The Heaton File

Finally then, brethren, we urge and exhort in the Lord Jesus that you should abound more and more, just as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God; for you know what commandments we gave you through the Lord Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 4:1-2)

Abounding In Christ

Vince Lombardi said, “The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.” This principle is found in the scriptures for the disciples of Christ to abound more and more in their walk with God. There is never a time when Christians should become stale in their love for truth. Growing in Christ is a daily exercise of excelling more and more to know more, understand more clearly, plumb the depths of spiritual knowledge, and grow closer to the Lord. This takes commitment to excel in being the best person in Christ possible.

Walking in the Lord is a learned experience. Many things make that walk difficult because of the temptations of the world. Life brings its challenges to bear upon the faith of God’s people. If there is no active growth in the Christian walk, the walk will crawl to a stop. If no action is taken, the inactivity will kill the spirit of the Christian’s walk of life. When a parent notices their child not growing in proportion to their age, doctors are consulted with concerns about illness. Walking in Christ is a growth process demanding action on the part of the individual to find deeper meaning in the word of God.

The quality of the Christian life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence. The apostle Paul wanted the saints in Thessalonica to excel still more or to abound more and more in their faith. Being committed to excellence will hone the skill of searching for knowledge in the word of God to grow thereby. Through this process of growth, the babe in Christ matures, and they are able to take on stronger matters of faith. Babies begin receiving milk for sustenance because their bodies are adept for that. As the body grows, solid foods are introduced, and soon, the child is able to eat a stronger diet of food.

In the Christian life, everyone begins as a babe who receives the word of God like milk. In time, with much study and a commitment to excellence, the individual grows in their knowledge to handle aright the word of God with a greater degree of maturity and wisdom. The unique character of the Bible is that ten lifetimes could never begin to exhaust the knowledge of the word of God. There is always room for growth. The Bible is not a difficult book to understand. Why would God give the world something no one could read and understand? Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word.

The level of knowledge desired is a choice. To have greater knowledge, greater effort must be put forth. A commitment to excellence will grow the faith of the Christian into a deeper relationship with the Divine. From this knowledge comes greater blessings. Excel still more. Abound more and more. Grow. Seek. Knock. Ask. The heart that hungers and thirsts for righteousness will be filled.

Because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place, no evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling; for He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. (Psalm 91:9-11)

Making God My Dwelling Place

When God created Adam and Eve, He placed them in the garden planted eastward in Eden. Everything the man and woman needed was provided. The first couple could eat of every tree in the garden except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When God placed man in the garden, He enjoyed a close relationship with His creation as He walked together with them. After the fall of man, the tragedy of sin was what was lost between God and man. Adam and Eve heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they were afraid. They had not been scared before and had no reason to fear. Now, because of sin, Adam and Eve hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God.

Jesus Christ came to restore the fellowship between God and man. The Gentiles could not find peace as a law to themselves, and the Jews proved man could not redeem himself by keeping the Law. What was missing in the world was the communion and dwelling with the Father. Peace and happiness can never be found in the heart of man until he makes God his dwelling place. A dwelling place is a more permanent residence. There will never be a relationship between God and man until the human heart decides to dwell in the presence of the Almighty God.

Too often, followers of Jesus want to enjoy the blessings of eternal life as long as not much effort is required. They are willing to believe in Jesus but will not commit their lives to His word. A dwelling place is not a hotel where someone checks in with convenience. To dwell with God is to make a determined effort to be a permanent resident. What is lacking in the weakened spirit of many Christians is the full commitment to serve the Lord God with all the heart, soul, body, and mind. Bearing a cross is not carrying a toothpick in the back pocket. Jesus did not have a wheel on the cross He bore. He fully committed Himself to the will of the Father because His heart found its dwelling place in the Father.

The only safe refuge is to make the Most High a dwelling place. When that happens, and only when that happens, will the protection of the Almighty and the Heavenly Hosts surround the person’s spirit. God’s army is ready to defend those who make God their dwelling place. The blessings of the Father are only given to those children who dwell in the house of the Lord. God has promised to provide His power to fight against the influence of Satan. Jesus taught His disciples to pray for the protection of God against evil. Sin does not have dominion over those who dwell with God. Taking the armor of God will defeat the wiles of the devil. Dwelling with God requires wearing the right armament.

Dwelling with God brings faith to the struggling heart, knowing that all things work together for the good of God’s mercy and grace. Many saints suffered persecution and died for their faith in Jesus Christ. What the flames of persecution and the executioner’s blade could never diminish was where the heart of the person dwelt. When the heart has made the Most High his dwelling place on earth, the Most High will change that dwelling place near His bosom in the eternal kingdom of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Are you dwelling with God? Change your address if you have not made the Lord God your refuge and your dwelling place.

Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. (Hebrews 5:7-8)

In The Days Of His Flesh

God created man in His own image as an eternal being. As an immortal creature, man will never cease to exist. His flesh will decay and die, but not his spirit. When death comes, a man will lose his fleshly body and take on an eternal body to either enjoy the blessings of God’s presence or the horrors of eternal flame and darkness. It is difficult to comprehend fully the transition of flesh to everlasting life. What is a greater challenge is to know that God left His divine form to take on flesh. Jesus did not consider His equality with God to stop Him from the task the Father had for Him to come to the world they created and live in the flesh. The salvation of the world would come at the cost that God became flesh.

When Jesus came in the flesh, He was completely God and flesh. During His earthly journey, Jesus experienced all the things of the flesh as other men. He was conceived in the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit and came into the world nine months later as a small infant. He had to learn to talk, walk, care for Himself, and engage with His brothers and sisters. His life was not as uncommon as the other children in Nazareth. He grew in the wisdom of men, the stature of the Lord, increased in height and weight, and had favor will all those who knew Him. In every sense of the word, Jesus was a model son and an example of holiness to the community. He was well known at the synagogue, where He read from the Law frequently. Life in the village of Nazareth was as common as any other man growing to maturity.

Everything changed for the carpenter’s son when He turned thirty years old. John the Baptist had been baptizing people near the Jordan, preaching repentance. Jesus came to John to be baptized to fulfill all righteousness. Immediately, Jesus was taken into the wilderness, where He fasted for forty days. Afterward, He was hard-pressed by Satan directly. Rejecting the devil and his ways, Jesus began a public ministry that would take Him to a hill outside Jerusalem where He would die on the cross. For roughly three years, Jesus taught the people of God the coming kingdom. He performed thousands of miracles, healing untold numbers of people. No miracle ever failed. Jesus raised the dead and cast out evil spirits and demons. He challenged the Jewish leadership, and they had no answers for Him. Jesus had a mission, and the end was death.

Throughout the more than thirty years of His life, Jesus knew the burdens of the flesh. He hungered, needed water to drink, became tired and weary, and was often filled with the frustration of His disciples lacking faith. The Lord was patient with all men because He knew they could not understand His path. They could not know or understand the powerful image of the cross that would change their lives. After Jesus was arrested, they beat Him, spit in His face, mocked Him, and treated Him with contempt. Before nailing Him to the cross, Roman soldiers scourged Him in a very severe way. Jesus never uttered a word or called down the legions of angels to His rescue.

The Hebrew writer describes the tortuous life of Jesus as He suffered. In His prayers and supplications, Jesus cried out with prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the One who could rescue him from death. His Father remained silent. Jesus cried out with vehement cries. His tears consumed Him as He begged for mercy. He knew His Father would not answer His prayer because He could not. The suffering of Jesus was necessary, and God permitted it. God heard every cry and every tear Jesus uttered and remained silent. Jesus suffered in the flesh because He was flesh. In His suffering, He learned obedience and love. Jesus was obedient unto death because that is what the Father required. He learned obedience to the will of the Father by the things He suffered in the flesh. Everything Jesus did to save humanity was for the glory of the Father. Jesus died. He arose. Victory came because God came in the flesh.

And when he desired to cross to Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him; and when he arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; for he vigorously refuted the Jews publicly, showing from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ. (Acts 18:27-28)

The Scriptures Are About Jesus Christ

Apollos was a first-century disciple who learned the truth from two dedicated servants of the Lord who showed him the way to God. As an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures, Apollos was in the city of Ephesus teaching the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John. Aquila and Priscilla took him aside to show him the scriptures and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Apollos was humble enough to listen to them and accept the teaching. He went to Achaia, teaching the scriptures that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, the Christ.

In the early days of the church, the scriptures used by the disciples contained only the books of the Old Testament. As the church grew and the Holy Spirit guided men to write letters and correspondence to one another, the canon of scripture began to be formed. What Apollos was able to do quite effectively was to argue that all the scriptures pointed to the message of Jesus Christ. He proved from the writings of the Old Testament that Jesus was the promised Messiah. From the scriptures, Apollos helped those in Achaia learn what to do to be saved, as revealed by the apostles through the Holy Spirit.

When the canon of scripture was complete, the message of God’s redeeming grace was fully revealed to all men. By the power of God, the Bible was formed into sixty-six books, from Genesis to Revelation. All of the words in the Bible are about Jesus Christ. Salvation is only found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everything points to and directs its message to how God loved the world to send His only begotten Son and, through His blood, redemption. The Bible is not a fairy tale. It is not a book of myths. The Holy Spirit warned of tampering with the story of Jesus Christ. No one should add to the message or take away from its purpose.

The Bible is the mind of God given to humanity to read and understand the will of God. Through a knowledge of the scriptures, false doctrines of men can be vigorously refuted. There is no fear the Bible can be contradicted. It can be denied, but it does not diminish its power. Human wisdom could not have devised such a book. All the attacks by critics are quickly dismissed. Truth is older than error, and the Bible stands on its own merits because it is the word of God. To know Jesus Christ, the Bible must be read and understood. No other revelations are given to the world to know what to do to be saved. The scriptures are about Jesus Christ.

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (Romans 8:5-6)

Finding Life And Peace

Man has searched for the meaning of life since time began. His quest for answers to why he exists has driven him to seek every means possible for happiness. The basic nature of sin is the allurement of finding pleasure, offering an empty hope of defining what a man is and why he lives. There are only two ways to find happiness. The first man lives according to his fleshly desires, setting his mind on fulfilling everything carnal. Sin is attractive. There is no doubt it is fun, or so many people would not enjoy it so much. He only wants to taste every fruit of the flesh to its fullest enjoyment and pleasure.

The problem with fleshly desires is that while they experience euphoria for a moment, nothing will last long. A man enjoys drinking with his buddies, becoming intoxicated to the point of being wasted. He will experience many side effects like a drunken stupor, impairment, vomiting on some occasions, and a hangover. It is remarkable that he enjoys the experience and looks forward to when he can do it again. Bars and nightclubs are filled with people trying to find life and peace, and they never find it at the bottom of a drink.

Fleshly desires lead men and women to seek every sexual experience they can. Marriages are filled with immorality and unfaithfulness because the joy has gone. Same-sex relationships argue they want to find fulfillment and never do. Life is an empty cauldron of lies and failed promises. There is never joy and happiness that is lasting. The flesh is filled, but the need to fill it again drives the desire to engage in deeper pursuits of ungodliness. There is no purpose in life.

Every carnal pursuit ends with an empty promise. Everything Satan promises in the fleshly appetites is a lie. It’s a big lie. There is no life in the flesh. Peace is never found because it does not exist in the carnal mind. God created man to be a spiritual being formed in His image. When men try to find life and peace in the flesh, they fail miserably. What men call peace in the flesh is a vapor that quickly vanishes. The testimony of the aged men and women who wasted their lives pursuing the flesh declares that life is empty and waste. They have no friends, family, or hope. Carnality has drained their lives of its goodness.

There is only one place a man will find life and peace. Those who live according to the glory of God will discover what life means, why man walks on the earth, and what life holds for him after death. The flesh cannot answer these questions. When a man allows the Spirit of God to direct his life, he will find the true meaning of happiness. He will sleep in the peace of Christ, knowing he is loved and redeemed by the blood of God’s Son. The child of God understands the nature of life. Death does not have to be feared. The challenges of life make his spirit stronger. Life is meaningful. When one surrounds their heart with God’s love, they will find a peace that passes understanding.

There is only one place to find life and peace. God sent His Son to earth to show men where they can find life and peace. In Christ, there is hope eternal. God never suggested that the life of a Christian would be easy, but when the early saints faced persecution, they did so with peace. The spirit of the martyred saints changed the minds of many in the world because of their determined faith in believing in what they could not see. While the world lived for the flesh and carnality, the Christians lived for Jesus Christ and found life and peace. The only answer is found in Jesus Christ. Do you want life? Is it your desire to seek peace? There is only one place to find it.