The Five “One Things”

Posted on by scottcatchot

The Five “One Things”. 

ONE is particular, specific, and separate.

It stands alone. Regarding numbers it is the principle primary number. It emphasizes significance, an unmistakable quality, and total autonomy.

In this crazy passed world, with its ups and downs and multiple things competing for our attention, it is important to pause and consider what is important. Evaluate priorities.

bible-gateway   When I performed a keyword search on the Bible Gateway website, I found the phrase “One Thing” was used 11 to 18  different times in Scripture depending on the English translation.

There are 5 that kept popping up regardless of the translation that really stood out to me that will be the focus of this lesson, The 5 “One Things”

  1. Psalm 27:4

“I have asked one thing from the Lord; it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the Lord and seeking Him in His temple.”

King David is often called a “man after God’s own heart.” He chased and pursued man after God'sintimacy with the Father, sought His heart and desired to be made in God’s image over everything else he could want or desire. When He was confronted with his sin and mistakes, unlike Saul who wanted to be honored in front of the people, David was concerned with not losing the presence of God. Something interesting to point out, when David wrote this, the Temple had not been built yet. It seems David had a glimpse of the Temple not made by human hands where he could dwell with God forever. This is the one thing he sought.

  1. Mark 10:21

21 Then, looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, “You lack one thing: Go, sell all you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.”

rich young rulerThe Rich young ruler only lacked one thing. He could not part with his possessions and wealth. There are many reasons this could be, maybe he lacked faith for God’s provision. Maybe it was the fear of losing everything, losing the status his position and wealth brought him. He may have considered, “what might everyone else think?”

 

surrender

Whatever the reason was, he did not give everything to Jesus. One thing He lacked was total submission of every area of his life being given over to Christ.

 

 

 

  1. Luke 10:42

42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Mary and Martha are two sisters that were close to Jesus. During a particular gathering at their home, Martha was very busy tending to the things to insure the evening went well as a good host would. However when she complained about her sister, an interesting point was made by Jesus. The one thing that is necessary is being with Jesus. Seek First the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you. Jesus is the physical representation of God’s Kingdom. So Seeking Jesus is the one thin that is necessary. There is no other way to the Father, except through Him. I have often heard it said, the greatest enemy to great, is good. Martha was doing good things, but Mary had chosen that which was better.mary or martha

Are you Mary or Martha? Click to find out.

  1. John 9:25

25 He answered, “Whether or not He’s a sinner, I don’t know. One thing I do know: I was blind, and now I can see!”

blind but nowWe see the story of a man that was born blind. The religious leaders are stuck on being offended by Jesus healing on the Sabbath and not on the miracle. As they question the man, he doesn’t try to convince them of anything or have a well prepared apologetics response. It is O.K. to tell people I don’t know.  He tells them what he knows. I was blind, and now I see. To all the questions He had one focus. Revelation 12 tells us that they [the saints] overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. There is no greater apologetics or reply that we can give to anyone besides the truth, especially when that truth is the power of God working in our life. We should focus on what God has done in our lives.

 

 

  1. Philippians 3:13

13 Brothers, I do not consider myself to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and reaching forward to what is ahead, 14 I pursue as my goal the prize promised by God’s heavenly call in Christ Jesus.

goalsetting5Paul did not let his past determine his future. He had a goal and he went after it with a singular purpose. Nothing was going to keep him from his goal.

These five verses showed 5 different people, from 5 different backgrounds, but at the heart of each story is one thing we need to grasp.

  1. Through David we see that knowing God is at the heart of prayer.
  2. Through the Rich Young Ruler we see that knowing God is at the heart of total surrender.
  3. Through Martha we see that knowing God is at the heart of service.
  4. Through the Blind man we see that knowing God is at the heart of witness.
  5. Through Paul we see knowing that God is at the heart of ambition.

The One Thing we need is a singular focus on Jesus in every aspect of our lives. Not just on Sundays, not just around our church friends, but everyday, everywhere we may be.

need jesus

 

Hope Like Water To A Tree

Posted on by scottcatchot

I was reading through Job the other day. I am sure you are familiar with the story. Job lost everything . In one day, one after another, servants ran up to tell him different things he had lost. First, his donkeys and oxen were stolen, and all his servants were killed, Then fire killed his sheep and more servants. The person giving that news had not finished speaking when another guy came in to let him know three gangs had stolen his camels and killed even more servants. To top it all off he then gets word that all of his kids were having a party together when a windstorm collapsed the house on top of them killing them all. Job was really having a bad day. The story goes on and Job loses his health, his friends berate him, his wife, the only family he has left even berates him. It is pretty safe bet to say he was feeling pretty alone. We see him struggle to understand his situation and search for answers to his difficulties.

We still do this when we find ourselves alone, struggling going through hard times. Well at one point when Job is crying out to God he says (in Job 14:7-10)

There is hope for a tree:
If it is cut down, it will sprout again,
and its shoots will not die.
8
If its roots grow old in the ground
and its stump starts to die in the soil,
9
the smell of water makes it thrive
and produce twigs like a sapling.
10
But a man dies and fades away;
he breathes his last—where is he?

Job is contemplating death and asking about hope. He mentions even trees when cut down can have life again because of water bringing it new life.

As I was thinking about this comparison and contemplating what Job was asking I remembered another place where the bible talks about water in John. This is when Jesus is talking with the Samaritan woman.
John 4:7-14

7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water.
“Give Me a drink,” Jesus said to her, 8 for His disciples had gone into town to buy food.
9 “How is it that You, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” she asked Him. For Jews do not associate with[d] Samaritans.[e]
10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God, and who is saying to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would ask Him, and He would give you living water.”
11 “Sir,” said the woman, “You don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do You get this ‘living water’? 12 You aren’t greater than our father Jacob, are You? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and livestock.”
13 Jesus said, “Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again. 14 But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again—ever! In fact, the water I will give him will become a well[f] of water springing up within him for eternal life.”

This same image is used again in John 7:37, the setting is during Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles,
37 On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me[f] and drink! 38 The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said,[g] will have streams of living water flow from deep with in him.

Jesus compares himself to living water. A water that will quench the thirst or need forever. So the hope that is like water that brings new life to a dead tree which Job was looking for, that we all look for in those times of loneliness and despair, is Jesus.

Matthew 12:21 puts it plainly, “in his name the nations will put their hope.”

Like Job, I have had low points in my life, times when I did not understand why things were happening and even wondering if everything was pretty much over for me. I could not see any light at the end of the tunnel. I had lost my family to divorce, got evicted from my home due to financial issues of the landlord, a few months later lies and false acquisitions cost me my job . It seemed one thing after another kept piling up. I found myself having the similar thoughts to Job. I was not suicidal, but I definitely thought things would be better if I just died so the suffering would just stop and even mentioned that to God several times. The Apostle Paul found himself enduring trial and hardship time and again throughout his life. His philosophy regarding all things in his life is summed up in what he says in Philipians 1:21,

21 For me, living is Christ and dying is gain.

Paul understood that since he had hope in Jesus that as long as he was alive he had a mission to share the hope that he had found in Jesus, and if he died He would live out eternity with Jesus. God reminded me of that during this time and so In the midst of that time, just as in times past and other difficulties since then. I have found my hope in Jesus. Leaning on him I have been able to endure, continue and even go on prosper when it seems everything is against me and there is nothing left for me in life.

Edward Mote composed an amazing hymn that truly sums this point up called My Hope is Built on Nothing Less.

1 My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

Refrain:
On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.

2 When darkness veils his lovely face,
I rest on his unchanging grace;
in every high and stormy gale,
my anchor holds within the veil. [Refrain]

3 His oath, his covenant, his blood
support me in the whelming flood;
when all around my soul gives way,
he then is all my hope and stay. [Refrain]

4 When he shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in him be found,
dressed in his righteousness alone,
faultless to stand before the throne. [Refrain]

The most amazing thing about this hope that is Jesus, is it is for everyone. There are no requirements other than you ask for it.
This hope never runs out, it never grows smaller, because God is a God of more not less . When Israel was rebuilding the temple and everything was in ruin and looked as thought it could never be rebuilt, God sent a word to them through Haggai saying (Haggai 2:9)
9 “The final glory of this house[b] will be greater than the first,” says the Lord of Hosts. “I will provide peace in this place”—this is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.

He was telling them that there was still more hope, it had not passed them by. That same idea is true for us as well. When God brings hope and restoration he does not short change us. He is a God of more. In my own life he has restored and brought me a wonderful wife who is also seeking after God, blessed me with more children, a steady job and many other blessings.

God brought restoration to Job because of his continued faith and Hope in him.

He receives twice the wealth he had before (Job 42:10), plus a new brood of seven sons and three daughters (Job 42:13). Yes his first children are gone forever, our suffering can leave scars, we read that Job’s latter life is blessed “more than his beginning” (Job 42:12), We also know what Job didn’t, that following the resurrection of Jesus that God’s final redemption comes only when Christ returns to bring his kingdom to fulfillment. So not only do we have hope always available in this life, Jesus, the living water, brings life eternal so that hope in him continues even beyond this life throughout eternity. Truly He is a God of Hope.

I want to close with a story about a Christian in church history, a guy named Billy Bray. He was a Miner in Cornwall England and He had one of the most remarkable salvation experiences you ever saw in all of your life. after narrowly escaping a mining accident. Billy Bray was so happy — he shouted and sang all the time. So much so it bothered people. He had so much joy, just shouting all the time. And somebody said to him one time, “Billy Bray, why don’t you tone down some? You’re just too happy. You’ve got too much joy all the time.” Billy Bray said, “I can’t help it. God saved me and I can’t help it. When I put down one foot it says hallelujah, and when I put down the other foot it says glory to God.”

And they said, “Billy, suppose you’re mistaken? Suppose when you die you find out that you’re not going to Heaven after all, you’re going to Hell.” Old Billy said, “Praise God, I’ve been having a wonderful time in the Lord all through the years. Jesus has been good to me and if I die and go down to Hell, then I’ll be thankful for the joy Jesus brought me in life. I’ll shout all over Hell and they’ll have to send me up to Heaven because they can’t stand that kind of joy down there.”

Oh for us all to get a hold of that joy and hope. Hope that brings life just like water does to a tree. To let that hope and joy Joy spill out all over those around us. Who wants that kind of hope and Joy? I know I do.