“Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. 46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”  (Acts 2.44-47 NKJV)

The above text records the events of the daily lives of the first Christians shortly after the initial preaching of the gospel of Christ and the obedient response of three thousand souls to that message. Of all the things that are said about them, notice two in particular that characterized their lives. I hope our lives today, can be like theirs were then.

The early Christians were people who were happy. They “ate their food with gladness.” They had learned the truth about Jesus. They had learned that they had committed a terrible sin. But, they had also learned that God loved them and wanted to forgive them. Peter had told them how they could receive the forgiveness God was offering. He told them to repent and be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2. 38). They believed the message of God that Peter brought and they obeyed God’s commands. The forgiveness and hope that they found when they trusted and obeyed the Heavenly Father caused them to be excited and filled with gladness. We can experience those same emotions today, when we do what they did.

The early Christians were people who shared. They were “sharing . . . with all, as anyone might have need.” I’ve got a feeling, they were so eager to share because of their joy over their new-found forgiveness. They wanted to live the new life in Christ, and this was one way they did it. They were so excited about the cleansing of the guilt of sin from their hearts, that the same value they had formerly placed on material things, just wasn’t there anymore. These Christians valued helping those who were in need greater than their own monetary wealth. And, they acted that way. When they saw a need, they did something about it.

You know, the Christians in Acts were people just like us. And we can be people just like them. We can be filled with gladness, if we’re faithful Christians; and we can share with others from the blessings God has given to us.

Over time man does not cooperate with God and The Flood happens. However, again God does not destroy everyone – He saves Noah and his family. God places a value on human life and sends Noah out into the wide, wide world to repopulate it and use it for his benefit. You cannot read the Bible story and escape being overwhelmed by the love of God and His continuing offers of forgiveness/salvation.

The story continues. Man would sin and God would be patient. Man would eventually repent and God was eager to forgive and accept man back into relationship. God was a thousand times more eager to forgive than to take vengeance. We have made that Biblical point in sermons here.

And the LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, “keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exodus 34:6-7 NKJV)

Notice how God’s mercy is associated with the number “thousands,” and God’s vengeance is associated with the number “four.”  God had 1000 to 4 rather be merciful than vengeful.  BTW, this text is sometimes called the “Golden Text” of the Old Testament.

The story continues today. The culmination of it all was Jesus. We can be His disciples today and God will eagerly accept us into a relationship of security and blessings with Him. We can be a part of God’s family right now!

The Lord is . . . longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9 NKJV)

God loves you.  He always has.  He always will.

The gospel of Christ paints a radically different picture.  Oh that Christians would believe the gospel and use Christ as their Pattern instead of acting like the nations (people) around them.  Perhaps if their preachers led them more fully in the direction of Christ they would follow.  Recall Yahweh’s statement at the time of the Assyrian captivity:

Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments  . . . Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers . . .  rejected His statutes and His covenant . . . and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them that they should not do like them. (2 Kings 17:13-15 NKJV)

My prayer is that we would stop imitating our neighbor, start imitating Jesus, and thus become salt and light to our neighbor.

I believe you could say that Christianity is a religion of gentleness and kindness.  Go with me on a little walk through the New Testament and let’s see if that’s so.

The Sermon on the Mount encapsulates Jesus’ teaching on the second great commandment, love your neighbor as yourself, Leviticus 19:18.  The Beatitudes are the Sermon on the Mount in condensed version.  I am sure you remember the third beatitude:

Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth. (Matthew 5:5 NKJV)

‘Meek’ is also translated ‘humble’ or ‘gentle.’  Do we believe we will be blessed if we are humble and gentle?  If we don’t, why do we believe anything else Jesus said?  De we believe God will take care of us if we are humble and gentile, or that we’ve got to “look out for ourselves’?  Who do we trust, God or us?

Jesus had the ultimate wrong perpetrated against Him.  He was murdered when He was not only innocent of any wrongdoing, but had spent His entire earthly life helping other people.  As He hung dying on the cross, did He lash out at His enemies?  Did He admonish His disciples to ‘get even’ with those who had done this to Him?  Did He damn His adversaries to hell?  You know, He had the power to do that.  Did He?  You know the answer.  Here’s what He did:

And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots. (Luke 23:33-34 NKJV)

He asked for their forgiveness.  He loved His enemies . . .  like He told us to do . . .  He practiced what He preached.  Do we?  If Jesus could forgive those people, in that circumstance, what is my problem that I cannot forgive my neighbor, workfellow, schoolmate, or family member; whatever it is they’ve done or said?  I must forgive them and treat them kindly, if I want to be like Jesus, if I want to be His disciple.

Here is a disciple of Christ who acted like Jesus.  His name is Stephen.

And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. (Acts 7:59-60 NKJV)

Question.  What kind of disciples are we?  Could we do this?  What behavior in our life right now would lead others to believe that we might be able to do what Stephen did?  If we listen to the ‘nations’ around us, we probably won’t be able to forgive like Jesus and disciple Stephen.  See why we need to quit listening to what others are saying and aping how they are acting and start listening to Jesus and begin to become more and more like Him.  “More and More Like Jesus.”  We should sing that right now, because I’m not sure everybody believes that.

Let’s move on to the epistles.  Here’s what Paul says:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV)
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:31-32 NKJV)
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. (Colossians 3:12-13 NKJV)

I really don’t know how to make that any plainer.  If I can’t be humble, kind, and gentle . . . I can’t be a Christian.  I might be big and bad and command the respect and admiration of my fellow man, but Jesus remains unimpressed.  Whose approval do you  seek?  Who do you want to impress?

And then there’s John . . .

If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? (1 John 4:20 NKJV)

Notice how love of your neighbor and love of God are associated.  Love of neighbor is a prerequisite for love of God.  If you don’t love (think kindness and gentleness) your neighbor, you don’t love God.  If you don’t love your neighbor, you’re not like Jesus.  I want to be like Jesus.  May God help us all to that end.

The effect of the past on the present is determined by the heart. 

If my heart is on Jesus, I will learn from the past and those lessons will help me improve my efforts to be more like Him.  If my focus is on me, I may become depressed or (depression’s opposite) overconfident as my past continues to affect me.

Whatever effect the past has on me, one thing is clear:  I must not live there.  I must live where I am in what I can control – the present.  I must personally cause the effects of the past on my life to be positive by focusing on Jesus and not myself.

. . . forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14 NKJV)

Paul had a lot of failure in his earlier life, and he didn’t realize it was failure at that time.  I guess he could have dwelled on the lost time and opportunity of what went before.  But, he didn’t.  He wanted to be a good steward of the past by not living there.  He lived now.  He lived to his fullest potential in the present.  This gave him a forward momentum, not a backward slide.

It can be the same with you and me.  We can get lost in the “could have’s” and “should have’s” and miss opportunities now (thus repeating past failures instead of learning from them).  Remembering the past is ok.  Living there isn’t.

Look forward.  Live now.  Win the prize.

My dad's place in Sulligent, summer 2011.

A personality that is calm is a desirable trait that may be overlooked when listing the markers of a person with good character.  I bet you like to be around people who are of a calm demeanor rather than ones who are “wound up” most of the time.  They probably tend to calm you down and thus help you feel better.

Children who are calmer would seem to have an increased ability to focus on the task at hand and would therefore be able to learn better.  I think the ability to focus or concentrate is one of the main indicators of a smart or potentially smart child.  It is good to be smart, because it increases your opportunities to serve.

Adults also need to calm down.  Not only does a calm or quiet personality affect your kids/grandkids (and anyone with whom you interact), it helps you feel better and be more focused on what you need to do.  Calmness increases discipline.

You might think this topic is not addressed in the Bible, but here are three scriptures from the Epistles where it is:

… But we exhort you, …, to aspire to live quietly, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we charged you; (1 Thessalonians 4:10-11 RSV)

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. (1 Timothy 2:1-2 RSV)

Let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of fine clothing, but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.  (1 Peter 3:3-4 RSV)          

How calm, quiet, peaceable, and gentle are you?  Do you influence others to live this way by your own life example?

O God, increase our faith

That we may take You at Your word

That we may believe it and trust it

That we may submit and follow You

And that Your Holy Name may be exalted in the process. 

The word of God is clear that God made us like Himself.  This does not mean that God made us “little gods.”  But, that He made us with some of the same characteristics that He has.  God is perfect and infinite in His characteristics.  I am not. I choose how close to perfection I will come as I make daily choices about Christian living.

Look how many times God tells us that He made us like Himself.

…Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him…. (Genesis 1:26-27 NKJV)

… In the day that God created man, He made him in the likeness of God. (Genesis 5:1 NKJV)

… For in the image of God He made man. (Genesis 9:6 NKJV)

“And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth…so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; “for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God… (Acts 17:26-29 NKJV)

For a man … is the image and glory of God…. (1 Corinthians 11:7 NKJV)

… men, who are made in the likeness of God. (James 3:9 RSV)

When I see someone, or think of someone, or interact with someone I need to remember this:  they are made in God’s image.  God made them originally exactly the way He wanted to make them and He made them like Himself.  When faced with improper behavior, instead of taking offense, being condescending, or seeking revenge, I should remember that this is another person created in the image of God, by God, exactly the way He wanted to make them.  Life may have gotten in the way and they may not look much like God now, but that is not the way they started out.  They came into the world like God.  It is possible that they can return there.  I need to help them do that, not hinder or discourage them.

I spend some time (I am sure too much) recalling my past failures.  I can get pretty depressed about them.  What I need to do, and what we all need to do, is to recall who we are because of Who made us and the way He made us.  We need to exult with the psalmist:

For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are Your works, And that my soul knows very well. (Psalms 139:13-14 NKJV)

By virtue of our divine design, we have great potential.  God has placed it in the palm of our hand.  Open the fist clenched in fear and anger and behold what God hath wrought.  If we were like God once, we can be like Him again.  Let’s reclaim our destiny.  God will help us (He already has).  We can change the world for good, beginning with ourselves.

God identified with man His creation not only in creating us in His image, but in taking flesh upon Himself in the Incarnation.  This was accomplished in the person of God the Son, Jesus Christ.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 NKJV)

… Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God… (1 John 4:2-3 NKJV)

…(Jesus) emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:7-8 RSV)

The love of God for you and me is revealed in many ways.  The Cross is obviously one of these.  Another is the Incarnation.  God loved us so much that He became one of us to save us and, yes, to serve us.  How can we not love Him back?

O Lord God

Maker of heaven, Maker of earth, and Maker of me

Bless me to be more like Your Son

Bless me to live in harmony with Your purpose for me

Bless me to see in others the spark of You they possess.

[The image is "A Monk" by A. Kosnichyov, 2006.  Imagine he is contemplating how he can be more like God.)

The first premise, that all men are created equal, is certainly correct.  But, there is a caveat to that:  “equal” is not equal to “the same,” note the Parable of the Talents and the differences in male and female.

The second premise, about the “unalienable Rights,” is simply false.  You and I have no rights.  We forfeited any perceived “rights” when we committed that first sin.  Our neighbor, however, has all the rights.  We are debtor to them.  We are bondslaves.  When we understand this, we will each be happier and the world will be a better place.  You are not my slave, but I am yours.  Now go home and try that way of looking at things with your spouse.  See if your marriage doesn’t ignite.  Meanwhile, here are a few texts to chew on.

“Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant.”And whoever desires to be first among you, let him be your slave– (Matthew 20:26-27 NKJV)

… Yet I am among you as the One who serves. (Luke 22:27 NKJV)

I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. (Romans 1:14 NKJV)

… I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; (1 Corinthians 9:19 NKJV)

Well, I don’t pretend to have all the answers, but it’s not because they are good people.  But, trouble still comes.  Here are some suggestions to help us deal with trying times.

There are trials in the world because there is sin in the world, but that doesn’t mean the trials are because of my personal sin.  My dad spent the last few years of his life pretty much bedridden with very severe pain in his feet.  I remember him asking me more than once, “What did I do to cause all of this?”  The answer was, “nothing,” unless you want to count getting old (he lived to be almost 90).  Things just happen.  Sometimes it’s someone else’s fault.  Sometimes it’s my fault.  And sometimes it’s nobody’s fault.  It’s just life in a world created perfect but corrupted by man not following the advice of his Creator.

Trials do not mean that God doesn’t care.  If you read the Old Testament, you will see repeatedly how God wanted a relationship with Israel.  They were often uninterested in having a relationship with God and pursued the pagan idols of the Canaanite nations or rebelled against God in other ways.  God would allow them to be defeated by their enemies (a trial), but He still loved them and wanted what was best for them, which was the relationship with Him.  In the New Testament, God allowed the ultimate of trials to come on His Son, Jesus.  That certainly did not mean that the Father did not love the Son or care about what happened to Him.

Trials do not mean that God can’t do anything about it.  Trials are here because of man’s bad choices, not God’s inability to stop them.  Now, those bad choices may not be yours, they may not even be from the present time.  We suffer the physical consequences of the sin of Adam and Eve, though not the spiritual guilt, even today.  We experience physical death, and the things that attend it, because of the sin of Adam.  God can certainly control everything if He wishes, but if He did, we would be something like a computer…we wouldn’t be human.  I had just as soon not be a machine.

Trials could mean that God has a lot of confidence in you.  He knows that, with His help, you can handle it.  Paul says God won’t allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to deal with the temptation appropriately.  If there is a temptation out there that we can’t handle, God won’t allow it to happen.  There is a technical difference between temptations and trials, but they are so closely related that I am considering them the same in this article.  If God allows a trial in my life, it must mean that he is confident that I can handle it with His help, which He will always provide.  To know that God believes in me is a great blessing.

Trials help us focus on a better life.  God tells us of a place where there are no trials, where no bad things happen, only good…but it’s not here, it’s in heaven.  When I face the tragedy and grief of the here and now it makes me want to go to the there and then.  God invites me there, and shows me the way through Jesus.  This hope gives us the strength to carry on.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, …(Hebrews 6:19 NKJV)

And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. (1 John 3:3 NKJV)

Should the eleven inches actually materialize, it would be the largest snowfall that I can remember since I was in (guessing) the fifth grade.  That was in the early sixties.

Back then my dad had some sows that were coming in (delivering their little piglets) right in the middle of the snow event.  He had recently built a new farrowing house (hog barn) and the eight sows would do their business there.  Did I mention it wasn’t heated?  Did I mention it was real cold?  I am not sure of the temp, but I think it was in the teens, maybe single digits.  I know I mentioned the snow.  Well, it stayed on the ground for a week (almost), all 12 inches of it.

Dad and Claude stayed up all night with the sows for 4 or 5 nights, till they all came in, I guess.  Then Dad went and ran his insurance agency all day.  He obviously slept sometime, but not very much that week.  He and Claude had about the bottom foot of a sawed-off 55 gallon drum that they filled with charcoal and ignited.  That was their heat source.  There were some heat lamps for the baby pigs.  Dad and Claude would take the pigs as they were born, dry them off, and place them on wood shavings under the heat lamps.

I stayed the first night till about midnight.  When I wanted to go home, Dad couldn’t leave the sows to take me so I walked by myself about a quarter mile through the pasture in the foot deep snow.  I was ten, I guess.  And I didn’t have a cell phone.  But, as evidenced by the fact that I’m now typing this, I made it.

Dad learned a valuable lesson.  He would never have sows come in in February again – and he didn’t.

I’m not sure of the details, but I think a significant amount of the expense of putting me through college was paid from Dad’s sideline hog operation.  The old farrowing house is still standing, though it hasn’t housed hogs in years and years.

If it actually snows, I hope you can enjoy the beauty of it from a warm place . . . and I hope your animals don’t decide to give birth in the middle of it.

And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. (Matthew 23:12 NKJV)

Jesus talks about love, love God and love your neighbor, but I think His statement here assumes that a person wants to do the right thing, that is, wants to improve themselves.  That attitude begins with humility.  Love begins with humility.

As Jesus is an icon of the Father, I am to be an icon of Jesus.  When people see me, they are supposed to see Jesus – in me, in my life.  They are supposed to see Jesus in what my life reveals about my attitudes and values.  They are supposed to see Jesus in my interactions with them.

He is the image [icon] of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (Colossians 1:15 NKJV)

To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27 NKJV)

How can I do a better job in 2011 showing everyone I interact with Christ in my life?  Here are some resolutions.

• The ability to show restraint – I will show more restraint when I feel wronged

• The ability to show aggression – I will aggressively engage the Christian life

• The ability to examine myself – I will truthfully evaluate my own heart

• The ability to radiate love – I will love those that are dear to me

• The ability to look like Jesus – I will be an icon of Christ