Where Do I Fit In?

Many people spend their whole lives wondering, "Where do I fit in?".  Once a person trusts Christ by faith they fit perfectly into the local New Testament Church.  The Bible teaches that every believer is gifted to carry out some part of the work in the local church.  When I consider the church I think about my mom and how she always likes to work puzzles.  When she first opens the box and pours out all the pieces, some time as many as one thousand, onto a table it looks like a jumbled mess, there is chaos and disorder everywhere.  The puzzle sure doesn't look like the beautiful picture on the front of the box.  It's amazing to watch her take the pieces of puzzle and slowly, but surely fit piece by piece together, lovingly creating a beautiful picture from the confusion of pieces on the table.  When believers in the church aren't exercising their spiritual gifts the church will never be what God intends for it to be.  God has a perfect will for every believer as they carry out the work of the local church.  When the believers are sensitive to God and His leading they will fit together perfectly in the church and create a beautiful picture of unity and harmony as the church strives together to carry out the ministry that God has called them to.

If you're wondering where you fit in, I would challenge you, if you're a believer to allow the Holy Spirit to plug you into your place of service in the church.  All it requires is an obedient and yielded heart and God can show you where you fit in His perfect plan for your life!

1Co 12:11 But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will.
1Co 12:12 For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
1Co 12:14 For the body is not one member, but many.

If I Sin, What Then?

It would be wonderful if we trusted Christ and became a child of God and never, ever had any tendency to sin.  We know from experience that is not the case.  Every one of us has the old Adamic nature residing within us until the day that the Lord calls us out into eternity.  When Adam and Even sinned in the Garden of Eden against the Lord a sinful nature was bestowed upon every human born from that moment forward.  When we are saved we receive a new nature by the indwelling Holy Spirit, but that old nature, the flesh is always lurking in the shadows of our life.  The Bible clearly teaches us that we are tempted by Satan through the flesh, that nature that causes us to do what is wrong.  When we fail in our Christian life and sin against God.  What do we do then?  If we look in the Scriptures at Psalm 51 we find David at a point of tremendous sadness and repentance for his sin.  David had sinned with Bathsheba, another man's wife and when she had become pregnant with his child he had the man put at the front of the battle and killed in order to conceal his sin.  God sent the prophet Nathan to David to reveal to him how abominable his sin really was in the sight of God and in Psalm 51 we see David's prayer of repentance.  

Psa 51:1 "To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. 

Psa 51:2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 

Psa 51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

Psa 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest."

1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 

In I John 1:9 we notice the word "Confess" that world literally means to "agree with God".  When we see our sin as a Holy God sees it, then we can respond in repentance and confession and God will forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

In Ps. 51:3 We see David acknowledging his transgression to God and realizing whom His sin was really against.  Our sin is a direct affront to the God who loved us and gave himself for us.  We should always be quick to confess our sin to God to ask God for His forgiveness.  I have a dear friend that pastored for many years and he always preached from the pulpit, "Keep short accounts with God!".  He was reminding Christians that when we sin against God we should immediately upon the conviction of the Holy Spirit make things right between us and God by confession of our sin to God.  When we see our sin for what it is and confess it to God, He is always standing faithful to forgive us and cleanse us so we can preserve the right walk with Him.

Loving the Unlovely

One of my friends caught my attention this morning with a comment that she put on her Facebook page.  She said, "There's never a shortage of people standing in line to mentor/ disciple those who appear to have a promising future, but the only ones standing in line behind those who really need help are waiting to mock, judge or condemn."  It's easy to spend time helping those who have it all together.  They have a nice car, a nice house, lots of money, a good family and great friends.  We want to spend time with them and fellowship, but what about those people that get saved and trust the Lord that carry with them the dress, the markings and the scars of their previous life away from God?  Don't these new believers deserve to have someone to sit down with them and begin the necessary process of discipling them.  I can't help but be reminded of Saul when he got saved on the road to Damascus.  The new believers were afraid to have anything to do with Saul because he had been a persecutor of the Christians.  He had been responsible for putting many Christians into prison and condemning them to death.  God appeared to Ananias and told him to go to Saul, but Ananias protested.  Act 9:13 "Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:"  God responded by telling Ananias to "Go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me".  You never know what God is going to do with the person that God calls you to disciple.  When Ananias looked at Saul he only saw a killer and persecutor of the Christians.  God saw a man that was to be the Apostle to the Gentiles.  Whose life can we impact today as we follow God to disciple fellow believers?

Increase our Faith

That was the prayer of the disciples to the Lord Jesus Christ.  When we consider our own faith we would echo the prayer of the disciples.  It seems far too many times we don't trust God when we pray for God to work in our lives.  For true faith to occur it's know it enough for us to have a head knowledge or even a heart knowledge, we have to put faith to work in our life.  We have to step out on faith and trust God to do what He has promised that He will do.  We can live our lives limited by sight or we can trust God.  It's sad when people live their entire lives limited by sight.  We only want to trust God as far as we can see.  God's response to us, "For we walk by faith, not by sight."  II Cor. 5:7  We cannot allow our Christian lives to be limited by sight.  We have to trust a God that can see what lies ahead of us tomorrow or the year after.  We must walk by Faith trusting our God to guide us every step of the way.  Lord increase our faith.  

Blessed Assurance

I am convinced that next to our personal salvation the greatest thing we can possess is the assurance of our salvation.  If we trust Christ by faith and are saved the Devil will come along and try to tell us we're really not saved.  Salvation can't be that easy!  The Devil has a method to his madness.  If he can convince us that we're not saved he will render us ineffective for the cause of Christ.  If we're not sure of our own salvation how are we ever going to help others?  On the other hand, what a wonderful peace and joy comes from knowing that Christ is ours and we are His.  What a wonderful thought as we think about the home that has been prepared in Heaven for us.  Once we have repented and trusted Christ as Savior the Bible teaches us that we are eternally secure in our salvation.  Some Bible references for you to consider as you study assurance of salvation are John 10:38; Ephesians 4:30.  All we have to do is take God as His Word.  If you're saved you're secure and you've been promised an eternity with God in Heaven.  That's good news in a bad news world!

Confronting Doubt

As humans it seems we have so many weaknesses.  If we're not careful we can allow our doubts and fears to keep us from doing what God has called us to do in our lives.  Satan uses doubt and fear as weapons in his arsenal to make us quit short of carrying out the mission God has given us.  If we allow Satan to convince us that we can't do it then we will not do it.  Satan will point out every weakness and shortcoming that we have in order that he might convince us to not even try.  We need to remember that where God calls He will equip and provide.  Don't let Satan control you by fear and doubt.  You need to remember the wonderful promise that we have in Philippians 4:13.  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."  We need to believe God's Word and move forward for the cause of Christ.  When Satan wields the weapons of doubt and fear respond with the most powerful weapon of all, God's Word!

Walk in the Spirit

I had the wonderful opportunity today of teaching the Jr Boys Sunday School class at church.  I challenged these young men with what the Bible teaches about "Walking in the Spirit".  In Gal. 5:16 we are instructed that if we will walk in the Spirit we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.  Every day of our life we have to make a decision, will I be flesh controlled today, living selfishly, or will I allow myself to be controlled by the Holy Spirit?  It is a constant struggle day by day.  The Apostle Paul understood the battle that we face.  In Romans 7 Paul said that the things he wanted to do he found himself not doing them.  The things that he didn't want to do that's what he found himself doing.  One of the greatest fears that Paul had in his life was the fear of becoming a "Castaway."  That word "Castaway" means to be rejected.  Paul wanted to serve God with his life, not be rejected because of the flesh controlling him.  We can relate to the same struggle in our own life.  If we will daily spend time in the Word of God and in prayer and be sensitive to the Holy Spirit working in our lives we can and will be Spirit led and we can fulfill the mission that God has given us in our life.  My prayer for you today is that you will yield yourself to the leading of the Holy Spirit and allow Him to work in and through you.