This Is the Life! , livre ebook

Baker Publishing Group - W. Wiersbe Warren

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69 pages

English

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The Christian life should be one of pervading joy, persistent grace, and promises kept. God doesn't call us to a legalistic life of grimly getting by until we reach a heavenly reward. We receive part of our reward and inheritance in this life, on this earth. Yet we so often let the things of this life determine our outlook. The habits that bind us, the negative attitudes that control us, the people who bother us, the needs that depress us, and the challenges that frighten us--they can all be handled by God, says beloved author Warren W. Wiersbe, if we will let him have his way.In This Is the Life! the veteran pastor helps readers rediscover the kind of life God promised them. He shows clearly that the way to joy is through cultivating a close relationship with God and obedience to his Word, calling readers to enjoy all the blessings and privileges of a life of faith--right now.

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Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	14 octobre 2014
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781441220493
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0374€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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© 2014 by ScripTex, Inc.
Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2014
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4412-2049-3
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NLT are from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture quotations labeled NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled TNIV are from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version®. TNIV®. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Contents
Cover 1
Title Page 3
Copyright Page 4
Preface 7
1. Eternal Life 11
2. A Trusting Life 17
3. An Obedient Life 29
4. A Victorious Life 38
5. A Joyful Life 47
6. A Wise Life 61
7. A Transparent Life 70
8. A Forgiving Life 79
9. A Fruitful Life 90
10. An Exchanged Life 98
11. A Sufficient Life 107
12. A Fragrant Life 114
13. A Quiet and Peaceable Life 123
14. A Life of Freedom 132
15. Saints Alive! 140
About the Author 144
Back Cover 145
Preface
“What Is Your Life . . . ?” (James 4:14)
One of my favorite magazine cartoons shows two cows in a pasture, looking over the fence at the traffic going by on the highway. A milk truck is passing, displaying these words on the side panel: “Johnson’s Milk—Pasteurized—Homogenized—Vitamins C and D Added.” One cow says to the other one, “Sort of makes you feel inadequate, doesn’t it?” After hearing many negative sermons and reading many critical book chapters and magazine articles, I get that same bovine feeling, and I wonder why somebody doesn’t start accentuating the positive and telling God’s people what a great and wonderful life we have as Christians.
But not everybody has a positive view of life. Jewish writer Shalom Aleichem (who gave us Tevye the milkman in Fiddler on the Roof ) said that life was “a blister on top of a tumor, and a boil on top of that.” James M. Barrie, who wrote Peter Pan , said that life was “a long lesson in humility,” and American poet Carl Sandburg compared life to an onion: “You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.” Famous trial lawyer Clarence Darrow called life “a span of time in which the first half is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children.”
The Bible doesn’t deny that life has its battles and burdens as well as its blessings. Some of the writers of Scripture see life as a refiner’s furnace (Job 23:10), a violent storm (Ps. 42:7), a battle (2 Tim. 2:3), or a difficult race to run (Jer. 12:5). Not only do these writers tell us that life is difficult but they also warn us that life is brief and fragile. When the Lord gave Adam life, He “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life” (Gen. 2:7), and breath has always been associated with brevity and weakness. “Everyone is but a breath,” wrote David, “even those who seem secure” (Ps. 39:5 NIV). “What is your life?” asked James. “You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (4:14 NRSV). Human life began with a breath, it continues with our breathing, and will end in a moment when we breathe our last. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were important and powerful people, but all three “breathed their last” (Gen. 25:8; 35:29; 49:33) and it may be our turn sooner than we expect.
Difficult circumstances we can’t always control also contribute to the problems and demands of life, and from ancient days, people have complained about “the times.” David lamented in Psalm 11 that all the foundations of life had been destroyed (v. 3) and in Psalm 12 that faithful men and women had vanished from the earth (vv. 1–2). On March 23, 1783, British writer Samuel Johnson said to his friend James Boswell, “I have lived to see things all as bad as they can be.” About that same time, Thomas Jefferson wrote in his Notes on the State of Virginia , “Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.” Playwright George Bernard Shaw complained, “If the other planets are inhabited, they’re using earth as their insane asylum.”

So much for the depressing outlooks on life. The heart of every problem is the problem in the heart, and only our Lord can change the human heart. This book is about the kind of life God wants to give us and how we can receive it through His grace and power. The habits that bind us, the negative attitudes that depress us, the people who bother us, the needs that worry us, and the challenges that frighten us can all be creatively handled by the Lord if we will let Him have His way.
Read and digest the first chapter and be sure of your relationship with the Lord. Then read the table of contents and decide which chapter or chapters best describe your current situation. Start reading there. Each of the chapters is a complete unit, so the choices are yours. Please don’t speed-read the chapters but instead read them as if you and I were privately and calmly discussing each one with open Bibles before us. Take time to ponder and pray, and give the Lord opportunity to teach (or remind) you of what you need to know at this time. When I cite Scripture verses that I don’t quote, please keep your Bible handy to look up each reference and read it carefully.
Finally, ask the Lord to help you put into practice the principles you are learning. Our obedience turns words into works, and that’s the best way to experience spiritual growth. Learning that ignores real living produces a big head but a cold heart and a weak will. Paul warns us that “knowledge puffs up while love builds up” (1 Cor. 8:1 NIV).
“Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O L ORD God of hosts” (Jer. 15:16).
Warren W. Wiersbe
1 Eternal Life
There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
John 3:1–3
Read John 3:1–21. Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish ruling council. Jesus called him Israel’s teacher (v. 10), so he must have had a good knowledge of the Scriptures. He appears to be a wealthy man as well as a religious man. Born a Jew, he was a member of the only nation God ever called His chosen people and His “special treasure” (Deut. 7:6). He sought to know the truth and from his heart wanted to love and obey the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Nicodemus was a man of character and courage, and yet he knew that something was lacking in his life. He went to get help from Jesus, and the Master told him what was missing: “You must be born again” (John 3:7 NIV). Nicodemus didn’t know there was such a thing as a “new birth” and a new beginning in life. The physical blessings we now enjoy came with our physical birth, and if we want spiritual blessings we must experience a spiritual birth. We must receive eternal life.
Eternal Life Is the Very Life of God
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are eternal; they have neither beginning nor ending. Moses said to the Lord that He was “from everlasting to everlasting” (Ps. 90:2). Moses also called the Lord “the eternal God” (Deut. 33:27), and the prophet Isaiah called God “the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity” (57:15). Paul addressed the Lord as “the King eternal” (1 Tim. 1:17). The life I have was imparted to me by my parents, but God has “life in Himself” (John 5:26) and that life is imparted to all who repent of their sins and trust Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord (John 10:27–28; Rom. 6:23).
From day to day and season to season, we are accustomed to seeing things and people around us come to an end, either suddenly or gradually, and we are overwhelmed by the very thoughts of eternity and living forever. In his book The Knowledge of the Holy , A. W. Tozer said of God’s eternality that “our hearts approve with gladness what our reason cannot fully comprehend.” 1 That anyone or anything should exist with neither beginning nor ending is something our limited minds cannot grasp. Eternity is “time out of mind,” and when the Lord created the first humans, He “put eternity in their hearts” (Eccl. 3:11). This explains why people like us, created in the image of God, have always craved something beyond the mundane things life offers us. Before we met Jesus, we often said to ourselves, “There must be something better!” Augustine was right when he wrote, “You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”
Eternal Life Is the Gift of God
The apostle John wrote of Jesus, “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men” (John 1:4). Jesus conq