Category: Faith

For February 16, 2020
Isn’t it amazing how easy it is to express our love towards others when they are reciprocated? We want to feel safe, and not vulnerable when expressing one of our strongest emotions—without feeling victimized. How often do we avoid the people whom we feel will reject us, or not reciprocate our kindness, or somehow will show through their words and actions that they do not have our best interests at heart.

So many personal, family, and social relationships fail when we choose not to consider how the other person’s concerns are just as important and/or valid as our own. As relationships break down, conflicts arise because we have not learned to listen and respond (instead of reacting out of hostility).

Death is the ultimate price anyone can pay to demonstrate his or her love. Nevertheless, the Lord Jesus Christ did this for us when He forever payed our sin debt as John 3:16-17 (NLT) teaches:

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.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God was beaten, spat upon, insulted, and crowned with thorns. Yet He still was yet willing to be stripped of his clothing, affixed to a wooden cross with metal spikes driven through His hands and feet. Then He was crucified on a hill between two thieves in front of thousands of mocking people.

He could have resisted sacrificing Himself for our benefit by commanding tens of thousands of angels to come to His rescue. Instead, He gave His life as the supreme payment for our sins. Three days later, He rose from the dead, declaring that all power is given Him in Heaven and earth. His love for us raised Him from the dead and caused Him to ascend into Heaven where He intercedes for us today.

His love prompted Him to give us His Holy Spirit to comfort us and abide in us until He returns for us. Then we will forever know His vast love and glory in full measure.

We show Christ’s perfect love as we forgive others when our anger tells us to retaliate with violence. As we show mercy instead of seeking justice for bring wronged, and we extend goodwill towards the unlovable, we are practical demonstrations of Jesus’ love in our world. Here, His Spirit is active within us to supply us with the ability to express our benevolence towards others—just as He did—without being driven by selfish recognition or repayment.

God’s redeeming love as demonstrated through Christ emphatically proves that He wants what is best for us despite our acceptance of it, for Christ redeems all humans everywhere—even those who refuse to accept His love or believe in Him. No longer is there anyone without the hope for redemption. The Lord Jesus Christ left His deity and glory just to show us what true love looks like, and not because of what we sinful humans could ever do for Him.

Is love the answer? 1 John 4:10 tells us that true love is not based on our loving expressions towards God. Instead, it is by how much He loved us and sent His Son to pay for our sins. Only through His unselfish love can we honor the Lord as active demonstrations of His amazing grace. God’s love lifted us from despair into His glorious presence forever.

What a Wonderful Savior!

For February 9, 2020
How long is forever? As temporal and finite human beings, it is difficult to fathom the vastness of eternity. This is especially true for this fast-paced, modern society where obsolescence is measured by months, weeks, and even days.

Isn’t it amazing how the newest smartwatch, or the newest smartphone…the newest technology often arrives before we are accustomed to the old technology it is replacing.

But not so with God. He is eternal, and/or “from everlasting to everlasting,”¹ His plans, His faithfulness, His loving kindness, His tender mercies, along with His purpose in grace, which preserve His people of faith even today remain solid and secure. Amen!

For God is not human, that He would lie to us, as Numbers 23:19 teaches. Instead, He is true and faithful in all His ways. This is also true for His Word, as the Psalmist attests in Psalm 119:89 (KJV):

For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

Isn’t it comforting to know the promises found in the Bible are true and dependable, having been settled forever in Heaven?

There is no place in the world where we can one find such certainty in every situation, under every circumstance. We serve a faithful, loving God who will not rescind any of His promises. Instead He will more than adequately provide all our needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus our Lord just as Philippians 4:19 tells us.

Our Bible provides a firm foundation for us. As we diligently read, study, and apply it to our lives each day, we grow more familiar with its truths and promises. Then, His Holy Spirit can call to our minds those things that will help us navigate life’s uncertainties. King David observes, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”² Our diligent study and preparation allow us to share biblical truths that benefit others and us.

While in seminary, and even since, I have met people who contend what God said during the time of Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Isaiah, Daniel, and what He did through Joshua, Deborah, Esther, Ruth, David, Job, Nehemiah, Malachi and all the Old Testament Saints, who lived before Christ are no longer valid nor are they binding to us as Christians.

Some of these critics of the Word have proposed—to their own peril—that because of Christ’s redemptive work performed on the cross by His death, and completed at the tomb by His resurrection we can disregard all the principles and teachings contained in the Law, Prophets, and Writings of our Old Testament Bible.

However in Matthew 5:17-19 (NLT), our Lord Jesus Christ affirmed the essential correlation between His redeeming life and ministry and the Old Testament Scripture as we understand it today. He especially stresses the critical role the Old Testament plays in the formation and development of Christian character and conduct (emphasis mine):

Don’t misunderstand why I have come. I did not come to abolish the law of Moses or the writings of the prophets. No, I came to accomplish their purpose. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not even the smallest detail of God’s law will disappear until its purpose is achieved. So if you ignore the least commandment and teach others to do the same, you will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But anyone who obeys God’s laws and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.

In short, God’s Word—whether Old or New Testament—is applicable and relevant for our understanding of God’s standards for righteous for both the First Century and the Twenty-First Century New Testament Church as 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NLT) attests:

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

Since Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, affirmed His role as the fulfillment of God’s eternal Word, we have the assurance that every Word of God is eternal, faithful, and binding. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.³

Truly, God’s Word is established (on earth and) in Heaven forever. What a Wonderful Savior!

For January 26, 2020
I’ve often wondered what the thoughts of Joshua were as he watched Moses walk away from the Israelite camp on his way to Mt. Nebo where he was to die. For 40 years, he served the Man of God faithfully as a first-hand witness to the majesty, power, and faithfulness of God demonstrated towards His Chosen People: Israel.

Now, he hears from God—personally:

After the death of Moses the LORD’s servant, the LORD spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant. He said, “Moses my servant is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them. I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you—from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon Mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites.’ No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you. Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:1-9 (NLT)

Joshua was in Egypt with Moses when Egypt was devastated by the 10 Plagues, which facilitated the release of God’s Chosen People from 400 years of Egyptian bondage.⁴ Most notably, it was the final Plague: the Death of the Firstborn, which saw the institution of two important observations that are yet observed by devout worshippers today: the Feast of Unleavened Bread and the Feast of the Passover.⁵

Joshua saw how the Lord protected the Children of Israel at the Red Sea. There God parted the waters so that His Chosen People could walk across “on dry ground” directly in front of the pursuing Egyptian army, which was destroyed by the receding waters as they tried to capture them.⁶

He also watched Lord lead His People by a Pillar of Cloud during the day, and by a Pillar of Fire at night. In addition, he saw the Lord meet Moses at Sinai where The Law was instituted; a Law which yet governs and informs the moral and spiritual standards of God’s people around the globe today.⁷

Moreover, Joshua benefited from God’s miraculous provision of manna, quail, and water that sustained a nation through their time in the wilderness.

Incidentally, Joshua and Caleb were spies who gave a favorable report—confident of God’s victory—when they returned to the Wilderness of Paran after exploring the land of Canaan for 40 days.

Although all 12 spies agreed Canaan was a “land flowing with milk and honey,” just as God promised. Yet 10 spies gave an evil, disheartening report that incited the people to stone Joshua and Caleb, establish a new leader, and return to Egypt.⁸ However, God appeared miraculously to vindicate Moses, Aaron, Joshua and Caleb and condemned the ungodly, unbelieving rabble to wander in the wilderness for 40 years.

All Joshua’s contemporaries (including Moses) were gone; having died in the wilderness, with the exception of Caleb. Now as his future hopes, dreams (and fears), opportunities, expectations, service, and victories became “today’s reality,” he held on to the promises and commands of God. And as a result, he discovered ultimate victory just as the Lord promised (in verses 5 and 9):

No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you. This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.

I believe Joshua needed to look no further than his own name, which means: “Jehovah is salvation,”⁹ to find the faith and encouragement required to preserve him through the arduous task set before him.

For the odyssey would begin in just 3 days. Then he would lead God’s Chosen People: the Nation of Israel across the Jordan River—miraculously again—on dry ground into the land of promise.

Ultimately, Joshua was a first-hand witness to the faithfulness of God, and as he advocates Jehovah worship at the completion of his mission, he articulates the following resolve to trust and serve the Lord forever (emphasis mine):

But if you refuse to serve the LORD, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the LORD. Joshua 24:15 (NLT)

Just as Joshua trusted God and experienced His faithfulness, we Christians today can trust in Jesus’ Matthew 28:20 (NIV) promise for our assured victory as He accompanies us forever: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age!”

Therefore, when your future becomes now, trust in the Lord. For He is ever-faithful and will fulfill His divine plan through you.  What a Wonderful Savior!

 

For January 19, 2020
The moon must have been especially bright on the evening when Nicodemus met Jesus privately, as John records in the third chapter of his gospel. Scripture is silent regarding the meeting’s exact time and place except where John tells us it happened during Passover, which is a major Jewish observance that runs concurrently with the Feast of Unleavened Bread from the fourteenth day through the twenty-first day of the first month of the Jewish calendar or Nisan.¹⁰

During this week of feasting and celebration, massive throngs of people flooded Jerusalem from all over the world. Every Jewish male was required to attend this observance, which commemorates Israel’s Exodus from over four hundred years of Egyptian slavery.¹¹

It was on this very special occasion when the Lord Jesus Christ offered the hallmark passages of our Christian Faith:

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:16-18 (NKJV)

Herein lies the mystery of God’s amazing grace revealed in its fullest measure: God extending eternal forgiveness, eternal life, eternal fellowship, and eternal reconciliation to a morally and spiritually bankrupt humanity—because of His eternal love for us…alone.

Ephesians 2:8-10 (NLT) further expands on this idea:

 God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

We Christians define God’s gift of love and forgiveness as revealed through the redemptive work of Jesus Christ (i.e., His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and future return), as grace, which is understood as:

Favor, gracious care or help, goodwill…that which one grants to another; the action of one who volunteers to do something…to which he [or she] is not bound.¹²

By faith alone, we benefit from His mercy. In other words, through our faith, we are spared from His wrath due to our sin. Instead, now we have access to God’s priceless gifts of eternal joy, peace, and delight. Ultimately, we no longer rely on our futile, human efforts to earn God’s favor through our own “good works.”  Instead, we rely solely on the “perfect works” of Jesus Christ—as we trust Him for everything else.

Now we have the goodness, loving-kindness, mercy, and favor He designed for us (and those around us) when He created the world. Until He returns for us, His Holy Spirit keeps, strengthens, and increases our Christian faith with an undying affection, gratitude, and power to perform His good works that benefits everyone and us while He receives the glory.

What a Wonderful Savior!

 

For January 12, 2020
Isn’t it amazing how our omnipresent Lord God is not too big to care for us individually? He is omniscient, whereby He has the most intimate of knowledge regarding every detail of our lives—including the exact number of hairs on our heads.¹³

Nevertheless, the Lord is loving and compassionate enough to forgive us of all our misdeeds and chooses to embrace us as His children—forever!

Here, the Lord desires to remove our false assumptions, presuppositions, and sinful proclivities reflected in escalating hostility, and violence towards others, so He can establish His eternal peace fellowship with us—through the work of Jesus Christ alone as Ephesians 2:1-5 (NLT) teaches:

Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)

The Lord characterizes the End Times as a period of escalating hostility. Each day we see the signs of the times in random assaults, terrorist attacks, school violence, workplace violence, and road rage. We live in a worldly kingdom that prefers retaliation over reconciliation, since from a child, we are taught not to let anyone take advantage of us or to show weakness.

One false assumption is the strong delusion our lives are above reproach and “never hurt anyone.” Here, we are lulled into a false sense of security, because when we misspeak to avoid hurting another person, we are telling a lie. Also, contemplating having a sexual encounter with someone—who is not our husband or wife—can be either fornication or adultery, depending on our marital status, and this is sin as well.

In addition, desiring the possessions of others (without having worked to earn them ourselves) is coveting, which is wrong. Similarly, expressing envy or jealousy towards another person is wrong, as is cheating, stealing, exploiting others, manipulating others, disrespecting others, expressing hostile speech, as well as violence, all of which keep us separated from God.

But an even more insidious threat to our eternal fellowship with the Lord is to feel that we have the God-given mandate to keep a record of offences, and to bear grudges against others. Here, sins are “rated” on a sliding scale as though one was more heinous than another.

However, rating leads to falsely characterizing others for their past behavior—even when they now live for Christ fully. We can never make comparisons since all of us have sinned and are deficient of God’s righteous standards.¹⁴

Our attitude should always be to overlook the offense and forgive the offender. It’s hypocritical to condemn a person for his or her past when we 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.

Matthew 21:32-35 (NLT) tells us that our “sliding scales” must be discarded. In other words, we cannot forgive only certain offenses or forgive only to a certain level:

Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.

Our massive sin debt has been forgiven and canceled forever through the blood of Jesus Christ.

In John 13:34-35 Jesus taught it will be our love that brings life to our Christian witness and makes our faith a practical alternative to the world’s counter-productive methodologies. We emulate this perfect love by forgiving others.

Then we can live rightly in the eyes of God and humanity. In God’s eyes, we are His children and can experience and express His glory. To humanity, we are the brilliant reflections of God’s practical and tangible love, which proves we belong to His Son, Jesus Christ.

We should never think it strange to try a little forgiveness. Our God extended it to us, and He transforms us into receptacles of grace and mercy so that we can extend it to others.

What a Wonderful Savior!