Proverbs 16:20

"He that giveth heed unto the word shall find good; and whosever trusteth in Jehovah; happy is he."--Proverbs 16:20 ASV

 

Each morning we awake to go about our daily activities not knowing what the day will bring forth. Will it be success, happiness, peace of mind or will it be failure, sickness, pain and heartache? We just don't know from one moment to another what we are going to encounter on our daily walk. When all is well with us, our spirits are high and we are a happy people but then suddenly that changes when some burden or great trial comes upon us. I confess that there are times when I don't really understand why some adverse condition strikes at my human frame. But one thing I do know is that so long as my confidence is in my God, so long as I truly believe in his word and trust him without reservation, happiness will be my companion in this life. This life is too short for us to live our days being sad and unhappy. As we journey through life there is really no reason for us not to be happy. We have a saviour who loves us and cares for us (1 Peter 5:7; Hebrews 13:5). We are told in Hebrews 4:16 that there is not a creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and opened to his eyes. It is a fearful, yet a wonderful thing to know that we have an all seeing eye watching over us on this pathway of life. When all is well with us, he sees; when our hearts begin to be troubled, he sees and walks right beside us, keeping us safe.

 

True happiness will not be found in our own knowledge; nor will it be found in our own strength; nor will it be found in riches, possessions, popularity or recreational activities. Although these may bring feelings of happiness into our hearts, it will be only for a fleeting moment and those feelings of happiness will depart the heart just as quickly as they once entered. True happiness will only be found in the Lord where we will find perfect peace and safety that cannot be removed so long as our trust and confidence remains in him (Psalms 128:1-2; Psalms 144:15; Psalms 146:5) Be happy--Enjoy your life, have fun, cherish the moments you have with family and friends because that is the way it should be. But as you do so, make absolutely sure that you include plans in all you do for the eternity that is to come.

 

Charles Hicks

 

www.trimblestrong.org

Faith, Family, Football

 

Coaches often preach to players about dealing with adversity, but Allan Trimble is delivering that sermon without having to say a word, said Jenks (Oklahoma) High School’s athletic director, Tony Dillingham.

 

Why is it that Coach Trimble’s message is especially impactful?

 

The success of the team that he’s coached gains the attention of many.  His Jenks Trojans have 13 state titles and a 235-36 record entering the current football season.  He is the most successful coach in Oklahoma prep football history.

 

His message of dealing with adversity is resonating with his players and many others because he is dealing with adversity in his own life.  In the summer of 2016, Trimble was diagnosed with myotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.  It’s an incurable, progressive neurogenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord.

 

But he is still coaching… and teaching and influencing others.  This is his second season coaching after his diagnosis, and even though he is only 54-years-old, he has said that this coaching season is likely his last because of his diminishing energy.

 

In honor of Coach Trimble, the Jenks High School administrators changed the name of the football stadium in August to Allan Trimble Stadium.  During the renaming ceremony, Jenks’ school superintendent, Stacy Butterfield, spoke of the lessons Trimble had imparted on players that have come through the program.

 

“He has changed lives of countless students through leading by example and not only telling them, but also showing them what it means to be humble and how to find fulfillment through serving others,” Butterfield said.  “Even in the midst of his courageous fight with ALS, Allan has remained steadfastly committed to the things that matter most in his life — faith, family and football.”  And it’s in that order: faith, family, football.

 

Murray Evans reports: “Not long after he made his diagnosis public, members of Park Plaza Church of Christ [where Trimble serves as an elder] joined with the Jenks community in conducting a prayer service for Trimble at the high school gym. Nearly 3,000 people attended.  Trimble spoke and told those gathered that, ‘Long before I’m a football coach, I’m a follower of Jesus.’  He encouraged them to ‘just put God at the center of everything we do.’” *

 

Faith, family, football -- in that order.  Why put faith first?  Because faith in God is what carries us through the adversities of life and gives us hope beyond this life: to eternal life in heaven, where there is no ALS, no sorrow, no death (see Revelation 21:4).

 

God gave His Son Jesus to die on the cross for our sins so that we can have forgiveness of our sins and receive the gift of eternal life (Ephesians 1:7; Romans 6:23).

 

God will save and give eternal life to those who place their faith and trust in Jesus (Acts 16:30-31), turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse from sin those who continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7).

 

Coach Trimble says it’s all about putting first things first, and FAITH in God is first.

 

Are YOU listening to Coach?  Won’t YOU heed his words?  Won’t YOU follow Jesus?

 

-- David A. Sargent

 

* Information gleaned from “A Coach’s Real Success” by Murray Evans in The Christian Chronicle, November 2017.  Learn more about Coach Trimble’s journey living with ALS at www.trimblestrong.org

How Men Act When They Repent

In Matthew 12:41, Jesus said, "The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here." According to Jesus, the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah. 

You remember the story, don't you? God had commanded Jonah, "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me"   (Jonah 1:2). Now Nineveh was not only a city filled with wickedness, it was also the capital of the Assyrians, hated enemies of the Israelites. Jonah didn't want to go.  He fled from God's presence.

 However, after being given some quality time in the belly of a fish to reflect and pray, Jonah decided to obey God.  Jonah walked through the city proclaiming the judgment of the Lord upon these pagan people: "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" (Jonah 3:4).

The people of Nineveh repented. They "proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them"   (Jonah 3:5). When word came to the king of Nineveh, "he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes." He decreed that "neither man nor beast, herd nor flock" were to eat or drink and that "every one" was to "turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hand"   (Jonah 3:7-8). 

The text says that, "God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them"   (Jonah 3:10). God can read men's hearts. He knows more about what is going on in our heads than we do ourselves. But He did not need to read the minds of the Ninevites to know that they had repented.  He "saw their works, that they turned away from evil". When the men of Nineveh repented, nobody was left to wonder whether or not their repentance was genuine. Nobody was left guessing about their intention to stop committing evil. Nobody would have doubted they had actually repented of their sins.

We really need to learn this lesson from the men of Nineveh. We need to learn how to act when we repent.  Repentance isn't just saying "excuse me," "my bad," or "forgive me," and then going on with our lives as if nothing happened.  Repentance should produce real change in our actions.  We are to "bear fruits worthy of repentance" (Matthew 3:8). I am afraid that too many of us think that our repentance should go unnoticed. We are incognito repenters!  And while God hardly asks us to don sackcloth and ashes today, He does ask us to "do works befitting repentance"   (Acts 26:20).

Let's resolve to turn away from sin in our lives, and make sure that we behave in such a way that folks can tell that's what we've done!

- by Steve Klein

 

Signs to confirm the Word of God

Signs Confirming … Confirming What?

 

In Mark 16:17-20, Jesus speaks of signs such as tongue-speaking and casting out demons, accompanying the believers and confirming the gospel message.

 

If one were following how Jesus' command, in Mark 16:16, is carried out in the book of Acts, one would notice that these signs did indeed accompany those who not only believed but who were also being baptized. Signs accompanying are mentioned in Acts 2, in Acts 10, in Acts 16, and in Acts 19 - all four contexts also showing that believers were baptized. Hebrews 2:3-4 speaks of not neglecting so great a salvation, with signs of the Holy Spirit also confirming the salvation. It's also found in Galatians 3 where we read of receiving the Spirit and working miracles associated with faith and not the Law. And at the end of the chapter faith and baptism are seen together.

 

If I were a betting man, and this is all I knew of the New Testament, I would bet that the signs confirmed that believing and being baptized were what brought salvation through the power of the gospel!!

 

When I shared this thought with my brother, Brad, from Goshen, Indiana, Brad said this:

 

“A teacher once spoke of a Bible verse which allegedly says God foresaw every religious error and refuted it in His Word.  Somehow that verse never made its way into my notes.  I am pretty much persuaded God did do this and He generally did it, as you indicated, in more than one way.  My wife was not convinced about the essentiality of baptism by any of the references presented her until someone pointed to Gal. 3:27.  The multiple ways God has used to teach the same truths is surely one more argument for a divinely inspired book.”

 

Well … if you put together 1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Thessalonians 2:8-15 and Acts 17:11-13, you get the point, don’t you. Respect for the Bible as the word of God and not the word of men, a love of the truth, and a willingness to check what even the most knowledgeable believers may teach, should always lead you to the truth and away from false teaching, wouldn’t you say? That area around Thessalonica and Beraea  must have been “a pillar and buttress of truth” (1 Timothy 3:15) – don’t you think? The Thessalonians had even found their way out of idolatry and into the truth of God and salvation!! And the Bereans  were even “more noble-minded”! No wonder Satan stirred up the unbelievers there to persecute them!! Nothing like a bit of opposition to solidify God’s people in the truth!!

 

Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews were jealous, and taking some wicked men of the rabble, they formed a mob, set the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, seeking to bring them out to the crowd. And when they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brothers before the city authorities, shouting, “These men who have turned the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has received them, and they are all acting against the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, Jesus.” And the people and the city authorities were disturbed when they heard these things. And when they had taken money as security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Acts 17:1-13

 

For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 1 Thessalonians 1:4-9

 

For you know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to walk in a manner worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. 1 Thessalonians 2:11-13

 

The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. But we ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you as the firstfruits to be saved, through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth. To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-15

 

David Carr

 

Free online Bible commentaries

Are now associated with tumblr at https://onlinebiblecommentary.tumblr.com/

Judd Lewis (1867-1945)

Forget It

 

Judd Lewis (1867-1945) worked for forty-five years at the Houston Post newspaper.  He wrote a column of humor and poetry under the name, “Uncle Judd.”  He was a man of great compassion who helped find a proper home for two hundred twenty-one homeless children.  No doubt, each of them had issues of forgiveness to work through, so it is not surprising that one of Lewis’s most memorable pieces involved the fine art of forgetting wrongs suffered.  His poem is titled “Forget It.”

 

Forget It

by Judd Mortimer Lewis

If you see a tall fellow ahead of a crowd,

A leader of men, marching fearless and proud,

And you know of a tale whose mere telling aloud

Would cause his proud head in anguish be bowed,

It's a pretty good plan to Forget It.

If you know of a skeleton hidden away

In a closet, and guarded, and kept from the day

In the dark, and whose showing, whose sudden display

Would cause grief and sorrow and pain and dismay

It's a pretty good plan to Forget It.

If you know of a tale that will darken the joy

Of a man or a woman, a girl or a boy,

That will wipe out a smile or the least bit annoy

A fellow, or cause any gladness to cloy,

It's a pretty good plan to Forget It. *

“But you don’t know what I’ve done,” someone objects.  “I am so ashamed of what I’ve done.  I can never forget it.”

 

No, you can’t.

 

But you can be forgiven.  And as a result, you don’t have to continue to carry around the burdens of guilt and shame.

 

The Good News (the Gospel) is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-4).  When we obey the Good News, we can have our sins washed away by the cleansing blood of Jesus.  “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7).

 

God will forgive our sins and give us the gift of eternal life when we place our faith and trust in Him (Acts 16:30-31), turn from our sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31), confess Jesus before men (Romans 10:9-10), and are baptized (immersed) into Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  He will continue to cleanse us from sin as we continue to walk in the light of His Word (1 John 1:7).

 

The writer of Hebrews highlights one of God’s wonderful blessings of the New Covenant: "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more" (Hebrews 8:12).

 

God will remember our sins no more.  He won’t bring them up again, ever.  He has essentially forgotten them.  Essentially, we can, too.  Thanks be to God.

 

Won’t YOU trust and obey Jesus so that YOUR sins can be washed away?

 

-- David A. Sargent

 

* From “A Good Plan” by Dr. Paul Chappell in www.ministry127.com

To God be glory both now and for ever

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.--Philippians 4:19

 

As I think about the words of the above passage, the words of a beautiful song begin to echo through my heart:

 

"My Jesus knows when I am lonely, He knows each pain, He sees each tear;

He understands each lonely heartache, He understands because He cares.

My Jesus knows when I am burdened, He knows how much my heart can bear;

He lifts me up when I am sinking, And brings me joy beyond compare.

My Jesus knows just what I need, O yes He know just what I need, He satisfies.

And every need supplies, Yes He knows just what I need"--Mosie Lister

 

Hardly a day now passes in my life in which at some point a loneliness sweeps down over me bringing with it the pain of a lonely heartache. I venture to say that all of us find ourselves groaning under the burdens and cares of this life that are common to each one of us (2 Cor. 5:1-9). Even though emotionally we may feel the stress and heartache of some events in our lives, we do not have to be distressed. The Lord we serve is able to calm all the storms we encounter in this life (Psalm 23; 46:1; Heb. 4:16; 6:18-19). The first verse of the 23rd Psalm is a tremendously powerful affirmation of our faith in God. All of our thoughts, feelings and needs are known by our God (Heb. 4:13). So long as our trust and confidence lies in him, we have not need to fret or worry about what is or is not going to happen to us because we can by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving make our requests known to him in full assurance that he will give to us a peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:6-7; Hebrews 4:16). Our God even knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:8). I am so thankful that he knows when I am lonely, knows when my heart is hurting and knows when I am burdened. I am so grateful that he will lift me up and supply my every need. Aren't you thankful that he will do the same for you? Yes, he does know just what we need!

 

To be glory both now and for ever. Amen (2 Peter 3:18).

 

Charles Hicks