THE EASY WAY

MAT 11:28-30, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light."

1JO 5:2-3, "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome."

The way of a Christian is easy. God may not remove the bumps in life, but He will give us shock absorbers. Let's look at some of the bumps and some of the shock absorbers.

MEN BURDEN PEOPLE

ACT 15:7-11, "And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, "Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart bore witness to them, giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are."

Bumps:

According to tradition, when the apostle John was bishop in Ephesus, his hobby was raising pigeons. Once an Ephesian elder passed his house as he returned from hunting. When he saw John playing with one of his birds, he gently chided the old bishop for spending his time so frivolously. John looked at his critic's bow and remarked that the string was loosened. "Yes," said the huntsman, "I also loosen the string of my bow when it's not in use. If it always stayed tight, it would lose its rebounding quality and fail me in the hunt." "And I," said John, "am now relaxing the bow of my mind so that I may be better able to shoot the arrows of divine truth."

FAITH

1JO 5:4, "For whatever is born of Go overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world - our faith."

MAT 8:26, "And He said to them, "Why are you timid, you men of little faith?" Then He arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and it became perfectly calm."

MAR 11:22-24, "And Jesus answered saying to them, "Have faith in God. "Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you."

ROM 10:17, "So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ."

Everybody longs for freedom. But for many people its pursuit leads to bondage. The greatly loved Bible teacher Henrietta Mears said, "A bird is free in the air. Place a bird in the water and he has lost his liberty. A fish is free in the water, but leave him on the sand and he perishes. He is out of his realm. So, young people, the Christian is free when he does the will of God and is obedient to God's command. This is as natural for God's child as the water is for the fish, or the air for the bird."

True Christians are characterized by sincere faith. If you look in a dictionary that lists word origins, you'll find that it comes from two Latin terms - sine and cere, meaning "without wax." Years ago, a potter would often put his seal, or stamp, upon a completed vessel with the words sine cere. This meant that to his knowledge there was no flaw in that work. If a potter did crack a vessel, he would carefully patch that flawed vase or bowl by filling in the crack with wax. Then he would glaze it over. But it did not merit the stamp sine cere, "without wax," because it was not a flawless piece of pottery.

HOPE

1TH 4:13, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope."

LOVE

1PE 4:8, "Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins."

PRO 10:12, "Hatred stirs up strife, But love covers all transgressions."

1JO 4:17-18, "By this, love is perfected with us, that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love."

FEAR IS A LARGE BUMP

PRO 26:13, "The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road! A lion is in the open square!"

PRO 29:25, "The fear of man brings a snare, But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted."

A military governor praised Patton highly for his courage and bravery, the general replied, "Sir, I am not a brave man...The truth is, I am an utter craven coward. I have never been within the sound of gunshot or in sight of battle in my whole life that I wasn't so scared that I had sweat in the palms of my hands." Years later, when his autobiography was published, it contained this statement by the general: "I learned very early in my life never to take counsel of my fears."

LUSTS CAUSE BUMPS

TIT 3:3, "For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another."

 

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