Blog

For September 12, 2021
Jesus Disciples’ levels of perplexity, anxiety, and uncertainty must have been extreme as the Lord spoke that evening on their way to Gethsemane. Jesus was fully aware of Judas’ plot to betray Him, the Disciples’ abandonment and denials, the religious leaders’ disgraceful, mock trial, and His humiliating public execution.

The Disciples were oblivious to these facts and were bewildered because their Lord informed them He was leaving and would return later. He also told them about the coming Helper, but they were not sure when He would arrive—or how. They had no idea what would become of their faith movement after Jesus’ departure, or who would lead it.

Then the Lord told them something that must have seemed even more baffling,

I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:1-5 (NKJV)

Jesus identifies Himself as the True Vine, the authentic and legitimate “real deal.” Before Him, were imitators, and after Him, pretenders. In other words, He is the stalk, and we are fruit-producing branches proceeding from Him. We are rooted in Him, and without Him, we will wither and die.

Jesus alone is the source of our life and purpose. Because of our association, we can have access to all the spiritual, life-giving resources He has at His disposal. He alone is the object of our faith, the essence of our spiritual life, and the realization of all our future hopes and desires,

As God’s natural life is in the vine, Christ, that He may give life to His spiritual branches. The roots of this new vine are planted in Heaven, not on earth; and unto it, the half-withered branches of the old humanity are to be grafted, that they may have life divine. Our Lord does not say, “I am the root.” The branch is not something outside, which has to get nourishment out of the root. It is rather a part of the vine. Not only grounded in Christ as our foundation, but thrusting down root into Him as the deep, rich, all-sustaining soil.¹

Abiding in the True Vine necessitates our complete surrender so that the Helper inside us can foster our consecrated, Christ-likeness,

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 (NIV)

Crucified with Christ may appear strange at first glance, but it’s not. Christ is our identity; we draw our strength from Him. He is our life and power to perform godly activities that honor Him; activities our old nature protests and resists—vehemently.

Our Father’s pruning is required for successful fruit-bearing. The Greek word for pruning is kathairo (Strong-G2508), to cut away the undesirable and unfruitful parts, to cleanse from filth, to prune or eliminate that which is fruitless, or to purify.²

Romans 8:1 tells us that we face no condemnation in Christ as we walk and live surrendered to His Spirit, our Helper.  Our purging is of the Father in the whole process of our “removing temptations and afflictions.”³ This is our sanctification.

As we walk in His Spirit, we can experience the “power of Jesus’ resurrection and fellowship in His suffering;” in order to mortify the flesh and conform to His righteousness in living as Philippians 3:10 teaches.

We bear fruit by striving toward spiritual perfection through fasting⁴, prayer, reading and studying God’s Word (Bible), attending church regularly, and Christian service.

Ultimately, as we yield to the Holy Spirit’s work within us, we conform to the image and likeness of Christ. This was true for the Disciples then, and it is true for us today. Won’t you surrender to Jesus Christ, The Vine and become a fruit bearing branch for His grace, forgiveness, and love today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

For August 29, 2021
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and everything that comprises both. His is a perfect creation, flawless and pure in every way. The sun, moon, and stars—functioning light years away from the earth—serve to fulfill God’s intricate, harmonious plan for the earth to experience day and night; the four seasons; the heat, cold, wind, rain, and snow we often take for granted.

How we measure time in minutes, hours, days, months, and years is due to God’s perfect and reliable system of the earth’s rotation on its axis, and its rotation around the sun. The wonders of nature and our intricate human design all are undeniable witnesses to the wisdom of God in all its perfection. God does not create mistakes or blunders—even when He created you and me. His work is perfect and holy, as the Bible declares (my emphasis),

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. Genesis 1:31 (NKJV)

God created a sinless Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden with everything they could ever want or need. They would have had eternal fellowship with God as long as they followed His command not to eat the fruit from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”. Genesis 2:16-17 (NKJV)

The moment Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the fruit, they died spiritually and were forever separated from God. As a result, the entire world became sin-contaminated,

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. Romans 5:12 (NLT)

It is not our evil deeds that make us sinners before God. It is in our fallen, internal, spiritual nature that makes us sinners before Him. For our internal condition influences how we think, speak, and act in ways that displease God, imperil others, and harm ourselves. Although we have the capacity to do good deeds, the external good we perform does not compensate for the internal sin blot that contaminates us. And this is what God finds so offensive. In our efforts, we have no remedy and must look to our holy God to overcome our plight.

God could have solved our sin problem by programming us to obey Him like robots, but He wants us to love Him freely and surrender to Him willingly. God chose the most effective remedy instead. He became a human being—Jesus Christ—so that He could pay the price for our sin Himself,

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14 (AKJV)

At the onset of His earthly ministry, Jesus Christ announced that He could resolve our sin problem with His sinless life and precious blood when He declared, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.” Mark 1:15 (AKJV)

His was the greatest proclamation in history because it heralded a New Testament Age for all people everywhere. Now we can have our sins forgiven, experience a complete, internal, spiritual transformation, and we can have our need for an intimate, eternal fellowship with God satisfied as Ephesians 2:14-18 (NKJV) teaches,

For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were afar off and to those who were near. For through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father.

This new period in history also revoked all claims of neutrality toward God. In John 8:24, Jesus warned that those who did not believe in Him would die in their sins. Either we can choose to receive His gift of abundant life on earth and eternal life in Heaven, or we can reject it and face an empty, unfulfilled life on earth along with a tormented eternity in Hell as a result,

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:16-18 (NIV)

Of Jesus’ Disciples, Judas was the one who was so preoccupied with obtaining a worldly kingdom that he refused to trust in the Lord and forever changed his identity from Disciple to traitor with a single kiss. The allure of thirty pieces of silver was too much to resist, and without Christ as redeemer, Hell awaited him.

Our Lord knew that Judas was a godless degenerate when He chose him to be a Disciple. Even more amazing was how the Lord loved him and gave Him every opportunity to repent. For three years, He revealed His redemptive plan to Judas through His moral and spiritual excellence, His astonishing miracles, and His eternal truths like,

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Matthew 7:13–14 (AKJV)

Although tragic, Judas’ example provides tremendous hope for everyone, including those who feel that God has forgotten them or that they are beyond redemption. In Judas, we see how patient, gracious, and loving Jesus is, as He extends Himself to the worst of us freely and willingly. Jesus gives rest to those who labor under heavy loads, with a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light. (Matthew 11:28-30)

Simon, another Disciple, recognized and understood the importance of having a sincere, penitent, and reverent faith in Jesus Christ. When the Lord saw this impetuous yet rock-solid leader, He changed his name to Peter (Greek: petros, meaning “rock”).

This characteristic was evident during the unfolding of Jesus’ warning to Peter that Satan desired to sift him as wheat (Luke 22:31-32). Although he denied his Lord three times, he repented, was restored, and later became the leader of the Apostles, who fed his Lord’s precious Sheep.

As we swallow our pride by stop relying on our own sin-tarnished self-righteousness and invite the Lord Jesus Christ to be our righteousness before God, we fulfill His prophecy that we are “not of the world” and show that we are the recipients of God’s amazing grace and love. (John 15:19; 17:14, 16)

As living examples of God’s love and grace, we live out the undeniable fact that God can transform vile sinners into His holy people—from the inside out—even today. Moreover, as we surrender to His Holy Spirit; allowing Him to guide us  daily, we can grow to be more like Christ and honor Him in everything we say, think, and do. Won’t you trust Him to resolve your sin problem today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

Our Faithful God Watches Over Us!

For August 22, 2021
In over six-thousand years of our human history, our God has demonstrated how loving, gracious, and compassionate He is to us. He is faithful to watch over, provide, and protect His own.

For instance, as the Children of Israel were sojourning through the wilderness for forty years, they ventured northward along the eastern side of the Dead Sea and the Jordan River where they encountered Balak, the King of Moab.

The Moabites were descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham (Genesis 11:26-27; 19:37). Balak, who was fearful of an Israelite invasion, hires Balaam, son of Beor to curse Israel. Balaam was well known for his blessing and cursing prowess, but he was no match against Israel, because God promised Abraham that his descendants (Israel) would be blessed and a blessing (Genesis 12:1-3).

Consequently, God compelled Balaam to bless Israel repeatedly, and when asked to explain his actions, he makes this statement,

God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Behold, I have received a command to bless; He has blessed, and I cannot reverse it (Numbers 23:19-20 NKJV).

It is comforting to know that we serve a faithful, loving God who will not rescind His promises to provide all our needs according to His riches in glory—through Christ Jesus our Lord just as Philippians 4:19 tells us.

Matthew 4:5-6 (NLT) offers an account of our Lord’s victorious encounter with Satan immediately after His forty-day fast in the wilderness. Futilely, Satan challenges the Lord to jump from the highest point of the Temple at Jerusalem in order to invoke the protection of his angels,

Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the Temple, and said, “If you are the Son of God, jump off! For the Scriptures say, ‘He will order his angels to protect you. And they will hold you up with their hands so you won’t even hurt your foot on a stone.

It is common tactic for our Enemy to take Scripture passages, like Psalm 91:11-12 out of context to achieve his nefarious plan to confuse and defeat the God’s Children. For the Psalmist never implied we have the license to jump off tall structures and rely on the angels to protect us. Nor did he imply we have carte blanche and invoke God to do everything we want.

God will always have a far better perspective than the one we have, and He will do what is best in every situation. This is because our Lord has a far better view of what is best for us from His eternal, transcendent, and flawless perspective. With goodness and mercy, He responds in our best interest every time,

You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings. Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the LORD forever (Psalm 23 :5-6 NLT).

We will never get everything we want as it would not be in our best interest. Yet, the Lord will supply our needs by providing things that allow us to accomplish His perfect will for us. This news is especially comforting in troubling, uncertain times like today. For if all we had to rely on was a mere “arm of flesh,” we would be ruined.

Thank God that just as ancient Israel found comfort and in their Eternal, Almighty God, we too can have the same confidence and assurance (my emphasis),

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him. With him is only the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God to help us and to fight our battles (2 Chronicles 32:7-8 NIV).

Through our faith in Jesus Christ, God’s greatest miracle occurs—we become forgiven, reconciled, new creations! This is His perfect will for us because our inner, spiritual nature has been sin-tarnished so that we think, speak, and act in ways detrimental others and ourselves. This nature offends God and must be transformed spiritually.  

The good news is God can change our nature from vile and sinful to pure and holy, through the Born Again experience. When a computer is contaminated, it can function, but not as designed or at optimum level. However, once the virus is removed, and the hard drive is formatted properly; the machine can function at optimum level as designed. Much like this computer illustration, sin contaminated us, and we need spiritual reformatting.

Our transformation can happen the instant we acknowledge our contamination by confessing our sin before God, and by turning from the continual practice of sinful behavior through repentance. We then place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit enables us to function according to our God ordained, original design—at full capacity!

In Christ, we can ask confidently with a sincere, humble, reverent, self­less faith. Then we can experience His eternal peace, providence, and satisfaction forever. We can have full confidence in the Lord and His promises, because as the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens and the earth, He keeps His promises. Won’t give Him your life and trust in His faithfulness today?

What a Wonderful Savior!

For August 15, 2021
It is amazing how people live as though they believe the sum total of our entire human existence is confined to the fleeting time we have on earth, as if what we experience now is all the life we will ever know. Once you’re gone, that’s it. No afterlife; no cognition or awareness after death. No Heaven; no Hell, and most of all—no eternal, holy, and righteous God to reckon with.

Our pride and moral rebellion has produced the current climate of spiritual ambiguity reflected in the ever-increasing political and financial uncertainty, social unrest, rampant crime, racial polarization, and terrorism within the US and abroad. Too many people today are emboldened to rid society of its moral decency and civility and reap destruction, just as Hosea 4:6 (NKJV) warned, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”

Yet, Jesus tells how such characteristics are indicative of our Enemy’s function as He contrasts them with His own unique and divine purpose,

The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. John 10:10 (NLT)

We have chosen to concern ourselves with loving the world and things that do not last and spend very little time loving those Christ-centered things that are eternal. For instance, far too many of us find it far more important to miss regular worship services and chase personal, recreational, professional or financial goals.

Also, we often can’t find a way to support our church financially through tithes and offerings, but we have little trouble overextending ourselves with the purchase a new sports car, truck, or boat. Similarly, we seek opportunities to splurge on ourselves instead of helping others in need—when we have both the means and the opportunity to do so.

In addition, raising our children to be spiritually ambivalent for some is far more practical than teaching them about God, the Bible; how to distinguish right from wrong, or how to live morally responsible with character, self-respect, and dignity.

We all need to know that lying, cheating, and stealing are an affront to the Lord, and that sin is not only contrary to His perfect righteousness. It’s something we will account for. Four hundred years before the birth of Christ, the Old Testament Prophet Malachi makes this observation,

Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them; so a book of remembrance was written before Him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on His name. “They shall be Mine,” says the Lord of hosts, “On the day that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” Then you shall again discern between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him. (Malachi 3:16-18 NKJV)

There is a day of reckoning we will face whether we choose to acknowledge it or not. We may try to discredit our God-given purpose, but God has not. His purpose is that we contrast the prevalent, sinful lifestyles of those who celebrate pretense and reward dishonesty.

As we Christians allow His Holy Spirit to work through us, we can share a compelling Christian witness with those we encounter in our personal and social lives, and be His distinctive “salt and light” (Matthew 5:13-16) to preserve and enlighten this decadent, sin-darkened world.

Through Christ, we can embrace His perspective and realize how we are the unique and significant parts of His wonderful master plan. We were created to occupy our glorious, heavenly home, where “the wicked shall cease from troubling, and the weary shall be at rest.” (Job 3:17) The hopes and desires of all Believers everywhere are found in this central expectation—to occupy Heaven with Christ and God forever. Amen!

There we have perfect understanding of the work and ways of God. We no longer “know in part” but will know Him as we are known by Him, and we will “see Him as He is” in His full majestic splendor. (1 Corinthians 13:9, 1 John 3:2)

Jesus is preparing a place where holiness, glory, peace, harmony, love, rest, and unspeakable joy abound beyond our most vivid imagination. Our eternal home is where we will bask in God’s full, unfiltered presence without sin, pain, or disease,

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. 1 Corinthians 15:54 (AKJV)

It is a place where He will “wipe away all tears from our eyes” as we are blessed and satisfied beyond anything we have seen or heard here on earth. (Revelation 21:4) We are truly blessed forever,

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on…They will rest from their labor, for their deeds will follow them. Revelation (14:13 NIV)

No earthly experience can compare to a split-second in our eternal home,

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. 1 Corinthians 2:9 (NLT)

This earth is not our home. We are pilgrims passing through it briefly. God gave us a yearning spiritual dimension that craves to be with Him.  The “whole earth groans” as we anxiously await His glorious return. Then we, along with those who have died in the Lord, will be reunited. (Romans 8:22, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)

Until then, our comfort is in knowing we will see Him again, coming in the clouds with great power and glory. (Mark 13:26)  But our Christian faith is more than a “pie-in-the-sky” religion filled with future promises. Ours is a faith that produces a life of abundance that starts from the time we accept Christ as our Savior and Lord, and it continues throughout eternity.

Having our sins forgiven and peace with God makes our faith more precious than anything on earth. Yet, as we continue this Christian journey, the Lord provides us with considerably more treasures in this life, and in the next.

Those who refuse to acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior in this life meet Him as Eternal Judge in the next,

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. Revelation 20:11-12 (NKJV)

Soon and very soon, Jesus will return to bring order out of the sin-filled, Satan-driven madness we are experiencing today. On that day a distinction will be made between the righteous and the wicked; those who love the Lord and those who do not. On that glorious day, we will know and experience Him as our long-awaited, treasured, eternal reward. Won’t you give Him your life before it’s everlasting too late?

What a Wonderful Savior!