Tempering Temperament

Peter is my favorite disciple because I identify with his temperament. Peter exhibited the tendencies of the classic choleric personality. Dynamic, outspoken, impatient, controlling, and decisive: Peter was always in the middle of the action and always had something to say – whether it was the right thing to say or not. He’s the one who spoke up declaring that Jesus was the Christ (Matthew 16:16). He’s the one who wanted to build the three tabernacles when he witnessed the transfiguration of the Lord and the appearance of Moses and Elijah (Matthew 17:1-4). He’s the one who cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant when the mob came to arrest Jesus (John 18:10). And he’s the one who, to save his own skin, denied even knowing the Lord, not once, not twice, but three times (Mark 14:67-72).

Something happened to Peter though, between that low point of self-absorbed denial and Acts 2:14. It was Peter who stood up as spokesperson for the rest of the disciples to explain to the public the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-17). Later in Acts, it was Peter who crossed the barrier between Jew and Gentile – thanks to some creative prompting by God – and preached Jesus to the Gentile Cornelius, when the other disciples (now apostles) were still witnessing only to the Jews. Peter then caught the vision that Jesus was for everyone. (See Acts 10.)

By the time Peter writes his epistles, he is so tempered that in the 4^th chapter of First Peter, he has even come to understand some hard things about suffering, something to which a card-carrying choleric would never succumb. Good cholerics are adept at getting themselves out of jams, not bearing up in them. Yet Peter teaches just that as he mentions the word ‘suffer’ six times, and the idea of suffering two more times if you count the words ‘fiery trial’ and ‘reproached’ as ideas in the same family. What could have brought this brash, forthright man’s man to a place of putting himself out there to be ridiculed by the public and even by his own friends? What could possibly have brought Peter to write in 1 Peter 4:19 “Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator” (NKJ)?

The resurrection of the Lord in a life will have that effect on a person.

No matter what our temperament, when Jesus is alive in us, He will temper that temperament and bring it in line with His will. Peter was still outspoken, but he submitted that trait to Jesus and let Him use it for His glory. We must stop using the phrase “that’s just how I am” as an excuse for our un-Christian-like conduct. When God enters our lives, He intends to take over everything, including our personality, so He can mold it into His image. Let go and allow God to temper your temperament.

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REMINDER: Remember to study your Bible regularly. At any time of the day or night, log on to www.WebTV4Women.com. Click the Bible Study channel, and then Sharon’s show, A Heart for the Word. Increase your knowledge of the Word in just 6 minutes a day.

©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com.

Married Folks’ Conduct

In chapter 2 of Peter’s first epistle, he admonishes us as believers as to how we ought to live out our faith through our honorable actions. By this will all men will know that we are Christians. He continues to exhort us toward right living in chapter 3 by focusing on the conduct of married believers.

To the women, Peter says, “Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives, when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear” 1 Peter 3:1-2 (NKJ). Wives are to voluntarily place themselves under the authority of their husbands. That should be easy to do if the husband is also saved, but Peter tells us here that even if he isn’t (or isn’t acting like it), the wife’s submissive demeanor will win over her contrary husband because her chaste and honorable conduct, empowered by the Holy Spirit, will simply be impossible for him to ignore.

To the men, Peter says, “Husbands, likewise, dwell with them with understanding, giving honor to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered” 1 Peter 3:7 (NKJ). Husbands are to conduct their relationship with their wives “with understanding.” The Greek word used here carries with it the idea of knowing her, studying her scientifically, and being perceptive and aware of her feelings. Honoring her means you esteem her as precious and handle her with dignity. This is required of husbands, not only for the comfort of the relationship, but for a broader purpose: so that your prayers, both as an individual and as a couple, would not be hindered.

Remember the context of these instructions: not only are we to obey for the sake of the health of the relationship, but we are to do so as a witness to those outside the body of Christ. Every aspect of our lives, including our marriage, belongs to God and is to be viewed, lived, and used as a witness to His glory and goodness. Wives, we don’t submit because our husbands are always right, loving, and honorable; we submit because God said we should and He’ll ultimately get the glory from it. Husbands, you don’t struggle to understand your wives because they’re always rational, calm, and beautiful; you are understanding because God said you should be and He’ll ultimately get the glory from it.

We may have our lapses, but let’s take care that we aren’t both off at the same time. Give your spouse the benefit of the doubt if he or she is having a bad day. He loves the Lord and she’s a child of God, so he’ll/she’ll be back. If you want it smooth, just remember this: It’s easy to be a submissive and chaste wife to an understanding and honoring husband. And it’s easy to be an understanding and honoring husband to a submissive and chaste wife. Why can’t we see that when we both do our part to honor God in our marriage, we both get what we want and need?

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REMINDER: Remember to study your Bible regularly. At any time of the day or night, log on to www.WebTV4Women.com. Click the Bible Study channel, and then Sharon’s show, A Heart for the Word. Increase your knowledge of the Word in just 6 minutes a day.

©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com.

The Danger of Fleshly Lusts

Praemonitus, praemunitus. This Latin proverb has been traced to Treatises of Fistula (c. 1425) by J. Arderne. In 1615, it was used by Cervantes in Don Quixote, and was first attested in the United States in History of New Hampshire in 1685. The truth of the proverb existed though, long before these folks voiced the fact that “to be forewarned is to be forearmed.” In other words, knowledge of imminent danger can prepare us to overcome it.[1] First Peter 2:11 gives us one of these types of warnings. “Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul” (NKJ).

What exactly does it mean to “abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul”? This phrase means we must hold ourselves off from the carnal, unregenerate longings and desires that serve in a military campaign against our very lives. Since we know that fleshly lusts are out to get us, we can be on the look-out, prepare for the imminent dangers they pose, and be ever-ready to overcome them.

We can put nothing past our flesh, nor can we be so naïve as to say what we would never do. We don’t believe the utter depravity of ourselves. In the Old Testament, the priests were even instructed to “teach My people the difference between the holy and the unholy, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean” Ezekiel 44:23 (NKJ). Why such an instruction? Because it’s possible to get right and wrong twisted. We must remain sober, vigilant, and aware of the literal battle we’re in over our souls; fleshly lusts being our foremost enemy that seeks to cut us off at the knees.

We are obeying fleshly lusts – carnal, unregenerate longings and desires – when we do with our bodies that which our spirit opposes. Since our spirit has been born again and is now connected with Christ’s spirit, whatever opposes the word of God in our flesh and draws us to it is a fleshly lust. This obviously includes any sexual sin, but it also includes anything our body and emotions want to do that is contrary to God’s word. Are we damaging and dishonoring our bodies (the temple of God) by over-eating, ingesting or injecting drugs (including marijuana, nicotine, and alcohol), flaunting too much skin in our clothing, or allowing ourselves to be subjected to abuse? Are we taking mess into our minds, lashing out in word or deed against others, or selfishly withholding our gifts from the benefit of the Body of Christ?

Fleshly lusts war against the soul. Abstinence from them fights back. We’ve been warned. Now let’s set up the watch and charge whenever necessary!

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©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. 

REMINDER: Remember to study your Bible regularly. At any time of the day or night, log on to www.WebTV4Women.com. Click the Bible Study channel, and then Sharon’s show, A Heart for the Word. Increase your knowledge of the Word in just 6 minutes a day.

  

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[1] The Phrase Finder. www.phrases.org.uk

Identified by Love

We used to sing a chorus at church youth camp that said, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love; yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.” Unfortunately, today that does not seem to be the case. Somehow the focus of our identity has been shifted from love to a political position. Christians are identified as the ones who are against homosexual marriage and against abortion. We are seen as old-fashioned, Bible-thumping, intolerant right-wingers, selfishly arguing to keep “under God” in the pledge of allegiance and “in God we trust” on the money although everybody in America does not believe in our God.

Whether we are guilty or not of the aforementioned charges, how we are identified as Christians should concern us. We can’t do anything about the impression people choose to take away from what they experience when they come in contact with us, but we can do something about what they actually do see. In John 13:34-35, Jesus says, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (NKJ). And when asked to give the greatest commandment, Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself” Matthew 22:37-39 (NIV).

I believe God wants us to be identified not merely by the views we hold, but rather by the lives we live. People can say what they want, accuse us of what they want, and disagree with our views if they want; but they simply cannot deny, reject, or ignore real love when they see it. When speaking of the kind of death He would die, Jesus said, “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself” John 12:32 (NKJ). Jesus’ love for us lifted Him up on the cross to die for our sins; we continue to lift Jesus up for all men to see as we obey the commandment to love each other.

Let’s stop the petty jealousies, the nonsensical competition, and the trivial aversions. Try to be a good friend, gracious neighbor, helpful associate. First Peter 1:22 suggests, “Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart” (NKJ). Our love is an obvious witness to the world. Let’s be sure we’re identified by it.

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REMINDER: Remember to study your Bible regularly. At any time of the day or night, log on to www.WebTV4Women.com. Click the Bible Study channel, and then Sharon’s show, A Heart for the Word. Increase your knowledge of the Word in just 6 minutes a day.

©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com.

Live Real Christianity

The book of James in the Bible was written by the Lord Jesus’ brother; no wonder it’s so down-to-earth and practical. In it we read about the dangers of the tongue, the temptations we face brought about by our own lusts, the fact that faith without works is dead. It makes sense that James would write this way; after all, he had first-hand knowledge watching his older brother function as God in the flesh in his own household.

So in chapter five of his book, James continues to tell us how to live out real Christianity. There’s no need to put on airs. He says:

• …do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes,” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,”… (verse 12)
• Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. (verse 13a)
• Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. (verse 13b)
• Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. (verses 14-15)
• Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (verse 16) James 5:12-16 (NKJ)

There’s no need to act like we have to talk a special way. Circumstances will enter our lives that will cause suffering, and when that happens, we’ll hurt, weep, and cry out to God in anguish. Other situations will arise that will cause joy, and when that happens, we’ll get all goose-bumpie, laugh, and share our excitement. We’ll get sick, need prayer, and see God’s hand raise us up. We’ll fall into sin, confess, and receive God’s gracious forgiveness. We’ll hurt one another and reconcile.

“So,” you may ask, “what’s the point of being a Christian if all the same stuff can happen to us as happens to everybody else in the world?” The point is the relationship. These verses show us that we Christians are just average people, but we’re in touch with an awesome God. Living out real Christianity means we approach the joys and challenges of this life honestly facing the reality of all that’s taking place; yet trusting our God, thanks to Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, to get us victoriously through it all. The outcome will be that our ordinary lives will be lived in such an extraordinary way, that God will draw people to Himself through us.

Just be real. It’s a wonderful witness.

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REMINDER: Remember to study your Bible regularly. At any time of the day or night, log on to www.WebTV4Women.com. Click the Bible Study channel, and then Sharon’s show, A Heart for the Word. Increase your knowledge of the Word in just 6 minutes a day.

©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com. 

 

Watching My Words

My daddy, Vincent Norris, was the senior pastor of a fairly large church during my most critical, formative years. But before, during, and after that assignment, his conduct and demeanor was always the same. He was an honorable man, respected by everyone who knew him, and extremely quiet. Yes, you heard me right: a pastor who was quiet.

As I suffered with a severe case of laryngitis over the past week and a half, there were many times I wanted to interject remarks into conversations, start a dialogue with someone, or just blurt out my thought, but I physically couldn’t do it. I learned something: the world continued to turn without anyone hearing my words and nothing fell apart at the seams.

My mind went back to Daddy. I realized that the majority of words I ever heard my father speak were spoken from the pulpit. That meant that most of the words my father spoke into my life were directly from the word of God. He “spoke” most loudly to us in private by his presence. Although a busy pastor, he never missed a school event or piano recital. Even after I became an adult, if I was on a program, Momma and Daddy were in the audience, “speaking” love to me by their appearance.

James 3:2 says, “For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body” (NKJ). Daddy was careful not to stumble in word. As I get my voice back, I’m determined to remember the wonderful lesson my father’s quietness has taught me and be more cognizant of my words. As with the rest of my life, I want my words to matter. As a gregarious, choleric/sanguine personality, this will be a definite challenge, but I’m going to try to remember to ask myself some questions about my words:

• Are the words I’m going to use really necessary?
• Will lives be changed, thoughts reexamined, intentions reevaluated?
• Will my listeners be moved, strengthened, enhanced, encouraged, challenged, or blessed by what I have to say?
• Do my words reflect God’s word?

The above verse tells us how to stop stumbling, how to be mature, and how to have control over our whole body. Watch our words. Will you join me?

REMINDER: Remember to study your Bible regularly. At any time of the day or night, log on to www.WebTV4Women.com. Click the Bible Study channel, and then Sharon’s show, A Heart for the Word. Increase your knowledge of the Word in just 6 minutes a day.

©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com.

The Point Is: Live for God

Adherents to the radical fringe of a popular religion maintain that their god rewards them if they murder “the infidels.” The definition of an infidel is anyone who does not believe in their god and their faith. Although on the surface this may seem to be a compelling witnessing technique – believe or die – it’s not effective when it comes to heart change. Our bodies respond to fear, but our hearts respond to love.

The God of the Bible, the true and living God, loves us and is interested in our lives, not our deaths. “…‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways!…’” Ezekiel 33:11 (NKJ) God repeats this sentiment several times in His word.

• “For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,” says the Lord GOD. “Therefore turn and live!” Ezekiel 18:32 (NKJ)
• The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Peter 3:9 (NIV)
• Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men… that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 (NKJ)

How aptly this fits with the words of James as he, through the Holy Spirit, tells us, “For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also” James 2:26 (NKJ). You see, we don’t just get saved in order to drift through life staying out of as much trouble as possible until we die. We get saved in order to live for God. Being a Christian and doing nothing for God is like having a university education and refusing to take a job offered in your field of study. We spent all that money but refuse to use the knowledge we gained. Ridiculous. It’s just as ridiculous to be walking around as a saved individual having no Christian works to show for it. If that’s the case, God’s word says our faith is dead.

God intends for us to live for Him. What proof of your faith does your life produce? As the old question asks, “If you were on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”

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REMINDER: Remember to study your Bible regularly. At any time of the day or night, log on to www.WebTV4Women.com. Click the Bible Study channel, and then Sharon’s show, A Heart for the Word. Increase your knowledge of the Word in just 6 minutes a day.

 ©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com.

Genuine Faith Can Take It

Some people exhibit a nasty tendency to doubt, question, and even ridicule that which is genuine. When they encounter a married couple who is getting along on a regular basis, they say, “They must be hiding something; nobody can be that happily married.” When they meet Christian young adults standing up for abstinence and determined to preserve their virginity until marriage, they counter, “No one can be that holy. That’s just not natural; they must be gay.” And don’t let them hear someone excitedly recounting some successes in her life; they are quick to offset that with, “There she goes bragging again; good things happen for other people too. She thinks she’s all that.”

Regardless of those snide comments, martial happiness, resolves to remain abstinent, and enjoyment of God’s favor are all genuine phenomena possible for all God’s children. These and other positive things that come our way, or stands we take, are the result of standing on our faith. Yet and still, these and all other genuine faith-produced situations will be tested, not to destroy them, but to prove their authenticity. That’s why James tells us, “Consider it pure joy… whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” James 1:2-4 (NIV).

Romans 14:23c says, “…and everything that does not come from faith is sin” (NIV). Everything in our lives that is based on faith can endure testing. (Anything that can’t stand up to the testing could very well have been of sin and needed to be destroyed anyway.) That’s how we know our faith is sure and solid. Until faith is tested, it’s only theory. Once tested and proven, faith becomes for us indestructible fact.

This is the importance of enduring temptation. “Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him” James 1:12 (NIV). It’s only after we face the trials and endure temptation that we are counted as mature, complete, lacking nothing, and approved. Then and only then will we receive the crown of life, bestowed by the Lord upon those who love Him.

Let the naysayers talk all they want. Titus 1:15 has a word about them: “To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted” (NIV). As long as we know our actions and motives are the result of our genuine faith, there’s no need to crack when the sisters known as Trials and Temptations shoot their best shot. Unbeknownst to those evil twins, as we hang tough through the testing, all they’re doing is helping to mature and complete us, pushing us ever closer to the heart of God. 

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REMINDER: Remember to study your Bible regularly. At any time of the day or night, log on to www.WebTV4Women.com. Click the Bible Study channel, and then Sharon’s show, A Heart for the Word. Increase your knowledge of the Word in just 6 minutes a day.

©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com.

The Glory that’s Due

I’ve heard that celebrities don’t necessarily mind bad publicity as long as their name continues to circulate among the public. An inaccurate mention is better than being ignored, subsequently getting no mention at all. Everything about fame depends upon getting one’s name “out there,” so it’s not surprising to find people going to extremes sometimes to get noticed.

When people decide to ignore God, He will go to extremes to get noticed. Of course, He deserves to be noticed; He deserves glory. I was struck by this thought when I read eight times in just two chapters of Ezekiel (chapters 29 and 30) God saying that people “will know that I am the Lord.”

God gets His name “out there” in these two chapters, but it’s not in a way any one of us would like. His comment follows His declarations to:

• Leave you in the wilderness
• Bring a sword upon you
• Make land utterly waste and desolate
• Diminish them
• Take away wealth, and
• Pour out my fury.

God says He will scatter, break, and disperse so that they “will know that I am the Lord.”

The nations to which God is talking in Ezekiel 29 and 30 had had their chances to acknowledge Him yet had ignored Him for years. What about us? Both Psalm 29:2 and Psalm 96:8 say, “Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name…” Have we given God the notice He deserves or is He going to have to make some extreme declarations in our lives followed by “then they will know that I am the Lord”? Will God have to do some drastic thing to get His name “out there” with us?

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REMINDER: Remember to study your Bible regularly. At any time of the day or night, log on to www.WebTV4Women.com. Click the Bible Study channel, and then Sharon’s show, A Heart for the Word. Increase your knowledge of the Word in just 6 minutes a day.

©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com.

Straighten Up

No one likes to be rebuked. We may not even realize we’re traveling down the wrong road and we need to be stopped. Or, we may get ourselves into situations or discussions and in the heat of the moment, act or speak rashly, and figure we’ll let the chips fall where they may. But guess what, we may well be dead wrong, the “chips” may have acted as shrapnel to the severe wounding others, and someone needs to come along and chastise us – seriously rebuke us – for our error so we can do something about getting things right again.

Hebrews chapter 12 speaks of God rebuking and chastising us. The writer has just finished listing in chapter 11 all the faithful who have preceded us and says, “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” Hebrews 12:1 (NKJ). In other words, it’s time for us to stop getting ourselves caught up in messes, stop succumbing to our weaknesses, and stop yielding to temptation. Just cut it out. There’s Christian living to be done, God’s work to accomplish, and we’re getting easily tripped up.

The passage goes on to say that God loves us too much to allow us to keep messing up. Hebrews 12:5-6 says, “And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: ‘My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives’” (NKJ). No, we don’t like being “checked,” but God will do it because He’s our Father and that’s what fathers do. (If you’re not being checked by God, you might want to check your born-again birth certificate to see if you’re really one of His kids. Fathers discipline their own.)

So what should be our response to rebuke? Hebrews 12:12-13 makes that clear. “Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees, and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed” (NKJ). Bottom line: straighten up. Limp wrists indicate weakness; straighten your wrists so your hands reach to do the right things. Feeble knees indicate admitting defeat; straighten up so you won’t surrender to sin. Crooked paths indicate traveling in the wrong direction; determine to follow God’s straight and narrow way.

Simply put: stop the wrong stuff you started; don’t start the wrong stuff you were getting ready to do. Accept God’s rebuke and straighten up.

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REMINDER: Remember to study your Bible regularly. At any time of the day or night, log on to www.WebTV4Women.com. Click the Bible Study channel, and then Sharon’s show, A Heart for the Word. Increase your knowledge of the Word in just 6 minutes a day.

©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com.