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Mt. Baker Beacon
Vol. 03, No. 29 Jul 21, 2024
Your word is a lamp to my feet Mount Volume 03, Number 29 Published by Location: Sunday: Web site: Mt. Baker church
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In John 14:1-3 Jesus said, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” Do you want to go to heaven? Do you really want to go to heaven? I want to go to heaven. If I miss heaven, I’ll miss the very purpose for which I was created. If I miss heaven, I’ll miss the place the Lord prepared for me. If I miss heaven, I’ll miss eternity with my Savior. I don’t want to miss heaven and I need your help to go there. You can help me by giving me the truth. I need the truth like the Macedonians: “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A man of Macedonia stood and pleaded with him, saying, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us’” (Acts 16:9). I need to hear the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Ephesians 4:15 says, “But, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head even Christ.” If you are my friend, if you are concerned about my soul, give me the truth. Don’t flatter me. Don’t praise my virtues while remaining silent about my vices. Don’t fear that the truth will offend me. Don’t treasure our friendship, our friendly relations, above my salvation. Don’t think that by ignoring my sins you can help. Don’t think that being blind to my sins will prove yourself charitable. However I may react, whatever may be my attitude toward you after you have done it, give me the truth! For the truth, and only the truth, can make men free from the shackles of sin, strengthen me in the pathway of righteousness, and lead me to the joys of heaven. If I’m wavering, weak, lukewarm, indifferent, neglectful; if I’ve been overtaken in a trespass, if I’ve been drawn into the pleasures of the world; if I’ve left my first love; if I’ve been led astray by error; or if I’ve done none of these, but need to grow in knowledge and be edified, give me the truth! BEFORE WE CRITICIZE.... There are times when mistakes are made, and things need to be pointed out. And, unfortunately, we all know that offering criticism can sometimes make a bad situation even worse. Serious thought needs to go into what we will say. Maybe it would help if we would ask the following questions before offering criticism: Why am I doing this? Do I really want to help this person, or am I just doing this to make myself feel better? Am I trying to improve the situation, or do I just want to say, "I told you so!"? What is my motive? "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others" (Philippians 2:3-4). Regardless of what the world believes, we don't have the right to let off some steam at the expense of another. Criticism that is only going to make us feel better needs to be kept to ourselves. Do I have a right to criticize? Was I available when this person could have used some help before? Can I sympathize with what they are going through? Can I offer some positive suggestions to go along with the criticism? Some people like to just sit on the sidelines and criticize the labors of others. Such people really have no right to criticize. Have I examined myself? It is not right for me to give criticism that I am not willing to take. Jesus says that I must make sure that the log is out of my eye first, then I can offer to help my brother get the speck out of his eye (Matthew 7:3-5). Criticism is respected when it comes from a respectable person, but no one appreciates a hypocrite. What will I say, and how will I say it? This is very important. I must choose my words very carefully. They have the power to build up or to destroy (Proverbs 12:18; 16:24). As Paul said, "Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4:6). What we say, and the way we say it, will make all the difference in the world. Will it glorify God? "Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God" (1 Corinthians 10:31). Whose glory am I seeking? Am I saying something to help the cause of Christ or just to be heard? If it is just to be seen and heard by men, then truly I have my reward (Matthew 6:1-6). WE NEED MORE HANNAH'S Many are familiar with the prayer of Hannah in 1 Samuel chapter 1. She was wife of Elkanah, in which he had two wives but Hannah was “bullied” and humiliated by the other wife because she had no children (1 Sam. 5:6-7). There are valuable lessons we can learn from her prayer, but I think a lesson that has been forgotten or neglected is the reason she prayed. “ And she vowed a vow, and said, O Jehovah of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thy handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thy handmaid, but wilt give unto thy handmaid a manchild, then I will give him unto Jehovah all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head” (1 Sam. 1:11). She didn’t just pray for a child, but in her vow she said she would give him to the service of the Lord. Think about that for just a moment, how much faith, devotion and love for God would she have had to have? She is dedicating the first few years of her life to train this child to be a servant to God for all his days! When I read through this recently it caused me to pause and consider this, how many mothers/parents are dedicating this same amount of time to their children to serve the Lord all their lives? We are finding among Christian parents that many many hours a week are invested in their kids sports or academic success. But is the same amount of time and dedication invested in instilling a pure faith to serve the Lord all their days? Should not every parent have the same prayer and vow as did Hannah concerning this? Hannah only had Samuel a few years before he went into the service, “ And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of meal, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of Jehovah in Shiloh: and the child was young. 25 And they slew the bullock, and brought the child to Eli. 26 And she said, Oh, my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto Jehovah. 27 For this child I prayed; and Jehovah hath given me my petition which I asked of him: 28 therefore also I have granted him to Jehovah; as long as he liveth he is granted to Jehovah. And he worshipped Jehovah there” (1 Sam. 1:24-28). From what I can find this ‘weaning” was typically around three or four years old, one source said it could as old as nine. But either way consider the young ages, if we were to go by these ages would would your child be strong enough to serve the Lord? Now I’m not talking about obeying the gospel, the point is, are Christian parents dedicating the amount of time needed in these early years to put in place the building blocks of faith in their children? For example, if they were to do what Hannah did, would their child make it spiritually? Had enough been instilled in them in four years to be faithful for the rest of their lives? This is certainly something to think about. If we were to contrast our spiritual efforts with our children to those of Hannah’s, where would we stack up? Outside of our own soul there is no greater task than to teach and train our children so that they will be faithful all their lives. Of course there is always free will of the child, but have we as parents truly done what Hannah did with Samuel? Certainly worthy of meditation. Created by John Bass, last updated. 07/15/2024 The Mount Baker Beacon is a weekly publication of the Mt. Baker church of Christ, Bellingham, WA. |
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