But Christianity has now been around for 2,000 years, so now even Gentiles with a Christian heritage tend to know God’s laws, and to know them very well. We get to be very content with thinking of ourselves as Christians who know God and who know how to please Him, but we often grow complacent about following Christ.

God is not pleased when we claim to be His people and to know how to please Him, but then refuse to obey Him. God wants us to say no to our temptations instead of making excuses for how often we cave in and sin. God asks us to exercise self-control—one of the fruits of the Spirit. He is not happy with our lackadaisical shrugs, with us saying, “I’m only human.” God has given us His Holy Spirit, and we are now capable of obeying. Perhaps we’re not capable of perfection, but we’re certainly capable of much more zealous and fervent obedience to God than most of us display.

Question: How much of God’s Word have you heard? How much are you obeying what you’ve heard? Why is there a difference?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Heading to Brazil!

Good evening, everyone,

A little over six months ago I sent out a letter announcing that I would be going to Brazil on a missions trip, God willing. It appears that God was willing. Thanks to Him and your generous support and prayers, our 9-person team leaves for Detroit tomorrow morning at 10 a.m., beginning our voyage to Brazil.

I would appreciate your continued prayers. The team (5 men, 2 women, 2 teenage girls) will be gone for two weeks. It should be quite an experience. Here’s a bit of the overall view of what we’ll be up to:

• Wed, July 14th – Depart for Brazil
• Thursday, July 15th – Arrive, finalize preparations for English Camp.
• Friday, July 16th – Head to Aba Camp, get set up.
• Saturday, July 17th – English Camp.
• Sunday, July 18th – English Camp (including a mini-service, I believe)
• Monday, July 19th – Stay at Aba Camp, install 600+ feet of water lines
• Tuesday, July 20th – Water lines, cont’d.
• Wednesday, July 21st – Halfway done. Head to Estrutural (a poor community) and set up outreach.
• Thursday, July 22nd – Estrutural outreach, cont’d.
• Friday, July 23rd – Sightseeing / Reunion service
• Saturday, July 24th – Nucleo Banderantie Church – 50th Anniversary celebration!
• Sunday, July 25th – Morning services at Nucleo Banderantie Church; Afternoon services at Estrutural Church; Evening services at Riacho Fundo Church
• Monday, July 26th – Meeting to establish future partnership plans
• Tuesday, July 27th – Leave Brazil
• Wednesday, July 28th – Arrive home

And now for some final mixed notes: My understanding is that I’ll be preaching three times during these weeks…but that I should be prepared to preach more, just in case. Pray for my preparation. Also, I’d like to let everyone know that my sister-in-law Katie did our team a great service by preparing all of our English Camp materials. Several members of the Brazilian churches will be hosting us in their homes while we’re not at the Aba Camp, so that has made the total trip cost drop a bit (praise God!). Finally, we’re taking 9 suitcases of ministry materials, gifts for the poor, and other items that we have been asked to bring to Brazil. Please pray that all of our luggage arrives on time and in good shape.

Again, thanks so much for your gifts, your support, and your prayers on my behalf and on behalf of Christ’s work in Brazil. Please keep up the prayers!

Grace and peace –

Matt

Thankful or Confused

Interesting passage for the day: Yes, they knew about him all right, but they wouldn’t admit it or worship him or even thank him for all his daily care. And after awhile they began to think up silly ideas of what God was like and what he wanted them to do. The result was that their foolish minds became dark and confused. – Romans 1:21, The Living Bible

Thought: One of the most important responses to knowing that God’s alive and well is not just to say so, but to thank Him for His daily care. God created each one of us. He saw us through the nine months in our mothers’ wombs, He helped us out the birth canal, He provided us with fathers and mothers, with protection and care and nourishment. God has given us every breath we’ve breathed. He’s seen us through sickness. He’s helped us grow in every way.

Thankfulness is so important. From Romans, you can see that when people refuse to thank God for His blessings they begin to pretend they know how to go through the paths of life on their own, and their lives become muddled, senseless and confusing.

Question: How long has it been since you have thanked God for anything? Especially for His “normal” daily blessings? Would it be hard to thank Him because it’s been so long? Would it help if you sat down and decided to write out a list of at least ten, fifteen, or twenty-five blessings, and then spent time thanking Him? Share a few snippets of how God has blessed you.

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Missionary Kindness

ALL – Psalm 9:13-20
ALL – Proverbs 19:4-5
OT – 1 Chronicles 12:19-14:17
NT – Romans 1:1-17

Interesting passage for the day: And now, through Christ, all the kindness of God has been poured out upon us undeserving sinners; and now he is sending us out around the world to tell all people everywhere the great things God has done for them, so that they, too, will believe and obey him. – Romans 1:5, The Living Bible

Thought: When you think about God, what is the first characteristic that pops into your head? His power? His eternity? His knowledge of everything? His enormity? His holiness? When I think about God, I often think about how impressive He is. But as important as it is to remember how impressive God is and how much greater He is than we are, God also wants us to approach Him. And sometimes thinking about all these qualities that are so impressive to us humans ends up creating fear in us rather than a desire to approach God.

But God is not only impressive because of His power and holiness. God’s kindness is impressive, too. God’s kindness is so impressive that it invites us to draw close to Him. He is so kind that, even though we have disobeyed Him, He sent Jesus Christ to suffer for our sins instead of us. And God is so kind that he sends His disciples to their neighbors and families, and even around the world, to make sure that no one has to miss out on what Jesus Christ did for us. God is so kind that He not only opened the door for us to approach Him, but He is sending invitations out to us every day so that we know His door is open.

Question: Have you realized how kind God is to you? Have you experienced His kindness? Have you helped to extend God’s kindness by letting other people know about it? If not, will you?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Looking Out for Number One

ALL – Psalm 8:1-9
ALL – Proverbs 18:23-24
OT – 1 Chronicles 9:1-10:14
NT – Acts 27:21-44

Interesting passage for the day: “For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, and said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul—for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God has granted your request and will save the lives of all those sailing with you.’ ” – Acts 27:23-24, The Living Bible

Thought: If I were in a boat riding through the storm of my life, expecting the ship to go down, what would I be doing? I’d be praying for safety and keeping my eye on the nearest lifeboat, making sure that I could get to it quickly! That’s what I’d be doing!

But what was Paul doing? He was praying, but his focus was a bit less selfish than mine would be. He was praying for the rest of the men on board the ship with him—all 276 of them. And in response to Paul’s prayers, God sent an angel with a message of hope. Every single man would live, because God had granted Paul’s request!

Question: When trouble comes, do you look out only for yourself? Do you pray only for yourself? Or do you work and pray for the good of everyone around you?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Experts…(N)ever Wrong?

ALL – Psalm 7:1-17
ALL – Proverbs 18:22
OT – 1 Chronicles 7:1-8:40
NT – Acts 27:1-20

Interesting passage for the day: “Sirs,” he said, “I believe there is trouble ahead if we go on—perhaps shipwreck, loss of cargo, injuries, and death.” But the officers in charge of the prisoners listened more to the ship’s captain and the owner than to Paul. – Acts 27:10-11, The Living Bible

Thought: Does anyone else think that, if we were the officers, we would listen more to a ship’s captain and owner about whether to keep sailing than to a missionary?

And yet, as the story goes on, it turns out that Paul was right. They shouldn’t have kept sailing. They sailed right into a storm, and by the end of today’s reading, all hope is lost. At least, as far as they can tell. They’ve done everything they know to do and the storm has outlasted them. All that’s left for them to do is to die.

The world’s experts aren’t always as expert as they believe they are. Sometimes it’s better not to be an expert, but to know the Creator, Designer, and Director of the cosmos. In fact, if you were able to make a choice between the two, you’d always be better off knowing God than being the greatest human expert ever.

Question: Have human experts ever made you doubt whether holding on to your relationship with God was worthwhile? How?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Custom-Free

ALL – Psalm 150:1-6
ALL – Proverbs 18:9-10
OT – 2 Kings 20:1-22:2
NT – Acts 21:18-36

Interesting passage for the day: As for the Gentile Christians, we aren’t asking them to follow these Jewish customs at all—except for the ones we wrote to them about: not to eat food offered to idols, not to eat unbled meat from strangled animals, and not to commit fornication. – Acts 21:25, The Living Bible

Thought: On the one hand, the Jewish believers were VERY serious about having Jewish believers continue to follow Jewish customs. This verse comes in the midst of a section where Paul has returned to Jerusalem amid rumors that he teaches not only non-Jews, but also Jews, to stop acting like Jews once they put their faith in Jesus Christ. In reality, all he was teaching was that Jews and Gentiles could both come to Christ by faith without becoming something they weren’t—Gentiles didn’t have to become Jews to follow Jesus. So Paul was being asked to prove to the Jews that he was for Jewish Christians living like Jews—he wasn’t against a Jewish lifestyle. But on the other hand, it is important to notice that Gentiles (non-Jews) are allowed to follow Jesus as Gentiles. We who are not Jews may still know and walk with God. Jesus’ blood is enough to make us clean. We don’t have to adopt a whole new nationality and learn to apply the entire set of Jewish laws and customs. All we’re asked to do is to avoid a couple of foods and to be sexually pure. The rest of God’s commands are commands that we can live out in distinctly non-Jewish ways.

Question: What kinds of things make you feel restricted by the call to walk with Jesus? Compare what makes you feel restricted to how much more restricted you would be if you had to follow all the Jewish rituals and customs just to follow Jesus.

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.

Heading for Trouble

ALL – Psalm 149:1-9
ALL – Proverbs 18:8
OT – 2 Kings 18:13-19:37
NT – Acts 21:1-17

Interesting passage for the day: When it was clear that he wouldn’t be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The will of the Lord be done.” – Acts 21:14, The Living Bible

Thought: Sometimes God leads believers into challenging and dangerous situations. No one could have been more certain than Paul that danger lay ahead for him. He had been warned repeatedly that the path to Jerusalem would put him in harm’s way (Acts 21:4, 10-12). His brother and sister disciples were begging him not to go. And yet he pressed on. Was he sinning to continue on despite their warnings? Despite the Holy Spirit’s warning? No, he wasn’t. He was still walking with Christ and His Holy Spirit. And so the believers couldn’t confront him. They couldn’t rebuke him or say anything against Paul’s plans. When it became clear that neither their warnings nor their pleas would change Paul’s mind, they did the only thing left for them to do: they put their trust and hope in God and His will. They could trust God’s plan.

Question: Have you ever watched a fellow believer follow plans that led toward some kind of certain trouble? Did you get angry at them? Or were you able to seek their best and leave them in God’s hands and will?

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.