We sometimes sing a beautiful hymn that captures the essence of the struggle godly people often experience in life.  The title of the hymn is Farther Along, and it asks the questions that we so often ponder when bad things happen to good people.  The first two stanzas pose the question of why things seem to go well for the wicked, while godly people suffer.  The second stanza is particularly poignant because it speaks of how we feel when a loved one has passed away.  The third and fourth stanzas exhort us to remain faithful to the Lord in spite of these things because we believe there is a better place awaiting us in the future.  In the chorus the words encourage us to persevere because we will one day understand it all.  The sentiment of this song is absolutely biblical, and it declares a principle that ought to never be overlooked.

The scriptures clearly teach us that life will be characterized by ups and downs.  After the sin in the Garden of Eden God cursed the ground and turned man’s work into toil.  He also increased the woman’s pain in childbirth.  In addition to this, sickness, disease, and physical death became inevitable for mankind.  To top it all off, sin became prevalent in the world, bringing about its own temporal consequences along with the prospect of eternal punishment.  These are things that affect everyone, no matter what his or her relationship to God.

When Paul wrote his second letter to the young preacher Timothy, he advised him that Christians must also expect to endure persecution because of their faith.  In 2 Tim. 3:12 he said, “Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.”  This is an inescapable part of devoting oneself to the living God.  However, it should not be a source of discouragement for us.  The apostles rejoiced when they were persecuted because they felt it an honor to be counted worthy to suffer shame for their faith in the Lord (Acts 5:41).  The reason why they could do so is that they understood what Paul would later write to the church in Rome.  In Rom. 8:18 he said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.”  The apostles knew that something better awaited them, and thus they were able to endure in the face of persecution.

The same truth applies with regard to physical death.  In the second stanza of Farther Along, the words say, “When death has come and taken our loved ones, it leaves our home so lonely and drear; then do we wonder why others prosper, living so wicked year after year.”  The biblical answer to this lament is found in 1 Th. 4:13-18.  There Paul told the Thessalonian Christians not to grieve over the dead as do the rest who have no hope.  Instead, he assured them that the dead in Christ will rise first on the last day, and then all the righteous will join the Lord in the air and forever be with Him.  In v. 18 he said, “Therefore, comfort one another with these words.”

These words are comfort indeed when we have lost a loved one.  For the Christian death is not the end, but simply a transition to a far better place.  We don’t fully comprehend it when a loved one departs, but farther along we will understand.  If we hold the faith of Christ dear in our hearts, we know that all the things we are unable to comprehend now will one day be fully known.  We know that truly, “Farther along we’ll know all about it, farther along we’ll understand why.  Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine.  We’ll understand it all by and by.”  May God help us to have the faith to patiently wait until we have gone farther along.

In 1952 an Anglican minister named J. B. Phillips published a book entitled, Your God Is Too Small.  His purpose was to expose a flaw in the thinking of many professed believers with regard to God the Father.  In his relatively short volume Phillips discussed a number of attitudes toward God that he had observed in his years as a minister.  Each of these descriptions captured a perspective of God that in Phillips’ mind limited God and left believers with doubts about the Almighty.

One may or may not agree with Phillips’ assessment of the various attitudes about God, or with his proposed solutions to these limitations of God’s character.  However, his point is well-taken.  Most of us limit God in some way or another, and this limitation affects the way in which we respond to Him and to His word.  Phillips’ premise was that the only way to properly understand the Almighty God is to search the scriptures in order to see how they reveal Him.  This is a suggestion to which we can all agree, and from which we can all benefit.

The scriptures teach us that in ancient times God revealed Himself in bits and pieces through the prophets, but has in these last days spoken through His Son (Heb. 1:1-2).  The scriptures further declare that the Son of God has perfectly revealed the Father to us.  In Jn. 1:14 John said that the Word became flesh, and in Him we saw the glory of the Father.  In v. 18 of that chapter John said that no one has seen God at any time, but the Word who became flesh explained Him to us.  On the night of the Lord’s betrayal He told the apostles that if they had seen Him they had seen the Father (Jn. 14:8-9).

If we receive the word with eagerness, and examine the scriptures daily, as the Bereans did (Acts 17:11), we will see the fullness of God the Father’s nature.  We should understand, of course, that we are limited in our ability to comprehend this, but to the degree that we are able to do so, we can understand just how big our God truly is.  Our problem, simply stated, is that we generally fail to take His complete nature into account, even as we seek Him, worship Him, or approach Him in prayer.  As J. B. Phillips suggested, we try to pigeon-hole God into compartments of our own devising, and then we are disappointed when He fails to live up to our expectations.

Instead of struggling with a God who does not meet our expectations, we must allow Him to be who He is, and adjust our expectations to agree with His unchangeable character.  Part of that adjustment should come simply by reading His word and paying attention to all that He has done for His people.  The God who brought Egypt to its knees is big enough to handle our daily problems.  The God who spared Jerusalem from the Assyrians during the reign of Hezekiah is big enough to rescue us from our troubles.  Most importantly of all, however, the God who forever defeated Satan by sending His only Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins, is big enough to see us through to eternal life.

If we are struggling in our walk as Christians, it just may be because we have made our God too small to take care of our needs.  Whatever our reasons for doing so may be, we must repent of limiting God by our own attitudes and expectations.  We must let Him be who he is, and mold ourselves to His eternal and unchangeable character.  Then we will discover that He is indeed big enough to meet all our spiritual needs.

In a recent article the owner of a prominent Christian magazine reflected on his own journey of faith.  He likened himself to the Roman Centurion Cornelius, about whom we read in Acts 10.  Like Cornelius, this man was a good man, and a religious man who believed he was doing what the Lord wanted him to do.  Like Cornelius, he came into contact with someone who helped him complete his understanding of what the Lord requires for salvation and faithful living.  The story of Cornelius is an inspiring story of an honest seeker finding the truth and bowing the knee to the Lord in obedience to it.

This story is especially important in the New Testament records of conversion that we find in the book of Acts.  It is important for several reasons.  First, Cornelius was the first Gentile convert to Christ.  Up until his conversion, the gospel had only been preached to the Jews, and to their cousins the Samaritans. With Cornelius the gospel truly became international in scope as the Lord intended.  Second, his conversion was marked by miraculous interventions in order to facilitate it.  The only other conversion that contained such was that of Saul of Tarsus.  Third, Cornelius was not a typical convert to Christ.  He was not a wicked man whose life openly declared his need for salvation.

Regarding the first aspect, the significance of Cornelius’ conversion is not in him personally, but in his nationality.  God had intended for Gentiles to be saved, just like the Jews, from before the beginning of time.  Cornelius was simply the man that the Lord chose to be the first among his class of people to be saved.  Regarding the second aspect, it is important to notice that the miraculous events surrounding his conversion are not what saved Cornelius.  It was his obedience to the gospel by being baptized into Christ for the forgiveness of his sins that saved him and his household.  This message is the same throughout the book of Acts (cf. Acts 2:38-41; 22:16; et al).

Regarding the third aspect, Cornelius’ conversion is important because of who he was before he was saved.  In Acts 10:2 Luke describes him as, “a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, and gave many alms to the Jewish people and prayed to God continually.”  The significance of this statement is seen in the common belief today that all good, sincere, honest, religious people will be saved.  By all human standards Cornelius was an exemplary individual.  He was a godly man.  He was a religious man.  He was a devout practitioner of the Jewish faith.  But, he was not saved by any of this.  Not even the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on him and his household saved him (Acts 10:44-48).  Cornelius was not saved until he was baptized for the forgiveness of his sins, just like every other person whose conversion is recorded in Acts.

This is what makes the story of Cornelius timeless.  Salvation is the gift of God for all those who believe in Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:8-9).  But this gift is given only when we obey the command to repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38).  We receive salvation only when we have been baptized and washed away our sins (Acts 22:16).  The significance of Cornelius is that he did not let his devout nature and good conduct keep him from obeying the command to be baptized (Acts 10:48), and neither must we.

What we need so desperately today are people who are willing to be a modern-day Cornelius.  We need good people who are willing to do everything the Lord commands in order to be saved.  We need good people who will not let their goodness be an obstacle to their salvation.  May God grant us many more like Cornelius!

During Paul’s second missionary journey, he and Silas fled from the city of Thessalonica because the Jews in that city were threatening them.  They came to a city called Berea, where they were more warmly received by the Jews in that city.  Luke’s description of the people of Brea is interesting and unique.  It is said of no others in all the New Testament.  In Acts 17:11 the scripture says of them, “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.”

This description is interesting in the immediate context because it stands in stark contrast to the reaction of the Jews in Thessalonica.  The Bereans received the word with “great eagerness”, whereas the Thessalonians apparently had not done so.  Also, the Bereans listened to the preaching of Paul and Silas and then verified their message by examining the scriptures to see if it was true to God’s word.  It seems that the Thessalonians were not as diligent in this regard.  It is no wonder, then, that the Bereans were considered to be “more noble-minded” than those in Thessalonica.

The example of the Bereans prompts us to consider whether we today are as noble-minded as they were.  How many religious people today simply accept whatever their preacher or their church leaders say, without question and without further examination?  The plain truth is that far too many sincerely religious people do this very thing.  We know this must be the case because of how often the doctrines of some churches change without any reaction from their members.  The most extreme example of this is the number of mainline protestant churches that have recently embraced the LGBT agenda without any response from their members.

If we allow the scriptures to lead us as God intended them to, we will periodically take inventory of our attitudes in this regard.  A fundamental principle of scripture is personal accountability.  Paul spoke of this in Rom. 14:12, where he said, “So then each one of us will give an account of himself to God.”  In Rev. 20:12 John wrote that the dead would be judged by the things written in the books, “according to their deeds”.  The point is that we will not judged according to how well we went along with our religious leaders.  We will be judged by how we responded to God’s word.

For this reason the scriptures call upon us to become personally familiar with their content.  In 2 Tim. 2:15 Paul said, “Be diligent (or study) to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”  This is a personal responsibility, and we will not be excused from it by saying that we trusted our religious teachers and faithfully followed their teaching.  As the Lord said about the Pharisees, who often distorted God’s word, “Let them alone; they are blind guides of the blind.  And if a blind man guides a blind man, both will fall into a pit” (Mt. 15:14).

The Bereans were more noble-minded because they would not take anyone’s word for what God’s will was, not even a well-known and respected apostle like Paul.  They listened eagerly to the proclamation of God’s word, and then they took out the scriptures and verified that what they heard was the truth.  This is how each of us should respond to the preaching and teaching we hear.  We may fully trust our religious leaders, but we can only be certain about what they are teaching if we examine the scriptures daily to see if the things they teach are so.  Our teachers and religious leaders absolutely bear personal responsibility for what they teach (Jam. 3:1; 1 Pet. 4:11; Acts 20:27, 2 Tim. 4:1-4; et al), but we bear personal responsibility for verifying that what they teach is the truth.

These things being true, how noble-minded are you?

February is the month of love.  All over the country gifts of flowers, candies, and other tokens of affection are being purchased for loved ones.  Romantic dinners are being planned, and young men are searching for the perfect ring so they can “pop the question” to the girl of their dreams.  All of the accoutrements of the Valentine’s Day holiday are symbols of love.  Red roses, special chocolates, and a diamond engagement ring are all ways of saying, “I love you,” but what about when the season of love has passed?

The more important expression of one’s love for another is how he or she treats that other person in the ordinary affairs of life.  A man who lavishes gifts on his wife on Valentine’s Day, but treats her poorly the rest of the year, doesn’t truly love her, and his gifts do not make up for his bad behavior.  The plain truth is that all of us want to receive expressions of love every day, not just on special occasions.  This does not mean that we want roses and candy every day, but simply that we want to be treated with love and consideration all year round.

This fact of human nature is a reflection of the attitude that characterizes our Father in heaven, and our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Many people openly profess their love for God, and their love for the Lord Jesus, but they tend to express it only on special occasions.  This is why so many church buildings are filled to capacity on Christmas and Easter, but are sparsely filled the rest of the year.  It is as though we are saying, “Lord, my devotion on these special occasions should be enough to last you throughout the year.”  We do not accept this kind of devotion from our loved ones in the flesh, so why would we expect God to accept it from us?

After the Lord’s resurrection, He appeared to the eleven remaining apostles over a period of about forty days.  On one of these occasions, recorded in Jn. 21:15-17, the Lord asked Peter three times, “Do you love Me?”  In each case Peter responded that he did love the Lord.  Then, in each instance the Lord told Peter to take care of His sheep.  In other words, the Lord told Peter to demonstrate his love by doing what He commanded him to do.  If Peter truly loved the Lord, he would obey Him.

This, ultimately, is the only way we can demonstrate our love for the Lord.  It is, after all, what He Himself requires.  On the night of His betrayal, after dismissing Judas to complete his treachery, the Lord told the other apostles, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments” (Jn. 14:15).  A little later He added, “You are My friends if you do what I command you” (Jn. 15:14).  It cannot be expressed any more simply than this.  If we love the Lord, we must do what He commands us to do, not just on the special occasions, but every day of our lives.

In practical terms, this means that there are certain things we will always do, and there are certain things that we will not do.  On the one hand this means we will not conform ourselves to the world, but will be transformed by the renewing of our mind (Rom. 12:1-2).  On the other hand, it means that we will walk in the light, even as He Himself is in the light, so the blood of Jesus will continue to cleanse us (1 Jn. 1:5-10).  It also means that we will not forsake the assembly each Lord’s Day, as the habit of some is, but that we will stimulate one another to love and good deeds, encouraging each other as we see the day of His return drawing near (Heb. 10:24-25).

The Lord asked Peter, “Do you love Me?”  He asks the same question of each of us today, not just during the season of love, but every day.  If we truly love Him, then we will obey Him until He calls us home to heaven.

February 5, 2017 is the fifty-first edition of the NFL Championship Game, commonly known as the Super Bowl.  The first such game was played on January 15, 1967 in Los Angeles, CA, and pitted the NFL champion Green Bay Packers against the AFL champion Kansas City Chiefs.  At the time of that first game no one was sure that the public would embrace it.  Certainly no one could have foreseen what this annual event would become.  Today, the Super Bowl is arguably the biggest sporting event of the year, and the Sunday on which it is played is called “Super Sunday.”

This game has become so popular that for many people the world stops, or at least gets put on hold, on Super Bowl Sunday.  Normal activities are rescheduled to accommodate viewing the game, and Super Bowl parties are commonplace.  Some business even alter their normal schedules to allow their employees to view it.  In recent years some churches have rescheduled their assemblies, or even canceled them, so their members may view the game.

Those who are not fans of American football may wonder what all the fuss is about.  For them, the idea of a Sunday being super because of a sporting event seems incredible.  While some pundits have attributed the potential for economic growth in that year to who wins the game, we all know the outcome of this game has no real impact in the big picture of life.  The day of this game is super only because of the hype surrounding it.

On the other hand, an argument can be made that every Sunday is a super Sunday.  From a biblical perspective, every Sunday is super because every Sunday is the Lord’s Day.  We call it the Lord’s Day because it belongs to Him.  It belongs to Him because it is the day that He came forth from the tomb (Mt. 28:1-6).  It is the first day of the week, and it is the day in which the church which bears His name was established (Acts 2:38-47).  It is His day because this was when the first Christians met to commemorate His death on the cross (Acts 20:7).  This was also the day in which He gave the great vision that we call the book of Revelation to John (Rev. 1:10).

As significant as Super Bowl Sunday is to the vast majority of people, there are some for whom it is not super at all.  They do not participate in any Super Bowl-related activities, and they do not watch the game, or care how it turns out.  For these, Super Sunday is no different than any other Sunday.  Their lives and activities are not affected by the hype surrounding this event.

In a similar way, there are many who refuse to treat the Lord’s Day as anything other than another day.  They do not take time to acknowledge and to worship the Lord who died to save them from their sins.  They do not honor His sacrifice, or give thought to the great love He showed by going to the cross.  Their attitude and actions declare that they see nothing super about the Lord’s Day.

If we refuse to join in the hype about the Super Bowl, it doesn’t really matter in the big picture of life.  However, there are consequences if we refuse to acknowledge the Lord on His day.  Heb. 10:25-31 warns that those who are willfully absent from the worship assembly have trampled under foot the Son of God, have regarded His sacrifice as unclean, have insulted the Spirit of grace, and they will incur God’s wrath.  This passage ends with the chilling statement, “It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (v. 31).  Knowing this, let’s each do our part to make every Lord’s Day a Super Sunday by honoring Him with our worship and devotion.

From time to time we hear or read someone’s lament over the decline of the church.  Christians who grew up in the mid-20th century recall church buildings filled to overflowing and great evangelistic campaigns that resulted in hundreds of conversions to Christ.  Since that time, however, researchers have documented a steady downward trend in the numbers of Christians.  In some places where the church was once strong, there are today few, if any, congregations and those that exist are small and struggling.

In response to this phenomenon an entire field of religious study, called church growth, has evolved over the last half century.  Church growth experts have offered many theories on why church attendance has declined in recent years.  They have also offered many ideas on how to reverse this trend.  The result of these efforts is the current consumer-driven approach to Christianity that is so popular in many places.

While the merits and biblical basis for most church-growth theories may, and should be, seriously debated, there is one thing that is missing in them.  It is the question of commitment.  Most theories focus primarily on the superficial elements of church attendance.  Is the worship place comfortable and inviting?  Is the service itself appealing?  Is the preacher dynamic, and his messages encouraging and uplifting?  All these things are factors that may draw or repel attendees, but they do not address the heart.

A little story helps us to see the real issues at play.  A pig and a chicken were walking down the street together.  As they walked along they decided that they would have breakfast.  The pig asked the chicken what she would like to eat.  The chicken answered, “Ham and eggs.”  To this the pig replied, “That won’t do, because for you eggs are a contribution, but for me, ham is total commitment.”

This is the issue in a nutshell.  Too many professed believers are like the chicken.  They want to make a contribution, but they are not willing to give total commitment to their professed faith.  There may be many reasons why this is the case, but the greater point is that the decline of the church is directly attributable to this factor.  We have contented ourselves with the idea that placing money in the collection plate each Lord’s Day fulfills our duty as Christians.  As a result we have become virtual spectators in kingdom work.

It was not this way in the earliest days of the church.  In Acts 8:4, when Christians fled Jerusalem because of persecution, Luke says that they went everywhere preaching the word.  These early Christians understood that faith in Christ required them to personally participate in the spread of the gospel.  They were not just adherents to Christianity, they were fully committed to it.

This is the often overlooked secret to the explosive growth of the church in the mid-20th century.  More Christians were personally committed to teaching the gospel to their friends and neighbors.  However imperfectly they may have done so, they were at least willing to do what they could.  Too often today we leave this work to the preacher, or to the paid personal worker.

While it is true that our monetary contributions each week make us participants in the work of the kingdom (cf. Phil. 1:5), it is also true that each of us has a personal responsibility in kingdom work.  The Great Commission is for all Christians, not just for preachers.  We need to stop being content to be chickens in the Lord’s work.  We need to become pigs.  When we are totally committed to faith in Christ, the church will once again begin to grow.

A story is told of a European nobleman a few centuries ago who wanted to leave a legacy in his tiny mountain village.  He finally decided that he would build a church building for his village.  He kept the plans for this church building secret and no one was allowed on the site until the construction was completed.  At the unveiling of the building someone noticed that there were no lamps in it.  When he asked the nobleman about this, he pointed to brackets on the walls lining the interior of the building.  He then explained that he was giving a lamp to each family in the village.  Each time that family attended worship the area where they sat would be illuminated.  If they did not attend, that area would be dark.

This little story reflects a truth that the Lord taught in the Sermon on the Mount.  In Mt. 5:14-16 He said, “You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

We generally apply this teaching to our activities among unbelievers.  We speak of “letting our light shine” by living righteously before them.  We correctly understand that our righteous conduct is instrumental in leading the lost to salvation in Jesus Christ.  The light of our Savior shining in us will draw the lost to Him.  However, there is another sense in which this teaching may be applied to our daily living.

Like the church building in that mountain village, we illuminate the body of Christ every time we come together as God’s people for worship or Bible study.  Each one of God’s people who is present in the assembly contributes the light of his or her presence to that assembly.  The cumulative effect of God’s people being assembled together is a light that warms our souls and encourages our spirits in our journey to eternity.  We often speak of there being strength in numbers, and this is especially true in terms of our light.  A single light in a dark room is helpful and comforting, but if everyone in a dark room shines his or her light, the darkness will be completely eradicated.

Conversely, a room that is brightly lit by many lights becomes darker as each light is removed or extinguished.  As more lights are removed the darkness deepens until it becomes the predominant feature of that room.  Our absence from the assemblies of the church makes those assemblies a little less bright than they would otherwise be.  Our absence dims the collective influence of the body of Christ because we are not letting our light shine.  Our brothers and sisters can tell the difference, and so can the unbelievers.

A Christian who is willfully absent from the assemblies of the church is hiding his light by doing so.  He is contributing to the darkness that characterizes the world.  He is robbing his fellow Christians of the support and encouragement they need, and his example tells unbelievers that the light of Christ is not as important as other things in life.

Each Christian is a lamp.  We are to let our light shine so that our Father in heaven will be glorified, and so that the body of Christ will be illuminated.  Part of how we do this is by our godly example each and every day.  Another part of how we do this is by our faithful attendance in the assemblies of the church.  Each Christian’s light is important in God’s eternal purpose.  With this in mind, where will your lamp be this Lord’s Day?

One of the failings of many professed believers is that they depend completely upon their spiritual leaders for their awareness of what is right and wrong in the practice of their faith.  They do not personally know the details of scripture, and are unable on their own to state the biblical basis for the things they believe and practice.  This is commonly demonstrated when they are asked about some passage of scripture, or about some essential doctrine of faith, and their reply is, “I’ll have to ask my pastor.”  It is commendable that they are concerned enough to ask for guidance, but the expectation of scripture is that each Christian should know God’s word well enough to be able to tell the difference between what is acceptable to God and what is not.

This truth was expressed by the writer of Hebrews when he chastised his readers because they were still subsisting on the milk of the word.  In Heb. 5:11-14 he said, “Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing.  For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.  For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant.  But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”

It is clear, of course, that spiritual leaders are required to proclaim the truth and nothing but the truth with regard to God’s word.  This is what Paul did when he preached in Ephesus (Acts 20:27), and it is what he required of his protege Timothy (2 Tim. 4:1-5).  However, spiritual leaders must also teach the flock to be able to discern truth from error on their own.  This began with the priests who served in the tabernacle and later in the temple (cf. Lev. 10:9-11; Ezk. 44:23), and it continues through the Christian age.  One of Paul’s final instructions to Timothy was to teach the word to faithful men, who would be able to teach others also (2 Tim. 2:2).  This certainly implies that each individual must be able to discern right from wrong based upon his personal understanding of scripture.

This is why the writer of Hebrews was so dissatisfied with the people to whom he wrote.  They had been taught the truth, and should have by that time grown and matured in the faith to the point that they were teaching others.  The fact that they were not able to do this tells us that they had not fulfilled their responsibility as individual believers.  In v. 14 the scripture says that it is by practice that one’s senses are trained to discern good and evil.  Obviously these Hebrew Christians had not been exercising themselves in the use of God’s word, and they were chastised because of this failure.

The best example of how to exercise one’s senses in the use of God’s word comes from people who were not yet Christians at the time.  In Acts 17:11 Luke tells us that the Bereans received the word with eagerness and examined the scriptures daily to see whether the things they were being taught were so.  This, then, is the model for us to follow.  We must exercise our minds in God’s word in order to become knowledgeable and capable in its use.  Part of this exercise is the systematic study of scripture, as Paul exhorted in 2 Tim. 2:15.  He said, “Be diligent to present yourself approved of God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”  When we do as Paul commanded, we will know God’s word, just as He intended us to know it, and we will train our senses to discern good and evil.  If our senses are so trained, we will not stumble or be led astray.

There is an old adage which says, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence.”  Most of us have heard this all of our lives, and we understand that it reflects an attitude that is common among us.  To one degree or another nearly everyone is inclined to think that something someone else possesses is better or more desirable than the thing we have, no matter how equal the two things may be.

Even animals reflect this attitude in their behavior.  We have all seen horses and cows straining to push their heads through a fence line to get at grass on the other side, while standing in a pasture full of perfectly good grass!  A dog will drop its bone and go after the bone that another dog has, even though there is no appreciable difference between the two.  The grass is always greener, isn’t it?

It may seem a little comical to see a cow or horse exhibiting this kind of behavior.  It may seem absolutely nonsensical for a dog to drop one bone to go fight for another.  But they’re just dumb animals, aren’t they?  None of us would ever be so silly, would we?

The “grass is greener” attitude is the source of much of the discontent, and at least some of the evil, that characterizes our world.  The “grass is greener” attitude will lead a man with a good job to endlessly move from company to company, searching for that perfect position, but never finding it.  The “grass is greener” is why a man or woman may desire or pursue another person, even though they have a perfectly good wife or husband at home.  The “grass is greener” is why one steals from another, even though he is not personally in want.  The “grass is greener” is why some end up in financial ruin trying to fill their homes with all the gadgets and trinkets that others possess, just to “keep up with the Joneses.”  It is no wonder, then, that so many in the world are unhappy and dissatisfied.

The simple truth is that none of us will ever find true happiness until we realize where the green grass actually is.  Some time ago a Christian writer put the “grass is greener” philosophy into perfect perspective.  He said, “I think I’ve finally located the greener grass.  It is in Psalm 23:2!”  Psalm 23:2 says, “He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.”  This imagery is powerful because nutritionists tell us that a pasture animal that is lying down is a truly content creature.

Here is the solution to the “grass is greener” problem.  There is only one place where the green grass is, and that is in God’s pasture.  The shepherd’s psalm so perfectly declares this truth for us.  It is utterly futile for us to spend our resources, and to spend our lives, in the pursuit of “something better” when the best is right before us in the care of our Father in heaven.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told the people to not be anxious about their daily needs (Mt. 6:25-34).  Food, drink, clothing, and the like, are not the end-all of life.  They are important, of course, but God has more than demonstrated His ability and His willingness to provide these things for us.  His care of the birds of the air, and of the flowers of the field, which are far less important than we, proves this.

If we do as Jesus said and, “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Mt. 6:33), God Himself will lead us to the green grass.  He will provide for all our needs here in life, and more importantly, He will give us a home in heaven at the end of time.  Where is the green grass? It is in God’s pasture.  Only there will we find true contentment, and the happiness that so often escapes us in life.  Only there will we find the pathway that leads to eternal life.