Sting

My youngest child went outside with his sister to feed the animals on our front porch on a June Wednesday evening.  We were all getting ready for bed when I heard him crying.  She came in first saying that he was stung by a bee.  As he came inside crying, he was holding his hand saying that a bee stung him.  I asked him how he knew that it was a bee sting.  He said, “Uhhh!  Daddy, I saw the bee and wanted to pet it!” 

Fast forward about twenty-four hours to Thursday evening while we are at our girl’s fast-pitch softball game.  She is up to bat and I have my camera on the sports feature taking multiple pictures trying to capture her big hit.  As I leaned against the fence to steady the camera, I zoomed in on her batting.  I opened both eyes to see when the pitcher was going to unleash the ball.  In my peripheral vision I saw wasps lurking overhead and I sensed imminent danger.  As I put the camera down and backed away from the fence, one of the wasps went on the attack and nailed me on the top-left side of my head.  Ouchy!  The experience of the sting hurt worse than hearing about it from my son the night before.   

The next morning I woke up and the top of my head was still a little sore.  There was also a newly formed knot on the back of my neck causing me pain every time I turned my head.  My neck continued to hurt for a week.  One “sting” caused lasting effects on me and my life for a week.  However, some people have an allergic reaction to a sting causing much more severe side effects that must be medically treated.  There is even a great potential for death if not cared for quickly.  Wow!  Just from one “sting!”

Did you know there are two other stings that this world brings our way that are far worse than any sting given by a wasp or a bee?  Neither of these kinds of stings is good and both are very, very dangerous.  However, a cure for these two stings has been provided!

1 Corinthians 15:54-57

Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”  For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. ⁵⁷ But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Is there a “sting” (sin) in your life that is going unconfessed to the Lord?  Are you living your life in denial that you have been stung by the sin bee?  The Bible says there is victory over that “sting.”  Talk with the sting healer and the life giver today.  Ask God for forgiveness.  Accept the victory that he gives to you from the “stings” that are currently causing ill effects in your life today.  Imminent danger lurks, but we have victory through Jesus Christ!

Remember, God has a purpose and a plan for your life.  The sting of sin, however, wants to lead you away from that greater purpose.  Don't let the sting of sin have control of your day today.  Live out your day with #BalancedLiving for God so that you can be a #WorldChanger and #KingdomBuilder for His glory!

  

In Christ Alone and continuing in prayer,

Chad Hensley (Senior Pastor, Henderson General Baptist Church)

www.HendersonGeneralBaptistChurch.org

www.facebook.com/hgbchurch

www.PastorChadH.blogspot.com

Great Commission & Great Command

“…and God, take anything away from me that is stopping me from loving you more.”  Those words cut me so deeply when I heard them.  I asked, “Did you really mean what you just prayed?”  I was not talking to a theologian or a scholar or a long time Christian saint or even to myself.  I was talking to my ten year old daughter after she prayed for our morning family devotion.

Often times we complicate things, but in reality they are very simple; so simple a child can understand.  The terms Great Command and Great Commission are often used throughout Christian circles, but do we truly understand them and do we rightly follow them?  The simpler the form we can speak it; the better we can usually understand, remember, and follow it. 

The Great Command can be found in Matthew 22:34-40, Mark 12:28-34, and Luke 10:25-28.  Jesus declares that all the laws found in the Old Testament Scriptures, along with all the demands of the prophets, can be summed up in two commands.  “Love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.  Love your neighbor as yourself.” 

The Great Commission can be found in Matthew 28:16-20, Mark 16:14-18, Luke 24:44-48, and Acts 1:8.  This is God’s plan to let people know about Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension into heaven, and his eventual return to gather his people.  I want to give you one sentence that I hope will better sum up all these verses.  “Proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone, everywhere.” 

These verses and simple summations are the basis for living out our daily lives here on earth as Christians.  They are balanced on the cross of Christ.  More importantly, Christ desires that they are balanced in our lives.  The question still remains, “Can we understand, remember, and follow them?”  Maybe we can, but I would like to further simplify these summation sentences into single words in order to help it remain balanced in our day to day living. 

The word to remember for the Great Command is “Love.”  The Bible states that “God is love.”  We read that Jesus showed his love for everyone when he died on a cross for all our sins.  Before Jesus died, he commanded that we love.  He was the living and dying example of love.  Now we are to love God and love those around us.  The Great Command is “Love.”

 If we are going to love as Jesus told us to, then we have to also follow his Great Commission.  The word to remember for the Great Commission is “Proclaim.”  Proclaim means to announce, declare, broadcast, and make known.  We are all called by God to “proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ to everyone, everywhere.”  The Great Commission is “Proclaim.”

We are to “Love” and we are to “Proclaim.”  To further help us all to understand, remember, and follow the Great Command and the Great Commission and keep them balanced in our lives; let’s simply put them together.  “Proclaim Love.”  Let us understand, remember, and follow this; “Proclaim Love.”  “…and God, take anything away from me that is stopping me from loving you more.”  Let me “Proclaim Love.”

 

In Christ Alone and continuing in prayer,

 
Chad Hensley (Senior Pastor, Henderson General Baptist Church)

www.HendersonGeneralBaptistChurch.org
www.facebook.com/hgbchurch
www.PastorChadH.blogspot.com