21

Jump Start # 3310

Posted on April 21, 2023 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 3310

Hebrews 5:11 “Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.”

It is an age old problem that teachers struggle with. How do you get students interested in what you want to teach? The school teacher faces this. The Bible class teacher faces this. The preacher faces this. And, this can’t be blamed on a visual, video game generation. Here in our passage, the Hebrews were “dull of hearing.” In Corinthians, Paul said, that he fed them milk because they were not able to receive solid food. It wasn’t that they were too young in the faith. The problem was that they were still fleshly or carnal.

And, this is the typical picture in far too many places. The Bible class teacher has researched and studied the material to be presented all week. He has passages, quotes, ideas that he is ready to share with the class. As he asks his first question, blank and bored stares is all he receives in return. Quickly, the energy and enthusiasm of the teacher escapes him. He is struggling. No one seems to be interested. No one seems to care. Minutes seem like days. When will the class end, the teacher wonders. When the bell finally rings, the teacher feels a great relief, this is almost over. As the teacher drives home, he feels like a failure. He already dreads having to teach the next class. He tells himself that he is a lousy teacher and that he will never do this again.

And, in such settings, one by one, the teachers drop out. Only a few brave souls teach and it’s the same ones year in and year out.

Some thoughts about all of this:

First, often people are given a topic, a class book and told to teach but they have never been taught how to do that. Just handing someone a class book does not help with people who sit and stare. How does the teacher deal with the guy who wants to dominate the class time with his own agenda, which often has nothing to do with the subject at hand? How does the teacher get others to participate?

Maybe it would be good to have a class about how to teach before one is put in that position. Experienced teachers can share insights and tips that help the class.

Second, the method of teaching must be looked at. One doesn’t have to teach every subject or even every class the same way. Lectures serve a purpose but not all the time. Verse by verse is not the only way to go through a book of the Bible. Look at themes. Look at questions. Look at different insights. Bring some freshness to the way you teach.

Third, there is a huge responsibility placed upon the students in the class. Both the Hebrew and the Corinthian passages points the problem not to the teacher, the subject, nor the method of teaching. The problem was shallow faith of the students. The dull of hearing was the students problem, not the teacher. They became that way because they were not interested spiritually.

People need to see why and how what is being taught is relevant to their lives. How will what you are teaching help them on a Tuesday afternoon? Getting the words off the pages of the Bible and into our lives, putting shoes on those verses, will help the class not only remember, but to turn and use those verses in their walk with the Lord. Challenging questions that make people think beyond the obvious helps.

Connecting class to daily Bible readings, or other daily habits will help make what is taught useful.

God wants us to be strong and mature spiritually. An adult still living on baby food is a problem. Spiritual maturity is a result of growth and development. It doesn’t just happen. A person may have been a Christian for decades, but his knowledge and maturity level may remain in the first grade. What we do outside the church building is important. Our personal study habits and offering classes other than just Sunday and Wednesday helps the development process.

Dull of hearing—what a disappointment to the teacher. What a hinderance to the church. What sorrow it brings the Lord. Time must be spent in helping these people grow and develop that is taking away from reaching and teaching others. Much too often we must cater to the weak faith of some and pour far too many resources into trying to convince some Christians that they ought to be Christians.

Later in Corinthians the expression is found, “Act like men.” The Ephesians were told, “Grow up”. I just wonder how many first grade level lessons are still needed for adults who have been Christians for decades? Something is tragically wrong when we continue to be spoon fed by preachers rather than digging in ourselves and learning God’s will.

I have much to say, our passage states. But your dull ears will not tolerate it. Shame on them. Shame on us when we act no differently.

Roger

20

Jump Start # 3309

Posted on April 20, 2023 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 3309

Genesis 3:9 “Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’”

Our verse today is the first question asked by God in the Bible. Something had happened. Something had changed. Adam and Eve had eaten the forbidden fruit. And, instead of freedom, which the serpent offered, they found shame and guilt. They were wrong and they knew it. And, now, for the first time, they are hiding from God. The Lord calls out to them. He knew where they were. His question isn’t about location, “we are over here by the banana tree.” He was asking about relationship. Why are you hiding? Why are you afraid? You have never hidden from me before. What’s happened? He knew. He always knows.

From this simple three-word question, we learn some profound lessons:

First, our feelings and emotions are wired into us by God. Passion. Anger. Fear. Guilt. Sorrow. Shame. Embarrassment. Excitement. A parent doesn’t have to teach their child to be sad. It’s within him. A parent doesn’t have to have a discussion about excitement. It’s there. It’s in all of us.

These emotions serve a purpose. They can help us in our walk with the Lord. Sorrow and shame can lead to repentance. Guilt can stop us from doing something that we know is wrong. However, emotions are not the substance of faith. Our faith comes through believing the word of God. A person can “feel” saved, but that doesn’t mean he is saved. A person can feel good about what he is doing, however his conscience may be calloused and his spiritual radar turned off. A person can feel right about doing wrong.

Our culture thrives on feelings and emotions. Right and wrong these days are based upon how one feels. If it feels right, it must be, is how some see things. But we know our feelings can be wrong. Driving down a road that you think you know where you are, but you don’t. Your feelings can be wrong. Your feelings can mislead you. Our feelings change.

One of the true aspects of spiritual maturity is to rein in our feelings and control them. Rather than having our emotions steering our lives, we have our thoughts and convictions doing that. Being able to control your anger, your passion, your excitement is a true mark of growth. Knowing when to talk and when to be silent and with that, knowing what to say and what not to say, demonstrates Biblical growth.

Second, some emotions can take us away from the Lord and His people. Depression, discouragement and feeling left out are not places where God wants us to stay. There are chemical imbalances that some face that must be dealt with medically. This is not something to be ashamed of. We take medicine when our bodies are not well. We can take medicine when our minds are not well. But, one must understand, our culture has little room for faith. Not all things can be fixed by medicine. The problems one faces do not go away because one takes a pill every morning. Medicine may keep our moods in balance, but they do not solve our problems. There are many things that only the Lord can help.

Mental illness seems to be on the rise, especially among young people. Why a young person has anxiety and is depressed is something that I can’t come up with an answer. Shepherds in God’s kingdom are having to deal with complex problems of which there are no quick and easy answers. It’s hard to find mental illness addressed in the Bible. There comes a time when leaders in the church must turn to trusted professionals to help some of the sheep. Not everything is a matter of weak faith. The violence and mass shootings in our country are linked heavily to young men who are angry and have mental issues. Just handing someone a verse won’t change things. It would be good for shepherds to find a trustworthy counselor in their area who they feel safe recommending their sheep to.

Third, God longs for a relationship with us. That’s the thrust of our passage. In the verse before, God was walking in the garden in the cool of the day. The impression is that God and Adam were together. One can only imagine what the conversations were about. Was God teaching Adam about life, nature, responsibilities? And, from that, God longs to have a relationship with you. What was broken in the garden because of sin, becomes the theme of the Bible as God tries to rebuild that broken relationship. It took the blood of Jesus to fully restore what had been before. And, someday, because of that sacrifice of Jesus, we will not only see the face of God, but we will dwell with Him forever, in His heavenly home.

Where are you? Three simple words. God’s first question. Might God ask that of you? Where were you Sunday when the saints gathered to worship? Were you among them? Where were you when someone in your church family needed encouragement? Were you there? Where were you when someone needed a friend? Were you there?

Where are you? Great question.

Roger

19

Jump Start # 3308

Posted on April 19, 2023 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 3308

Psalms 23:1 “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

Our verse today opens that well known and much loved shepherd Psalm. Within these short six sentences, there are thirteen references to God and seventeen references to the writer. This is a very personal Psalm. Because of the Lord, we are not in want. The Lord provides.

God created us to want. We are created to want food. We are created to want a purpose and meaning. We are created to want a relationship with others. Physically, socially, and spiritually, man craves for substance and fulfillment. Ever since the garden, Satan has been trying to redirect our wants and to fill our needs with the inferior, the temporary and the cheap. And, what we find is that those things do not last nor do they satisfy.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

First, I shall not be in want for guidance and love. God is there. God cares. God provides. His word is a light in a dark world. His love lifts up the broken hearted. When no one else cares, God does. When no one else has time, God does. When no one else understands, God does. When no one else listens, God does. Now, God is not the divine counselor’s couch in Heaven. He is the Lord of Heaven and Earth. His will ought to be our will. But to think that some one so important, so busy, and has so many tasks to complete as our God does, but still has time, all the time for you. Simply amazing!

Second, God knows what we need, often more than we do. We think we need rest, and God knows that we need to push through and keep going. We think we need a break, and God puts great challenges before us. We think we can’t carry any more, and God knows that we can. We think a little wrong won’t hurt anyone. God knows better.

Jesus said that even before we pray, God knows what we need. We need salvation. We need fellowship. We need to help others. And, when we think all we want to do is sit in a nice chair and watch a movie, God knows we need to drop to our knees and pray. When we feel like sleeping in, God knows that we need to get to worship.

Third, God gives much more than just a little. Because of our Heavenly Shepherd, we will not want. The needs are fulfilled and taken care of. It’s not just a little bit, there no longer is a need or a want. When Jesus fed the five thousand, not only was everyone satisfied, but there were twelve baskets of leftovers. God provided more than just enough. God is like that. He will bless you in ways you cannot imagine. He will help you greater than you expected.

Fourth, the relationship between the shepherd and the sheep is that of trust. The shepherd knows where the green pastures are. The shepherd knows where the quiet waters are. Do we try to venture out and find them ourselves or do we simply follow the Shepherd?

God knows how to restore broken relationships. Do we trust Him or do we try to fix things on our own? God knows how to raise children. Do we trust Him or do we listen to what the “experts” tell us? God knows the value of fellowship? Do we? God knows the need to feed our souls? Do we?

It’s easy to pick out the passages and principles from the Bible like we are at a buffet table. We just take the items that we like. And, with that, we can pick out just wonderful stories about Jesus and ignore the hard truths about doctrine, fellowship, and, discipline. Just eating our favorites over and over doesn’t give us the complete picture. God knows what we need and it’s all the Bible. It’s the parts that are hard. It’s the parts that some call boring. It’s the parts that are not familiar to us. Man shall live on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God is what our Lord said. Every word.

I shall not be in want. A child trying to say Psalm 23 from memory, stated, “God is my shepherd and that’s all that I need.” Well said!

Roger

18

Jump Start # 3307

Posted on April 18, 2023 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 3307

Matthew 13:26 “But when the wheat sprang up and bore grain, then the tares became evident also.”

Our verse today comes from the section of kingdom parables where the Lord is showing us different aspects of God’s divine kingdom. The disciples referred to this as “the parable of the tares” (36). And, this is one of the parables in which the Lord gives a full explanation to us. The Lord sows the good seed. The devil sowed the tares. The field is the world. The tares are the sons of the evil one, the devil. Together, side by side, the good and the bad grow. In the end, the angels from Heaven will separate the wheat from the weeds. The tares will be burned up and wheat will be gathered to that righteous home with God.

There are several things to see here:

First, there are limitations to the Lord’s illustrations. In the world of botany, the study of plants, wheat and tares are genetically different. However, in the spiritual world, a tare could become wheat. If an ungodly person comes to know the Lord through the Scriptures, he can change his ways. Useless weeds can become beneficial wheat in the spiritual world. The power of the Gospel can change anyone.

Using illustrations have limitations. Illustrations can help us see deeper spiritual concepts but there are aspects where the illustrations fail. The teacher using illustrations needs to understand this as well as the person hearing the illustrations. Some like the challenge of picking apart a story and showing where it comes up short. But in doing that, they miss the point. They miss many points. The illustration points to the principle. It is not the principle. It is only the light shinning on the principle. Without the principle, the illustration become a story and only a story.

In the Lord’s use of parables or illustrations, He never uses something that is off color, offensive or in poor taste. The Lord’s parables are not nice bedtime stories, either. There is a rawness to them. A son leaves home with a pocket full of money and then wastes it all. A man on a journey is beaten and robbed. A laborer complains because the master paid others who worked less the same amount as he got. Five girls are not admitted to a wedding because they came late. A man is asked to leave a wedding because he is not dressed properly.

Pain, sorrow and heartache fill many of the parables. But that describes life. There is a lot of pain and sorrow in the world.

Second, the parables of the tares reveals that the devil is busy doing wrong. While the Lord is sowing the good seed, the devil is busy sowing weeds. He doesn’t sow the tares in an empty field. He plants the weed among the wheat. He is trying to hurt what Jesus has done. The devil came at night, while the servants were sleeping. He does his work in secret. It’s wrong and he doesn’t want to be caught.

The devil has been busy lately hurting good churches. He has created distractions and heartache to slow the progress of God down. He is trying to get brethren to turn on each other and engage in a civil war rather than being united on fighting the devil. As one of our hymns begins, “troublesome times are here.”

Third, the Lord is aware of what the devil has done. Notice, the Lord didn’t stop the devil. He allowed the tares to be sown among the wheat. But at harvest, the Lord will separate the wheat from the tares, as He does the sheep from the goats. God already knows what He will do. The growing tares bothers us. The field with wheat and tares together may look messy to us, but the Lord will deal with this. Ours is not to take the tares out. God will do that.

A weed free yard looks beautiful. We want weeds out of our flower patches. But, here in the world, the Lord allows the wheat and the tares to grow side by side. The wheat will grow. The wheat will do fine. The wheat will please the Lord. The tares are bothersome. The tares do not belong in the field of wheat. The tares take sun and moisture that ought to go to the wheat. But in the end, the Lord will take care of it.

The presence of the tares will not destroy the wheat. The devil will not win. The devil will not cripple God’s kingdom. The devil with his best plans, fails. The tares, along with the devil, will be cast into the fire. Weeds are pulled from our gardens and are quickly forgotten.

Some would like to have a world without tares. That’s called Heaven. But for now, here we are side by side, wheat and tares. As wheat, we are to glorify our Creator. As wheat, we try to influence tares in a positive way. As wheat, we don’t envy tares. As wheat, we keep from becoming tares.

Such a great story. Such a powerful principle. Be patient. The Lord will take care of things.

Roger

17

Jump Start # 3306

Posted on April 17, 2023 by Jump Starts Daily in Jump Starts Daily | Tagged | Leave a comment

Jump Start # 3306

1 Corinthians 3:3 “for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men?”

I started teaching Corinthians this quarter. It is such a powerful book, filled with many important doctrinal concepts that God wanted His people to know. It is also a troubled and divided church that is manifested in lawsuits against each other and abuse of the Lord’s Supper.

In our passage today, Paul calls them fleshly. The KJV uses the expression, “carnal.” The apostle says that they are not spiritual. He could not speak to them as spiritual men, but rather as men of the flesh. Their thinking was messing up their behavior. Poor choices come from poor thinking.

Now, as one looks at this, the thought crosses our minds, “Did Paul leave them too soon?” Should he have stayed there and helped them more? We know Apollos, Timothy and others would come and continue to teach, but should they have had Paul longer? Apollos, as good as he was, was not an apostle. Timothy was young. Had the seasoned apostle stayed longer, could some of the issues have been prevented and could they have matured spiritually?

Now some thoughts on this:

First, backseat driving always seems to have the right answers. Paul was on a divine mission. From Corinth, Paul moves on to Ephesus, Philippi and then to Jerusalem. Looking back, we always seem to know what should have been done. After the fact always gives us a clearer picture. This is true in raising kids, working with a church and making personal decisions. No where in the Scriptures is the thought presented that Paul left Corinth too soon.

It is an assumption to think that had Paul been there the whole time, the outcome would have been different. Don’t forget that some walked away from the Lord. Some heard the Lord but never changed.

Second, it is easy to point fingers at others when it is our choices and our attitudes that have gotten in the messes that we are in. It wasn’t Paul’s fault that the Corinthians were carnal and divided. He had taught them the truth. Among them were brethren who had the spiritual gifts of knowledge, prophecy and faith. Jealousy, envy and unwilling to let go of old attitudes is what kept the Corinthians from being the spiritual giant that they were capable of. They were not carnal because of a lack of teaching. The teaching was there. The responsibility was with the Corinthians who had not fully changed.

And, so it is today. We blame the church, the shepherds, the preachers when our kids make terrible choices. Maybe there is some blame there. Maybe the parents ought to look in the mirror. But, mostly, it’s the choices that those kids made that got them in the trouble that they are in. If the true fault was with the church, then one would think all the kids in the church would be spiritual messes. But most times that’s not the case. Some take hold of the lessons and grow. Some become active and walk with the Lord. And, some do nothing. Same church. Same people. Same teaching. Different outcomes.

And, the same could be said of us. Within most congregations you’ll find some real spiritual giants. But you also have some who continue to have one foot in the world. Why? It comes down to our faith and our choices. Pointing fingers at others keeps us from making the real changes that we need to in our lives.

Third, our faith is a matter of little steps that we take every day. Do we feed upon God’s word? Do we talk to the Lord? Do we allow the Scriptures to grow in our hearts? There is not one sermon, or one big thing that a person does that makes them spiritual. It’s the daily habits, the daily choices, the daily feeding of our souls that lead to a path, a heart and a way of righteousness.

Fascinatingly, Paul never recommends the Corinthians closing the door. He never gives up on them. He never tells some to leave and start another congregation. Boy, we like to do that in our American ways. What he does, one by one, is address the problems with real spiritual solutions. And, that needs to be our example. Don’t be quick to throw in the towel and run. Don’t point fingers and blame. With the Scriptures, teach and teach and teach. Then, live and live and live. Through the word of God and through living examples we show what needs to be done.

Good churches have problems. We are all on a journey and a work in progress. Patience is the key with one another.

Roger