Worship
Giving
Family ties
Encouraging others
Helping those in need
Evangelism
Bible study
Breaking sinful habits

Now, evaluate your performance in each of these areas.  If you are lacking in any or all of these areas, on the right-hand side of the paper write the excuses that you have made to avoid changing. Evaluate your excuses.  Will God accept these?  If not, decide to change!

Sunday night we continued our series on “My Prayers in the Psalms,” talking about “A Prayer for Friendship with God.”  Practice the prayer that we studied from Psalm 25, working in these four elements:

1. Stated trust (vv. 1-3)
2. A pledge of openness (vv. 4-5, 8-9, 12-14)
3. A plea for forgiveness (vv. 6-7, 11, 18)
4. A request for deliverance (vv. 16-19)

Everyone forms habits, whether good or evil.  But our evil habits cause us to digress in the same steps Peter distanced himself from the Lord.  In the beginning, when the habit is first born, we might act like we have no clue what the other is talking about.  When they ask, “Aren’t you a Christian?,” we don’t explicitly deny, but we don’t accept Christ either.  Second, we choose sides.  Our habit leads us to openly deny Christ, saying, “I don’t know the man.”  Third, we are addicted to our habit and become enemies of Christ.  Our denial grows into anger.

It usually takes a hard look at Jesus in order for one to get back on track.  Breaking a habit is painful due to both addiction and guilt.  Consider Peter’s remorse in Matthew 26.  Matthew records in verse 75 that Peter “went out and wept bitterly.”  Philippians 4:8 contains a good habit-forming principle, “Finally brethren, whatever is true … honorable … right … pure … lovely … of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything is worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”  Before becoming addicted to bad habits, fill your life with those things that are good.  And if you’re already addicted, take a hard look at Christ and His work.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti wasn’t Canadian, but he did have a pessimistic outlook on fall, as his poem, “Autumn Song,” demonstrates:

Know’st thou not at the fall of the leaf
How the soul feels like a dried sheaf
Bound up at length for harvesting,
And how death seems a comely thing
In Autumn at the fall of the leaf?

Something tells me Rossetti was writing about more than the change in the seasons.  Perhaps he penned these words in the autumn of his life.  Life, it seemed, was over, making death “a comely thing.”

Job took a different approach to this period of his life.  While defending himself to his friends, those “miserable comforters” (Job 16:2), he said, “Oh, that I were as in the months of old, as in the days when God watched over me, when his lamp shone upon my head, and by his light I walked through darkness, as I was in my prime, when the friendship of God was upon my tent” (Job 29:2-4).  The word “prime” can also be translated “my autumn days.”  Evidently, Job’s sorrows came upon him in the period of his life when he was ready to harvest the fruits of all his labors.  He was wealthy in possessions, family, and friends.  Of course, we know that all of this was cut short by Satan’s evil schemes, but Job incidentally makes an important point in his perspective on old age.  Life can be good at the fall of the leaf, as long as a person has lived his life so as to have something to harvest in that time.

Life is a gift at any age, but our days are short.  Job described it as a “breath” (Job 7:7).  And James famously asked, “What is your life?  For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (Jas. 4:14).  If we are not careful, we’ll take our lives for granted and become bitter about the struggles we have to endure.  Endure the trials, but don’t forget the blessings.  Life is good, especially when the friendship of God is on your tent.  That’s true at any age, whether it’s winter, spring, summer, or fall.

Posted at Truth and Repose.

Sunday night we started a series entitled, “My Prayers in the Psalms.”  This series is based on the idea that the book of Psalms is a collection of model prayers that relate to struggles we face today.  If you are struggling with your prayer life, read the Psalms and look for a prayer that suits your condition.  Once you have found it, pray the relevant Scripture until the words become your own.  This is putting the Bible to practical use in our prayer lives.

The first lesson in this series on prayer was “A Prayer for Longevity” from Psalm 52:8-9.  Many Christians struggle for endurance.  In this psalm, we find David praying for longevity and making the following three pledges:

1.  I will trust in God’s mercy.
2.  I will be grateful.
3.  I will wait on God.

Work these pledges into your personal prayers this week.  See if they lead to endurance and stability.  By listening to David’s secret to longevity, all of us can gain more endurance for our walk with Christ.

False teaching moves us into a mode of defense and protection.  I should mention that it is not popular today to speak against false teaching.  Many believe that everything should be tolerated.  And, although we’re not guilty of teaching error, sometimes we fail to make a biblical case against it.  Paul wrote two letters to the young preacher, Timothy, which frequently addressed this problem.  In 1 Timothy 6:3-5, Paul doesn’t hold back, and explains to the young man that false teaching will lead to “envy, strife, abusive language, evil suspicions” (v. 5).  It gets ugly when false teaching is left unaddressed.  We must build a defense.

If we address the problem of false teaching the church will grow.  What is ironic is that many times we neglect lessons against false teaching in order to discuss the methods of church growth.  Consider how a child grows.  In order to achieve physical, mental, and spiritual progress the child receives continual correction from his parents.  When he disobeys, the loving parent intervenes.  By comparison, the church operates in the same way.  Neglecting correction is to set the church up for corruption and failure (cf., 1 Cor. 5:1-13).

Finally, the challenge of false teaching reveals the opportunity for freedom.  Jesus taught, “and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (Jn. 8:32).  The greatest empowerment for man in any given situation is truth.  It is the most valuable tool to have on your side.  Thus, Jesus ties the antithesis of false teaching to freedom.  There is no hope to be found in false teaching.  However, if we view it from the perspective of opportunity, we find freedom!

Using “David’s Six Friends,” I encouraged the audience to look for friends with the following qualities:

1.  Someone who has the kind of soul that you would like to have
2.  Someone who would make a good investment
3.  Someone who loves you
4.  Someone who is loyal
5.  Someone who can keep a secret
6.  Someone who is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for you

Because the election is this Tuesday, Sunday night we discuseed some matters pertaining to “Before and After the Election.”  For a summary of my thoughts on this matter, you can go to my blog, Truth & Repose.  Also, make sure that you are prepared for the election by viewing a sample ballot.  Here’s one for the Jefferson County/Birmingham area, and here’s one for St. Clair county.  Hopefully you know by now where each presidential candidate stands, but if you are still unsure, go here for summaries of their political platforms.  An explanation of the amendments up for adoption to the Alabama Constitution is here.  You may want to fill out a voter’s guide that you can take with you to the polls tomorrow.

For some, friendship comes easily.  Unfortunately, this is not the case with everyone.  But there is good news.  Friendship is at least possible for everyone.  Not only that, but there is no reason why every person cannot have the greatest man who ever lived for their friend.

I am speaking, of course, about Jesus.  The Bible tells us that Jesus is, in one sense or another, everyone’s friend.  However, the benefits that a person may derive from him differ according to his spiritual situation.

Jesus is a friend to every soul. He demonstrated this friendship by dying on the cross for our sins, making salvation possible for every man and woman.  John said, “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 Jn. 2:2).  This does not spell salvation for every soul, just the possibility.  The way each individual responds to this sacrifice makes the difference between the saved and those who remain lost.

Jesus is a friend to every sinner. As you read through the gospel accounts, you stumble upon a number of expressions of Jesus’ friendship towards sinners.  He came to the aid of a woman who had been caught in adultery (Jn. 8:3-11); he showed kindness to a sinful woman who washed his feet with her tears (Lk. 7:36-50); on the cross, he looked down at the cruel mob below and prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34).Many of these sinners responded to his kindness favorably and became followers of Christ.  His enemies hated him for this and gave him the title “the friend of sinners” (Mt. 11:19).  They let their jealousy cloud their judgment.  We must never substitute empty rivalry for a love for lost souls.

Jesus is a friend to sufferers. The American Indians had a word for friend that meant “one who carries my sorrows on his back.”  This is what Jesus is willing to do for others.  He himself was called a “man of sorrows” (Isa. 53:3), so he knows the hardships of life.  Hebrews 2:18 tells us, “For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”

Jesus is a friend to saints. Aristotle thought there could be no friendship between a god and a man, any more than a man could be a friend to his tools, because they were too dissimilar.  The Bible takes a radically different point of view, telling the story of how man alienated himself from God, and God, not wishing for him to perish, initiated an act of reconciliation (Col. 1:19-22; 2 Cor. 5:18-20; Rom. 5:10).

In John 15, Jesus tells his disciples how this highest level of friendship with God is possible: “You are my friends, if you do what I command you” (v. 14).  What is the case with you?  Can you say you are a close friend with Jesus?

Someone once said, “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs.  Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who come alive.”  Revival comes for those who show passion.  We may be confused about the best course of action, but – as He did with Moses and Paul – God will grant us the opportunities to exercise our passion and talents.  Paul taught Titus that Jesus “gave Himself … to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works” (2:14).  Jesus didn’t give his life for individuals who can draw up perfect plans or for those who have accomplished every good work themselves.  He gave His life for a people who are zealous to receive a perfect plan from God and to be revealed opportunities to serve Him.  The Lord wants to see zeal and life in His world.  He will use passionate people to accomplish His purposes.