Dying To Self

Bible Reading:  Colossians 3:1-13

Key Verse: Verse 3 – “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

Key Words: For ye are dead

A Sunday School teacher was teaching their Sunday School class to see if they understood the concept of getting to heaven.

He asked them, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?”

“NO!” the children answered.

“If I cleaned the church everyday, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into heaven?”

Again, the answer was, “NO!”  He was just bursting with pride for them.

“Well,” he continued, “then how can I get into heaven?”

A five-year-old boy shouted out, “YOU GOTTA BE DEAD.”

Not only do you have to be dead to go to heaven, you have to be dead to self to stop all the fussing, fuming, and fighting.

So many believers today have never died to self and their own self-will.  As a result, many churches are full of fussing, fuming, and fighting.

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse           

What to do: 

✞ As a believer, dying on earth results in going to heaven; dying to self on earth allows heaven to live in you today.

Mistreatment

Bible Reading:  Matthew 5:33-42

Key Verse: Verse 39 - “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

Key Words: turn to him the other also

We often find ourselves fighting mad because of the mistreatment of ourselves or others.  Now, I will admit to you I hate to see people mistreated, but I’m at the age where I think I have a better understanding of the subject.

Jesus was mistreated and said, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”

Jesus taught others in regard to being mistreated in the Sermon on the Mount.  He said such things as “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and perscute you.”

A nurse in a serviceman's hospital complained to the chaplain that she had been rudely treated by some of the patients.  He answered, “Thank God for that!” “What do you mean?” she inquired in astonishment.  “Well,” he explained, “if you are holding a glass and someone knocks against you, you can only spill out what is inside!  When people misjudge and persecute us, we soon reveal what is in our hearts.  If we are Christ-filled and governed by the Holy Spirit, we will manifest the gentleness and meekness of our Savior.  In fact, God often allows us to be pushed around and mistreated so that unsaved men may be astonished at His grace as we overflow with love and forbearance.”

 Quite a thought, isn’t it?

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do: 

✞Remember, you can only be as strong as your fruit of temperance.

My Own Enemy

Bible Reading:  II Samuel 12:1-13

Key Verse: Verse 7 - “ And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul;”

Key Words: Thou art the man

 Have you ever noticed that the one thing we can’t stand about others is often our own weakness?  David became filled with anger when told by Nathan that the poor man’s lamb had been stolen by the man with many lambs, but David had just stolen Uriah’s wife.  Peter could not stand acts of cowardice, but when pressed on the night of Jesus’ arrest, he cowardly denied Christ three times.  Jacob battled with the deceitfulness of Laban, but it was he who deceived his own father, Isaac.

There is an old adage that states, “I have met the enemy, and it is I.”  Today is a day of self-centeredness.  It is easy to see the faults and weaknesses of others and still never see our own.  A lady, after one of our morning services very bluntly stated that the one thing that she could not stand in preachers was bluntness.

Solomon said in Proverbs 26:16, The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit, than seven men that can render a reason.  Most people never see their own weakness.  They justify them away with ten-cent excuses.  Today, would you begin to pray for God to reveal your character flaws to you, and when He does, will you be willing to correct them?

Don’t try to hide your weaknesses, everyone else already sees them.  To accept them is to accept second best for your life.

Note: When David saw David, he repented.  When Peter saw Peter, he repented.  When Jacob saw Jacob, he repented.  When I see me, what do I do?

 

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse                                        

What to do: 

✞Ask God to allow you to see yourself as He sees you.

Their Attitude

Bible Reading:  Psalm 103

Key Verse: Verse 14 - “For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.”

Key Words: he remembereth that we are dust

I, on occasion, will tell our teachers to handle each student as if their mother was standing there watching us because how we handle others will go a long way in reaching them for Christ.

Douglas Twitchell writes:  Last fall my friends Ben and Melissa added a little baby girl to their family. I was excited for the news, and waited impatiently for the day they would invite me to come see little Ziva. As we were sitting around chatting, and watching the baby doing baby-ish things (that is to say, not much of anything but make faces and noises), Ben said, "Do you want to hold her?"

I said, "Well, yeah!"

I have to admit, it had been a long time since I'd held a newborn in my arms; most of my friends have passed the age when they're adding children to the family, so opportunities to hold newborns are few and far between for me.

As I cradled Ziva in my arms, I thought, How different this is from the way I hold my nephew who is four years old! Little Ziva is so fragile compared to Elias!

And I remembered a word that crops up in the Bible from time to time: gentleness. Colossians 3:12 tells us to clothe ourselves with gentleness. Galatians 6:1 instructs us that when we confront someone caught in sin, we must do it gently.

And what does that tell us? It tells us that, like newborn babies, human beings are all fragile. Not, in most cases, physically fragile, but spiritually fragile and emotionally fragile. How we treat one another is a reflection of our understanding that, as Psalm 103:14 says, we are formed from the dust of the earth, and there is nothing more fragile than that. 

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him; For He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust.

Maybe remembering this will help some consider and even stop all their fussing, fuming, and fighting and be forgiving.

 

                                                                                            Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞People can be fragile; handle them with care.

Hateful

Bible Reading:  Titus 3

Key Verse: Verse 3 - “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another.”

Key Words:  hateful, and hating one another

Hateful just means that one is full of hate.  The word means to detest, to persecute, actions done with an attempt to harm one physically, emotionally, or even to harm their testimony.

Do you know of others that carry the venom of hatred with them, ready to strike out at those whom they hate?

One of my grandsons got what looked like a wadded up piece of foam, brought it to our house, and told us it was a fish.  It wasn’t like any fish I had ever seen…the instructions simply said “place in a container of water” which we did; and sure enough, after a few minutes that foam began to unwrap and take on the shape of a fish!  We took it from the bowl we had it in and placed it in a bathtub full of water and left it there.  After a few hours, that little piece of foam had swollen into a pretty good-sized fish.  As I stood and thought about that “fish” I began to think about those who let a little thing, a little word, a little act sit and soak in the heart and before long, it has grown from envy or jealousy to disrespect, and from disrespect to anger, and from anger to bitterness, and from bitterness to hatred.

Today, there will be dozens of people who will read this devotional who are letting this envy, jealousy, resentment, anger, and bitterness soak in their heart and before long, they will have a heart full of hatred.  What a shame!

 

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:

✞Ask God to give you victory over hatred.  Remember, your hatred may or may not destroy the ones you hate, but it will certainly destroy you.

Anger

Bible Reading:  Romans 12:9-21

Key Verse: Verse 19 – “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

Key Words:  Vengeance is mine

When we become angry with others we tend to do one of three things.  Some repress their anger, still others suppress anger, but the vast majority resort to a third solution–they seek revenge.

Have you every hungered for a little sweet revenge?  I read recently about a story that took place in 1992.  Lady Sarah Graham Moon, at the age of fifty-five, was dumped by her British aristocratic husband.  She sought to get even with him in the following ways.  First, she poured gallons of paint on his cherished BMW while it was parked in his girlfriend’s driveway.  A week later she cut four inches off the left sleeve on thirty-two of his tailored suits, $1,600 suits I might add.  The following week she gave away sixty bottles of his finest wine.  Her actions did not go unnoticed, she caught the attention of the press and became somewhat of a celebrity.  One lady wrote her to share how she had cleaned the toilet with her unfaithful husband’s toothbrush, then watched with glee as he brushed his teeth.  Of course, none of these can compare with the revenge of Vera Czermak.  When she learned that her husband had betrayed her, Mrs. Czermak became suicidal and decided to jump to her death from their third floor apartment in Prague.  Surprisingly, she survived the jump because she landed on her husband who was leaving the apartment on his way to work.  She lived, he died.  She was charged with murder and is now serving time in prison.

Oh, by the way, Mrs. Moon was sued by her husband and won.  Vengeance really does not pay.  Remember, we said we usually do three things with our anger: we repress it, suppress it, or attempt to get revenge.  But there is another thing we can do with anger which is far better, and that is confess it (I John 1:8), and I have found that confession has far better consequences than the other methods of handling our anger.

                                                                                                    Dr. Mike Rouse                        

What to do:

✞Remember, you may get even but you will also reap whatever you sow.

Stubborness

Bible Reading: Philippians 4:1-10

Key Verse: Verse 2 – “ I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.”

Key Words: be of the same mind 

No doubt Euodias and Syntyche were at odds and from all appearances neither was about to give in.  More conflicts grow and explode because of pride and stubbornness than any other reason.  As you read Philippians 4 it becomes obvious that these two were rejoicing in fighting one another, but not the Lord (verse 4).  When this happens, hang on, the ride is about to get rough.  Let me assure you that there are no winners in a war of stubbornness!

In the summer of 1986, two ships collided in the Black Sea off the coast of Russia. Hundreds of passengers died as they were hurled into the icy waters below. News of the disaster was further darkened when an investigation revealed the cause of the accident.  It wasn’t a technology problem like radar malfunction—or even thick fog.  The cause was human stubbornness.  Each captain was aware of the other ship’s presence nearby.  Both could have steered clear, but according to news reports, neither captain wanted to give way to the other.  Each was too proud to yield first.  By the time they came to their senses, it was too late. 

What a shame! 

                                                                                                Dr. Mike Rouse

What to do:  

✞Pick and choose your fights carefully.  Ask yourself how many will be hurt from your stubbornness.