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Hebrews 13:5

Honor Your Mother

One of my sermon illustration books tells us about Mother’s Day. It says, “The “Mother’s Day” concept has a long history of religious connections that seem to have been predominantly Christian in modern times. In ancient Greece, the idea of paying tribute to motherhood was given expression with a regular festival tantamount to mother-worship. Formal ceremonies to Cybele, or Rhea, the “Great Mother of the Gods,” were performed on the Ides of March throughout Asia Minor. For Christianity, the concept seems to date back to the establishment of England’s “Mothering Sunday,” a custom of the people that required one to attend the mother church in which he was baptized on Mid-Lent Sunday. Gifts were to be offered at the altar to the church and to worshippers’ mothers. The concept was divorced from any “mother worship” but nevertheless perpetuated its religious association.U. S. observance of Mother’s Day, too, has been characterized by church ties from the start. The first general observance of the occasion was in the churches of Philadelphia after Miss Anne Jarvis campaigned for a holiday for mothers more than 50 years ago.”

I remember a Mother’s Day card I saw that was really cute. It was a great big card written in a little child’s printing—little first-grade printing. On the front was a little boy with untied sneakers. He had a wagon, and toys were everywhere. He had a little cut on his face, and there were smudges all over this card. It read, “Mom, I remember that little prayer you used to say for me every day.” Inside was the prayer: “God will help you if you ever do that again.”

Like all of us, I remember my mother’s favorite sayings. I’m sure all mothers used the same sayings. “There’s always something with you,” she would say to me. She wouldn’t just say it, though. She would “sigh” it. I suppose because it was true. There was always something I had done to make life a little more difficult for her. Like the time I knocked down the wasp nest and my cousin Steve was stung a dozen times. The second thing she’d say was, “If it’s not one thing, it’s another.” Right? Like the time I shot Dickey Jones with a pea shooter, and the pea went up his nose, and they had to take him to the hospital to get it out. Or when we were wrestling in the basement, Billy Foxhoven broke his arm. Or the time Butch and I shot holes in the front of the kitchen cabinets with a bow and arrow. Or the time I got caught stealing candy from the Cliff’s Corner store on 30th & Laurel. Or the time I got caught sneaking into the Orpheum, she had to come down and get me. Or the time… Well, I could go on! I was not an easy child, and I often think back to those things with regret that I caused my mom so much grief.

But Mom never threatened to stop loving me, or stop feeding me, or stop clothing me, or stop putting band-aids on my cuts and bruises. Somehow, I knew she’d always be there for me no matter what I did! Looking back now, I see that she was. She taught me a lot about God, who said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)

Exodus 20:12

Honor Your Mother

God is chiefly concerned about our attitude toward our parents. He even made sure that the command was included in the top ten. It was either the fourth or fifth commandment, depending on the denomination you listen to. But we can say that it is not only in the top ten but one of God’s top five commandments. Exodus 20:12 says, “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” As we approach Mother’s Day, I’m reminded that, as a son, I have not been that good at honoring my mother. My sons, on the other hand, have always been great at honoring their mother on Mother’s Day. They would often write their own Mother’s Day Cards. I wish I had kept all of them, but unfortunately, we don’t always think things are going to be important at the time they are happening. But I have a few of them.

Chuck 3rd was ten years old when he wrote this one. “MOM, I got the greatest one of all. Better than the rest. She comes whenever I call. She’s better than the best. Whenever I am hungry, whenever I get hurt, she’s always there to feed me and pick me up from the dirt.”

JD was eight years old when he wrote this one. “Dear MOM, You are a better mother than the rest. But everyone says theirs is best, too. But that’s only because they haven’t met you.”

I don’t have any cards that I made for my mom on Mother’s Day, and I’m sad about that. I know we made some for our moms in school, but for some reason, we didn’t keep them. However, I do have one Mother’s Day card written by my dad in 1925, when he was 11 years old, to his mother. It just says “Mother’s Day” and has hand-drawn flowers all over it. My dad could draw pretty well, and these flowers are well done. You can see the detail he went into for each pedal. I remember my dad talking very favorably about his mother a lot. She died in 1936, so I never got to meet her. The more I learn about her, the more I admire her.

God even added a promise to his instructions regarding our parents. He promises that honoring them will be good for us. “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.” (Exodus 20:12). This promise seems to relate to the Israelites specifically regarding their control and possession of the land of Israel. But Paul adds to this promise as he repeats the instruction to believers in the New Testament. He applies the promise to all of us. Ephesians 6:1-3 says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (this is the first commandment with a promise), that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”Paul adds to this in Colossians 3:20: “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord.” All of God’s commandments are given for our benefit, but God especially highlights this one for the blessings it brings to the individual, the family, and society in general. Happy Mother’s Day, Ladies!

Ephesians 6:1-2

Honor Your Mother

When Paul exhorts children to “obey” their parents, he is simply asserting an inherent obligation. Obedience to parents is not the sole teaching of the scriptures. Every ancient and contemporary civilization commands obedience from children to their parents. It’s part of the natural law of the universe. We need no special revelation for this truth. It’s readily apparent to everyone. But God goes out of his way to instruct us according in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. We see the command to honor your parents in the Ten Commandments themselves and then again in Paul’s writing to the Ephesians.

But the Bible adds a new dimension to children’s relationship with their parents. Both Moses and Paul say we are to “honor” them.  The Hebrew word “kabed,” for honor, means to be heavy or weighty. We still use terms like this today. When we talk of people who “carry a lot of weight,” we are talking about those who people listen to and have influence.  Weighty people are important people in our lives. In Scripture, there is an antonym to honor, and it is all. It means “to curse.” Literally, it means to “be light or of little weight.” Again, today, we think of people who carry no weight with regard to certain situations. We might even refer to them as “lightweights.”

To honor our mothers is to regard them as highly valued and make them “heavyweights” in our lives. I think it was Smalley & Trent who said, “Some people treat their parents as if they are a layer of dust on a table. Dust weighs almost nothing and can be swept away with a brush of the hand. Dust is a nuisance and an eyesore that clouds any real beauty the table might have.” When we treat our mothers as lightweights, it is not only wrong, but it is also dishonoring to God. God calls us to value them deeply. I don’t think I’ve lived up to that as well as I should have in my younger years, but after becoming a Christian, I took my role as a son more seriously. I’ve lived most of my life away from my parents. For much of that time, I would ignore them. Later, I determined to Honor my mother, so I would write to her at least once a week and try my best to call her on her birthday and Mother’s Day. It wasn’t much, but she often told others how important my letters were to her. Now that my mother has been gone for many years, I think of so many ways I could have honored her. I often wish I had given this command more attention in my life. “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother – this is the first commandment with a promise.” Ephesians 6:1-2

2 Corinthians 5:14-15

God’s Compelling Love

One cannot love until he has experienced God’s love. Even John, the “love” apostle, explains this truth when he says in 1 John 4:19, “We love because God loved us first.” I’d argue that all the apostles truly grasped this truth. They understood that no real life change can occur apart from a growing apprehension and experience of God’s love for us. Paul makes this crystal clear in his prayer for the Ephesians: “And I pray that your love will have deep roots. I pray that it will have a strong foundation. May you have power with all God’s people to understand Christ’s love. May you know how wide and long and high and deep it is. And may you know his love, even though it can’t be known completely. Then you will be filled with everything God has for you” (Ephesians 3:17-19).

The woman that Jesus met at the well in John 4 is an interesting study. She is often described as a woman who looks for love in all the wrong places. She moved from man to man, from husband to husband, and never found what she needed until she encountered Jesus, who “knew all about her” and still loved her. She even left her water jar at the well and ran to town to call everyone to come see Jesus (John 4:28-30). Why? It wasn’t gratitude. That would have kept her at the well. Was it a new understanding that Jesus was the Christ? That should have kept her at the well with Him also. Most reasons you might consider lead me to think that she would have stayed with Him, not run off to get others. I would argue that what she found was so wonderful to her that she just had to share it with others. Boice says, “It was love, the love of the Lord Jesus already beginning to spring up within her. She had learned of this love from Christ. He had loved her, a sinful woman. Now, she was to love as he loved. Before, she had loved in one sense only. It was an imperfect human love. Perhaps it was even largely sexual. Now, she was able to live with a measure of the love with which Christ had loved her. This was a divine love, and it changed her completely.”

Robert J. Thomas was a missionary en route to Pyongyang in Korea when a fight broke out between the American sailors and the Korean coast guard. The ship was burned, and all the passengers were killed. As the ship was sinking, Robert leaped into the water and struggled to make his way to shore. He staggered out of the water with an armload of books. They were Bibles. He thrust them into the hands of the Korean, who clubbed him to death. It was through such love and commitment to his mission that the gospel first came to Korea in 1866. Today, Korea is one of the most Christian countries in the world. Today, there are over 12 million Christians in Korea. The biggest churches in the world in major denominations, including Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, and Pentecostal churches, are all located in Seoul. Boice concludes his comments, “The Bible sets this pattern for us when it declares, “For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Cor. 5:14–15).

John 18:14, 2 Peter 3:9

NMLB!

God is always seeking for the lost. There are so many mentions of this in both the Old Testament and the New. He says, “I myself will search for my sheep” (Ezek. 34:11); “…seek me like a lost sheep!” (Ps. 119:176); “I will seek the lost” (Ezek. 34:16); “searching for the straying sheep” (Matt. 18:12); “you will be called, ‘Sought out, a city not forsaken’” (Isa. 62:12); “the Father seeks such to worship him” (John 4:23); “though they hide on the summit of Carmel I will search them out” (Amos 9:3); “I will search Jerusalem with lamps” (Zeph. 1:12).

In Luke 19, after just four chapters earlier telling the parables of the one lost son of two, the one lost coin of 10, and the one lost sheep of 100, he gives his mission statement: “I have come to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). The parables emphasize the one that is lost. It doesn’t matter if there is another son at home, or nine more coins on the dresser, or 99 more sheep in the field. He wants and will search everything and everywhere until He finds it. God’s heart is for each and every individual in the world. His heart is for me and you. In Matthew 18:14, He says, “So it is not the will of my Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.” In 2 Peter 3:9, Peter describes Him as “not wishing any that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” It reminds me of the NMLB acronym. It stands for “No Man Left Behind.” It’s been the motto of the U. S. Rangers but it is also used by firefighters regarding those trapped in a burning building. It’s a commitment to risk one’s own life to reach out and save others. April 30, 1975, was the last day of the RVN (Republic of Vietnam). While on a Navy Destroyer, we rescued many who fled for their lives when America withdrew troops. One eye witness wrote, “On the Republic of Vietnam’s final day, as I looked down into the … terrified eyes in the upturned faces of hundreds of Vietnamese nationals and citizens of other countries friendly to the United States, who were being left behind, I knew that I would be haunted for many years to come.”

Jesus’ followers, His Disciples, were given the same commission that Jesus had. In John 20:21, he says, “As the Father sent me, so I send you.” We are always on a mission to seek and to save the lost. It’s often referred to as the Great Commission. God calls us all to embrace His mission in the world and make it our own. I like what Bock says in his commentary on Luke regarding this truth. He writes, “Disciples… need absolute commitment. Their mission, even though others grumble at it, is to seek the lost, just as God does. God rejoices in finding lost sinners, so Jesus’ call is to pursue them as one would a lost sheep, a lost coin, or a wayward son. When the lost come, open arms are to await them. Celebration and joy greet them in heaven.”

John 10:11

The Shepherd’s Love

The parable of the prodigal son instructs us regarding the depth of God the Father’s love for us. As I mentioned yesterday, the parable of the lost coin might easily be understood as a story focusing on God the Holy Spirit’s love for us. The parable of the lost sheep then would be seen as an illustration of God the Son’s great love for us. It is often argued by commentators that John 10:11 is a direct reference by the Apostle John to Jesus’ parable of the lost sheep in Luke. Jesus says in John 10:11, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” Jesus then says in John 15:13, “That no greater love than this has any man; that one lay down his life for his friend.”

These three parables, the parable of the lost son, the lost coin, and the lost sheep, all picture the Godhead’s great love for each and every single one of us. When John writes in 1 John 4:8 that “God is love,” he is referring to the entire Godhead. The unifying force of three persons of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is love. Jesus, as the messenger of the Godhead, clearly expressed His purpose in taking on flesh in Luke 19. He says, “I have come to seek and to save that which is lost.” When we read Genesis three, we see the triune God involved in the creation account, but He is not only involved with creation, but also He is intimately involved with our redemption. No matter how many souls there are in the world (currently approaching 8 billion), God’s focus of redemption is on you! The Father waits for your return. The Holy Spirit searches far and wide, holding his lamp high as he sweeps through the rubble in the world to find you. The Son, our Great Shepherd, becomes the sacrificial lamb to redeem you! I expect that Peter was referring to this parable when he wrote that we “were like sheep going astray…(who) have returned to the Shepherd of our souls.” (1 Peter 2:25).

God loves each and every one of us sheep. Jesus tells us the difference between the hireling and the shepherd. The hireling is a mercenary who is only in it for the money! The shepherd is in it because of his love for the sheep. One commentator writes, “Without love, there may be care, but it will not be tender care; there may be guardianship, but it will not be incessant, unwearied, jealous guardianship. The heavenly Shepherd loves the sheep of his flock with deep, true, patient, and abounding love, surpassing far the utmost affection whereof man is capable, surpassing even the utmost conception that man can form of love.” It’s Love that holds the Father to the fence, longing for His son’s return. It’s love that moves the Spirit to search far and wide for his lost souls. It’s love that moved the great shepherd to give up His life for us sheep.

Luke 15:8-11

The Loving Spirit!

In the Gospel of Luke (Chapter 15), Jesus tells three parables that are often interpreted as being one parable in three movements: the lost son, the lost coin, and the lost sheep. There are 2 sons, and one goes astray. The father’s love yearns for his return and, with perfect love and forgiveness, welcomes him home. The mistress of the house has 10 coins. It was only the lost one that caused such distress that she went to no end to find it. The shepherd had 100 sheep. Again, only one needed to be lost to arouse the shepherd to leave the 99 and search far and wide until he brought the lost sheep home. God always deals with us one at a time. Someone once said that when Jesus was on the cross, “you were on his mind.” These parables increasingly emphasize the importance of you and me, one person, in God’s total scheme of things. God loves each and every one of us. No matter how many of us there are, God loves each of us!

Some would suggest that these three parables are pure depictions of the Godhead’s love for His children. The parable of the lost son speaks to us of God the Father and His great love for his wayward children. The parable of the lost coin tells us about the Holy Spirit’s love for us as well. This is what the woman who lost the coin does, according to Jesus, “She will light a lamp and sweep the house. She will search carefully until she finds the coin.” And when she finds it, she will call her friends and neighbors together. She will say, ‘Be joyful with me. I have found my lost coin.’” Jesus then adds, “I tell you, it is the same in heaven. There is joy in heaven over one sinner who turns away from sin” (Luke 15:8-11). The focus of this passage is on God’s love for “ONE SINNER” who turns from sin. In his closing exhortation to the Romans, Paul appeals to them on the basis of “our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit” (Romans 15:30).

Bill MacDonald, in the Believer’s Bible Commentary, says, “The woman in this story may represent the Holy Spirit, seeking the lost with the lamp of the Word of God.” I recall that in Psalm 119, we read that God’s word “is a light to my path and a lamp for my feet.” To Bill, this parable is situated in the context of the vast rejection of Jesus by the masses of His own people. God no longer deals with Nations, tribes, or even families. He will now only deal with individuals. The Nation, the Religious leaders, and their religious system rejected Jesus, as did the multitudes, but there were individuals who responded. Bill writes, “The nine silver coins speak of the unrepentant, whereas the one lost coin suggests the man who is willing to confess that he is out of touch with God.” It is the lost one that she is searching for. When she finds it, like the Father in the case of the prodigal son, she throws a great party to celebrate. When Jesus applies the parable, he makes it clear that the lost coin represents a lost sinner. MacDonald concludes his comments, “The lost coin which she had found brought her more true pleasure than the nine which had never been lost. So it is with God. The sinner who humbles himself and confesses his lost condition brings joy to the heart of God. He obtains no such joy from those who never feel their need for repentance.” The healthy don’t need a physician!

Jeremiah 31:4, Hebrews 10:17

Self-Forgiveness?

I often struggle with those verses in the Bible that teach us that God not only forgives, but he also forgets. Jeremiah 31:4 says, “For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” Hebrews 10:17 says, “And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” Many other examples could be given, but although it’s clear that God forgives and forgets, it’s just as clear to me that I don’t! Max Lucado writes, “No, he doesn’t remember. But I do, you do. You still remember. You’re like me. You still remember what you did… In the cellar of your heart lurk the ghosts of yesterday’s sins. Sins you’ve confessed, errors of which you’ve repented, damage you’ve done your best to repair. And … the ghosts still linger. Though you’ve locked the basement door, they still haunt you. They float to meet you, spooking your soul and robbing your joy.”

One theologian did a study of the Hebrew and Greek words for forgiveness in the Bible. He discovered that the concept of forgiveness is never, not once, referenced with respect to forgiving ourselves. In the Bible, forgiveness has only two directions. God’s forgiveness comes vertically to us; when others forgive us, it comes horizontally.  We receive forgiveness from God vertically, and we receive forgiveness from others horizontally. There is no mention of anyone’s forgiveness coming back to himself in a loop.  This theologian writes, “Self-forgiveness is tied back to the self-love movement. Its proponents justify loving oneself from the often-quoted passage about loving a neighbor ‘as yourself’ (Lev 19:34). They contend that if a man does not love himself properly, then he cannot really love his neighbor. Self-love advocates interpret the ‘as’ in the second greatest commandment to mean ‘as you should.’ However, the context of Scripture interprets ‘as’ to mean ‘as you do.’ In other words, we should love our neighbors as we already do love ourselves. The Apostle Paul wrote, ‘So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it ….’ (Ephesians 5:28–29). This passage teaches that people naturally look after themselves.” I’ve always struggled with the “self-love” movement because of 2 Timothy 3:2. In the end times, there will be a strong movement away from God and His word and those that are part of this movement, according to Paul, will be “lovers of self…” along with other ungodly traits.

Some may argue that there are people who do not love themselves and do themselves harm. But truly, those with such tendencies are doing what they do because they become too “self-centered” rather than God-centered or other-centered. My theologian continues his case: “In either case, the focus is on self. That is the problem with all this ‘self’ terminology. There are self-forgiveness, self-love, self-hate, self-esteem, self-image, self-worth, self-awareness, self-ad infinitum. This self-centered therapy may sound caring, but it is only a Band-Aid that will never cure a deeper spiritual problem.” Jesus teaches us to deny our “self” and focus our attention on God and on others. The only truly biblical focus is both upward and outward. It is in this context that we obey the Greatest Commandment – Love God and Love others above all else. I believe this will satisfy God, others, and ourselves. God said that He has forgiven us. Only the enemy of us all wants us to feel unforgiven. He is still whispering in our ears, “Yea, hath God said….?”

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