LAY ASIDE HATRED AND SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS

  Pastor Raymond D. Burrows hosted a recent Tuesday 10 a.m. Bible study at Faith Temple Church, Taylors, SC, on a rain-soaked day.

He said that if all the rain in a cloud fell at one time, the landscape below that cloud would be devastated.  

“But God sends down the rain in drops,” Pastor said.
  “Have you heard of a Judas tree?” Ms. Linda Trammell asked. “It’s supposed to be the tree that Judas hung himself on.”

The Judas tree (“cercis siliquastrum”) blooms with purple flowers. Its common name comes from a legend that Judas Iscariot hanged himself from this type tree after he betrayed Jesus. 

Pastor read 1 Peter 1:25: “But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” 

The Apostle Peter addressed his letter to “the strangers scattered” in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia (all three locations are in Turkey), Asia, and and Bithynia (northwest of Asia Minor).  

Pastor noted that books of the Bible were written without chapter or verse references.  

Chapter divisions of the Bible were developed around 1227 by Stephen Langton, an Archbishop of Canterbury. The Hebrew Old Testament was divided into verses by a Jewish rabbi named Nathan in 1448. Robert Estienne, also known as Stephanus, was the first to divide the New Testament into numbered verses, in 1555. 

Pastor read 1 Peter 2:1-2: “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings.” 

“He’s talking about Christ-followers,” Pastor said. “‘Malice’ means ‘hatred of any description.’”  

He referred to the word “guile” in that verse. “Guile” means “craft; cunning; deceit; usually in a bad sense.” 

Jesus saw Nathanael and said, “Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile” (John 1:47). 

“God, by inspiration, would never instruct us on doing something that’s impossible,” Pastor said, indicating that, with God’s help, we can purge malice (hatred) and guile (deceit) from our hearts. 

Pastor recalled that when he lived in Joanna, SC, a man told him, “I’m never going to church because there are too many hypocrites there.”  

“As far as I know, he never did go,” Pastor said.

Pastor told of a woman who always said nice things about people. A friend asked if she could say anything nice about a man they knew who was a scoundrel. The lady replied, “Well, he’s got a nice whistle.” 

Pastor said he admires the scholarship and brilliance of the Rev. Pat Hayes, who sometimes preaches at Faith Temple Church.  

“His family was educated,” Pastor said. “He went to a Roman Catholic school. My dad was a farmer … Be glad about the person God made you [to be].” 

He read 1 Peter 2:3: “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby.” 

“Explore the Scriptures,” Pastor said. “Growth is produced by Scripture. Take on the person of Christ. St. Paul chastised the Corinthians because they had not been growing.”  

We need interactions with God through the Word and through prayer, Pastor said.   

“The other day, I fired up my chainsaw and was thinking as I was out there, cutting, ‘Lord, I love you,’” he said. 

He addressed attendees: “You are among God’s finest people. And the Lord put me here with you. The Lord is gracious, my friends.” 

He read 1 Peter 2:6: “ … Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.” 

“Christ is the foundational stone,” Pastor said. “The bricks became part of the structure. The strength of one brick is tied to the other bricks. …They are resting on that foundational stone.”  

Pastor told of a man who came to Faith Temple and asked, “Am I welcome here?” The fellow told Pastor Burrows that he had visited a church where a church leader took him aside and said, “Your kind is not welcome here.” Pastor said he assured the man he was welcome at Faith Temple.  

He referred to the Pharisee and the publican. 

Jesus told this parable (Luke 18:9-14) to some folk who boasted about their own goodness and despised others:  

A Pharisee (a strict keeper of Jewish laws) and a publican (a despised tax collector) prayed in the temple. The Pharisee thanked God that he was not a sinner, especially like the tax collector he saw standing there. He said he never cheated, did not commit adultery, and he fasted twice a week and gave God a tenth of all he possessed.

The corrupt tax collector stood at a distance and was ashamed to lift his eyes toward heaven. In sorrow, he beat on his chest and prayed, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.”   

Jesus said, “I tell you, this man went down to his house justified [forgiven] rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”