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In This Issue:

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"The Purpose of Man" - By Douglas Skinner

"Being Spiritually Minded" - By Aaron Hood

"Religious Education" - By Stephen Skinner

“The Purpose of Man”

By Douglas Skinner

Have you ever taken time to watch a mechanic at work?  Here is a person surrounded by thousands of parts and tools often looking for a single, often tiny, item with great vigilance and determination.  Why?  He knows that he possesses a tool created just for this purpose.  He has a tool to take out spark plugs, a tool to remove oil filters, and tools to fit that hard to reach and impossibly tightened 15mm bolt.  He needs each of his tools as they all serve a specific purpose.  Webster’s dictionary defines purpose as: “the object for which something exists or is done.”   What is your purpose in life?  Is man simply placed here to do as he pleases and to “find his place in the universe”?  The Bible teaches us plainly that man was created on purpose for a purpose.

 A Purposeful Creator

Jehovah God is a purposeful God.  He has never done anything flippantly or unintentionally.  Creation proceeded very methodically and purposefully as recorded in the first two chapters of Genesis.  He formed and placed every creeping thing, every fish, every beast, and every bird and expressed that He was pleased with each work.  Nature and the world glorified God in that it behaved “naturally” or the way God originally created it.  A salmon testifies of God as it swims upstream to spawn.  God created it to do so.  A bird glorifies God by flying and doing those things which God created it to do.  In fact, the world continues to be a testament to the Creator.  Romans 1:20 “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.”    God most importantly created man on the sixth and last day of active creation.  He began this unique work by stating, “Let us make man in our image…” Genesis 1:26.  He did that by placing within man a soul.  Genesis 2:7 “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”  The soul made man a spiritual, eternal being like his Creator.

 Man’s Special Place

Mankind’s purpose was to be as unique as its creation.  God gave man the ability to please God BY CHOICE via obedience.  An animal acts according to its “natural instincts”.  A man, on the other hand, has the ability to choose to please his Creator.  The first man (Adam) and his wife (Eve) were placed in the Garden of Eden and given dominion over it to subdue it.  They also were given one law; to not partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  As our first parents chose day after day to obey this law, they pleased God in a way the rest of creation could not.  They actively chose to be obedient in order to please their Creator. 

 Man’s Loss of Purpose

As most know, Adam and Eve chose to eat of the forbidden tree, thus breaking the law of God.  They could no longer please God by obedience and were expelled from the garden as the creation began to decay as a result of this sin.  Many things happened as a result of this first sin by mankind, but perhaps the worst resultant was the loss of man’s ability to please God via perfect obedience.  We would now have to rely upon the perfect obedience of another (the Messiah).  Man was now floundering without purpose. 

 The Return of Purpose

The purpose of all men is to glorify God and Jesus gave us a way to regain this purpose for our lives.  Jesus came into this world as a man for this purpose.  He was born on purpose, lived perfectly on purpose, and gave His life willingly ON PURPOSE!  His motivation was His love for us and to clear the way to His Father’s purpose for our lives.  It is paramount that each of us has an experience with our Creator in which we regain this purpose in life.  David wrote in the 40^th Psalm in describing his salvation experience; “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined into me, and heard my cry.  He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.  And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.”  David testified that His Creator “established my goings” or pointed him in the right direction (a NEW direction) and also placed a new song of praise in his mouth.  Why was David so happy?  He had found his purpose for living!  He had met God, been forgiven of his sins, and given purpose for living this life with vigor.  Did David’s life reflect this new found vigor?  Who other than God could take a shepherd boy and produce a powerful warrior and loving King?  God has that same purpose (to glorify Him) for each of us.

 God’s Purpose For You

 1. God purposes for you to be saved (redeemed)

 While each man, woman, and child has uniqueness about them, we also share a nature as mankind.  Unfortunately it a sinful nature inherited from our first parents and added upon by our own sins.  God’s purpose is never realized in a person until we have been radically changed by the Creator.

 II Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

 I Peter 3:9

“The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”

 2. God purposes for you to glorify Him in life

 Once we have been truly redeemed to God, we may serve Him purposefully by choosing to be obedient to the Lord with our lives.  He commands us to unite with a local body of believers by following His example in baptism.  He commands us to yield our bodies and will to Him as He has right to them as well.  In providing these and many other instructions, Our Creator and Savior gives us the privilege to glorify Him as He originally created man to do. 

 3. God’s purpose is that your death glorify Him as well

 Psalm 116:15

“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.”

 Ezekiel 33:11

“Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”

 4. God’s purpose is for you to glorify Him in heaven rather than from Hell 

Philippians 2:10-11

“That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” 

God desires for all mankind to be saved.  Those redeemed of God will spend eternity praising Him perfectly and purposefully.  Those who reject the gospel and Jesus as the only way of salvation will be destroyed eternally in Hell.  The Scriptures teach us that while God is not pleased with men going to the place created for the devil and his angels, the destruction of all sin in that place will glorify Him and stand as an eternal testimony of His complete power and victory over sin. 

In short, God will get glory from each and every life.  He gives us the most important opportunity to choose life (Jesus) or eternal damnation (self).  His purpose for each of us is to be saved, live for Him, trust Him in death, and look forward to praising Him for all the ceaseless ages of eternity.  There is no better life than to purposefully follow the purposeful Savior!

“Being Spiritually Minded”

By Aaron Hood

Question . . .

Am I spiritual? Wow . . . a very simple and straightforward question, but one that can be very sobering, humbling, or make us go through many thoughts or emotions when considering it personally and honestly. I believe anyone who is truly saved has, or should have, a desire to be spiritual (or more spiritual).

I am using the term “spiritual” as being that which is of or being led by God’s Holy Spirit, the third part of the Trinity. Basically, it’s like being “in tune” with God and His will and it becomes manifest or apparent in your life because you are following God in obedience. Certainly those who have been born again are spiritual to some degree or have the Holy Spirit within them, as Romans 8:14 tells us: “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (All references will be KJV); however, the reality is that even though there is a part of us that has been made perfect in regeneration which is sealed by the Spirit until the day of redemption, we still have flesh and sin that we wrangle with everyday.

Thus, outside of that perfect inward part, we cannot be sinless in this life and there is a constant internal warfare that we wage. The Apostle Paul himself spoke of this battle that he also fought in Romans Chapter 7 verses 14-25 (“For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do . . .”, etc.) This is NOT an excuse for sin (i.e. I’m just human) – we should strive to become as sinless as possible within this life.

If you are like me, then you probably look at other people in your life (primarily those who you consider Christians) and evaluate or have an opinion on if you consider them a spiritual person. The opposite would be a degree of being “worldly” or “carnal.” We all probably have people we know and greatly respect who we consider to be very spiritual or at least more spiritual than we are.

Purpose of the lesson

The goal of this writing is more to examine the topic of the importance of our minds in the work of the kingdom after we have been saved. It is easy to get confused or bogged down over terminology in the Bible (i.e. mind, heart, soul, spirit, etc.), but by “minds”, I am generally speaking of our thoughts and desires in this case (not your brain or intelligence). I personally don’t believe that when you get saved, that God saves (or makes sinless) what I am defining as your mind. Even Jesus speaks of sins we can commit by our thoughts.

Two scriptures will be our main focus:

Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace.

Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

The first scripture refers to the difference between being carnally or spiritually minded. I will admit the context in which Paul is writing primarily points to a discussion on the difference between those that are lost in sin and those that have been regenerated (i.e. a lost person is carnally minded and cannot be spiritually minded, etc.); however, as I’ve already stated, we know the reality is that saved people still fight a battle of being carnal or spiritual and I think it’s a verse that can apply to this situation as well.

Application to our lives . . .

Carnally minded is simply defined as minding the things of the flesh or desiring and enjoying the things of the world, especially as opposed to minding the things of God or loving the pleasures of this life more than the Lord and His work. “Minded” here means inclination or purpose. Spiritually minded means that your mind is focused upon the things of God and led by the Holy Spirit. I don’t know anyone who 100% thinks about God all the time, but I think the application is that our minds and hearts must be upon Him if we are to be spiritual. Do we care about God and the things He wants done or are we concerned with ourselves?

Paul in Rom 8:6 gives a very straightforward cause and effect. Applying this verse to the saved, we know that the Bible doesn’t teach they are in eternal danger of spiritual death; however, if a Christian is carnally minded, it leads to a very weak and “dead” spiritual life here on earth (another great and somewhat related topic, but not in the scope of this article, is that of professed vs. true Christians and what their fruits say.) If we think and act exactly as we did prior to being “converted” then there is a fundamental problem. Carnal-minded Christians are ineffective in the service of the Lord.

One interesting truth that I’ve found is that the mind and body (or outward appearance) are not always in sync. For example, you can be doing all the right things outwardly – i.e. attending church regularly, saying your prayers, reading the Bible, etc. and NOT be spiritually minded. Your mind, thoughts, and desires can be completely on another path. It’s your way of thinking.

To the contrary, Paul gives us a blessed recipe: if we are spiritually minded, then we are to expect “life and peace”. It is implied spiritual prosperity (not material). It’s the truest and purest sense of contentment one can find on earth. Peace, wonderful peace . . . something many don’t have – especially many Christians whose minds and lives are so busied that they can’t seem to find rest. You want to have abundant life and inward peace? Then be spiritually minded!

In Romans 8:7 Paul goes on to say that the carnal mind is enmity (or hostility) against God. It leads down a terrible and increasingly dark path. I don’t believe we are in a place to truly and rightly discern the Lord’s will if we are carnally minded.

Test time . . .

One litmus test is that of Galations 5:16-26, where Paul discusses fruits – those of the flesh and those of the Spirit.

Examine yourself. I believe it’s imperative if we are to truly grow as Christians. Are your desires carnal or spiritual? Are we teaching by our thoughts, actions, and speech to those around us that we are spiritually or carnally minded? If your fellow church members or acquaintances were polled, would they describe you as someone who is spiritual or would they more likely say you are worldly?

I personally wrangle with the idea of “being in the world, but not of the world” (a phrase I’ve heard all my life – meaning saved people interact with the world, but it’s not our identity) in the sense that are we noticeably different from society? For example, to a non-Christian, could they line up you and about 10 co-workers and mark those who are Christian?

My heart tells me (to my own sorrow) the sense of these scriptures is that our minds and lives should be completely different than that of the world in which we live. My perception is that most professed Christians I know ‘fit right in.’

Unfortunately, to be carnally minded is human nature and so to become spiritually minded takes active effort. It is not something that I believe is once attained always attained, but we have to work at it daily and it takes discipline to maintain or grow. Most importantly, it takes the aid of the Holy Ghost.

This leads us to our second text of Romans 12:2 – we need our minds transformed!

First (and hopefully implied) one must be saved. You can’t be spiritually minded if you aren’t saved. Just as the scriptures readily advise us that we must die daily, crucify the flesh, mortify the flesh, lose our lives to gain them, etc. (which none of these scriptures means literally harming our body), we are to constantly work on transforming our minds.

Paul says to not be conformed (fashioned alike or conformed to the same pattern) to this world but be transformed (from the Greek word metamorphoō - literally or figuratively “metamorphose”) by the renewing (by making new, changing into new views and feelings) of our minds. Thus, our minds (like when we are saved, we are new creatures in Christ Jesus) can be changed from the default carnal mind to something completely different. God wants to reign your entire being (body, mind, soul, etc.), not just one piece or part. To have good actions, but a carnal mind implies hypocrisy.

G.I.G.O.

 Ever heard of this?  I learned it in a Freshman computer class in college. It stands for “Garbage In, Garbage Out”. In computers it means that if you put in bad code or programming, then you are going to get flawed or bad results. Bad input = bad output. It’s something that applies to many things in life. Eat junk food; then don’t expect a model physique. Spiritually, I think it fits with the intent of this article.

 In the battle for the mind, this thought came to me as we consider our environment and what inputs we have in our lives/minds.  Just looking at our time, let’s take a simple example which is very generalized (obviously this is not true of everyone, but potentially of many): If the average “Christian” spends about 3 hours per week on good spiritual input (being at Sunday/School Church Sundays, maybe Wednesdays, personal prayer and maybe personal bible study) – that’s less than 2% of our total time (3 out of a total of 168 hours in a week)!

 Bottom Line

 I am personally concerned with what I perceive to be a lack of and potential declining of spirituality among our people and churches. If you know me personally, you hopefully know that I would never intentionally discourage or preach a ‘gloom and doom’ sermon or present a message that has no hope. There is hope! I would not feel led to discuss this topic if I didn’t feel there was a remedy. Sometimes the truth is painful, but realizing it and taking action can produce much fruit. I believe something’s got to give. If we truly want to see revival, if we truly want to be the salt of the earth, if we truly want to be a peculiar people, then we are going to have to make some changes by the grace of God.

 If you discern that you can be more spiritually minded and need to work on it, then may God help you do it and help others!  I believe in the concept of positive peer pressure and there have been many times that I see others that are closer to God than I am or are more spiritual, and it has often sparked a desire in me to strive to do better. I pray God will help put a spark in you. The time of this writing is that of a new year – if you are into resolutions, then resolve to be more spiritual this year.

 Are you going to be a carnally-minded Christian or a spiritually-minded one? The former lives for this world; the latter lives for the world to come.

 Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

"Religious Education"

By Stephen Skinner

Printed in “The Baptist Star” Vol. 1 No. 5 May 1992

Man is born in sin and shapen in iniquity. Left to his natural course, man will live an evil life on earth and exist in hell eternally. A child must be taught to be a good person as well as being made wise unto salvation. Only the grace of God is able to save him from the damnation of hell. In order to present an acceptable service to God, a saved person must have continuing grace and knowledge of God’s ways. Notice that the Lord stresses teaching in His commission to His church:

 Matthew 28:19-20

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all thins whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

 While the church is commissioned to teach all men, the plasticity of youth emphasizes the necessity of teaching young people. This potential for seemingly infinite change can work positively or negatively. Neurologically, the exposure of the young brain to appropriate enriching stimuli will enhance inherited abilities and create a formidable thinking apparatus. Some neuroscientists believe that the early deprivation of such stimuli can dramatically, and perhaps irrevocably, limit the brain’s potential, regardless of genetic inheritance. Early development of the brain lays down the mental pathways that will serve as the foundation for the thinking process. Since men are to serve God with all their mind, as well as heart, soul and strength, should not the mind be prepared as much as possible for use in God’s service? Basic thinking patterns, values, and skills are heavily influenced by early experiences. A generation ago one religious denomination made the claim that if they had total access to a child until he/she was five years old, that person would remain within that denomination for life.

 The Holy Spirit certainly can overcome Satan’s instruction, but God intends for His people to teach their children to observe His commandments. Religious education should begin early and be integrated into a child’s everyday experiences.

 Deuteronomy 6:6-7

“And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down and when thou risest up.”

 Children should grow up learning what is right and understanding that one day they will feel “lost” and will need to be saved by grace.

 It is beneficial to children that they learn to respect authority. While they should be confident of their well-being in their parents’ care, they should also have a respect for their parents’ authority, even to the point of fearing it in the case of their purposeful wrong-doing. Learned respect for parents’ loving authority serves as a model for obedience to God’s authority. Such imposed discipline is also necessary for the development of self-discipline. Notice the universal unhappiness of a badly spoiled child. Nothing satisfies! The most blessed (happy) person on this earth is the one who is completely obedient to the omnipotent, loving God.

 This educational process must continue into later years. Satan has placed a myth among God’s people that says that young Christians should be expected to stray into worldliness, to “sow some wild oats” while they are young. Such practice not only places young Christians’ future ability to serve the Lord in great jeopardy (the wild oat crop will one day mature), it also robs them, and more importantly their God, of some of the most productive and formative years. At this age they are physically the strongest they  will ever be. Their minds are at their keenest, their physical looks most appealing, and their stamina greater than any other time in their lives. That cannot be conceded to Satan, especially when it rightfully belongs to God. God always expects the best be given to Him. God’s plan includes preparing young Christians to serve Him. While the young lad David rejected man’s preparation, Saul’s armor and sword, he did rely on God’s preparation.

 I Samuel 17:37

“The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.”

 This same God, who changes not, is able to prepare the youth of today to face the giant of this age.

 When the strength of youth, over which Satan wishes so badly to usurp authority, is allowed to be used by God, the results in this age are as useful to God as in ages past.

 I John 2:13,14

“…I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father…I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.”

 Today’s youth can listen to the Apostle Paul’s words to a young Timothy, “Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity of spirit, in faith, in purity.” (I Timothy 4:12)

 Timothy had apparently received a sound religious education. “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in they grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.” (II Timothy 3:15)

 Missionary Baptists cannot rely on the world to religiously educate their youth. That responsibility must be borne by two God-designed institutions – the family and the Lord’s church. Many Missionary Baptists covenant  “to religiously educate our children.” Youth should be taught about the good things of God and exhorted to avoid sin. Each generation may face new plagues of Satan (sin is much like a mutating virus), but the Lord’s church has the “truth” to teach that is sufficient to overcome all sin and error.