No Sin or Deceit – Broadcast for May 20, 2013

Do you remember Goofus and Gallant? They were characters in the Children’s HIghlights magazines I used to read at the doctors office. Goofus was the guy who always got it wrong and Gallant was the the kid who always knew what to do in a most polite and proper way. The point for us kids was we were supposed to follow Gallant’s example and behave correct and proper all the time. The underlying question was: “Whose example will you follow?”

In 1 Peter 2:22 we read: Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ​​“Who committed no sin, ​​Nor was deceit found in His mouth”; Jesus was terribly abused and persecuted; He was beaten and crucified in spite of His sinless nature and loving kindness toward all. Jesus was not a deceiver. He was truth and every word He spoke was truth.

He suffered, leaving us an example to follow. We should start with living apart from sin and walking in truth. This will in itself set us apart and may lead to rough treatment from the world. Jesus also submitted to authority even when that authority mistreated Him.

Submission is not a popular idea but it is the example Christ gave us. We should follow Christ as rebellion is the opposite of Christ!

_{Notes and comments © 2013 by Ronald C. Reed All rights reserved.}

Fear God – Broadcast for April 12, 2013

What is the difference between fearing God and loving God? To fear is to have a reverence for and also to be afraid of. To love is to have affection for and also to have a commitment toward. We should both love God and fear God. I had a great dad who I loved very much but I also would tremble with fear if I thought I had done something I shouldn’t. He never abused me but he certainly disciplined me. I was fearful of my dad but I loved him very much.

In 1 Peter 2:17 we read: Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. (1 Peter 2:17 NKJV) Our proper relationship with all people should be that we honor them, that is show them kindness and respect regardless of whether they deserve it. Our proper relationship with our brothers and sisters in Christ is to love them. Not just have affection for them but to have a bond of commitment to them that goes beyond the needs of today. Our proper relationship with God is to fear Him. To have reverence for God. To be in awe of Him. But also to fear God, knowing what He will do with those who refuse His grace and kindness.

I have observed families where the children were too afraid of their dad. It was quite unhealthy as the children had no concept of grace or love only of the terrible punishment that would fall upon them it they stepped out of line. I have also observed families with completely lack of discipline. The result was children who had no respect for authority of any kind. It fell to their teachers in school or sunday school to teach them to be respectful. God is our Father and He is perfect. If we learn to respect God, to fear Him then it will be no problem to show respect for others as must.

A healthy fear of God will also keep us from sin. Jesus said: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him! (Luke 12:5 NKJV) We should take this warning to heart. Fear God. Revere Him.

_{Notes and comments © 2013 by Ronald C. Reed All rights reserved.}

Who is My Brother? – Broadcast for April 11, 2013

When we ministered in India several young men I met called me uncle. In Israel I expressed friendship with an Arab man and he immediately kissed my cheek and called me brother. Then he held my hand. I am not used to men holding my hand but it was such a sweet gesture. In Russia I had to think quick when the Russian pastors were giving Holy Kisses. I wasn’t quite ready for that so they all settled for a holy handshake.

In 1 Peter 2:17 we read: Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. (1 Peter 2:17 NKJV) Who is my brother as written here by Peter? My brother is every other believer of all time who has come to Christ as savior and trusts in God. The brotherhood is the family; we are together in the kingdom of God that transcends time and will be ours for eternity. When we are all together in eternity with the Lord, we will understand this completely. We will love each other with great affection.

How can we have that now? How can we have the warmth of friendship with other believers without waiting for the sweet by and by. We must be filled with love, learn to express that love and learn to be comfortable in those expressions. It starts with being friendly and continues with really caring about others. The deeper you go into fellowship with other believers the easier it will be to form these bonds of love.

We are so separated by doctrines, denominations, politics and race but we must all come together and love one another. What is our common bond? It is that we are all born again of the same Father. God has called us and made us acceptable and now we must accept and love each other.

_{Notes and comments © 2013 by Ronald C. Reed All rights reserved.}

The Spirit of Jonah – Broadcast for April 10. 2013

God said to Jonah: “Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message I have given you.” (Jonah 3:2 NLT) Jonah finally went and declared the word of the Lord and then waited for God to destroy them. They were wicked and evil and had done much harm to Israel. Perhaps Jonah had friends or family that had been killed or abused at the hand of the Ninevites. Jonah wanted God to destroy those people.

In 1 Peter 2:17 we read: Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. (1 Peter 2:17 NKJV) As we look at this verse we can see the command that we honor all people and then realize just how difficult this can be. Many have segregated people into groups that they like or dislike. Then we can label them as liberals or conservatives or illegals or gays or whatever label we chose. Once labeled it seems ok to say harsh and mean things about them, all of them. They are no longer individuals, they are now a group to be despised.

I’ve watched people leave a church because of this. Absent is the love that holds us together, present is the anger that drives us apart. I rather think that many have the spirit of Jonah, waiting for justice to fall on this group or that. Instead of honoring all people; we are more likely to honor someone like us who likes us and who will perhaps honor us back. But look at the scripture: we are pilgrims and sojourners. We may be legal citizens of one nation or another but because we are now born of above by the will of God, we are just passing through this life. This is not our home.

Jonah was reluctant to preach because he feared that God would have mercy; and God did have mercy. If we live in the spirit of Jonah it is impossible to honor all people or to love the brotherhood or to fear God or to honor the king; because we have no love in us only anger and fear. What must we do? We must repent of our sin and be cleansed and filled with God’s love so that we can love those who can’t or won’t love us in return.

_{Notes and comments © 2013 by Ronald C. Reed All rights reserved.}

Honor All – Broadcast for April 9, 2013

Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. (1 Peter 2:17 NKJV) This is the instruction given by Peter the Apostle. To honor is to give value to, to esteem, to show reverence. You know what that is like when someone takes the time to be kind toward you and to be interested in you simply because you are you. You also may know what it is like to not be honored by someone. They treat you like an object or like you are invisible. You feel like you don’t matter to them or worse like they don’t like you.

I think it noteworthy that Peter starts with a command that we honor all. Not just other believers or people of importance, we are to honor all. Every person is to be valued, to be esteemed, to be treated with reverence, imagine such a thing. The command is ongoing, we must always honor all people.

Now that’s hard isn’t it? It kind of goes against the grain, but we must do this. This starts with humility; If I will simply humble myself and get my view of self out of the way and see people through God’s eyes as worthy of the death of His Son to save them, then I can honor them. Then I begin to have the compassion of Christ and the heart of a soul winner.

Honor All, for this is the will of God!

_{Notes and comments © 2013 by Ronald C. Reed All rights reserved.}

Honor and Submit – Broadcast for April 8, 2013

I was a single parent with four young children. The boys were a bit of a handful at times and I would admonish them everytime I took them somewhere: be good. Sometimes I think they took that as a challenge. I spent a lot more time in the principal’s office as a dad than I did when I was a kid.

In 1 Peter 1:15-16 we read: For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men— as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God. (1 Peter 2:15-16 NKJV) The good spoken of here is the good of living honestly and submitting to authority. If we do this then those who may accuse us will speak empty meaningless words that will never hold up to scrutiny. We will overcome evil with good by doing good.

I have observed a change in my lifetime from excessive patriotism and acceptance of everything the government did to excessive complaining about what the government does or does not do. But it is the will of God for us is to submit to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, from the top to the bottom. This is the good that we can do. We have liberty in Christ: not to cover up our own evil but to live as free from sin and the burden of sin. Peter said in 1 Peter 2:1: laying aside all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, We must take off the way of the world and put on the way of Christ. Our liberty enables us to serve as bondservants of Christ. We give ourselves to serve Him to His glory.

_{Notes and comments © 2013 by Ronald C. Reed All rights reserved.}

Honorable Conduct – Broadcast for April 4, 2013

Saeed Abedini has been imprisoned in Iran for converting from Islam to Christ. He has been given opportunity to deny Christ but He has refused. In his trial Saeed has conducted himself honorably and puts his persecutors to shame. Please pray for him and his family.

In 1 Peter 2:12 we read: having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. (1 Peter 2:12 NKJV)

We will be tested and in that testing our honest living will cause those who observe and accuse to give glory to God especially when all is revealed. If the persecutors don’t understand now they certainly will then.

Some may wonder why God allows his own to suffer. But He spared not His own Son but sent Him to the cross to ransom us from sins deathly grip. Our suffering, great or small serves as a witness of God’s grace. It amplifies the gospel and turns the head to hear and the heart to change.

As we live as pilgrims let us live with honor regardless the hardship we may suffer. There is nothing like this to cause men to ask us a reason for our faith. It is because Christ has changed us that we can now live this way.

_{Notes and comments © 2013 by Ronald C. Reed All rights reserved.}

Abstain- Broadcast for April 3, 2013

Recently several politicians views on gay marriage have evolved. The public opinion has begun to change on this issue so now politicians think it safe to come out in favor of homosexual marriage. This puts pressure on those who hold to a Biblical moral view to evolve with society but we are warned in scripture not to give in to our own lusts nor approve the lusts of others.

In 1 Peter 2:11 we read: Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. (1 Peter 2:11 NKJV) Peter sets the stage for us. SInce we are: living stones of a spiritual house, chosen by God and of a Royal priesthood; and we are His own special people who are sojourners and pilgrims; we are to abstain from fleshly lusts.

A sojourner is one who is of temporary residence, a pilgrim is just passing through. The two together give us the message that we are not home; this is not our permanent dwelling and therefore we should not develop an appetite for this life. We should abstain.

Now, abstinence is a tricky word these days. Abstinence is scoffed at by our infotainment culture. It is not popular and assumed that it is impossible to keep oneself from have sex when the urge strikes. So therefore our culture educates children on how to have safer sex. We do require that people abstain from stealing, killing, driving under the influence, speeding and many other laws, but sex; well, have at it. For now children and unconsenting adults are off limits, but I wonder how long that will last?

Why would God require of His people that we abstain from fleshly lusts? Because they war against the soul. To feed those desires and then to give in to them only brings self inflicted wounds and death. Abstinence is not easy but is easier if you don’t develop an appetite for lust and if you don’t feed that appetite. If any man lacks wisdom, let him ask of God. Even in this area God will help you.

_{Notes and comments © 2013 by Ronald C. Reed All rights reserved.}

His Own Special People – Broadcast for April 2, 2013

My work has taken me around the world where I’ve fellowshipped in hundreds of churches. I love the warmth and love you find with God’s people that transcends language and culture. In Russia, China, Israel, Latvia, India and even in my home country I have met with and enjoyed sweet fellowship with God’s own special people.

In 1 Peter 2:9 we read: But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10 NKJV)

We are not bound together by ancestry, or culture, or lines drawn on a map but by the call of God. We are the children of one Father but not of this earth, of heaven. God has given us birth and life and formed us who were not a people into the people of God. From every nation and language God has chosen His people. He has chosen that we would believe, that we would be His, that we would praise Him. He called us out out of darkness into His marvelous light. Let us raise our voice in praise together of the One who in mercy has called us to Himself. God desires that we would be His witness to a fallen world that by faith through His grace man will find mercy and salvation. We are in the world, not of it; but we are living examples of God’s love and grace.

_{Notes and comments © 2013 by Ronald C. Reed All rights reserved.}

A Holy Nation – Broadcast for April 1, 2013

I took a tour into Jordan to see Petra. What an amazing trip and how different it was from my other travel experience. I had just spent two weeks in Israel where many of the citizens were armed including the teenagers. In Jordan there were gun placements every few miles on the highways. Our tour guide saw to it that that he paid great respect to his king and corrected anyone who said anything that might be derogatory toward the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Seated on the bus was a team that monitored every word he spoke and our reactions to his words. There was not a sense of freedom that I have seen elsewhere in the world, but of repression and fear.

In 1 Peter 2:9 we read: But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10 NKJV)

A nation is defined by language, borders, customs and kinship. Peter describes believers as a holy nation. We have common spiritual heritage, God is our Father; a common language, the word of God; and a common outcome, we will be with God and each other for all eternity. We are a holy nation because God is holy and we proceed forth from Him by spiritual birth. We are a nation because we have become and are becoming a distinct people group belonging to God and to eternity and not to this life and time. All of the other believers in Christ are your kinsmen, your family, your countrymen. We belong to God and to each other.

We are a holy nation in that we are set apart unto God. We belong to Him and He to us. Our nation will not be defeated, consumed, absorbed, or diminished. We are and will be the only surviving nation of mankind. So, as citizens of the Holy let us be loyal to God who shows Himself strong on our behalf as we trust in Him.

_{Notes and comments © 2013 by Ronald C. Reed All rights reserved.}