June 23, 2017: This week we tackled the concept of worry and how as Christians we should deal with it.
Becoming God’s Man
1 Corinthians 3:10-11 – What is your faith built upon?
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According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1 Corinthians 3:10-11
What is your faith built upon? When you build a building the first thing that needs to be done is to have a proper foundation laid. One you don’t go and build a wall here, place furnishings, or set up the roof until the foundation is laid. That is because the foundation is what everything else rests on. Without a foundation it is like the man who built a house on the sand where it is not able to stand up to the elements. The same can be said about a faulty foundation, if the proper foundation is not set for the environment and type of house that is being built again the building will eventually fall due to structural problems.
Our faith works much in the same way. We need to be careful on what we base our faith off of. It needs to be firmly placed in Christ and rooted in Biblical truth. There are many teachings out there where we can hear it doesn’t matter what you believe as long as you are sincere. Then there is also the thought that all religions ultimately lead to God, or that since God is love He won’t send anyone to hell. The problem is that these teachings build a faith that is on an inadequate foundation, much like having a mansion built on a fault line, an earthquake comes and that house will eventually fall. When Christ returns if our faith is not right, if we aren’t rooted in Christ and Christ alone then what we have our faith placed in will eventually fall as well. So what type of foundation is your faith built on?
Table Talk – Episode 97 – Who in Whose Image?
June 16, 2017: This week we went deep and touched many topics but most importantly do we make a god in our own image or do we live like we are made in God’s image?
Table Talk is a weekly gathering of men in the Pinellas Park area from different denominations and backgrounds. We meet every Friday morning from around 6:30-8:00 at the Egg Platter restaurant. It is located at 6767 US Highway 19 North in Pinellas Park. If you happen to be in the area feel free to come out and join us for a time of fellowship and Bible study.
John 3:36 – What is Belief?
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Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.
John 3:36 ESV
I will admit this is a tricky verse to look at, because in many translations the word obey is also translated into believe. I will say that in my opinion trust would be a good word to have in both places although believe and obey is the better option. You see our Christian faith is a combination of belief and obedience that stems out of our trust in God. What I mean is that our belief in God goes beyond just the intellectual to a deeper trust in God that leads to obedience. For example let’s look at our regular relationships, when we were kids I am sure we all scraped our knees at one time or another. Now often our parents would tell us that we would be okay and that we would live while in that moment we would feel like our world was coming to an end, but because we believed in our parents, we trusted them, we knew what they were saying was true and it would help comfort us.
We do this because we know that our parents have our best interest in their mind, even when they are disciplining us they are doing it out of love. Even though we may not like it at the time our belief in our earthly parents has us obeying them because we trust that they have the best intentions for us in the long run. God is the same way, we may not like what we are going through or may feel like obedience to God is killing our fun, but in the long term obedience to God will lead us to eternal life. Our pride will often say that intellectual belief is enough, that obedience is not needed, but remember we are told many times that our belief and obedience goes hand in hand. So how deep is your belief in God, is it the surface level intellectual belief or is it the deeper trust that leads to obedience?
Table Talk – Episode 96 – Followers of Friends
June 9, 2017: This week at the prayer breakfast we talked on the importance of relationships and how we should be focused on quality deep relationships rather than many surface level relationships
Matthew 6:34
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Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Matthew 6:34 HCSB
Worry, it seems to be a fact of life. There are many things in our lives which we tend to worry about; finances, health, and relationships are some of the big areas where we encounter worry. The question is who has ever benefited from worrying about something. I usually find the opposite to be true, the more I worry about one thing the more time and energy is taken away from something else. Let’s say I am worrying about my finances and where I am going to get the money to pay my rent among all my other bills, that takes time effort and energy that I could be using to focus on producing content and working on a number of podcast and other multimedia projects I am involved with.
You see Satan uses worry as a way to draw first our attention away from God, but also to foster doubt into our minds. When we worry we are often, though not intentionally, stating that we don’t think God has as much control over His creation as He does. It is a subconscious belief that we need to be in control, worry is essentially just another form of pride. When we worry it is because as I mentioned we want to be in control and our worry is because we feel like we aren’t in control and that makes us uncomfortable.
What Jesus wants us to do is to give control over to Him. That is because if we place our trust in Him and let Him take control we have no need to worry. If we are willing to focus our time and energy on God and let Him worry about everything else, everything else will essentially fall into place. So what are you worrying about today? Why don’t you give it over to God and trust Him to take care of it.
Table Talk – Episode 95 – Reflect, Refocus, Reevaluate
June 2, 2017: This week Sam talked about how he has been reflecting on where God has led him and we talked about the need to keep our focus on Christ and constantly reevaluate where we are heading to make sure we keep our focus on Christ.
Table Talk – Episode 94 – Cleansing Your Mind
May 26, 2017: This week we talked about how as Christians we need to cleanse our mind from the way of the world’s thinking and be more like Christ.
Table Talk – Episode 93 – Misconceptions, Forgiveness, & Getting Our Attention
May 19, 2017: This week we got on the subject of Forgiveness, Christian Misconceptions, and how God will use these to get our attention.
1 Peter 3:15
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“But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.”
1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)
This verse is one that is so theologically rich that I am not sure how to properly approach it and do it justice for a short devotional. This is a verse that is used often as the basis for a study known as Apologetics where one defends their faith, thus it also has implications for evangelism as you are sharing your faith with unbelievers. If you ask me however, I feel that while those are important aspects of the verse when it is put into the context of its section in 1 Peter 3 and even in the context of 1 Peter as a whole this verse seems to be getting at more than defending our faith or even evangelism. This verse is talking about our actions as Christians, it is talking about our holiness.
Let’s look at 1 Peter 3:13-17 together:
“Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.”
You see when you read 1 Peter you notice Peter charging Christians to live holy lives and this verse comes right smack in the middle of 1 Peter, where he states that they are being questioned about their hope. Holiness is the outward expression of our inward hope. It is this holiness this expression of our hope that causes people to take a look at us and notice we are different from the world. It is this outward expression of our hope that should be causing unbelievers to question us about the reasons for why we act the way we do. It is this outward expression of our hope that requires us to share and explain the Gospel to any we encounter.
Yes evangelism and apologetics are an important part of this verse. The thing is however, they are meaningless if our lives aren’t displaying the hope we have. Though just like it is stated in an often overused and misused phrase, “Preach the Gospel at all times; and if necessary use words,” Remember people won’t listen to your words, if your actions don’t match.