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    Ray Noah

    Founder and President of the Petros Network, a church planting and humanitarian non-profit working in the developing world.

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    Rx for Spiritual Coldness

    5×5×5 Bible Plan

    Read: Revelation 2
    Meditation:     Revelation 2:4-5

    “Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first.”

    Shift Your Focus… Like the love of a husband and wife that grows cold through the years, so a church can grow cold in their love for the Lord.  That would certainly hold true for individual believers as well.

    You can do all the right things—go to church, sing in the choir, give in the offering, teach a Sunday School class, participate in an outreach, share your faith—yet not be head-over-heels in love with Jesus like you were when he first redeemed you.  Your actions are there.  Your head is there.   But your heart isn’t! It’s not like you hate God, or are angry with him.  It’s not even that you ignore him or are indifferent to him.  You just have not kept loving him as the number one priority.

    Here’s the deal:  God wants your heart more than anything else. So what can you do if passionate love for the Lord has waned in your walk with him?  Jesus gave John the cure in verse 5:

    First, you must remember what it was like when Jesus first found you!  Remember the passion, the energy, the willingness, the excitement you had for the Lord in those days.  You were consumed with him.  Jesus calls you to literally bring that back to mind and dwell on it until you long for the thrill of those days once again.

    Second, you must repent!  You have forsaken your number one priority:  To nurture a loving relationship with Jesus Christ.  To neglect that is a sin, an offense to the One who loved you so much that he gave his life to redeem you.  Allow sorrow over grieving him to fill your heart.  Ask him to forgive you, and then make a 180-degree turn in your present behavior so as to live in congruence with your prayer of repentance.

    And three, return to the things you did at first.  Rediscover the joy and thrill that you once knew in walking with Jesus.  Go to church with an attitude of anticipation.  Enter into worship with joy.  Express your love to God with passion.  Share you faith with the lost.  Serve the poor.  Give generously.  Act like you are in love with Jesus, and soon you will feel love for Jesus like you did at first.

    The Lord wants your love more than anything else.  Love him first.  Love him early and often.  Love him again as you did at first. Love him above all else, and everything else will fall into place.

    “If you continue to love Jesus, nothing much can go wrong with you, and I hope you may always do so.”  ~C.S. Lewis

    Prayer… Jesus, I do love you.  However, I have taken you for granted.  I have often been more engaged in doing things for you than in loving you. Forgive me.  With the help of your Holy Spirit, I will keep my love for you as the first and highest priority of my life.

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    The Blessing of Reading, Hearing and Doing

    5×5×5 Bible Plan

    Read: Revelation 1
    Meditation:     Revelation 1:3

    “Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near.”

    Shift Your Focus… John, the human author of the Revelation, promised God’s blessings upon those who read and acted upon the words of his prophetic revelation.  The same double blessing applies to all of God’s Word—both Old and New Testaments alike.

    Today, when you read the Bible, there is a blessing that will be upon you.  You are not just reading another book, you are reading God’s Book.  You hold in your hand the very revelation of God himself, inspired by God, revealing God’s nature, God’s will for all of mankind—which includes you—and God’s plan for the ages.

    To all who read with an open heart and a humble spirit, God’s favor will rest.  But there is another, even greater blessing:  It is for those who not only read the Word of God; it is for those who act upon it.  Divine blessing awaits those who translate their belief into behavior.

    As you read this portion of Scripture, the Revelation of John, what behavior is required of you?  Simply this:  Since this prophecy concerns God’s plan for the end of days, you must seek to apply it in readying yourself for Christ’s return.

    So then, how do you actually live such a ready life?  First, you must live with an end-time perspective.  Verse 7 says, “Look, he is coming with the clouds…”  Jesus is coming soon, and everything you think, say or do ought to be lived in the light of his return.

    Second, you must realize that you have been redeemed to be both a king and a priest in God’s eternal reign.  Verses 5-6 remind us, “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priest to serve his God and Father…”  You are going to rule and reign with Jesus in the eternal kingdom soon, so you ought to act like a king and priest now!

    And third, until then, you must patiently endure trial and tribulation.  In verse 9, John reveals himself as “your brother and companion in the suffering and kingdom and patient endurance that are ours in Jesus…”  John was able to endure great hardship—harder than you will ever face, most likely, because he knew what was coming.   When you know the end of the story—that you win—you can put up with anything in your present circumstances.

    Reading and receiving the blessing promised in this book requires you to adjust your beliefs and your behaviors to it.  So develop an eternal perspective, act like the priest of God’s kingdom that you are, and patiently endure difficulty, and you will be handsomely rewarded for it!

    “Looking forward to the eternal world is not…a form of escapism or wishful thinking, but one of the things a Christian is meant to do.”  ~C.S. Lewis

    Prayer… Dear Lord, I have read the opening words of your Revelation of end-time events.  Now bless me, I ask.  And even more, strengthen me to put it into practice this day—and everyday until you return.

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    Contend For The Faith

    5×5×5 Bible Plan

    Read: Jude 1
    Meditation:     Jude 1:3

    “Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints.”

    Shift Your Focus… In ancient China, the people desired security from the barbaric, invading hordes to the north, so they built the Great Wall of China. It was 30 feet high, 18 feet thick, and more than 1500 miles long!  It’s still there, so large that astronauts can see it from outer space.

    The goal of the Chinese was to build an absolutely impenetrable defense—too high to climb over, too thick to break down, and too long to go around.  But during the first hundred years of the wall’s existence China was successfully invaded three times, due to no fault of the wall. Rather, the barbarians simply bribed a gatekeeper and then marched right in through an open door.

    God has provided us with a strong doctrinal wall, bigger and better than the Great Wall of China.  That wall is the body of doctrine Jude refers to as “the faith.” It is our job—not just mine as a pastor, but yours, too, as a child of God—to guard that doctrinal gate, defend our spiritual borders, and contend for the faith.

    Why this call to contend? Look at verse 4:  “For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.”

    Apparently Jude, who by the way, was the younger half-brother of Jesus, preferred to write a happy little missive about “heaven,” but something called “hell” had gotten in the way.  Something dark and dire was threatening the church—a hellish invasion of false teachers bearing false doctrine—so Jude uses this letter to tackle it head on, and he gives two ways in verse 4 to spot these dangerous spiritual phonies, who, by the way, are still at work in the church today:

    One, we are to take note if they dilute the impact of sin. Jude says they “change the grace of our God into a license for immorality.” This false teaching says that since your good works can’t save you anyway—only God’s grace can, which is true—then you might as well not worry about sin. The theory is that since the sin nature that separates you from God is covered by grace at salvation, so also ongoing acts of sin are covered by grace as well. You’re covered, you’re forgiven, so if you sin, no big deal!

    Well, that’s close to the truth, but it’s a shade off because it minimizes the offensiveness and destructiveness of sin! It’s a false and abusive view of grace that will lead people straight to hell!

    And two, we are to take note if these false teacher deny the deity of Jesus Christ.  Jude says, “They deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.” To deny the deity of Jesus in any way, shape or form is to deny his authority and power, the veracity of his life and teaching, the efficacy of his death and resurrection, and with it, the entire foundation of the Bible and your Christian faith. If you weaken or deny this cardinal truth, your faith is a waste of time. The deity of Jesus Christ is ground zero in the fight for doctrinal purity—and ultimately, our eternal security—so you must contend for it.

    The word “contend” in the Greek text came from the word, agonidzomai, which meant to agonize over something.  It was used in athletics of a competitor straining every muscle to win the contest. You and I have been called to agonizingly compete, defend and contend for the once-for-all faith that God has entrusted to us.

    You probably remember that unforgettable line from Marlon Brando, a washed up prize fighter in the movie, On the Waterfront: “I coulda been a contender. I coulda been somebody”?  Well, in a more important realm than either movies or boxing, the realm that counts for all eternity, the spiritual realm, you are called to be somebody who contends for the faith.

    My friend, you and I must defend our doctrinal borders and contend for our faith, with vigor and passion! It’s not an option; it’s your calling—and mine, too!

    So go ahead, be a contender!

    “A false interpretation of Scripture causes that the gospel of the Lord becomes the gospel of man, or, which is worse, of the devil.” ~Jerome

    Prayer… Father, keep me ever vigilant, contending for the faith that you’ve entrusted to me and every other follower who bears your name.

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    Where Are You Investing?

    5×5×5 Bible Plan

    Read: II Peter 3
    Meditation:     II Peter 3:11

    “Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?”

    Shift Your Focus… Many believers live like Planet Earth is their forever home. They set their priorities, plan their activities, and spend their money like this is all there is. Hopefully you are not one of them because this old worn out world is nearing the end of the road.

    As I write these words, by contrast, I think of my brothers and sisters in the poverty-stricken regions in the East African countries where the Petros Network is planting churches. Those churches are thriving, and so are the individual believers, despite extreme poverty and intense opposition. By watching their lives, you quickly come to realize that they who have so little material wealth have so much more joy that we who have so much yet have so little joy. By comparison, they are the far richer people than we.

    Why? Because they have put their hope in the Lord. They are looking forward to a city whose architect and builder is God. They have very little by the world’s standards, and even what little they have, they hold loosely. They have invested everything—sometimes they have even given their lives—in the eternal kingdom of our God. They have made good investments that will produce ever-increasing returns throughout all eternity.

    We need to take stock in the kinds of investments we are making. Ask somebody who knows you well what they have observed your priorities to be. What does the way you spend money or plan your calendar or live your life in general tell them about you? If your life is like mine, they would likely conclude that you are making far too big of an investment in a world that is soon going to come to a fiery end. Now in all honesty, that’s a very bad investment, isn’t it?

    Peter asks the question that, given the fact that our planet and everything in it will melt away, what kind of people should we then be? How then should we live? Then he gives the answer:

    We should make every effort to live holy and blameless lives (verses 11b & 14)

    We ought to be anticipating God’s promises rather than promoting the things of this earth (verse 13)

    We ought to be focusing on Christ’s return more than the remainder of our days on earth (verses 12 & 13)

    We ought to be at peace with God and keep pure in our faith (verses 14-17)

    We ought to be giving every effort to our spiritual growth (verse 18)

    To live any other way shows that we are still investing in the ephemeral stuff of earth rather than the invaluable stuff of heaven.

    Take a look around. Whatever you see is going to vanish soon. Only what is done by faith will carry over to and count toward the next life.

    Today is a great day to start making better investments—eternal ones—because eternity is going to be here before you know it—as some say, “in the twinkling of an eye!”

    “The one and only characteristic of the Holy Spirit in a person is a strong family likeness to Jesus Christ and freedom from everything that is unlike Him.” ~Oswald Chambers

    Prayer… Lord, my hope is in you and not in the things of this earth.  I will hold things loosely and cling tightly to you.  Enable me to live the kind of life today that will prove on that final day that I have been rich toward the things of God.

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    False Teachers

    5×5×5 Bible Plan

    Read: II Peter 2
    Meditation:     II Peter 2:1

    “But there were also false prophets in Israel, just as there will be false teachers among you.”

    Shift Your Focus… Oswald Chambers said, “The Bible treats us as human life does—roughly.”  In the entire second chapter of Peter’s second letter, the Apostle really goes after some people—and he treats them roughly.  He is going after false teachers—religious figures who pervert the Gospel for personal gain and manipulate God’s people for their own pleasure.

    Peter is telling us to be on the lookout for such people. His message is clear:  We are not to be duped by these phony spiritual leaders. And by the way, in case you didn’t know it, there are plenty of them even in our day.  Just surf through the religious programs on your TV set and you will see one before you know it.  But they’re not just on TV; they are in denominational headquarters, they teach in seminary classes, they fill pulpits and lead small groups all around the world.

    So how do you spot them?  It’s not all that hard really, because no matter what era you are in or what position of authority they are in, these phonies fall into predictable patterns.  You can spot them because they are always grubbing for money or they are always trolling for sex or they are always maneuvering for power—or all three.

    If you spot a religious figure who seems to be preoccupied with money—watch out! I’ve seen plenty of pastors and TV preachers who were pretty good at that. They are slick, so don’t be fooled!  Peter says “in their greed they will make up clever lies to get hold of your money.” (verse 3)

    Likewise, if you run into a spiritual authority that seems to be a little too loose with the girls (or the guys)—have nothing to do with them.  They are bad news, and when they fall, they will take people down with them.  Peter says that God will be “especially hard on those who follow their own twisted sexual desire and who despise authority.” (verse 10)  If a spiritual leader is unwilling to be accountable for his sexuality, that is the kind of person Peter is talking about.

    And finally, whenever you find a religious figure that is egotistical, prideful, and self-serving—you have found the makings of a false teacher.  When you get on the inside of their world and you don’t see humility, sacrifice and grace, you’ve got a leader who is, among other things, driven by power.  Peter warns of them in the last part of verse 10, “These people are proud and arrogant, daring even to scoff at supernatural beings without so much as trembling.”  Verse 13 says, “they scoff at things they don’t understand.”  Verse 18 tells us, “They brag about themselves with empty, foolish boasting.”

    Peter is really quite rough on these people: “These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness.” (verse 17)  He calls them “a disgrace and a stain among you.”  And he says, “they live under God’s curse.”  (verses 13-14)

    Tough chapter, I know.  But as I mentioned at the beginning, the Bible sometimes treats us roughly in order to protect us from evil influences and preserve our salvation.  And as it relates to so-called spiritual leaders, it is time we do the same.

    A little rough treatment might clear some of them out of the body of Christ and off the airways.

    “Hypocrisy desires to seem good rather than to be so; honesty desires to be good rather than seem so.” ~Arthur Warwick

    Prayer… Lord, cleanse your church.  Make us a holy Bride, without any spot, or wrinkle, or blemish.  Give us greater discernment and courage to root out the false teachers among us so that we can be the kind of church with whom you are well pleased and in which the world cannot find fault.

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    Choose To Grow

    5×5×5 Bible Plan

    Read: II Peter 1
    Meditation:     II Peter 1:2-3,5,10

    “May God give you more and more grace and peace as you grow in your knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord. By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life… In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises… work hard to prove that you really are among those God has called and chosen.”

    Shift Your Focus… Every authentic, healthy follower of Christ wants to grow spiritually.  That’s usually right up there at the top of everyone’s wish list.  But just how does one experience spiritual growth?  That’s the $64,000 question, isn’t it?

    For most, spiritual growth is a mystery.  It is vague, not defined, something that is felt, not measured.  If it is to happen at all, we see ourselves as the passive recipients of a divine agent that catalyzes growth rather than as the catalyst ourselves.  In other words, our development into deeper spirituality, stability, maturity, and Christ-likeness is more up to God than it is to us.

    Yet according to Peter, there is to be a pretty active partnership in this business of growth. God is the senior partner, you the junior.  And here’s the deal:  God has done his part in setting you up for spiritual growth.  Notice what verse 3 says: “By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life.”  Did you see the word “everything” in that verse.  In the Greek, that means “everything!”  God has set you up, my friend, to be a growing, godly believer.  Me, too!

    Now it is up to us to supplement what God has so graciously and completely done in order to move along the continuum toward deeper spiritually. So what is our growth assignment then?  Look at verse 5-8:

    “Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone. The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

    Notice the seven key catalytic agents to growth that Peter mentions: moral excellence, knowledge, self-control, patient endurance, godliness, brotherly affection, and love.

    Very simply, when there is a choice between that which is morally pure and anything else, guess what?  You and I have to choose moral purity!  God can’t choose for us.  He can strengthen us and prompt us, but we must make the choice.  Added to moral purity must be Biblical knowledge, which frankly doesn’t come without regular meditation on God’s Word.  Furthermore, purity and knowledge are safeguarded by self-control.  Self-control is what teaches you to say “no” to anything that would hinder, hurt or destroy God’s work in you or in another. (See Titus 3:11-13).  Adding to self-control is the exercise of patient endurance.  Truthfully, there will be times when the only thing we can do is to grit our teeth and hang in there!  Endurance must be connected to godliness or it is nothing more than stubbornness. Godliness means to think and act like God; it is to practice the presence of God at all times.  Then along with godliness comes kindness and care for our brothers.  Finally, to wrap everything into that which causes growth, we must express Christ-like love for all people at all times.

    Purity, learning, self-control, endurance, godliness, kindness and love are the things that you can and must do to grow.  And they are the very things that will make you more productive in your faith and useful to your Lord.

    That’s your assignment today.  So get out there and “grow” for it!

    “A soul may be in as thriving a state when thirsting, seeking and mourning after the Lord as when actually rejoicing in Him; as much in earnest when fighting in the valley as when singing upon the mount.” ~John Newton

    Prayer… Lord, thanks for giving me everything I need to grow into a thriving, useful, God-pleasing saint.  I have no excuses not to grow.  So today, I will do my part to supplement what you have already done for me.

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    Love Perseveres

    5×5×5 Bible Plan

    Read: II Thessalonians 3
    Meditation:     II Thessalonians 3:5

    “May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.”

    Shift Your Focus… Paul’s desire for the Thessalonians—which of course, is God’s desire for all believers—is really quite simple:  To love like God and to patiently endure like Jesus.

    Yet when you think about it, this is deeply profound.  In light of all that Paul has said in this letter about the duties of Christ-followers during the difficulties of the last days, we Christians desperately need the Lord to lead our hearts into a full understanding and expression of the love of God.

    Though “love” in our world is a concept terribly misunderstood, misused and even abused, and in that corrupted state, overused, we would do well to make a study of God’s love in Scripture in order to gain a correct understanding of it.  To truly understand love, we must begin with God’s love, since God is love.  He authored love, he is the very expression of love, and he is the sole source of true love.  God thinks love, he feels love, and he acts in love—he cannot help himself, for love is what he is.  In order for us to be led into a full expression of God’s love, we first need to understand it—if one can truly ever understand the depth of his love.

    Not only do we need to study God’s love in Scripture, we need to study God’s love as it is expressed in the person of Jesus Christ.  Perhaps the highest expression of that love is seen in the patient endurance of Christ.  Jesus is the consummate visible, physical, literal expression of God’s love, and in particular, his death on the cross for unworthy sinners like you and me is the ultimate definition of enduring love.

    The love of God expressed through his Son, Jesus Christ, was not a fair weather, sentimental, feel good sort of love, it was a tough love that hung in there when there was absolutely no reason, apart from his own loving nature, to hang in there.  Yet he hung in there, literally, hanging on the cross for our sins.

    That’s the kind of enduring love to which we have been called.

    So how does your love measure up to that standard?  Not very well, you say.  Me neither!

    How do we develop that kind of enduring love?  Study it—for sure.  Ask for it—of course. But mostly, we must surrender our will to the only one who can transform us into that kind of patiently loving people—the One who directs our hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.”

    “Love means loving the unlovable—or it is no virtue at all.”  —G.K. Chesterton

    Prayer… Lord, bring me into a deeper understanding of your love—and may I be radically transformed by it.  May the testimony of my life be that I became the expression of your enduring love.