Obedience Brings Joy

It is easy to accuse a person of being a legalist, or to assume he only does good works in order to make God happy (as if striving to make God happy were somehow wrong). When we see a person striving to fill his life with the commands of Christ to share his faith or volunteer his time, instead of admitting that we should be doing more, we can shake the conviction by saying, “he is just a legalist.”

I realize that churches are full of people who subconsciously think that if they do enough work around the church then they must be saved. But I also realize that the church is full of people who love Jesus so much that they cannot help but serve Him in any possible way.

The first group may be composed of legalists, but the second group certainly is not. Both groups look the same on the outside, and their deeds are very similar. The difference is the motivation of their heart.

Notice what John wrote in his first epistle: “These things I have written unto you that our joy may be full (1 John 1:4).”

Our joy? John was explaining how the listeners could have joy by having fellowship with the Lord, but how does John get joy out of this? The answer is simple. John gets joy from being obedient to God.

The Holy Spirit led John to write this precious letter, and John’s obedience was a source of joy to him. Some might argue that his joy would come from seeing his friends have a relationship with God, but their relationship would be the fruit of his obedience, so the point is still the same.

Some people celebrate their freedom in Christ by not getting involved in the church’s ministries in any way, and when they see someone like John who stays faithfully busy in service, they shake their heads and say, “that poor man doesn’t realize he is a prisoner to legalism.”

What they don’t realize is that the “prisoner’ is filled with joy.

I did not write this to be argumentative. I am writing this to that faithful brother or sister who has been misled into thinking that God is opposed to their service. It is easy to come to that conclusion when someone says that it is only the legalist who gets involved in church work. And while I fully understand and agree that God doesn’t require us to work our way to heaven, I also know that He commands service. In fact, He told us that pure religion involves ministering to the needs of widows and orphans (James 1:27). That is work, and when your church has a ministry at an orphanage, you are not a legalist for spending a Saturday ministering to the orphans.

God is such a good God that He even rewards us with the gift of His joy when we obey Him. I get unimaginable joy for serving the Lord, and I want all believers to be filled with that same joy that comes through service. So again, I did not write this to be argumentative.

I have written this to you that our joy may be full.

To Save a Life

(Like my blog about the peace symbol, this blog was written as a default response to all the parents, students, and other people who are asking my opinion of To Save a Life.) By now you have probably heard of the movie To Save a Life, which opened nation-wide in theaters on January 22nd. The movie deals with so many issues that teens face today, like suicide, cutting, drinking, drugs, premarital sex, teen pregnancy, and abortion. At first glance this movie looks like an awesome resource that we should recommend for our teens, parents, youth pastors, and youth workers. But a closer look at the movie reveals a few disturbing things. For starters, according to pluggedin.com, there are 2 uses of the “A” word, 5 uses of hell (used as a curse word), and once the “D” word is used. There are other crude terms used to describe a girl, and crude terms for referring to sexual activity. There is also a bedroom scene that shows a girl removing a boy’s shirt, then afterwards the girl putting he...

Evangelism

“Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” St. Francis of Assisi is given credit for this famous quote (although that exact phrasing does not appear in any of his writings), and a lot of people would think that this is a great philosophy. His actual quote was that everyone should “preach by their deeds.” Preaching with our deeds is not just a strategy, it is a necessity. We are commanded all through the Scriptures to let our light shine and be a peculiar people. People should be able to look at our lives and see that we are Christians. They should see the love of Christ readily on display, and thus feel compelled to live their lives in the same way. The sermon that we should preach with our lives is a sermon of love, joy, peace, patience, self-control, forgiveness, conviction, etc. But this idea that has emerged that says we should ONLY preach with our deeds is a heresy straight from the devil himself. Think about it: who is the one that does not want you t...

All Things To All Men

One of our favorite verses to use in our evangelism methods is where Paul said that he “becomes all things to all men” so that he might “by all means save some (I Corinthians 9:22).” This is certainly a good idea if we keep it in its proper context and application. For example, I remember a time in high school where I knew a kid that loved skateboarding. Being the chicken that I am, I was never a skateboarder. All he would talk about was skating, and I knew none of his lingo. But to help develop a relationship with him (he was new to our church and didn’t know many people), I brushed up on my skating lingo so I could ask if he had done any sick ollies lately (impressed?). This would be like Paul saying “to the skateboarder, I became a skateboarder.” This is effective and necessary. But then there are the people that use this verse to justify doing sinful things in the name of evangelism. The first one that comes to mind is about drinking. Some people will go into the bars to evan...

Tommy Mann

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