Author: believersarmedanddangerous

Forgiveness is a huge part of our lives as Christians.  We enjoy God’s unmerited forgiveness for our sins (1 John 1:9).  It is in the very nature of God to forgive (Ps. 130:3-4), so forgiveness is a righteous act.  We should emulate God in this.

Jesus’ death on the cross, the shedding of Christ’s blood, was the payment so we could be forgiven (Mat. 26:28).  So, forgiveness is important to God.  In an earlier post, we looked at sin and how sin is anything which does not align with God’s nature.  Since that’s true, not to forgive others would be sin.  And that’s where the real problem lays, doesn’t it?

Some of us have had things done to us which are difficult to forgive.  Maybe we’ve been abused, spat on, treated unjustly, and so on.  God doesn’t seem to care about the scale of what has been done to us, He wants to forgive that person.  Col. 3:12-13 says we are to forgive one another.  You just can’t forgive that one offender?  Too bad.  It’s God’s instruction to the Christian.

And if you think this is just an instruction for us to forgive only brothers and sisters in Christ or only those who seek forgiveness, Heb. 12:14-15 says one of the reasons we should forgive others is for our sakes, not just for the other person’s or to satisfy God.  This passage says bitterness will arise in us if we fail to forgive others.  We are to extend God’s grace to all, ALL, who have offended us.  That arrogant relative who has been belittling you since childhood, that guy at the office who continues to show you in a bad light, even the guy who cuts you off on the freeway, all these are to be forgiven.

There is a difference between forgiven and forgotten, however.  If you were abused as a child by a relative, for instance, forgiveness of that relative does not mean you should leave your children alone with him.  God isn’t saying that.  After all, we are to be as wise as serpents (Mat. 10:16), not crazy.

Lastly, I’d like to point out one of the most frightening passages of Scripture for us who find it difficult to forgive some folks.  In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus tells us to ask God to forgive us just as we are forgiven.  Some of us can twist that a little into thinking God will forgive us even if we don’t forgive others.  But, look at the next two verses following the Lord’s Prayer:

Matthew 6:14-15 (ESV)
¹⁴  For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you,
¹⁵  but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Verse 14 should thrill us, but verse 15 should scare the tar out of us all. 

It is our obligation as Christians to forgive others.  Some we can forgive immediately.  Those are the easy ones.  But God wants us to forgive the difficult ones as well.  I’ve found forgiveness sometimes takes years.  There’s only one way to accomplish forgiveness for those difficult folks, seek God’s help, and start today.

God has just one main goal: To make heaven as full as possible and hell as empty as possible.

Our lives on earth are important as God uses our years here to give us time to know Him and to introduce Him to others through word and deed.  Granted, there are more purposes to our lives, but these are the overriding ones. 

God’s plan stretches over thousands of years.  My spiritual life today is a tiny part of it and dependent on those who came before.  Hopefully, it will also be a brick in the foundation of those who are yet to come. 

The Born Again experience is a sort of benevolent pyramid scheme.  It depends on the work of others.  Someone shared Christ with Walter Martin at one time, and he wrote a book that pointed me to Christ.  In turn, there are people I have introduced to Christ.  That’s how it works.  There’s an unbroken chain from Adam and Eve to us and on to our spiritual descendents.  That’s God’s plan.

Many Christians believe happiness should be our lot in this life, but God often has a different plan.  It’s not that He doesn’t love us.  It’s that He loves all of us, even those who reject Him.  Jesus died for all the world, not just the few.  Other than our relationship with God and His effect through us on the lives of others, our time on earth is of little value in His grand plan.

On the morning of All Saints Day, November 1,  1755, a powerful earthquake lasting more than six minutes struck Lisbon, Portugal.  The destructive earthquake, accompanying tsunami, and devastating fire afterward killed an estimated 10,000 people many of whom were in churches worshipping.  The atheist, Voltaire, wrote a famous poem questioning a God who could allow such evil to happen to His children.  “Evil?”  I can think of no better way to go to God than on my knees in prayer.  The deaths of these people caused others to realize the temporary nature of life and turn to God.   Voltaire’s poem caused a stir in Europe, and many came to accept Christ through the resulting debates.  God has a plan. 

God often uses suffering and death to bring people to His Son.  If we ever think the godly life should only be filled with happiness, we should reread Job and 2 Cor. 11:21-29 to remind us of what God’s people have gone through in their lives.  The word, “happy” only appears 11 times in the Bible and is never a promise.  “Joy” appears nearly 200 times.  Only the Christian can be joyful through painful trials (James 1:2).

Our God is omniscient.  That means He knows every option, every possibility, and every result.  If it takes the suffering or death of one person in order to effect another’s life and bring them to His Son, then so be it.  There is a priority here.  At a recent funeral at our church, nearly a dozen people who might never have darkened the doorstep of a church otherwise, came to Christ.  The life, and even death of that man was used by God for His purpose.

The loss to loved ones is more than stressful and painful, but we all must leave this life.  For us to question God is laughable, puny finite man trying to understand the methods and motives of an infinite God is foolish.  He gives us a glimpse of His nature through His Word, but other than that, we still stand before a darkened mirror.

God has a grand plan.  Our lives are simply a few ticks on the clock of that plan.  Whether trials enter your life, or your life is filled with happiness, God is working His plan in you to fill heaven and keep hell as empty as possible.

I’m on FaceBook often, and I had an atheist there ask the other day why Christians pray.  “If God already knows your needs, why pray?’ she asked.  Good question

We pray for a number of reasons.

We pray, first, because we are told to pray (John 14:14), Jesus commands us to pray for others including our enemies (Mat. 5:44),  Jesus assumes we will pray (Mat. 6:6), and He set the example for us to pray (Mat. 14:23).

God loves to hear from His children even when the prayer is the same prayer day after day.  Don’t we love to see and hear from our loved ones?  When my extended family gets together, the same stories are told, the same blessing repeated, the same laughs are heard, and sometimes the same tears are shed.  Our God is a God of community.  He created the family because it is not good for us to be alone (Gen.  2:18).  He is a God of relationships including our relationship with Him.

To give us things to talk about, God gives us things to pray for:  World conditions (Pa. 122:6), more workers in the ministry (Luke 10:2), for the spiritual and physical health of others (2 Cor. 13:9; James 5:13-14).  We’re to pray for one another’s wellbeing and to give continual thanks to God for His blessings among a series of other things (1 Thess. 5:16-25).

Sometimes, God uses prayer to change US, OUR minds.  Think about that.  If God is all good and all knowing, what is He going to change His mind to?  It can’t be more righteous than He had already planned.  So, it’s we who need the change at times.

Billy Graham told a story of praying with a friend for three hours on a matter of much concern to them both.  He realized at the end of their prayer time, that they were both praying the exact opposite of what their view was at the beginning.  In their communion with God, God had changed their minds.

Most of all, prayer is just visiting with God.  He has time to talk with us unrushed, patiently, kindly. 

Years ago when I was in business for myself, I needed one more day of work per week, and two contracts were offered.  I bid on them both hoping to get one of them.  I got both of them.  I started ranting at God, “Don’t you understand, I don’t have time to do both.”  This went on for several minutes until He whispered in my ear, “You’re asking the omniscient God if I don’t understand.”  God and I laughed at my stupidity for several minutes.

It turned out the extra work caused me to hire a man who became a great Christian friend and, later, my partner in business.  God used that friendship and that business to provide so many other answers to prayer, I can’t list them all.  What I learned was that prayer should be two-way.  Not only are we to pray, we are to listen.  Try it.  Sometimes God will actually tell you some pretty neat things (Jer. 33:3)

Here is the second post looking at the lives of the major characters of the New Testament after Jesus’ resurrection.  This time it’s the apostles, James the Just, and Lazarus:

Matthew: Matthew seemed to want to stick around Palestine where he preached the gospel and ministered to many before heading out to, “other countries.”  “Other countries,” is not defined.  Church tradition says he died a martyr’s death but that death is not described.

James the son of Alphaeus:  Also known as “James the Less.”  Little is known about this James.  Many historians believe he remained in Jerusalem and was stoned to death by an angry mob.

Thaddaeus:  Also called St. Jude, Thaddaeus is the patron saint of lost causes.  He traveled spreading the gospel to Armenia, Osroene, and Iran where he was run through with a spear by an angry mob.  He and Simon the Zealot are the only two apostles martyred together.  Before his death, Thaddaeus is said to have looked at the crowd then turned to Simon and said, “I see that the Lord is calling us.”

 Simon the Zealot: Is said to have preached in Mauretania, Africa, Britain, and Iran where he suffered martyrdom alongside Thaddaeus (Jude).  While in Iran, the Magi reportedly saw Thaddaeus and Simon cast demons from their Temple.  Because of this, the magi encouraged an angry mob to kill the Christians.  Simon was sawn to pieces.

Judas Iscariot:  Judas, of course, hanged himself (Matt. 27:5) for betraying our Lord.  He may well have used a tree with a branch which extended out over a cliff.  Later, either the tree branch broke or the rope was cut, and the body of Judas fell and burst open (Acts 1:18).  It is interesting to me that every time his name is mentioned in the Scripture, he is either in the act of betraying Jesus or his betrayal is noted.

Matthias: Matthias was elected to be the replacement for Judas Iscariot (Acts 1:15-26).  It looks like Matthias might have travelled with the gospel to Armenia and helped Andrew with the cannibals of Scythia.  Tradition has it that he returned to Jerusalem and was stoned to death by an angry mob of Jews around 51 a.d.

Paul: Paul, of course, traveled throughout the Roman world sharing the gospel with the gentiles.  He also was the writer of much of the New Testament.  As a Roman citizen, it was illegal to crucify Paul, so he was beheaded sometime after the great fire in Rome (64 a.d.) but before Nero’s reign ended in 68 a.d.

James the Just:  James the Just was the half-brother of Jesus and head of the church in Jerusalem.  That church kept many Old Testament traditions as do many Messianic Jews today.  Because of this, the Jewish leaders thought James to still be a practicing Jew and asked him to stop the preaching of Jesus.  This he would not do and proclaimed the gospel throughout the city.  As a result, in 62 a.d., James was taken to the top of the wall of the temple and thrown down.  The fall did not kill him, though.  He was stoned and beaten to death.

James was a righteous man and recognized as such by the citizens of Jerusalem.  He was called “Old Camel Knees” because of what the hours of daily prayer had done to his knees.  He was such a just man, that when Jerusalem was overthrown and the temple destroyed in 70 a.d., many blamed the destruction on the way they had killed James the Just.  James is the writer of the book of James in Scripture.

Lazarus:  Lazarus is thought to have fled Jerusalem around the time of Christ’s crucifixion as the Jews sought him as well.  He went to Cyprus and stayed there.  Later, it is said, he met Paul and Barnabas in Kition in Cypress and was ordained by them to be bishop of Kition where the Church of St. Lazarus exists today. 

Another tradition says that Lazarus, Mary, and Martha were set adrift in a boat which eventually arrived at Gaul.  They evangelized the people there, and Lazarus was said to have become the first bishop of Marseille.

     People don’t live as these men and women did for something they don’t believe, and they don’t die for a lie.

I thought it would be helpful to look at what happened to major figures in the New Testament after the resurrection of Christ.  The lives of these men teach us truth is something to cling to share and die for, faith is a lifelong pursuit.  They show the truth of the gospel in that few people will gladly give their lives for a lie; certainly not all. 

We don’t have verified history for many of these lives: just church tradition.  I’m not ignoring the work the women did.  There is just very little recorded about them. 

Tens of thousands of people came to know Christ through the direct ministry of these men, millions through their inspired writings.

This will appear in two parts.  Part II next week. 

Peter:  Peter traveled around Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and Rome where at age 70 he was crucified upside down after first watching his wife crucified.  During the entire ordeal, he constantly encouraged her to remember Christ.  Peter chose to be crucified upside down.  He didn’t believe himself worthy to die as his Lord had.

Andrew:  Andrew seemed to prefer sharing the gospel in individual conversations rather than preaching to large crowds.  The governor of Patrae, Greece believed Andrew’s healing and conversion of the governor’s wife brought an alienation of affection.  He condemned Andrew to the cross, but commanded no nails be used so Andrew would die of exposure and exhaustion.  A crowd gathered around Andrew’s cross day and night as he told of his glorious Lord until his death.  He is credited with at least 2,000 converts to Christ in his lifetime.

James the son of Zebedee:  Also known as “James the Greater.”  According to Acts 12:1-3, James was killed (probably beheaded) by Herod Agrippa very early in the life of the early church.

John the son of Zebedee: John is said to have lived a full life and was perhaps the only one of the 12 to die a natural death.  Jesus asked him to watch over His mother (John 19:26-27) which he did.  John ministered throughout Palestine and Asia Minor.  Tertullian and Jerome tell us that John was thrown into a cauldron of boiling oil in Rome but survived.  He died reminding his flock to love one another.  He was nearly 100.

Philip: A number of early church fathers and historians believe Philip the apostle and Philip the deacon to be the same individual.  Eusebius, Tertullian, and Polycarp are among them.  Philip was an evangelist and ministered in Palestine, North Africa, and Asia Minor.  He was martyred as was Peter: crucified upside down. 

Bartholomew: Bartholomew spread the gospel through Palestine, Armenia, Asia Minor, and Central India.  The local governor in India liked Bartholomew, but the king did not.  He was skinned alive and crucified praying for his executioners and preaching to the crowds which gathered.  The church he started in India lasted several centuries.

Thomas: Though called, “Doubting Thomas,” Thomas had one of the most active ministries of the 12.  He left Palestine early and spent many years ministering in Osroene, a nation just north of Palestine and became a national hero there.  He returned to Jerusalem briefly before setting sail for India where he planted several churches.  Most of these are still there today, and the people call themselves “St. Thomas Christians.”  Thomas was martyred by local Hindus who were threatened by the new religion and thought it might replace Hinduism.  He died thanking God for all His mercies.

Early in the third century, a monk and theologian named Sabellius came up with the idea that God is not triune, that He is really just One Person who wears three hats, the Father hat, the Son hat, and the Holy Spirit Hat.  This was rightly seen as heresy and the church excommunicated Sabellius in 220 A.D.

The understanding of the trinity was in its early stages in the third century.  The church believed  the Father was God, the Son was God, and the Holy Spirit was God.  They just didn’t know how that worked seeing the Bible also says there is only One God.  There were several heretical answers to this problem.  Sabellius’ heresy was one of the more prominent. 

Around the same time, Dionysius of Alexandria, in an attempt to disprove Sabellius, taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were three separate gods.  He was quickly corrected by other scholars and changed his view.  Arius of Alexandria, in another effort to fight what he thought was the return of Sabellianism, taught that only the Father was God and that He had created the Son.  “There was when the Son was not,” was his famous statement.  He was refuted by Athanasius, yet it took the Council of Nicea (325 a.d.) to resolve the matter and show that the church supported the truth of the trinity.

That’s a lot of church history to make this point: Sabelius’ heresy is still seen today in what is called the “Oneness Movement.”  They teach that God is just one Person who relates to man in three ways, as the Father, as the Son, and as the Holy Spirit.  Usually this is explained as, “Only Jesus is God and He presents Himself as the Father and the Holy Spirit at times.”  This gave the movement the nickname, “Jesus Only.”

The organization most often identified with the “Jesus Only” doctrine is the United Pentecostal Church International.  There are others out there, but this is the largest that I know of.  Be careful, though.  Most Pentecostal churches are mainline Christian churches.  It is the United Pentecostal Church that teaches it.

“So, what is the problem,” you might ask.  “They still believe in Jesus, don’t they?”  Well, they believe in a Jesus but not the Jesus of the Bible.  The Jesus of the Bible is God the Son, second Person of the trinity.  He is not the Father or the Holy Spirit.  2 Corinthians 11:4 says there is another Jesus, another Spirit, and another gospel being taught out there and we should beware.  Galatians 1:9 says anyone who preaches another gospel than the one Paul taught should be cursed.  So, we need to be on guard.

2 Corinthians 13:5 says we should examine ourselves to make sure we are in the true faith.  To do that, we need to know the true faith, what it means and how we are to act.  Acts 17:11 commends the Christians at Berea because they examined what they were taught before accepting it as true.  Let’s be like the Bereans and test all things we hear from friends, radio programs, flyers at our doors, and even the pulpit.  Any sincere Bible-teaching pastor will encourage us to do so. 

Let’s be noble Christians like the Bereans and test what we hear, Christians who are sure of what we believe.

Guilt

How often we feel guilt as Christians and wonder how to handle it.  Guilt really results in one of two emotions, often both.  We either feel convicted or condemned.  How do we handle each of those?

Condemnation tells us that we are unworthy to do what God has for us.  “How could God love you after what you’ve done?”  We feel lowly, discouraged, separated from God, and we feel like crawling in that dark place under the house and just hiding from God in shame.

Conviction is the feeling that we have sinned, and we need to make things right with our God.  It’s a feeling much like condemnation bringing disappointment and discouragement in having failed Him.

Condemnation comes from the devil.  It is meant to draw us away from God, to keep us from our intimacy with Him, to stop our service for God and to dwell in self-pity.  It makes us ineffective in our witness.  Walter Martin used to rightly say, “To the devil, the next best thing to a lost soul is a sterile Christian.”  Condemnation makes us sterile by driving us away from God.

Conviction, though, is God telling us we need to repent.  He is reaching out to us to restore us to our intimate relationship with Him.  It is a healthy thing, and because He has paid the price for our sin through the death of His Son, He is faithful and just to forgive us of those sins (1 John 1:9)

Sometimes we tend to hang onto sins we’ve confessed.  Satan reminds us of past things we’ve done, people we’ve hurt.  Again, this is his attempt to keep us from our God.  I sometimes find myself asking for forgiveness of sins I committed years ago, sins I’ve confessed dozens of times before.  In the light of Scripture, God wonders what in the world I’m talking about:

Hebrews 8:12 (ESV)
¹²  For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

God can willingly forget things.  Our confessed sins are among those things He chooses to forget.  It isn’t He who keeps bringing those past sins up.  It’s Satan reminding us and our flesh dwelling on them.

If we feel unworthy and discouraged, unfit to address God with our problems and sin, that is from Satan, and we need not pay attention.  And, we shouldn’t dwell on the sins of the past, God doesn’t even remember them.

When we feel separated from God because of the sin we’ve committed, we should seek Him out.  The conviction we feel is from Him as He desires to draw us back to His side.

2 Timothy 2:24-26 (ESV)
²⁴  And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, ²⁵  correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, ²⁶  and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.

1 Peter 3:15-17 (ESV)
¹⁵  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, ¹⁶  having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. ¹⁷  For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

Over the years, we’ve all seen Christians on street corners, in parks, and on college campuses shouting the gospel at passersby.  Sometimes they appear happy that onlookers are mocking them or shouting back insults.  “Persecuted for the Lord,” they tell us with a smile.

A question that has bothered me for quite some time is, “Is this how Jesus wants the gospel presented?”  The two passages I cite above would seem to say, “No.”  Yet, we see Christians shouting down and browbeating those who might disagree with them. 

I think some of this might be due to an abuse of spiritual gifts.  We all do it.  My gift is teaching.  The abuse of this gift is to be a know-it-all, and I must admit, I have a tendency to overwhelm someone I’m talking with with the things I know.  Walter Martin, a personal hero of mine, used to say we should just say something pithy.  Don’t give the person too much to digest or they’ll just think you’re argumentative.  Give them enough to think about, and the Holy Spirit will work on them.  There’s a lot of wisdom in that.  Maybe these shouters are abusing their gift of evangelism?  Maybe the immediacy of people dying in their sin drives them to shout and browbeat.  I can understand. 

I think it’s more than just that, though.  I think much of it is an attitude of our hearts.  There is certainly nothing wrong with street witnessing or standing up at abortion clinics and city council meetings to patiently and respectfully express our views.  The Bible tells us how to do that in the verses cited above.  Whether it effects the people with whom we’re speaking is up to The Holy Spirit.  I know we get frustrated at a lack of obvious fruit at times, but God has given us the method He wants us to use.  It is our job as His servants to use it.

In the book of Acts, Paul is said to have “reasoned” with people.  Even when the Scripture says the disciples “preached boldly” it doesn’t indicate shouting, just a lack of timidity or shame, no holding back on the full truth of the Gospel.

The Los Angeles County Fair used to have a booth run by the International Bible Students, a spinoff group of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.  When my wife and I would go to the fair, I always tried to visit their booth and share a little of the gospel.  Once, the fellow I was talking to called to all the others working at the booth to show his friends I wasn’t calling him names or raising my voice.  As a result, he and his friends listened to what I had to say.  We discussed points where we differed, and they could see the gospel.  What I learned from that encounter was that he had experienced Christians shouting at him, calling him heretic, and cursing him.  That isn’t the way to get people to listen.  True, the fellow I was talking to was lost and believed in another Jesus, another gospel, and another Spirit.  But, he was someone for whom Christ died.  He should be treated as such.  Berating and browbeating him did little more than to strengthen his view that his organization had the love of God, and the Christians yelling at him did not.

So, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that we should follow Paul in 2 Timothy 2:24-26 and not be quarrelsome, but respectful and kind to those with whom we share.  Give them the full gospel, heaven and hell, but be good examples of Christ’s love.  It doesn’t matter how they act toward us.  Our obligation is to follow what God’s word tells us.  As I said, “These are people for whom Christ died.”

Let’s be Christians to them.

Proverbs 15:1 (ESV)
¹  A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.

This past week, I was reading about the widow at Nain (Luke 7:11-17).  What impressed me in the study, other than the miracle itself, of course, was that Jesus touched the stretcher upon which the widow’s dead son lay.  Observant Jews were not to touch anything to do with a dead person (Numbers 19) or they would be unclean: a big deal in Jewish culture. 

With Jesus’ touch, though, the young man did not remain dead.  He rose up, spoke, and Jesus presented him to his mother.

The passage in Luke also tells us that Jesus had “compassion” for the widow.  The word for “compassion” is the same word He used in the parable of the Prodigal Son when the father saw his son a long way off, had compassion on him and ran to him and hugged him.  The compassion Jesus felt was deep.  This wasn’t, I think, just because she had lost her son, which was devastating in itself.  She had also lost her support.  She had no husband or another son. 

It was very difficult for Jewish women, and especially widows, to support themselves in these times without a male bread winner.  According to the Law, they were included every three years in a tithing feast (Deut. 14:28-29), in a day of feasting once a year at the Feast of Weeks (Deut. 16:9-12), and at the annual Feast of Booths, a week-long celebration and feasting which included widows, too.  That was it so far as the festivals were concerned, though.  To survive, widows could also glean during the harvest times, and 10% of the crops each third year was distributed between the Levites, strangers, fatherless, and widows (Deut 26:12-13).  So, she could endure, but it was a hard life.  Jesus’ touch changed that.

Jesus also had compassion on a leper and healed him in Mark 8:3.  We’re told He touched him even though those who might touch a leper were unclean according to the Law.  Here the leper, too, was not just delivered from the malady but from a pitiable life.  According to Mosaic Law (Lev. 13), lepers had to wear torn clothing, let their hair grow over their faces, live alone, and shout, “Unclean, unclean,” whenever they were around others.  In healing the leper, Jesus’ touch changed all that.

There are others Jesus has touched, of course.  Like with the widow and the leper, He had compassion on them, and when He touched them, they were never the same.  Their lives were completely changed for the good.  If you know Jesus, you’re one of those people.  What a joy to experience the touch of our Master and see the changed lives we live.  If you don’t know Christ, He’s reaching out to you now.  Why not give your life to Him, and feel His healing touch?

Philippians 1:27 (NKJV)
²⁷  Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel,

Our pastor’s message a couple of weeks ago included this verse pointing out a balance.  Our conduct should be in equal proportion with the value of the gospel that brought us to Christ.  What a great thought.  Our behavior should show our gratitude for the gospel which saved us  But it should also be in equal portion as the gospel itself.  Later in Galatians (5:22-23), we see the fruit of the Spirit:  love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.  These should all be displayed in our lives for the world to see with the same power as the saving power of the gospel.

Another point, though, struck me.  Paul is speaking to those whom he led to the Lord and how their actions reflect that.  What if those who brought us to Christ were to look at our lives and conduct?  Would they be pleased to see how far we’ve come in the years since we first were introduced to Him?  Do the people around us see the gratitude in our behavior.

A lot of years ago, I led a person to Christ unsuspectingly.  We’ll call him Mike.  I was sharing with his wife who was studying with Jehovah’s Witnesses.  The Holy Spirit used me to lead her through the corruption and error of the Watchtower Organization and back to the truth of the gospel.  Mike was in the room listening. He later told me that he had accepted Christ through what I was showing his wife.  Mike’s wife came out of the Watchtower and rededicated her live to our Lord.  A year or two later, I read a letter to the editor in the Orange County Register strongly and reasonably defending the faith.  Mike’s name was at the bottom as the writer.

Joy swelled inside me at the evidence that Mike was still walking with the Lord and, in fact, stood strongly for the gospel.  I think Paul was displaying that same joy here in Galatians as he had heard about the conduct of the people he had brought to the Lord in Galatia.

I hope those who have helped me grow are joyful over what they see in what Christ is doing in my life.  There have been so many pastors, friends, teachers, and students who have powerfully affected the relationship I have with Him.  And I am extremely grateful for all that they have done.  I also hope our lives, yours and mine, are honoring to the God who controls them, fills them, and directs them.

Psalm 147:11 (ESV)
¹¹  but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.