What to Do and How to Do It

Col 3:16-17 & 23  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.....Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,  since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.  NIV

Before you decide how to do something it's rather important to determine what to do. These three verses from Paul's letter to the Colossians teach us about both.

"Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" is a good start. The word of Christ can include what we read in the Bible that Jesus Himself spoke. It can also include what was written by those whom Jesus taught, including Paul. Only when we know what our Lord and Savior and Teacher has said can we really know what we're supposed to do.

Of course it is possible to read something Jesus teaches and take it out of the context of the surrounding verses and the context of the Bible as a whole. That's why it's good to have godly pastors, teachers, and fellow Bible study and Sunday school friends, for then we can teach and when necessary admonish one another pertaining to what Christ wants us to know.

Listening to and singing songs that actually line up with the truth of Scripture can also help remind us of what what we are called  to do. For example, we're called to have gratitude. And we're called to praise God.

As we learn what God wants us to do, next we need to know how to do it. Not just the particulars of step by step how to accomplish things like caring for orphans and widows and supporting those who bring the gospel to people around the world. We also need to do what we're called to do as well as we possibly can with the help of God.

We who have been bought by Christ belong to God as adopted children in His family and members of the Body of Christ with Jesus being the Head of this Body. When we do the things God wants us to do we are doing so as those who belong to Christ.

When we therefore do things in a shoddy and haphazard way we are representing Jesus in a way that is demeaning and degrading in regards to who He is.

This segment of the letter about working with all your heart as to the Lord and not to men was addressed to slaves who had become believers in Christ. But it can apply to all Christians because all Christians have been bought by the shed blood of Christ.

I need to give this matter more of the contemplation that it deserves. I want to seek to clearly know what God wants me to do. Then I want to do those things wholeheartedly. When I'm doing things to help provide for my wife, and church, and those in need, or give encouragement to family and friends, I don't want to it halfheartedly. I want to do it with as much God given ability and perseverance that He enables me to have.

If we make good use of the Bible and good Bible teaching, we can learn how to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul and strength, and to love our neighbor (anybody who needs help) as ourselves. Then we'll be doing what we're supposed to be doing and doing it the way we're supposed to be doing it.

How Should a Husbad Love His Wife?

Eph 5:25-30  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church for we are members of his body. NIV

 Today John MacArthur was talking about husbands loving their wives on the Grace To You radio program. It's a subject that I think it's always worthwhile to seek to be reminded of, and hopefully become better at putting it into practice.

I happen to be a husband, so this subject matter definitely pertains to me. How should I love my wife?  The answer is simple. I'm to love my wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.

What did Jesus do while He was here in the flesh? He healed people who were sick. He fed people who were hungry. He took time to talk with people and teach them important truth. He took time to be with children. He calmed a storm when His disciples were afraid. He put up with followers who did not understand Him and abandoned Him when difficulties arose.

Why was Jesus so longsuffering and compassionate? Because if He gave up on His weak, sinful and rebellious followers and treated them the way they deserved to be treated, He would have skipped the torturous execution on the Cross, and there would be no Church. Nobody would be cleansed from their sins.

Then and now Jesus does not treat us the way we deserve to be treated. None of us love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. We don't deserve the many blessings we already have or the ones that are offered to us if we let Jesus transform us into believers who desire to love and serve Him forever.

If I am a follower of Jesus, I will seek His help to love my wife as He loves His church. If He hadn't laid down His life for us we would not have known how great was His love for us. He suffered and died for us. He sent the Holy Spirit to live in us. He intercedes on our behalf. We can spend eternity with Him where there will be no more sorrow because of what He did. He did what He did because He loves us and loving is something that is done, whether or not a good feeling accompanies the action.

How should a husband love his wife? He should treat as tenderly and kindly as anyone would care for his own body. We like to feed ourselves tasty food. We like to have a warm bath or shower when we're grimey and smelly even to ourselves. We like to be dressed in comfortable clothes. We want those things just because we want them.

I want to love my wife in ways that show her clearly that I care about what she needs and wants. I want her to feel blessed that I'm her husband. Just as all that Jesus has done and is doing for us helps us to rejoice in Him, I want to do things for my wife that will delight her.

I believe that just as Christ loving the Church helps the Church become more godly, my loving my wife in such an unselfish way can help her become the woman God wants her to be.

When I fall short in loving her that way, then I pray that the Lord will quickly convict me of my sin so that I will repent, and ask both God and my wife to forgive me.

Loving my wife the way God wants me to love her takes time and understanding. I pray that I can make good use of those things during all the days of the rest of our lives together.

Will You be Wise or Foolish?

Mat 7:24-27  "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock   The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.  But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."   NIV

Early in his account of the life and teachings of Jesus, Matthew shares what we now call the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus concluded that sermon with the above words about the importance of having the good foundation of practicing what Jesus preached.

Jesus did not give sermons for entertainment purposes. He didn't give them to impress people and get as many people as possible to follow Him as their leader. He taught to speak the truth so that those who would accept the truth could be prepared for what was coming in the future, both the near future and in future of eternity.

The people who hear the words of Jesus, either back when He spoke them, or after they were written for us in the Bible, can choose to either seek to put His words into practice or reject and ignore them.

The words of Jesus are not easy to accept. He calls for righteousness that exceeds merely keeping a set of rules. He even wants us to love and do good to the people we very much don't like. The only one to ever fully live up to His standards is Jesus Himself. But those are still the standards He calls us to.

Is that fair? After all, we're not God in the flesh, we're sinners saved by grace.

Well, He knows that. That's why He died on the cross to pay the price for our sinning both when we do so intentionally and when we do so even when we try our best not to sin.

But He did more for us than pay the price for our rebellion and sin. He also empowers us with the Holy Spirit to help us turn away from sin and in His strength do what He wants.

Before Jesus returned to heaven He told His followers that they would receive power when the Holy Spirit came to them. (Acts 1:8) The Holy Spirit is still available to help those who believe in Jesus as Savior and Lord to do and say what God wants them to do and say.

What does God want us to do and say? We can find out by reading Scripture, especially the New Testament. The religious leaders of Jesus day read the Old Testament and had a limited understanding of it. When God came in the flesh and taught them clearly, most of them rejected what He said. They were too proud to admit that their understanding of Scripture was limited or accept that their own man made religiosity could be contradictory to the will of God.

The words of Jesus are the words of the Creator of all that was created. He knows the purpose for everything including the purpose for people. As I wrote earlier, the words He has for us are not to entertain us, or impress us, or for us to be puffed up with how smart we'll be if we learn them.

The words of Jesus are to be heard and then be put into practice. To be successful at putting them into practice we'll need the Holy Spirit, which Jesus gladly gives to live within us. (Luke 11:13, John 14:17)

I don't want to be foolish. I want to know the words of Jesus and I want to put them into practice. So I'll keep reading the Bible, and using good Bible study materials, and seeking the help of the Holy Spirit do what Jesus tells me to do through what He teaches in Scripture.

I hope those who read this will seek to be wise rather than foolish. There are eternal consequences.

Is the Yoke on You?

Mat 11:28-30  "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  NIV

If the above words of Jesus were all you ever read from the Bible you might conclude that following Jesus was practically effortless. You might think calling yourself a "Christian" was all it takes to come to Jesus and be one who will spend eternity with Jesus.

Certainly everything that Jesus says is true, including what He said about His yoke being easy and His burden being light. But I'd like to point out to you what a yoke is, and what a burden is.

A yoke is a device that generally consists of a crosspiece and two bow shaped pieces that go over the heads of two animals, usually oxen, so they can work together. The purpose for being yoked to to work.

This passage of Scripture even mentions a burden, or task, that is light. But we need to remember that although the burden is light, there is a real burden, a real task to do, if we are united with Jesus.

It's interesting to look at the preceding verses, especially verse 20 where Jesus denounces cities which did not repent, despite having seen so many of His miracles. The people of those cities had chosen to reject Jesus. They chose not to be yoked together with Him. He made it clear that the consequences for them on the day of judgment will be severe.

Is the yoke that is on Jesus really also on you? Are you bound together with Him for whatever work, for whatever tasks you are called to do with Hiim?

Sometimes those tasks may seem hard. But remember that if God calls you to a task, and you are yoked to Jesus, that He's the strong one and He'll do whatever He needs to do to see that the job gets accomplished successfully.

We need to come to Jesus. We need to learn from Him, which should include learning from Scripture what He has told us He wants us to learn. And we need to acknowledge that we're to be yoked to Him to be involved in the very work of God.

Is the yoke of Jesus on you? Or do you choose to reject Jesus like the people in the cities Jesus denounced. I urge you and me both to willingly and gratefully accept being yoked with the One who loves us so much that He suffered and died for us.

Eternal Life -- What is It?

Joh 17:1-3  After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: "Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.  For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.  Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.  NIV

When most people hear the phrase "eternal life" they think either of living forever without physically dying or perhaps the life people may have in heaven.

These three verses from the 17th chapter of the gospel of John tell us a couple of things that Jesus said about eternal life. In my previous post I wrote how the first chapter of this gospel states that Jesus is God come in the flesh.

In these 3 verses Jesus tells that the Father has given Him authority over all people that He might give eternal life to all those who had been given Him. So according to this passage, if anyone is going to have eternal life he or she can only get it from Jesus.

To me the following verse is even more amazing. Verse 3 tells us what eternal life is. It doesn't say that eternal life is living a physical life that never ends. It doesn't even say that eternal life is going to heaven to spend eternity. It says that eternal life is knowing the one true God and Jesus Christ, who was sent by the one true God.

Let's consider for a moment how Jesus Christ was sent. In the previous post Jesus was shown to be the One known as the Word who was always with God, and was God, and who made all things that were made. This One known as the Word became a flesh, a real human being, who was born and grew up, and, at at the appointed time, was put to death as the Lamb of God, sacrificed for our sins. His sacrifice on the cross provided the way for the one true God who is altogether holy to thoroughly forgive and cleanse us of sins because Jesus paid the penalty for them.

Only what Jesus did redeems us from our sins. Only what the Father sent the Son to do is sufficient for us to be forgiven and granted a relationship with Him that will last forever.

We can only have eternal life when we know God the Father and also God the Son, Jesus Christ. Without a knowing relationship with Jesus Christ, we don't get the life that only the Son can give. If you want eternal life you need to know Jesus.

Once you know Him as Lord and as Savior you should seek to know Him more. We should seek to know all that it means for Him to be our Lord and Savior. We should learn more how to please Him. To do that we need to know what He makes known to us in Scripture.

The Bible is unlike any other book. If you know what is in every other book but, but don't know what is in the Bible you could spend eternity wishing you had taken the time to lean what God wants us to know about Himself and how to have the eternal life that can come with knowing Him.

Who Is He and Why Did He Come?

Joh 1:1-3  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. NIV

Joh 1:14  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  NIV


Verse one of the gospel of John tells us that the Word was with God and was God and made everything that has been made. Verse 14 tells us that the one called the Word became flesh. To say it another way, God became flesh. The one who was with God and was God became flesh. The one who had made all creation became a part of His creation. 

If you take the time to read the entire chapter you will see that the One who is called the Word is Jesus.

Jesus was not merely a man who was an extraordinary teacher. Jesus was and is the Creator who made everything that was created. At a certain point in time He also became a man of flesh. Flesh like you and I have. Flesh that could be felt, and could become fatigued, and that could be nailed to a cross and die.

Why did the One who was with God and was God also become flesh? Why did Jesus become a man of flesh who could be mistreated and killed?

One primary reason He did that is revealed in how John the Baptist introduced Him as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. (John 1:29)

Roman 6:23 states that the wages of sin is death. You might not like those wages, but you and I cannot change the fundamental characteristics of this Creation. Scientists and engineers and others can work with the various properties that are part of creation. They can discover things they didn’t know before. But they can’t make something totally new out of nothing, or create new properties or characteristics that were not at least in some form already part of the creation.

God makes the rules. We learn about them and either reject them or seek His help to live within their limits.

God determined that the wages of sin is death. He also determined what sin is. Just because a person thinks he or she isn’t a sinner doesn’t make it so. If we do not love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength then we are sinners and have earned the wages of sin – death. We are sinners if we disobey anything God commands us.

Jesus, who is God, came in the flesh, to be the Lamb of God, so He could be put to death for our sins.

Did Jesus ever sin? No. As much as the leaders of that time tried, they could not find a single fault in Him. But because He didn’t do things their way, and said things they didn’t like, they saw to it that He was crucified. Nailed to a cross. Killed.

Jesus, the only sinless man to ever live became the spotless Lamb of God whose death atones for sin. Not symbolically, but truly. God the Father can forgive us because His only begotten Son died on our behalf.

I can never thank Jesus enough for having suffered and died for my sins. He is an amazing God, to have become flesh so that He could die for us.

Yes, Jesus is my Boss. He is my Lord. He is my Savior. I want to become all He wants me to become. I want to do all He wants me to do. And not merely to earn His appreciation. I want to love Him to whatever extent He makes it possible for me to love Him. Part of my loving Him is doing what He wants me to do. Part of loving Him is learning what He wants me to do.

Our Boss Tends Sheep

Joh 10:14-15  "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me --  just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. NIV

Our boss, Jesus, is a shepherd. He is a good shepherd. He not only cares about His sheep, He also knows them. He knows them completely. Thoroughly. He knows their needs. He knows their faults. He knew they needed Him to die for their sins. He knows how to call them to follow Him.

Amazingly, His sheep also know Him. They don't know Him in exactly the same way or to the extent that He knows them, but this one thing they do know about Him. They know He is their shepherd.

Many people hear the Biblical good news about Jesus dying for sins so that people could live eternally with Him as their Lord, but not all people believe who Jesus is or what He did.

Those who believe in Jesus as the one who laid down His life to obtain the forgiveness of our sins, now gratefully acknowledge and follow Him as our wonderfully good shepherd.

If you are His sheep you will want to follow Jesus wherever He leads you, and seek to do whatever He wants you to do.

Those of us who are His sheep can know what He wants us to do by reading the Bible and by being taught by those who He's raised up to help us to know what is in the Bible.

Sheep, by the way, need a shepherd. It is good to know that we need a shepherd. It is especially good to know that we need Jesus to be our shepherd. There can be no better shepherd than Jesus. Those who do not have Him as there shepherd are lost whether they know it or not.

I'm glad to have Jesus as my shepherd. If you do not have Him as your shepherd and do not want Him to be your shepherd, then I beseech you to seriously consider that there is coming a time when it will too late to change your mind about Jesus being your shepherd, savior, and Lord. When that time comes you will have all eternity to regret your rejection of Him and complain about the consequences.

What's Our Attitude Toward the Boss?

Rom 1:21  For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. NIV

When I was young I simply believed things about God that others in my family believed. Then as a young teen I believed that science had all the important answers. I lost interest in God. But when I learned that most scientists had concluded that the Universe had a beginning I had to wonder what caused it to begin.

I even surmised that whatever it was that caused the Universe to begin had to be greater that the sum of everything in the Universe, including people who could think about such things.

Many people suggest we evolved from apes, who evolved from lizards, who evolved from germs, who evolved from various molecules that happened to be lying around sometime after a big bang of some sort.

In my experience, most big bangs cause big messes, not intricately functioning creations. Somehow I don't think the computer I'm writing this blog post on became assembled during an explosion at the factory from which it was shipped  to my home. I appreciate the workers who designed, assembled and transported my computer so I could have use of it.

After I came to believe that there was a Creator God I wanted to know more. Eventually I came across a New Testament and read about the God who made everything that has been made..What I read made sense to me. I certainly didn't understand everything but if I could be a personal living creature who can understand and be aware of some things, then it seemed likely that the Creator determined that is how things should be.

If there is a Creator responsible for my existing, and my existing in this Universe, then it only seems right that I should be thankful for the Creator. And if that Creator makes it possible for me to know more about the One who designed and made everything, then I certainly ought to take the time to seek to know more.

I also should take the time to be thankful because nothing would be possible without the Creator having created.

If I reject the basics of acknowledging and being thankful to the Creator, and continue in that rejection, then I will make excuses for myself. I can imagine that the only things that are important are what I decide are important. I can think that my own personal values and morals are all I have to live by.

The Creator is not obligated to show us how stupid our deluded thinking is right at this particular moment. Or even tomorrow. Or even in the course of our natural lifetime.

The Creator is the Boss. If we reject the little things about Himself that He reveals in His Creation, He is just in withholding additional revelations about Himself. If we prefer darkness and futility then He can allow us to wallow and sink more deeply into them.

He once came and made Himself known in the flesh, healing the sick, raising the dead, teaching wondrous truths...and He was rejected and nailed to a cross.

I want to have the right attitude toward the Boss. I want to learn all that Jesus wants me to know. I want my thinking to become clear and purposeful. I want my motives to be pure and bright with the light of God's truth. I want to know what my Boss wants me to know, do what He wants me to do, and to be ever more thankful for Who He Is, What He has Done, and what He teaches me.

After Somebody Believes in Jesus -- What Next?

Act 2:42  They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. NIV

After Jesus was crucified on our behalf to atone for our sins, He rose from the dead and spent 40 days teaching the apostles. The first part of the book of Acts records this and how He then ascended to Heaven prior to His sending the Holy Spirit to fill those who would serve Him in  the days and years to come.

After the Spirit filled those gathered in the now famous upper room, Peter was inspired and emboldened to preach a sermon that profoundly convicted the Jews who had rejected Jesus and demanded His execution. They repented and were baptized. They made it abundantly clear to everyone that they were now dedicated followers of Jesus.

They didn't stop with verbally acknowledging Jesus as Lord and being baptized. For them it wasn't a one time "accepting Jesus as my Savior" and then going on with there lives pretty much the same as always. It wasn't even just a token cleaning up of their obviously messed up lives.

The who repented when they heard Peter preach that day knew they needed to live totally different lives. To do that they needed to learn more of what Jesus wanted them to know.

Therefore they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.

They devoted themselves. Another translation puts it "they continued steadfastly" in these things.The Greek word conveys “attending one, remaining by his side, not leaving or forsaking him.”

Devoting themselves to the teachings of the apostles and to the fellowship with one another and with having meals as well as communion together, and praying were things these first century believers continued in steadfastly.

Today we have the teachings of the apostles written down in the Bible. We can and should devote ourselves to the teachings in the Bible as well as the other things that are listed in Acts 2:42.

Let's spend at least some time each day learning the teachings in the Bible. Let us also spend time with other Christian believers, having meals with them, and making sure we find time to pray because that is what Jesus, who happens to be our Boss, expects us to do.

Thank you for taking the time to read these blog posts. If any of them are helpful to you I hope you'll consider sharing them with others.

Who Did Jesus Claim to Be?

Joh 8:51 - 59  I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."   At this the Jews exclaimed, "Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that if anyone keeps your word, he will never taste death.   Are you greater than our father Abraham? He died, and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?"  Jesus replied, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me.  Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and keep his word.  Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.  "You are not yet fifty years old," the Jews said to him, "and you have seen Abraham!"  "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"  At this, they picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. NIV

This passage of Scripture recounts a day when Jesus was speaking at the Temple in Jerusalem. Although some Jews were amazed by His miracles and fascinated by His teachings, there were others who were angered that Jesus didn't say or do things the way they thought He should. They wanted Him say and do things their way. If Jesus failed to speak and perform according to their standards they were ready to destroy His reputation by declaring He was demon possessed.

 An ordinary man might have sought to smooth things over and be less radical in what he taught. But Jesus was no ordinary man. He didn't merely defend his words as reasonable and worth considering as possibly true.  Jesus simply said "if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death."

Now that is an incredible statement. How could any teacher say something that outlandish?

Those who were present were confident they were well educated in spiritual matters. They felt fully qualified to determine that Jesus was out of his mind. He had to be demon possessed to say such a thing.. After all, the great men of God, Abraham and the prophets had all died. Did he think he was greater than Abraham? Whoever did this Jesus think he was?

If they thought they'd impress Jesus with their knowledge about Abraham, Jesus had an answer for them that they couldn't have expected.

He told them, "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad."

That made them more sure than ever that Jesus was a lunatic. Abraham had been dead for hundreds of years. How could Jesus claim to have seen Abraham!

Jesus' reply was simple and covered two points. The first was "I tell you the truth."  Because Jesus is who He is, He knows what is true, and so when He speaks He is not making guesses about what might or might not be true. Whenever Jesus says anything He is telling the truth whether or not those who hear it understand it.

The second point that Jesus made in his response regarding His knowledge about Abraham was this: "before Abraham was born, I am."

Jesus was not only declaring to know more than all the others who had gathered at the Temple, He was declaring that He'd been around for far more than 50 years. Far more than just hundreds or even thousands of years.

When Jesus said "before Abraham was born, I am" the Jews who were there became enraged because "I AM" is the phrase God used to identify Himself to Moses. For Jesus to say what He'd just told them was the same as declare Himself to be God.

 Indeed to say such a thing is blasphemy. Unless, of course, the person saying it is, in truth, God.

The people took up stones to put him to death for such blasphemy. But they were unable to do what they were determined to do to him. Why? Because He was both God in the flesh and the Lamb of God to be sacrificed for our sins. Therefore no one could kill Him until it was the right day and method of execution that would be acceptable for the Lamb of God.

This passage from the 8th chapter of  John is just one of the places where we can read Who Jesus claimed to be. If He was speaking the truth in saying what He said, we'd  better give Him and everything He said the utmost of our attention. Our eternity may depend on it.

Ignoring Jesus and His words may be just as offensive to God as calling Him demon possessed or raising stones to kill Him.

How on Earth Does He Want Us To Learn?

Eph 4:11-13  It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. NIV

Like any good boss, Jesus wants us to know what He wants done and what the purpose is for doing it.

Even in a game like baseball, those who are in charge want certain things done by certain people in a particular way. When the members of the team practice hard and each does his part as well possible, even the Red Sox can win the World Series, and win it more than once.

In a pro baseball team the manager is the boss. He tells the players and coaches what to do so they can become prepared as a team to win games, and hopefully get to play in and win the World Series.

The coaches on the team are essential because they help the players learn to improve such skills as batting and pitching.

In the church Jesus has chosen certain individuals to "coach" His team for purposes far more important than winning games.

The apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers that He has chosen are called to prepare God's people for acts of service. Why? So the Body of Christ can be build up.

To what extent does our Manager want us to be built up? He wants us to be built up until we reach the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

We have the writings of apostles and prophets gathered together in a book we call the Bible. We have evangelists to carry Christ's words to people who never heard them before. And we have pastors and teachers in our local churches to help us learn what God wants us to learn so we can do what He wants us to do.

If  members of a baseball team don't do what the manager and his coaches tell them, they will likely find themselves sitting on the bench rather than participating in the games. They can even be kicked off the team.

 Members of the Body of Christ need to take the time to learn from and be "coached" by those Jesus has appointed to teach us.

Those who have been called to evangelize, pastor, and teach aren't off the hook. They need to both learn what God wants them to learn, apply it in their lives, and teach others in whatever ways are available to them.

There are some who can lead Bible study groups. There are some who can have a blog about Biblical matters. God wants all of us to learn more and some of us to teach what we're learning to others.

I certainly still need to learn more. That's why I attend church services and adult Sunday school, listen to Christian radio programs, read, study, and will host in my apartment a Bible study that will be led by our Sunday school superintendent starting this coming Saturday afternoon.

If you're not part of a Bible study group and are not attending a Sunday school class, I hope you will seriously consider joining one. If you live south of Boston, MA, you are welcome to join our Bible study group or attend Sunday school at Brookville Baptist church in Holbrook.