Category: Faith

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In Christ We Have Purpose And Meaning

For April 26, 2020
On the evening before He went to the cross to pay for our sin, Jesus offered these comforting words of His abiding presence—after His departure—to His Disciples that inspire us today:

I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.      John 15:5-8 (NIV)

In Christ, we have purpose and meaning; that is when we place our faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior and are Born Again. His Holy Spirit enlivens our dead spirits and lives within us forever. We pass from death unto life—alive in Him. Transformed and enlivened, our main objective in this life becomes loving the Lord as we fulfill our life’s purpose: to live abundantly as spiritually transformed and graciously redeemed Children of God’s Kingdom.

God also bestows Jesus’ righteousness on us in response to our faith in the merits of His sacrifice at Calvary. Hebrews 11:6 (NLT) teaches us:

It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

Our new relationship provides the pardon for sin, the gift of eternal life, along with every other blessing we need for this life and the next. Romans 5:1-2; 9-11 (NKJV) further teaches:

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ because of His mediation as Son of Man. Only Jesus, who was sin-less, had the right standing to satisfy all the righteous requirements imposed by God. As the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ served as God’s perfect representative before a sin-cursed world since He was totally God in human flesh. In other words, as both the Son of Man and the Son of God, Jesus Christ is fully capable of representing all humanity before a holy God and a holy God before all humanity.

Peace with God means we no longer live in guilt and shame because all our sins—past, present, and future—have been forgiven and forgotten. Peace with God through Christ also means we are poised to experience peace with others since the Prince of Peace lives within us.

Also, we are made righteous by the blood of Jesus Christ. Romans 6:23 tells us that the payment for sin is death. Someone had to die, and blood had to be shed to remediate our sin. Leviticus 17:11 teaches:

For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.

Although God gave Moses instructions on how animal blood would pay for our sin, it was not a permanent fix and had to be repeated. Instead, it foreshadowed a lasting restitution through Jesus Christ, which would wash away our sins, make us righteous before God, and restore our lost fellowship with God permanently.

In addition, we are saved from wrath through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is our Great High Priest, in whom our forgiveness of sin is secured. Before His arrival, no person forgave sin but God. Yet, Jesus forgives our sin so that we stand before God as righteous. John the Baptist rightly referred to Jesus as: “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”1

Only Jesus is our perfect sacrifice for sin. As such, He is able to save us “to the uttermost” all who come to God by Him, seeing He lives forever to make intercession for us, just as Hebrews 7:25 teaches.

What a Wonderful Savior!

 

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We Deserve God’s Wrath, But….

For April 19, 2020
In the beginning, God created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden with everything they could ever want or need forever. In that blessed state of perfect innocence, our ancestors thrived in the company of loving, holy God.

God created us in His image to have eternal fellowship with Him. As such we are distinct from everything else He created and endowed us with self-awareness, personality, and a moral consciousness or holiness.

Eternal bliss was ours as long as we obeyed one command: do not eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Genesis 2:15-17 (NLT) reads:

The LORD God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the LORD God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

When our ancestors ate the fruit, spiritual and physical death happened just as God warned. Physical death came over time, but spiritual death happened immediately, as the entire world became sin-contaminated as Romans 5:12 (NKJV) teaches us:

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned.

We all have a sinful spiritual condition that causes us to think, speak, and act in ways that are sinful.  Sin is defined as: “A lack of conformity to the moral law of God, either in act, disposition, or state.”2

We are inclined to practice sin instead of seeking after the things of God, just as the Bible teaches:

    • Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Psalm 51:5 (NKJV)
    • Indeed, there is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who does what is right and never sins. Ecclesiastes 7:20 (NIV)
    • For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23 (NKJV)
    • But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.   1 Corinthians 2:14 (NKJV)

Those of us who try to live a “good life” by doing good deeds might wonder, “How can I be a sinner? I have a moral compass demonstrated in the love, kindness, and benevolence I extend towards others.”

We have a moral compass, but our sin nature often skews it in nefarious ways. Thus, to God we are sinners not because of the sins we commit. We are sinners because of the spiritually and morally depraved nature we’ve inherited from Adam and Eve that is always at work inside us.

The response of a holy God towards sin is wrath and eternal separation. We are the “Children of wrath” and subject to His eternal judgement and separation in a fiery Hell, where Jesus says in Mark 9:48: “The worm dies not and the fire is not quenched!”

Guilt, shame, depression, anxiety, doubt and fear are additional byproducts of this sin nature that produce a condition from which there is no human escape. In our own strength, we are helpless and hopeless—always falling short.

God’s solution is found in Jesus Christ. In Whom we can have a new position and standing with God. Here, we place our faith in Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, and are Born Again as His Holy Spirit enlivens our dead spirits and lives within us forever.

Alive in Him, now, we can fulfill our life’s purpose: to live abundantly as spiritually transformed and graciously redeemed Children of God’s Kingdom. In addition, God bestows Jesus’ righteousness on us solely because of our faith in the merits of the Lord’s sacrifice at Calvary. His perfection becomes ours—by faith as Ephesians 2:4-10 (NKJV) tells us:

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Only Jesus is our perfect sacrifice for sin. As such, He is fully capable to save  “to the uttermost” all who come to God by Him, seeing He lives forever to make intercession for us as Hebrews 7:25 teaches.

We deserve is God’s judgement and wrath. But through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we have eternal peace and favor instead.

What a Wonderful Savior!

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He Is Risen…He Is Risen Indeed!

For April 12, 2020
It was supposed to be like any other Sabbath in Jerusalem. Much all the others that preceded it, this one was peaceful and quiet. Highly trained, battle tested, hardened Roman soldiers were guarding Joseph of Arimathaea’s tomb, preparing for what would otherwise be an ordinary day.

Then it happened:

Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb. Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint. Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.” The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.” Matthew 28:1-10 (NLT)

Little did anyone know that the entire course of human history would be changed forever when three women were informed that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead—just as He said.

The implications of His resurrections comprise the central core of our Christian faith and message as 1 Corinthians 15:17-20 (NLT) insists:

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.

Because He lives, we can know that our faith in His death and resurrection is not in vain. Forgiveness of sin along with the gift of eternal life with the Lord forever is now a certainty—because He lives.

Herein lies what distinguishes Jesus Christ from all other religious leaders: He rose from the dead just as He promised, and His tomb remains empty today. Jesus Christ is risen…He is risen indeed!

What a Wonderful Savior and Happy Easter!

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The King Is Coming And It’s A Sunday Celebration!

For April 5, 2020
Among the locals who gathered in Jerusalem to observe the holy week of Passover and Unleavened Bread, enormous crowds descended upon the city from around the world.

This particular Sunday, people were preparing for the Passover. There was a  faint, distant rumbling, which grew into a noticeable change in excitement and anticipation among the people. The distant rumbling eventually grew into a deafening roar:

Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the Highest!3

People gathering at Jerusalem from around the world to witness such a historic event was not coincidental. Our God is a God of divine purpose and supreme order.

More than one thousand years before Jesus’ birth, The Lord mandated all males who practiced Judaism to assemble “in a place which the Lord shall choose” three times each year.4

When royalty came to town in Jesus’ day, conquering monarchs rode horses symbolizing their dominance over their vanquished subjects. However in humility, our Lord Jesus Christ rides a colt, the foal of the ass in fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9 (KJV):

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass!

Jesus’ public adulation was His Triumphal Entry, which acknowledged Him as the “Prince of Peace” described in Isaiah 9:6. This particular Sunday is called Palm Sunday since people covered the road with their clothes and palm branches in a great celebration.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ had arrived, and “the whole world had gone unto Him!”5

He could have chosen something more suitable to His station as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Instead, our Lord establishes a new ministry paradigm featuring humility, and love. He could have chosen to be the Conquering King, but He became the Humble Servant instead.

Jesus’ demonstration of humility should not be surprising since our holy God, the Creator of Heaven and earth humbled himself to occupy human flesh as Jesus Christ.

Purposely, He utilized this particular form of transportation—on the first day of the last week of His earthly life—to illustrate His accessibility to all. Just as He promised in John 3:13-17 (NLT):

No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

Jesus is coming, and it’s a Sunday Celebration! Yet He is still accessible to us today—by faith.

What a Wonderful Savior!

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Then The Lord Showed Up!

For March 29, 2020
There was much excitement among the hundreds of thousands of freed Israelites who camped by the Red Sea. They were celebrating their sudden and unexpected release from 400 years of Egyptian bondage. Their first Passover resulted in the deaths of every firstborn in Egypt, which prompted the immediate expulsion of all Hebrew slaves.

However, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds about releasing the slaves and he ordered his army to capture and return them to Egypt. He pursued them in his chariot along with his army, his officers, and all the other chariots.

It was an imposing sight for Israel to look behind and see Pharaoh’s army marching towards them. Especially when there was no physical barrier to protect them, and with the Red Sea in front of them, they were doomed.

As a terrified nation cries out to the Lord for help, Moses offers them these encouraging words:

Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today…The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. Exodus 14:13-14 (NKJV)

Then the Lord showed up…to protect and defend His children miraculously! The Lord told Moses to stretch out his hands and staff, because they were to cross the Red Sea on dry ground! This was something unheard of.

The Angel of the Lord and the Pillar of Cloud positioned themselves behind the people to separate them from their enemies. The cloud illuminated the way for Gods people, while darkening the path for their enemies.

The Red Sea divided, and the Children of Israel walked across on dry ground; with the water standing like two walls on their right and left sides. Their pursuers would follow them, but at their own peril.  When the Lord disabled their chariots, the Egyptians realized they were fighting against the Lord Himself. And once Israel was safely across, the waters receded to full depth. Not one pursuer survived.

The Lord saved His people so that the entire world would know that He alone is God.

As the Lord saved ancient Israel that day, He is both ready and able to save His people today. We must pray to the Lord, trusting that He is fully capable to deliver us from adversity. For He is ready to protect and defend His people of faith, especially those who trust in Him for salvation through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Many of us are now facing an invisible enemy designated as covid-19, and for some, the battle appears to be hopeless. Nevertheless, the Lord is good and merciful; ready to “show Himself strong” on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect before Him.6

Our Lord can make us witnesses of His miraculous work on our behalf so that we may love Him, trust Him, and serve Him. Therefore, let us call on Him to fight all our battles, and watch Him show up for us.

Our Lord is merciful, loving, and faithful; worthy of our faith, confidence, and love as Lamentations 3:22-24 (NLT) teaches:

The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. I say to myself, “The LORD is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in him!”

What a Wonderful Savior!

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