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We Are Still Secure

November 1, 2019
Three stories of Old Testament heroes evoke comforting and compelling images of God’s tender care as He intervenes in the lives of His precious Children.

For instance 1 Kings 18 presents the contest for validity between Elijah and 850 prophets at Mount Carmel. Those who witnessed the challenge saw the “Fire of the Lord” fall from Heaven to consume an animal sacrifice—drenched with water—that distinguished the True and Living God from the false god: Baal, and validated Elijah’s position as the “Prophet of the Lord.”

In addition, the Three Hebrew Boys presented in Daniel 3, were rewarded for their faithfulness to God demonstrated in their unwillingness to bow down and worship Nebuchadnezzar’s image as they were commanded. As result, they were thrown into a fiery furnace, which was heated seven times hotter than its normal level. Onlookers saw a fourth person in the furnace, who Nebuchadnezzar described as, “the Son of God.” The three were delivered from the flames–with not even the smell of smoke!

Moreover, 1 Samuel 17 presents the story of David, the young shepherd boy, who defeats the mighty giant Goliath with slingshot. After the victory, the people heralded David’s bravery and conquest. Life was good for the young shepherd boy who would eventually marry the King’s daughter and experience the opulence that accompanies royalty. Unfortunately however, persecution and adversity would soon follow as well.

King Saul sought to kill David, and as he ran for his life, hundreds of other outcasts joined him.

Over time, the Lord leads David to Abigail, the wife of wealthy Nabal.  She gives David and his men ample food and supplies to sustain them in their journey. She also affirms the Lord’s protection along with his succession to the throne as recorded in 1 Samuel 25:29 (KJV):

A man is risen to pursue thee, and to seek thy soul: but the soul of my lord shall be bound in the bundle of life with the LORD thy God; and the souls of thine enemies, them shall He sling out, as out of the middle of a sling.

David’s life appeared to be full of uncertainty and turmoil. Yet he found comfort knowing that he was “bound in the bundle of life with the Lord his God.” In other words, the Lord cared for David and would meet his needs and fight his battles.

In Psalm 23, David illustrates how the Lord, his Shepherd, would keep him safe and secure throughout his life:

The LORD is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

The Lord Jesus Christ is our Good Shepherd, and He promised that we as His sheep will never perish, nor would be taken out of His (or His Father’s) hands. 1

Nearly two thousand years have since passed, and we are still secure today. What a wonderful Savior!

 

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God’s Supreme Mystery

October 19, 2019
Some would argue that our Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, His Son and the Holy Spirit are three expressions of one being, and not three distinct persons.1Here, the idea of Jesus Christ being a person who is both infinitely God and finitely human simultaneously is questioned.

However, the Apostle John, who also wrote the Fourth Gospel, refers to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as both divine and human:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome…The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John 1:1-5, 14 (NIV)

It is a mystery how three persons are one. But when we count the two persons identified in John’s passage, along with the Spirit of God, who hovered over the waters in Genesis 1:2, each person is given the title “God” and are heavily involved in creation as well.

God’s supreme mystery paid for our redemption by resolving our sin problem, which began immediately after God’s perfect creation was tarnished by sin through Adam and Eve’s disobedience. Thus, we today are sin-cursed—not because of the sins we’ve committed—but because of the sin-tainted nature at work in us constantly.

The Apostle John describes our remedy through God’s loving intervention:

But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn—not with a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan, but a birth at comes from God. John 1:12-13 (NLT)

Of this mystery, Colossians 1:26-27 (KJV) states:

Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory!

The Father set in motion what the Son fulfilled and the Spirit sustains. It is not ours to fully understand how the same God who created us can be the same God who redeemed us at Calvary. Or how God can forgive our sin while filling and sealing us by His Spirit simultaneously.  How God can intercede for us today and yet soon return for us so that we can live with Him forever in Heaven can be beyond our comprehension at times.

But He did and still does…What a wonderful Savior!

Although God’s supreme mystery lies beyond our finite understanding, we are  eternally grateful that it is not beyond the grasp of our simple, child-like faith in Jesus Christ.

 

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He Still Wants Your Heart Today

October 12, 2019
From the time of God’s Creation until now, it has always been the His design to have eternal, unbroken fellowship with the centerpiece of His Creation: humanity. So while addressing us, the Lord Jesus Christ cites Old Testament Law (Deuteronomy 6:5) to revise the old, established model of faith.

Here, He establishes a new faith-fellowship paradigm not based on our works, (although works can serve as evidence of our faith), but upon our affection instead:

Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40 NIV)

We delight in those whom we love. We like to be around them and want do all we can to please them. Thus, to love the Lord with all of our heart infers that we have a sincere, passionate, single-minded attraction towards Him, as the only true and living God, Redeemer…and Friend.

The heart represents the seat of our emotions. No other person or object can dominate our attention or command our affections when the Lord owns our hearts. However, His access is by our invitation only as Revelation 3:20 (NIV) teaches:

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”

The Lord also wants our soul and mind, which means that our love for Him is evident in every facet of our lives. In essence, both who we are and what we do. In other words, we surrender not just our emotions, wishes, desires, feelings, affections, understanding, intellect, but also our character, personality, thoughts, words, deeds, lifestyle, goals, aspirations and so forth.

All these things and many more should resonate a deep love for our Lord with every fiber of our being. In short, we are commanded not love the Lord half-heartedly, but wholeheartedly.

The Lord Jesus Christ could rightly demand such love from us because He demonstrated His when He died on Calvary’s Cross to pay the menacing, unbearable debt of sin, which we could not pay for ourselves.

Then He rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven where He intercedes for us today. While we await His glorious, imminent return, His Holy Spirit lives within us, communing with us while preserving us as His precious children. What a wonderful Savior!

We may not arrive at this level of love towards Him in all its intricacies and implications 24/7 in this life. Nevertheless, we can give Him our hearts daily as we set our affections on things above, as Colossians 3:1 teaches.

Although many may dread our Lord’s return, we can look forward to it, as the day when we unite with those other redeemed saints at the Great White Throne Judgment to hear the King of Kings and Lord of Lords say to us, as His beloved and redeemed children: “Well done!”

Then we shall forever experience His holy, unbridled love in its fullest measure just as this theologian observes:

But in heaven there is an undisturbed reign of holy love. All the inhabitants of that bright world love God supremely and love one another subordinately…The satisfaction arising from this consciousness will never be disturbed by a single doubt or solitary suspicion.1

Won’t you give the Lord your heart today? He’s given you His already!

 

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No More Condemned

October 5, 2019
In His meeting with the Jewish religious leader Nicodemus recorded in John Chapter 3, the Lord Jesus Christ made several astounding claims.

His first claim was that we all have  to be Born Again to see the Kingdom of God (3:3). His second claim was that we have to experience both natural birth (of water) and a spiritual birth (of Spirit) to see the kingdom of God (3:5).

Then Jesus predicted His death at Calvary and promised that we who believe  in the merits of His sacrifice “should not perish, but have eternal life.” And later in 3:16, He presents the essence of the Gospel message that is still recited around the world some 2000 years later:

For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

The Creator of the Universe knows our deepest thoughts, motives, and desires. Although He is also fully aware of those “secret sins” hidden from others, He still chooses to love us with such a great love that despite what we’ve thought, said or done—past or present, He is willing to forgive us and extend to us His gifts of eternal fulfillment and bliss.

None of us are “good enough” to earn God’s consideration; struggling with some fault is something that all of us share in common. The only exception was the Lord Jesus Christ, who was morally and spiritually perfect, well qualified to make this observation in 3:17:

For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.

The Lord did not come to condemn us. We were condemned the moment that we took our first breath in this sin-tarnished world. A cursory look at news, entertainment, sports and political stories attest to the fact that we are yet fallen creatures in need of a Savior, just as the Bible teaches.

The Lord is choosy about the people He associates with, so it shouldn’t surprise us that the Lord has a “no riff-raff allowed” policy that remains in force today as Romans 3:23 observes: All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.

 Over the years, I’ve met many people who struggled with some form of compulsive addictive behavior, who for the most part, never needed to be reminded of their flaw in character or judgment.

n order to relieve us of our flaws, the Lord chose to offer Himself as the perfect sacrifice so that our faith in Him would forever secure God’s consideration towards us both now and forever. What a wonderful Savior!

Won’t you give Him your heart today?

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Letting Go Through Radical Forgiveness

September 28, 2019
In Matthew 18, it was only “natural” for Peter to ask the question: How often should I forgive? Seven times? From our human perspective, forgiving once is remarkable, and forgiving seven times is extraordinary.

We too often keep track of the times when someone offends us, and we bear grudges against those who have offended us when we should overlook the offense and forgive the offender.

We also “rate” sins on a “sliding scale” as though one sin was more heinous than another. But we can’t make such comparisons since all of us have sinned, and we are deficient of God’s righteous standards (Romans 3:23). Rating sin can lead to falsely characterizing others for past criminal behavior, drug use, marital infidelity, divorce, or an abhorrent lifestyle—even when they now live for Christ fully.

In addition, it’s hypocritical to condemn someone for his or her past when we too have “skeletons” in our closet, as Jesus observes in Matthew 7:3-5 (NLT):

And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying to your friend, “Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,” when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

Our “sliding scales” have to be challenged. We cannot impose human standards on godly principles by forgiving certain offenses or forgiving only to a certain level.

The Lord’s response to Peter’s question was immediate: Not just seven times, but seventy times seven! In other words, we must be perfect, even as our Heavenly Father is perfect (Matthew 5:48) by forgiving to the extent that He has forgiven us.

Then the Lord Jesus illustrated endless forgiveness with the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant.

In this parable, a certain king had a servant who owed him ten thousand talents (about 15 million dollars), yet he forgave the entire debt. But, this same forgiven servant could not find it in his heart to forgive the debt of one hundred pence (about $17.00) that his fellow associate owed him. 1

The Lord used the largest and smallest forms of ancient currency to emphasize how the first servant’s debt was so massive that it could never have been paid—yet it was forgiven. Thus, the unforgiving servant was condemned because he could not find it in his heart to forgive his fellow associate’s minuscule debt. The Lord provided the application in Matthew 18: 32-35 (NLT):

Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.

How miniscule are the offenses we commit against each other in comparison to the enormous sin debt that we owe God, Our Lord Jesus Christ was perfect. He never sinned, yet He chose to be fastened to a wooden cross for our eternal benefit.

Moreover, He did not complain about His unjust treatment—being tortured and executed like a common criminal. Instead He willingly bore our sins because only His precious blood could wash them away once and for all (and secure our eternal destiny with Him).

What a wonderful Savior!

Since the Lord forgave us completely, and His Spirit lives within us, we have the means to forgive also. Let us truly practice letting go through Christ-empowered radical forgiveness.

 

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