Stepping in the Light

“Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, Comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good word and work.” II Thessalonians 2:16-17

The word stablish (establish) is used here to mean “turn resolutely in a certain direction.” Paul’s desire for the Christians in Thessalonica was that the Lord would turn them resolutely toward “every good word and work.” Good words and good works are defined by the principles in the Word of God. The Bible establishes the guidelines that we use to determine appropriate speech and behavior. As Christians, we have a responsibility to become familiar with the teachings of scripture and use them as the ground rules by which we live our lives. It should be obvious to the people around us that we are followers of Christ by the way we speak to them and the way that we treat them. When these desirable actions and words become firmly entrenched in our way of life, the people around us develop expectations regarding our deportment. They eventually begin to expect us to be kind, thoughtful, industrious, positive, and encouraging people. The patterns that they see in our lives become a testimony of the things that we believe. The practical outworking of our faith has established a reputation before those around us of kindness in word and deed. Every day presents us with an opportunity to further establish ourselves in good words and good works.

“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” Isaiah 55:1

It has often been said that the best things in life are free. That is certainly true when it comes to the things of God. The greatest gift that a person could ever receive is eternal life. Many people believe that there is some good work that we must do in order to gain favor with God and ultimately spend eternity with Him. Some believe that their church will save them from their sins. They are trusting in religious rituals and good works to atone for the wrong that they have done. Unfortunately, this is insufficient when it comes to attaining perfection. People fail to understand that God’s standard is holiness, absolute perfection. Even one sin is enough to permanently spoil an otherwise spotless record. We are all guilty sinners before God. No amount of good works, penance, or restitution can erase the guilt of sin. God understood our predicament and decided to create a means by which we could be made righteous. He became a man in the form of Jesus Christ and died on the cross as a substitute to pay the penalty for our sins. If we believe that He died for us and are willing to accept His payment for our sins, we are counted righteous in the sight of God. Though Jesus paid the highest price for our forgiveness, salvation is made available to us absolutely free! In God’s marketplace of righteousness, we are able to buy without money because Jesus paid it all!

“How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” Isaiah 52:7

Your feet carry you places. We enjoy a wide array of means of transportation these days; but no matter whether you travel by bus, train, car, or plane, your feet are what you depend upon to get you to your final destination.

Likewise, people are news carriers. We have newspapers, television, satellite, internet, cell phones, and various forms of social media; but no matter what the medium of communication is, a person is initiating the message.

There is good news and bad news. Bad news travels fast. Bad news gets ratings. Bad news attracts attention. But what we really need in life is good news. The passage above says that the people who bring good tidings have beautiful feet. We don’t generally think of feet as being particularly beautiful, but when they are carrying the person who is bringing good news, they are beautiful.

Are you a person who brings good news or bad news? Are you looking for ways that you can encourage the people around you? Are you sharing the best news, the news of salvation through Jesus Christ? According to the text above, we can have beautiful feet if we bring good news, if we speak peace, if we share the gospel, and if we lift our voices in praise to God.

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.” I Thessalonians 4:14-18

Paul told the church at Thessalonica to comfort one another with the truth of the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. One day the Lord will descend from heaven, and all of the believers who have died will rise from their resting places to meet Him in the air. Then all of the saved who are living on earth will be caught up together with them, and we will be with the Lord eternally. This should be comforting to every believer who has a desire to see Jesus. We are serving Him by faith. We sing about Him, praise Him, and pray to Him; but on that day we will finally see Him. This truth should be comforting to every believer who has lost a loved one who knew the Lord. What a wonderful day it will be to be reunited with those who have gone before us! This truth should be comforting to every believer who is experiencing trials, hardship, or persecution. When Jesus comes again, all of our troubles will be over!

“Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?” Isaiah 45:9

God made you. This is certainly a basic thought for any person who believes in the existence of God and His work of creation, but the implications are far reaching within our identities and thought processes. This passage pronounces woe upon the person who questions God, especially in His exercise of His prerogative as Creator. However, for as obvious as it seems that one should never try to pass judgement on God’s handiwork, it appears to be quite a common problem among believers. So many people are unhappy with the way that God made them, and they blame Him for their overall dissatisfaction in life. We are likened to clay in the passage above. Clay is pliable, inanimate, and passive. God has made us as we are, and He is continually working in our lives to make something special for His glory. Each of His creations is unique and is created to fulfill a specific purpose within His master plan. We must be willing to accept His role as our maker and allow Him to continue to work in our lives so that we can bring glory to Him. God gave you the intellect, appearance, health, strength, abilities, and aptitudes that you have. He wants to work in you and through you to accomplish His will in your life. He has people for you to help, encourage, and teach. Our lives make so much more sense when we become clay in God’s hands.

“For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.” Isaiah 44:3-4

Plants need an abundant source of water in order to thrive. This passage projects an image of a river lined with willow trees, flourishing along its banks. Willow trees consume a lot of water. A newly planted willow tree that is two inches in diameter at the base needs about 60 gallons of water per week. Their root systems seek water so aggressively that it is not advisable to plant them within 100 feet of water lines or septic systems. They grow much more quickly and are more productive than most other trees. God wants His people to be like willow trees. He wants us to grow in grace and reproduce ourselves by bringing others to Christ. If we are to be growing and productive Christians, we must become spiritually thirsty. As thirst is a desire for water, spiritual thirst is a desire for the things of God. Do you have a desire to know God? Are you experiencing a deep personal relationship with the Lord? Do you want to read the Bible? Do you want to know more about God and His Word? If you feel that your desire to know God has waned, the Lord wants you to become thirsty for Him. If you will simply decide to begin this process, you will find that the closer you get to God, the closer you will want to be to Him. If we are thirsty, He will give us water and we will grow.

“I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” Isaiah 42:8

Jehovah is the name God uses here in the Hebrew, and it is translated as LORD. The name means “self-existent” or “eternal.” The ideas of self-existence and eternality are a bit difficult for us to comprehend; but as we ponder the meaning of God’s name, we begin to get a small glimpse of the nature of the omnipotent God we serve. Our lives have a beginning point and an ending point, but God simply exists. He never began. He is the source of all life and the Creator of all things. He wants us to know Who He is and give the proper praise and honor to His name. If we know His name, we know that He is the LORD, the self-existent and eternal One. His name suggests to us that He is without peer and without rival. God says here that He will not give His glory to another. The first of the Ten Commandments is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). We all inherently know that there is a Creator and that He is great in power. It makes God angry when we suppress that instinctive understanding and ascribe God’s glory to an inanimate object or an unseen and impossible process. Though idol worship is still prevalent in many parts of the world, man’s intellect is becoming the god of choice in many cultures. People who know deep in their souls that God exists are trying to replace Him with the theory of evolution. God is not willing to give His glory away. Each of us is responsible to observe His power and acknowledge His glory.

“Let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man.” Colossians 4:6

We have all been in situations where someone has said something to us or asked us a question and we had a difficult time finding just the right answer. Sometimes we think of what we should have said later on, after our opportunity has passed. Unfortunately, these moments are an unavoidable part of the human experience, but the passage above gives us two guidelines to help us choose an answer when we are put to the test. First, our words should be gracious. Abrasive, sarcastic, or hurtful words might give us a temporary feeling of power or control; but they are a poor testimony and do more harm than good. Second, our speech should be seasoned with salt. This seems to refer to words that are spiritually challenging in nature. Jesus gave us an excellent example of a gracious, spiritual answer when the Pharisees asked whether it were lawful to pay tribute to Caesar. They were trying to trick Jesus into saying something that would be unpopular with the people. Jesus asked them to show him a piece of money. When he asked them, “Whose image and superscription is this?” they said, “Caesar’s.” Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s” (Mark 12:17). Jesus’ answer was gracious, but it contained a powerful spiritual message. “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver” (Proverbs 25:11).

“Now therefore, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the LORD, even thou only.” Isaiah 37:20

Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, sent Rabshakeh, the captain of his army with 185,000 men to surround the city of Jerusalem. The people of Jerusalem lacked the military might to repel such a formidable foe. Rabshakeh sent a message to Hezekiah, the king of Israel, demanding that he surrender and turn the city over to Assyrian control. He cautioned Hezekiah and the people not to trust in the Lord. He said that none of the gods of the nations that the Assyrians had conquered had been able to deliver them and that it was pointless for them to hope that God would save them. When Hezekiah received the message, he tore his clothes and put on sackcloth. He then sent messengers to Isaiah the prophet asking him to pray that God would deliver them from their enemies. Hezekiah went up to the temple and spread the letter that he received from Rabshakeh before the Lord. He began to pray that God would show Himself strong on their behalf. Hezekiah acknowledged that the Assyrians had defeated many nations and had burned their gods in the fire, but he prayed that God would deliver them so that the whole world would know that He was the living God. The Lord heard Hezekiah’s prayer and sent an angel to kill the whole Assyrian army! Hezekiah’s prayer demonstrates that God wants His name to be honored and that He will answer us when our petitions are for His name’s sake.

“Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.” Colossians 2:8

The word spoil usually refers to the taking of items of physical value, particularly during a time of war. However, in the passage above, it refers to the removal of strongly-held spiritual beliefs through the process of persuasion. In the light of eternity, the most valuable things that we possess are the tenants of our faith. Who we are in this lifetime, where we will spend eternity, and the rewards that we will receive are all wrapped up in what we believe. This verse lists four ways that these sacred truths can be attacked: philosophy, vain deceit, tradition, and the rudiments of the world. Philosophy is a system of thinking. Many of the religions of the world today are simply a man-made system of thinking. They are not based upon God’s Word; they are based upon humans’ ideas of what they think God should be like. Vain deceit describes empty lies. The devil will promise you the world in order to get you to change, but he will never deliver on his promises. Tradition holds many people in its sway, but when tradition contradicts scripture it will lead you astray. The rudiments of the world are the basic principles of this world’s system. For example, the world teaches us to live for ourselves; but the Bible teaches that we should live for others. We must be careful to guard ourselves against these attacks on our closely-held beliefs lest they be stolen away without us ever realizing what happened.