Musick-al Notes

Musick-al Note #   144   

         If you were the Lord, how would you judge yourself?  You are in the position to know.  Circumstantial evidence may or may not be correctly interpreted by the observer.  You know yourself and are in a position to examine your own heart and mind, attitudes, desires and aspirations.  You also know the guilt arising from transgression, failure, and neglect of God’s Word.  Let us then as Paul indicated we should do, “examine yourself” that we may know where we stand and become ready for God’s judgment.  Look at and answer these questions.

         First, what is my attitude toward the Bible?  Is it God’s Word?  Do I receive it as coming from God to me?  Am I really willing to learn more and understand more of this divine book?  Or do I merely sit in class and pew to present a religious front?  Am I afraid to put myself to the test to measure what I really know and understand of the teaching of the Master?  Is my attitude such that things must be easy and have no requirements for learning before I will attend?

         Second, what is my attitude toward the preaching of the Gospel? Do I really “listen as to eternity”? Do I really seek to gain knowledge for self to improve?  Are the sermons beneficial because I listen attentively or boring because I would really rather be somewhere else?  Must I continually attend to keep up a semblance of righteousness or do I desire to worship God regularly?  Does the preaching of the Word help me to see the majesty of God, the Deity of Christ and the need of forgiveness, or am I asleep and spiritually blind?

         Third, what is my attitude about the work program that is carried on?  Have I given of myself that the work might be done?   Am I willing to give liberally that the program be carried on well?  Is the time given to me spent for self alone with without thought of the Lord?  Am I disturbed when work is to be done and I cannot assist?  Would I rather be doing something else when work for the Lord is scheduled?  If the preacher or the elders insist that we all work, will I give my support or will I move my membership or possibly stop attending altogether?

                Gordon Musick

Musick-al Note # 143              

         How easy it seems to be and how natural for one to assign failure or neglect or concern on someone else.  When God spoke to Adam (Genesis 3:8-23) in the garden, he said, “The woman gave it to me” – it was her fault. Then Eve said, “The serpent tempted me” – it’s his fault.   Excuse me for my sin, it’s someone else’s fault. Children learn to say, “It’s brother’s fault” or “It’s sister’s fault” or someone else’s fault.  Don’t blame me -blame someone else”

         We need to come face to face with reality. Adam bore his guilt, Eve bore her guilt and Satan bore his guilt. None were excused. Nor do we excuse a boy or girl when they succumb to temptation and sin.  When temptation causes us to sin, we will bear our own guilt.  In short, man is not excused because someone else tempted him and he engaged in sin.

         In the church today we find this same old way of man. “It’s the elders fault” or “It’s the preacher’s fault” Not uncommonly do we hear, “I don’t like what they do” – it’s their fault. So goes the childish reasoning that the blame for failure, neglects, unconcern, that and many other sins will be overlooked in a person’s life. Yet in every example of wrong, the Bible exclaims – “The soul that sins shall die” – each bore the guilt of his or her own transgression.

         When Jesus was eating the last Passover Supper with His disciples he said, “One of you shall betray me.” No finger pointing session followed!  Each concerned with his own soul asked, “Lord is it I?” These men might not have been mature in Christ but they were ahead of us in this question. Instead of assigning the blame on another, they were concerned with self.  When there is failure to grow, sin in the church, stumbling by Christians, general neglect and indifference, shouldn’t we ask as the apostles, “Lord, is it I?”

             Gordon Musick

Musick-al Note # 142                            

       A covenant is an agreement between two entities be it individuals, groups, or companies whether enemies or friends that is agreeable to each.  I speak of a covenant between God who is pure, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent and man who is limited in power, knowledge, time and length of life on earth.  They are unequal to say the least.  Man has a propensity to sin while God cannot even be tempted to sin.  God has always initiated the covenant relationship with man because He knows what is best for man whom He created in His own image.  

      The covenant with Israel contained the Ten Commandments and with instructions regarding worship and daily living (Exodus 20 through Leviticus 27). Their response was, “All the words that the Lord has spoken, we will do and we will be obedient.” (Exodus 24:7)  God also gave many warnings of destruction should they turn aside to other gods and disobey His commands.  He stated that they would be His treasured possession, and they would be a holy nation of priests to Him. They were given a land and great blessings, even forgiving their sins.

      The new covenant came through God’s Son, Jesus the Christ.  This covenant called for the love of man by demonstrating the greatest love of all – Jesus death on the cross to take away the penalty of the sins of all men (Hebrews 2:9).  That penalty was death (Ezekiel 18:4, Romans 6:23).  Being raised from the dead by the power of God, Jesus became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Hebrews 5:9).  To obey Jesus, we must repent of our sins, confess His name before men, be buried with Him in baptism and rise to walk in newness of life.  Thus we enter a covenant relationship with God when we believe and obey the Gospel of Christ.  God washes away our sins and gives us new life when we are baptized (Galatians 3:27).  He adds us to Christ’s church, makes us His child, frees us from Satan and gives us ability to live and serve Him in this life and anticipate an eternal life in His presence.  The faithful will also be separated from His wrath (2 Thessalonians 1:6-10) when Jesus is revealed from heaven to be glorified by His Saints.

            Gordon Musick

 Musick-al Note # 141              

          The world seeks happiness as the thirsty person seeks water or the hungry man seeks food.  The wild craze of satisfying of the passions, the vain pursuit of emotional thrills and an ever-increasing following of sports give ample indications that people are seeking happiness in any place and in any way that the world offers.  Yet the psychiatrist couch, the emotionally disturbed criminal, the senseless murder with bomb or gun, the increasing suicide rate all declare that people are not finding happiness and contentment.  Even in the church, we find very few who are finding happiness and contentment.  Even in the church, we find very few who are really happy.  We are frustrated, disappointed and fail to find the happiness, true joy and the peace we seek.

          The world seeks pleasure in her ways and cannot find lasting pleasure because worldly pleasure is transitory.  The church seemingly has failed also but only because her members seek joy and happiness in the wrong places.  We have the idea that if we can GET and OBTAIN, we will have pleasure, happiness and peace.  Jesus taught many things that seem to be contradictory.  He said, “If we seek to save our life, we will lose it, and if we lose our life for His sake we would find it.” (Matthew 16:25-26).  It is in the giving of self to Christ that you really obtain life.  It is the same in joy, happiness, cheerfulness and peace, in giving these we find that we obtain them.  In the pursuit of happiness we want to buy, to get, to have things, yet happiness eludes us.

         Perhaps we could reverse things by giving, by seeking to enrich others. By making them happy we can thereby obtain that which is constantly eluding our grasp – real happiness for ourselves!  How?  By giving them the greatest gift of all – the message of the Savior.  Never will we have a greater gift to give – by giving the knowledge of God’s great love for all mankind – that Jesus Christ gave himself to save everyone.

            Share the joy of salvation with someone the message of freedom from sin in Christ Jesus, and greater happiness than you have ever known will belong to you.

                 Gordon Musick

Musick-al note # 140                   

       When we speak of the “evidence” of God, we mean that there are things which prove that He is.  Things exist that cannot be explained in any other way gives evidence that God exists and has created those things.  Look around you and you see a multitude of things which cannot have happened without a cause or maker.  Some things were made by man.  Some may have been caused by animals and others by birds or other creatures, but one must come to the conclusion that there must have been a being of higher intelligence than man to make the universe, the stars, planets, moon, atmosphere, earth, air, sky, animals, birds, fish, creatures and man.  Look at your own body and you will be amazed at one’s ability to function, think, respond and act. Consider your ability to see, touch, taste and communicate as well as your need to be fed, to love and be loved, socialize, idolize and worship.  All these things show that a higher being created man.  One amazing thing is that man has always desired to live eternally as the earliest writings reveal and man continues to do so. This is only pointing out things which show that God is the creator of the world and man.  Because of this and the revelation which has been given to us (the Bible), we believe that God created everything and He has ultimate control of it (Hebrews 11:1-3).

      According to His revealed will, God will bring us into accounting for our lives (Romans 14:10-12). Since all men have succumbed to the temptations to sin and therefore face eternal death.  He sent His only Son into the world to save us from our sins. God had decreed that the souls belong to Him and has said that those who sin would die (Ezekiel 18:4).  Jesus death on the cross was the payment for the debt of sin that every man has incurred (Hebrews 2:9).  Having died on the Cross of Calvary for the sins of every one of us, Jesus was raised from the dead to go to the throne of God and now offers eternal salvation to all who obey Him (Hebrews 5:7-9). To obtain the blessings of His sacrifice, one must believe that Jesus is the Christ, repent of all sin, confess His name before men, and be buried with Him in baptism and live in faithful obedience to His will until they die.  This is not earning salvation, but responding to Him in faith as we live in this world that we may live with Him in the next world.

                    Gordon Musick

Musick-al note # 139 

         God is!  The Bible does not try to prove the existence of God nor try to reveal His beginning.  Men have striven to prove that “God” is only the result of the prehistoric superstitions of man.  This does not reveal anything about God, but only that man strives to eliminate the necessity of obeying God and the realization that every man will come to be judged by Him.

        God is!  The Bible begins with that fact.  The Bible is the revelation of God to man to guide man throughout life that man may be blessed in eternity. He (God) reveals Himself to man while doing so.  Notice these verses.  Psalms 90:1-2   Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever you had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, you <are> God.”  Isaiah 57:15 “for thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”  What does it mean to inhabit eternity?  I admit that I do not know all the answers, but God seems to be saying that He inhabited eternity before, during and after time. Further, that eternity was before time began, surrounded all of time and continues after time is gone.  Then He has already inhabited eternity after time is over!  Consider such passages as Revelation 13:8, “The lamb slain from the foundation of the world”, John 8:58, “Before Abraham was, I AM”, Isaiah 46:10, “declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done”.  God is!  He is eternal.  He is the creator of all things, both in heaven and on earth and at His word ‘time will be no more’.  We should not deceive ourselves, He knows us.  Every one of us! He will bring us into judgment in the last day and we will be judged by the Word of Christ which He has given to man (John 12:48-50). All will be there and receive judgment (Matthew 25:31-46). On that day the kingdom (church) will be given to God (1 Corinthians 15:24).

                 Gordon Musick

Musick-al Note # 138  

         Are you a truth-seeker?  We are speaking of religious truth.  Most people feel that they do want truth and many think they are actually seeking it.  Do you really seek truth in religious matters?  With religious division as it is in the world, many people do not believe there is a base of absolute truth in religious matters. “One church is as good as another, join the church of your choice, all are going to the same place anyway” and similar phrases only prove this position. But is this position true? Does the thought never cross your mind that since there are many groups seeking to follow Jesus and that each of these groups oppose the other, that somewhere, sometime, someone has departed from the original teaching, and whether knowingly or not they are now teaching error?  Read Paul’s statements in 1 Corinthians 1:11-13 and 1 Corinthians 3:1-13 where he declares that such division is of the flesh and wrong.. The same is true of division today. But one may say that divisions cause competition which only results in bringing more people to Christ.  If this position is true, then Jesus prayed earnestly that something good and profitable would never happen (John 17:20-23).  Jesus, the Son of God, prayed that all believers would be one – to prove to the world that He was sent from the Father.  One of these views is incorrect.  Which will you choose?

         Are you seeking Truth?  When you read an article that expresses a view opposing the one you now hold or that your mother or father held before you, what do you do?  Lay it aside and forget it?  Get angry and violently disagree?  Say that anything is alright if you see it that way, with no thought of investigation?  Jesus said of the Pharisees in Matthew 15:1-14 that in setting aside the Word of God and teaching other things made their worship vain. Let me earnestly urge you to be as noble as the Bereans in Acts 17:11 – to search the Scriptures for religious truth and follow the teaching you will find there for it is the foundation, the absolute truth in religion.  Matthew 28:18-20, 2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3.

                 Gordon Musick

Musick-al note # 137   

      Is it possible to limit God?  He created everything including man.  It is foolish to say that God could not do anything that He wishes. We believe that God has revealed his will in the Scriptures, the Bible.  John said that Jesus did many things while on earth that are not written, but the things that are written so that men might believe that He is the Christ of God (John 20:30-31).  Peter stated that His divine power has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him, by which we become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:3-11). God has provided the way that He will forgive every person on earth (2 Peter 3:9, John 10:9, 14:6, Hebrews 5:9), however not everyone is willing to meet His conditions for salvation. Man’s failure to meet those conditions apparently makes it impossible for God to save them.  Are you willing to be saved by doing His will or just hope He will save you anyway? 

        The New Testament teaches that God will save those who obey His Word (Hebrews 5:9).  Will He save any who do not obey the Gospel (Romans 6:17-18, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10)? Obeying the Gospel is to believe (John 8:24), Repent (Acts 17:30), Confess (Matthew 10:32), and to be baptized into Him (Acts 22:16, Galatians 3:27). We are given new life in Him to be His (Romans 6:4-18).

        Sadly, religious teachers have added doctrines (teachings) that are of man’s design which will cause men to worship God in vain (Matthew 15:9).  Take note of and consider the fate of these: those seeking to live by the Law of Moses (Galatians 5:2-4, Mark 7:7), those turning from the faith (2 Peter 2:20-21, Galatians 1:6-9), those whose eyes are blinded by Satan to the truth of the Word (2 Corinthians 4:3-4, 1 John 2:11), those who refuse to enter the narrow way (Matthew 7:13-14), those who refuse to follow Him (Matthew 7:21-27, John 14:15), those who follow false teachers (1 John 4:1, Matthew 7:15, 22-23, 2 Peter 2:1-2, Matthew 24:4-12, 2 Peter 2:1, Matthew 15:13-14), those who do not meet and worship the Lord (Hebrews 10:25-27), and those who live sinful, ungodly lives (Romans 6:6-23).    It is incumbent for us then, to know God’s Word and follow it to the saving of our souls.

                   Gordon Musick

Musick-al note # 136

     Are there signs and evidence that this event is near?   Jesus has promised to return to receive his own and take them home (John 14:1-3).  He will come for His own and they will receive glory in that day (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).  However it will come as a thief in the night, quickly as a flash of lightening across the sky (Matthew 24:27, 36). The world will be like it was in the days of Noah, thinking only of earthly things. In that day false teachers will rise, iniquity will abound and many will turn from the faith (Matthew 24:37-39).  At a trumpet sound, in the blink of the eye the end will come and those who are prepared and waiting will be changed from a fleshly body into an incorruptible, immortal body (1 Corinthians 15:51-52), but those who are not ready will receive the wrath of God (2 Thessalonians 1:7-10).  As to when the time is coming, no man knows and Jesus said even angels do not know (Matthew 24:36) but there are things happening that fit the end time as Matthew 24 declares which you can study and determine that many of the signs of the end are evident.  However, one must realize that through the centuries, many of these signs were evident in those days also, but the end did not come even with the many predictions that were made.  Jesus taught that we must always be ready for His coming for we know not when that time will come. The signs make His coming imminent – it could happen at any time – but not on our time schedule! It will come on God’s schedule!  Be wise – get ready by obeying the Gospel of Christ and live faithfully by following Jesus words every day (Revelation 2:10).  Keep in mind that even if terrible things happen, being faithful has its reward (Romans 8:18).

                 Gordon Musick

Musick-al note # 135       

        We first see Paul as an enemy of Christ, present and consenting to the stoning of Stephen (Acts 7:58, 8:1).  He became the leader in persecuting Christians (Acts 8:3,), obtaining  letters to seek Christians in Damascus (Acts 9:1-2) to arrest them to bring them to Jerusalem. Paul in reviewing this period of his life said he was zealous toward God in persecuting the church, (thinking he was serving God (Phillipians 3:6). Was he saved? No, not as an enemy of Christ!

       Near Damascus, he met the Lord in the way (Acts 9:3-6) and asked what he had to do. Jesus told him to go into the city where he would be told. Paul spent three days and nights without sight neither eating nor drinking anything but in prayer to God (Acts 9:9).  Was he saved by seeing the Lord on the road or by his prayers?  No, because he had not been told what to do. The Lord called Ananias to go to this Saul and tell him what he had to do. Reluctantly, Ananias obeyed and putting his hands on Saul, restored his sight.  Saul was told to get up, be baptized and wash away his sins, calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 9:10-18, 22:16). Saul, later called Paul was not saved by seeing the Lord, fasting, or praying but found remission of sins when he obeyed the Gospel.

       You can be saved like Paul was saved!  You will not ‘see’ him on a road but you can ‘see’ him by faith with ‘spiritual eyes’ (John 20:30-31, Romans 10:17). You can ‘fast’ and offer many ‘prayers’ but salvation will only come to you when you do as Paul did by being baptized into Christ (Galatians 3:26-27, Romans 6:3-5) This is obeying the Gospel by obeying a form of the teaching about Christ who died for our sins, was buried and raised again to life with God.  .

      Many are teaching that one only has to believe, or offer a certain prayer or live a godly life, and many other such things but following only the sure Word of Christ is the only sure way to salvation.

                Gordon Musick