Good day and good Saturday! Please continue to pray for our friends in Lahaina, Maui as they continue to deal not only with Hurricane Lane but also with wildfires that broke out because of fallen powerlines. Several of our friends and even the Lahaina Baptist church campus was evacuated not because of the fire itself but because of the damaging smoke that was pouring down upon the town by the trade winds making it hard to breathe. Thanks in advance for your prayers.
This morning before we jump into the 5MC I’d like to address monotony and God’s Word. I struggle with this and thought you might too. I mean the goal of the 5 minute challenge is to spend 5 minutes in God’s Word every day for at least 30 days right? So how do you keep doing this without it getting tedious, skipping a few days and then eventually quitting? We’re human and day in and day out doing anything can become a little routine, thereby creating familiarity and we know what is said about familiarity…it breeds contempt.
First of all, you have to really to understand what your dealing with. This is not algebra, accounting or biology, it’s the living Word of God. I personally have to remind myself what it is I’m dealing with. This book will change my life and offer me peace, joy and freedom, why wouldn’t I want to spend time in it everyday? Secondly and back to being human, we were all born with a sin nature and it’s natural for us to be in rebellion against God. Simply look at the world. Would you say most of the world is spending time in God’s Word and following His commandments? Absolutely not! We all like to go our own way and do our own thing and that almost always takes us in the opposite direction of God. Isaiah 53:6, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way.” So, in essence we are really born to be in resistance to God’s Word and spending routine time in it. That’s why it’s so hard to do it, it goes against who we are! Thirdly, there is a force in this world that does not want you spending time in God’s Word, Satan. He is real, he is in the Bible (35 times in the NT!) and he is in this world to halt or completely stop God’s work. In fact, John 12:31 calls him the “ruler of the world”. Listen to this from GotQuestions.org:
“The phrase “ruler of this world” in John 12:31 indicates that Satan is the major influence on the ideals, opinions, goals, hopes and views of THE MAJORITY of people. His influence also encompasses the world’s philosophies, education, and commerce. The thoughts, ideas, speculations and false religions of the world are under his control and have sprung from his lies and deceptions.”
So you can see that there is a mighty force that has a goal to keep you from learning too much about God’s Word. This can manifest itself into what you can feel as monotony or the feeling that you want to quit. I personally feel this often as I not only read but also write every day. I have to remind myself of the powers that are in this world and that Satan does not want the Word of God to be given out. So how do you fight the feeling that reading God’s Word for 5 minutes everyday is too much? Realize it might not be your thinking but the influence of the 'ruler of the world' on your decision. Stay the course, take 5 minutes everyday and spend time with the God of the Universe. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it.
By the way, for those of you that might be new to the 5MC posts or have missed the prior post, here’s the full details of the 5 Minute Challenge (5MC). Take a look at the link below…I hope you choose to play along.
This morning in the 6th chapter of Acts we find a major topic, the creation and appointment of deacons within the church. The church was growing exponentially and in these days it is estimated that the church was around 25,000. It’s bursting at the seams and the disciples are getting stretched really thin. They realize that their primary call from God is studying and preaching the Word of God but they are getting pulled into serving the church body. Acts 6:2b “It is not right that we should give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables.” So in response, the 12 disciples pick out 7 men that will take up these servanthood responsibilities.
The important thing for us to note here is the requirements that the disciples saw necessary for a deacon to be successful in serving God and serving others. Acts 6:3, “therefore brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit, and of Wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty. So here we see that a deacon must be 1) Honest, 2) full of the Holy Spirit, 3) full of wisdom. Lets shift over to the book of 1 Timothy, one of the ‘Pastoral Epistles’ written by Paul to Timothy to instruct new churches. Here Paul gives us much more detailed requirements for deacons. 1 Timothy 3:8-13, “Deacons likewise must be dignified, not double-tongued,[a] not addicted to much wine, not greedy for dishonest gain. 9 They must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. 10 And let them also be tested first; then let them serve as deacons if they prove themselves blameless. 11 Their wives likewise[b] must be dignified, not slanderers, but sober-minded, faithful in all things. 12 Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. 13 For those who serve well as deacons gain a good standing for themselves and also great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.”
So God’s pretty clear on the stringent requirements for a deacon and you probably even know a deacon from your local church, but what do they actually do at your church? You can recall back from our earlier passage in Acts that the disciples were being pulled from their duties as the spiritual leaders of the church and their duties to study and give out God’s Word. They needed help with serving the body of the church. That’s what the deacons do, they are the servants of the body of Christ. They will serve the body so that the disciples can teach and lead the body in God’s Word.
So you might also say, I have elders in my church too, I thought they were the same. So what is the difference between elders and deacons? I think this passage in Acts explains it better than any in the Bible. The disciples were called by Jesus and then commanded by Him in the great commission in Matt 28:19-20 “to go into all the world and teach them to observe all that I have commanded you.” The disciples were commanded to teach and preach the Word of God. That’s what they do and that’s what an elder is, the disciples WERE the early elders of the church. Today, elders would be your pastor, your pastoral staff and then most churches usually elect additional elders as needed. You can find the qualifications required of an Elder in 1 timothy 3:1-7. Note: elders are also called ‘overseers’ in God’s Word.
It’s important to understand and know the difference between these 2 positions. It’s also important that your church have these in place and the called people meet the requirements in God’s Word. If we are to ‘produce’ a Godly church then we must ‘reproduce’ the Godly church in His Word.
On a quick side note, notice that one of the new deacons is named Stephen and he is quite the guy. We’re told in Acts 6:8 that he was “full of grace and power and was doing great signs and wonders among the people.” So guess what? Yep, this is getting to be par for the course, the religious leaders don’t like it at all and arrest him and drag him to court. We’ll hear much more about Stephen tomorrow in chapter 7 but I have to mention the last verse of this chapter and what it amazingly says about Stephen. Acts 6:15, “and gazing at him, all who sat in the council saw that his face was like the face of an angel.” This is a rare instance in the Word of God and Stephen came closer to being an angel than any man who has ever lived. The way God uses Stephen in Acts 7, challenges, blesses and breaks my heart. I’m so excited for chapter 7 tomorrow!
Well, my friends, thanks for reading along today, have an awesome Saturday and be joyful for your time with God!
Blessings!
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