Wednesday, February 28, 2018

"The Emphasis" Part 2


"The Emphasis"

Part 2


     What if God will be present, involved, and active in every aspect of our lives today?  He will.  "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).  Furthermore, what if everything in our lives exists as our opportunity to love God and people through the presence and power of the indwelling Holy Spirit?  It does.  "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, and all thy mind, and all thy strength.  This is the first commandment.  And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Mark 12:30-31).

    The thought came yesterday after writing and sending out the first part of this consideration.  I realized I needed to go to the store.  "I have to go to Walmart and buy a few things" I pondered and planned.  However, I also remembered "The Emphasis."  Another thought came to mind.  "What if another - and greater - reason for going to Walmart actually makes the trip necessary?  What if first and foremost, I am actually going there to love God and love people?"  Even a cursory reading of Biblical doctrine leads to such a conclusion.  Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God" (I Corinthians 10:31).  Life for the believer involves the abiding and active presence of the Lord Jesus Christ as He lives in us, and we live through Him.  If loving God and loving people constitute the primary reasons for our existence, and if the indwelling Holy Spirit makes such a glorious purpose possible, we must view all things, including a trip to the store for earthly bread, as opportunity to partake of and distribute "the living Bread, which came down from Heaven" (John 6:51).

    We must apply "The Emphasis" to everything in our lives in order to truly live.  Every relationship, every responsibility, every recreation, every reality in our lives promises and commands our devotion to the assurance of God's indwelling of love, and our privileged calling to love Him and others "in whatsoever ye do."  Let us consider a few more rhetorical questions:  What if we go to work or school or the park or the library for the primary purpose of loving God and others?  What if we go to the doctor for spiritual reasons more than physical?  What if we have dinner with friends to partake of Christ's love along with the meal?  What if we clean the house, or cut the grass, or drive the car, or pay the bills, or…?  This is truth, this is reality, and this is the complete desecularization, as it were, of everything in our lives.  "Unto the pure, all things are pure" declared the Apostle Paul, meaning that God calls us to view every matter of life in terms of privilege and opportunity to know His love, love Him in response, and love others as the fruit of our relationship with the Lord (Titus 1:15).

    The Emphasis does not eliminate the earthly realities of work, human relationships, physical needs, and the dusty paths upon which we journey through life.   It rather brings them into focus for why we still live in the world despite our Heavenly citizenship in Christ (Ephesians 2:6).  Believers possess opportunity to love God and people in our present lives that won't exist in eternity.  We are to love in an environment that often presents great challenge to a life lived in unselfish devotion to God and others.  Great sacrifice presently accompanies such commitment and action.  No less than the cross of Calvary confirms that fact.  "Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for us" (Ephesians 5:25).  We also bear our crosses as we install The Emphasis of Scripture as the emphasis of our spirits.  What if loving God and loving others weaves meaning, purpose, and glory into everything in our lives?  It does, along with sacrifice, the sacrifice of viewing our present existence as a way upon which we shall not pass again, and one that offers opportunities to know and transmit the love of God in all things.

"Walk in love."
(Ephesians 5:2)

Weekly Memory Verse
    For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.  But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
(Psalm 1:6)



Tuesday, February 27, 2018

"The Emphasis"


"The Emphasis"


     Left to ourselves,  human beings perform worst at that for which God made us.

    "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Genesis 1:26).

    Note the plural pronouns used by God regarding Himself: "Us… Our… Our."  Obviously, a relational Being created us with the capacity for relationship.  Bible-believing Christians know this Creator to be God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one Divinity existing in three distinct Persons.  He… They… relate to one another, as we see in Their communication regarding the creation of Adam and Eve.  Made in God's image, human beings are also relational, with God and with each other.  However, our capacity for relationship must be enlivened and enabled by our Lord's involved presence.  "God is love," that is, our Lord innately relates to others in the perfection of devotion, commitment, affection, and communication (I John 4:8).  Human beings exist to serve as the conscious, willing vessels of such glorious Presence.  However, the entrance of sin through Adam and Eve passed down through all their progeny - "in Adam all die" - gravely affecting our abilities to relate to God and each other (I Corinthians 15:22).  We are born in alienation from our Creator.  The separation between He and ourselves extends to the challenges we face in relating to each other.  Thus, we were made for relationship with God and people, but left to ourselves, this constitutes our greatest weakness.

    Through the Lord Jesus Christ, God births us into relationship with Himself, and with "the whole family in Heaven and earth" (Ephesians 3:15).  He also lavishly imparts His love into our hearts through the entrance of the indwelling Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).  We become capable of loving as God loves, and in accordance with His Biblically defined standard.  The matter involves a process, including the growing knowledge of God's love, our experience thereof, and our loving others as the fruit of the Holy Spirit's presence of love in us.  "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment" (Philippians 1:9).  However, we also still possess the possibility of walking in alienation from God and others.  "The spirit lusteth against the flesh" (Galatians 5:17).  Thus, we must realize how powerfully equipped we are to love through Christ, but also recognize that we may significantly fail to do so.  


    We must join our Lord in emphasizing relationship as the primary reason for our existence.  The first two commands of Scripture call us to love God and others (Mark 12:30).  The relational God made and redeemed us to be His relational sons and daughters.  Any lesser goal or emphasis indicates failure to walk in truth and reality.  Through Christ, we possess great potential regarding relationship with both the Divine and the human.  We also possess the fleshly potential to ignore, neglect, or reject such glory.  Realizing both possibilities prepares us for living and growing experience of the former, and decisiveness overcoming of the latter.  Nothing in our lives compares with this holy calling to relate in love to God and people.  Nothing.  Moreover, everything in our lives serves to provide opportunity for devotion to others.  Everything.  "To live is Christ" declared the Apostle Paul, that is, life involves the relational God dwelling within us for the purpose of enabling the same quality and experience of existence He eternally knows, experiences, and enjoys (Philipipians 1:21).  This is life, as constituted in God, and created by God.  This is the emphasis, His emphasis.  It must also be ours.

"Love God… Love one another."
(Mark 12:30; John 15:12)

Weekly Memory Verse
    For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.  But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
(Psalm 1:6)


   

Monday, February 26, 2018

"Root and Fruit"


"Root and Fruit"


     Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ live from salvation rather than for it.  We bear fruit, as the product of being borne by the Root.

        "And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ,  being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God" (Philippians 1:9-11).

    We receive the root of righteousness as a free gift when believe in the Lord Jesus.  "Therefore being justified (made righteous) by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).  Forgiveness and the promise of eternal life in Christ come with the bestowal of God's  grace, along with the indwelling Holy Spirit whose presence in our hearts changes who we are at the deepest level of our spiritual being.  "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.  Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new" (II Corinthians 5:17).  This root of God's presence within us bears fruit, even as the Apostle Paul affirmed, "It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).  The bounty of such a harvest depends on our Lord first and foremost.  He is the planter and nurturer of our hearts in Christ.  "Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus" (I Corinthians 1:30).  However, we also play a role as we "work out" that which God "worketh in" (Philippians 2:12).  By faith and chosen submission to the glory and will of God, we join our Heavenly Father in the bearing of righteous fruit, again, as based on the Righteous Root who dwells within us by the Holy Spirit.  "The root of the righteous yieldeth fruit… Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit" (Proverbs 12:12; John 15:8).

   In its essence, righteousness involves a state of being.  As spiritually united to the Christ who is "made unto us righteousness," God accounts as "accepted in the Beloved" (I Corinthians 1:30; Ephesians 1:6).  He sees us as spiritually joined to His Son, or "hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3).  This is truth, this is reality, and this is the eternal bond of a Father and His "holy and beloved" sons and daughter freely given to us through the grace and mercy of our Savior (Colossians 3:12).  Nothing changes or can change the relationship.  The fruits of such relationship, however, wax or wane depending on our response to the grace and truth of the Lord Jesus.  Just as earthly plants must absorb sunlight, rain, and the nurturing care of the gardener in order to bear fruit, so we must "keep yourselves in the love of God" by responding to His devotion to us (Jude 1:21).  Spiritual fruitbearing does not simply happen.  God must do His part, which He executes perfectly.  We must also do ours, which will not be done in perfection, but which can be accomplished in an increasingly adequate response that leads to "the fruit of the Spirit" being manifested in our lives (Galatians 5:22).  This day provides our only assured and at hand opportunity of working together with our Gardener to ensure that the fruits of righteousness hang heavy upon our branches for the glory and praise of God.  Nothing matters more, and in real terms, nothing matters at all if we are not devoted to being who and what we are in Christ, namely…


"A tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season." 
(Psalm 1:3).
"But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God.  I trust in the mercy of God forever."
(Psalm 52:8)

Weekly Memory Verse
    For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous.  But the way of the ungodly shall perish.
(Psalm 1:6)


   

Saturday, February 24, 2018

Saturday Songs - 8 - "Onward and Upward"


(Friends, each Saturday this year, we are sending the lyrics and a recorded version of one of our songs.  This week's edition, entitled "Onward and Upward," is an alma mater we wrote for a local Christian school from which our daughter graduated.  Interestingly, I wrote it when attending a football game of the university she attended after her high school graduation.  While listening to the the college's alma mater at the end of the game, I had the idea I'd like to write such a piece of music.  The thought occurred to me that her high school did not have an alma mater, so I wrote the song and offered it to them, which they accepted.  I hope you'll find it encouraging.  Thanks, Glen).




Onward and Upward
Capstone Christian School Alma Mater
Words and Music by Glen Davis

Onward and upward we arise,
Borne on eagles’ wings.
Seeking the wisdom God provides
For great and noble things.

We will remember fondly
These days of truth and light,
And all who helped to guide our way
Unto our future bright.
  
Tomorrow beckons, come and see
The life our Lord will give.
His promises we will believe,
And for His glory live.

We will remember fondly
These days of truth and light,
And all who helped to guide our way
Unto our future bright.


Friday, February 23, 2018

"Promises and Warnings"


"Promises and Warnings"


     The message of Christ we share will sometimes hurt, offend, and even enrage people.  The manner in which we share it, however, must not.

     "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves.  Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16).

    Born again believers in the Lord Jesus must be both forthright in content and kindly respectful in demeanor.  We have hopeful and hard things to say to our spheres of influence.  God's Biblical truth blesses and buffets, offering the loving and involved presence of God to the receptive heart, and dire prospects regarding both time and eternity to those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ.  We do people no favors by attempting to bludgeon them to faith.  Nor are we helpful if our compassion leads to compromising the message of the Bible.  Scripture flows in streams of both promises and warnings, based upon whether we swim with or against the current of Truth.  As the Lord spoke to Israel…

   "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse, a blessing if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day, and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known" (Deuteronomy 11:26-28).

    We must share grace in terms of truth.  We must share truth with a heart of grace.  "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).  If we share grace, but exclude truth, we mislead hearts into perceiving a God without standards.  If we communicate truth, but exclude grace, we discourage hope by falsely portraying a God who demands more than human hearts can give.  Thus, we state the truth as plainly as possible, both in terms of hope and alarm.  We do so honestly, forthrightly, and with the tender heart of compassion that reflects the One who sends us to declare His promises of grace and His warnings of truth.

"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear."
(I Peter 3:15)

Weekly Memory Verse
    But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.
(Hebrews 1:8)   



Thursday, February 22, 2018

“Sons and Daughters"


"Sons and Daughters"


     Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ serve God as beloved sons and daughters rather than merely hired servants.

    "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ" (Galatians 4:7).
    "But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name" (John 1:12).

     Salvation spiritually births us into "the whole family in Heaven and earth" (Ephesians 3:15).  We thus relate to God through motivations based on relationship, devotion, commitment, affection, and heartfelt willingness to sacrifice for our loved One.  We can be tempted otherwise, descending into the lowlands of serving our Heavenly Father in terms of mercenary obligation rather than grateful wonder.  This displeases Him, as it should us.  "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Galatians 3:3).  The Christian life begins in the love of God revealed and received.  It continues thereby in terms of family devotion wherein a Father's love progressively nurtures the same response in devoted children who find themselves increasingly amazed by the grace that commences, continues, and culminates God's purposes in us.  "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving" (Colossians 2:6-7).  

    Any lesser view of family relationship with God fails to meet the test of both Truth and experience of His grace in the Lord Jesus.  Our spiritual enemies decisively tempt us regarding this fundamental reality of what it means to genuinely relate to our Lord.  They know perhaps better than do we ourselves that works proceed from wonder, namely, God's ongoing revelation of loving grace in the Lord Jesus and our discovery thereof.  Only such illumination produces the motivation of heart and manner of walk that reveals the Father's love, the Son's redemption, and the Spirit's active presence in us.  "The whole family in Heaven and earth."  We are part of it, and we serve God rightly only as the realization of such grace thrills and fills our hearts with the wonder of His holy and loving purpose…

"I will receive you and be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters saith the Almighty."
(II Corinthians 6:18)

Weekly Memory Verse
    But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.
(Hebrews 1:8)   


   
   

Wednesday, February 21, 2018

"Love and Truth"


Love and Truth


     In the introduction of his third epistle, the Apostle John wrote to his brother and friend Gaius, of whom John affirmed, "I love in the truth" (III John 1:1).

     By this, John meant that he loved Gaius in Christ the living truth, and in the Scriptures, God's written truth.  "I am the… Truth… Thy Word is truth" (John 14:6; 17:17).  By God's grace in the Lord Jesus, John and Gaius both spiritually dwelt in Christ.  They also both sought to live their lives in the light of God's Word.  Thereby they loved each other as enabled by the Holy Spirit, and as defined by God's Biblical meaning of love.  Personal relationship with the Lord Jesus and principled response to Truth constituted the bond between brothers, as it does in all born again believers.

    "And the glory which Thou gavest Me, I have given them, that they may be one, even as We are one" (John 17:22).

    Believers are not presently and perfectly united in perspective, belief, disposition, practice, or response to God and His Truth.  Christians devoted to Christ often significantly differ on matters of doctrine and practice (excluding certain fundamentals necessarily common to all if we are to actually be Christian).  We strive to be united, as enabled by the Holy Spirit, but perfect unity of worship and walk will not occur until our Lord's return and redemption of all things.  We are one, in Christ and even in His truth (Ephesians 2:14).  However, our response to this unity of God's grace and truth in the Lord Jesus does not yet completely coincide with spiritual reality.

    We must therefore love each other in the truth.  We must see our brothers and sisters as in Christ, and as vessels of Christ in them.  We also remember the Word of God and its definitive mandates that call us to relate to our fellow believers in the love of Christ regardless of our differences.  "I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:1-3).  "Longsuffering" and "forbearing" are not required when all are in agreement.  Our differences rather make such qualities of Christ's love necessary, whether in perspective or practice.  This constitutes loving fellow believers in the Truth of Christ and the Scriptures as the hope and power for living with each other in a manner that fulfills our Savior's promise and calling...


"By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another."
(John 13:35)

"There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
(Ephesians 4:4-6)

Weekly Memory Verse
    But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.
(Hebrews 1:8)   


   

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Pages and Presence


Pages and Presence


     What if a favorite author joined us as we read his or her work?  What if Dickens could be with us as we read "A Tale of Two Cities?"  Or Bronte while enjoying "Jane Eyre?"  Or Schultz as we laughed with "Peanuts?" (our beagle Sparrow insisted that I include Snoopy, Charlie Brown, and the gang!).  The experience of reading would take on a new dimension altogether as we noted favorite passages, inquired about meaning, and thanked authors for the inspiration, entertainment, encouragement, and challenge of their work.

    "Behold, I will pour out My Spirit unto you; I will make known My words unto you" (Proverbs 1:23).

    One book exists that comes to us with its Author.  The Holy Spirit who inspired the words of Scripture graces the pages of His literary masterpiece with love, light, life, and liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The trusting, humble heart reads the Bible in the presence of the God who seeks to reveal the Lord Jesus as the theme of every word, sentence, verse, chapter, and book.  "Search the Scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of Me" declared our Savior, who also revealed that the Holy Spirit ever works to "testify of Me" (John 5:39; 15:26).  Thus, the Author would have us open His Book to see Christ, and to thereby be changed into His spiritual and moral image.    "Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God.  Thy Spirit is good, lead me into the land of uprightness" (Psalm 143:10).

    If Dickens, Bronte, Schultz or some other favorite author were scheduled to join us today for a reading of their work, we would be thrilled.  Need I suggest how much more joyously expectant we should be that the Author of the holy and sacred Volume promises to meet us in the pages of His masterpiece?  The Bible comes with its Author.  Scripture blesses us as both a Book and a Voice.  The realization should thrill and fill our hearts with holy anticipation as pages filled with Presence reveal to us the love of the Father, the grace of the Son, and the light of the Spirit.  

"Howbeit when He the Spirit of truth is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will show you things to come."
(John 16:13)

Weekly Memory Verse
    But unto the Son He saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.
(Hebrews 1:8)   


   

Monday, February 19, 2018

"The Ocean"


"The Ocean"


     As we frequently suggest in these messages, human beings are as fish the swim in the ocean that is God.

     "In Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).

     Note that the Apostle Paul declared this truth not only regarding believers, but rather to the unbelieving Athenian philosophers of his day.  They lived, moved, and had their being in God no less than Paul.  Of course, they did not know it, or rather Him, in a saving, relational way.  The Athenians, however, could not escape the source and sustenance of their existence, nor were they exempt from their utter dependence on the Lord who "giveth to all life and breath and all things."  Or, as Job and the Psalmist proclaimed of the Creator and His creation: "The Lord… in whose hand is the soul of every living thing… Thou openest Thine hand and satisfieth the desire of every living thing" (Acts 17:25; Job 12:10; Psalm 145:16).

    No sadder fact exists than the truth that most people live by and because of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, but they do not know it.  Moreover, deep in the heart, they reject what should be the most obvious reality of their existence.  "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not" (II Corinthians 4:4).  The willful escape from the actuality of things began in Eden, and passed down through all generations into every child born of Adam's race.  It dominates the human heart unless it realizes and repents in the redemption of God's grace as received by faith in the Lord Jesus.  Indeed, salvation involves a fish discovering the Ocean in which it swims, and receiving the Maker of the Ocean into its very being.  "I send thee to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness unto light" (Acts 26:18).  Little wonder that joy fills the hearts of all who trust the Lord Jesus as the Holy Spirit saves us unto the realization of the Great Giver of "life and breath and all things," and the truth that we exist as His blessed recipients.  

    To one degree or another, born again believers live in realization of the Ocean in which we "live and move and have our being."  Consistent and growing joy depends on consistent and growing knowledge of how God-saturated we are.  Moreover, all the other fish with whom we live swim in the same Environment.  This does not mean they know it, of course, nor that they will escape "the wrath to come" if they never repent and believe in the Lord Jesus (I Thessalonians 1:10).  But it does mean that for believer and unbeliever alike, "He is not far from every one of us" (Acts 17:27).  This changes our perspective of ourselves, and of every person on the planet.  Human beings are fish that swim in the ocean that is God.  This is truth.  This is reality.  And this is the God-saturated perspective proceeding from the God-saturated existence that illuminates our hearts, and prepares us to see the the hearts of others in the light of truth, reality, and the Ocean.  

"He is before all things, and by Him all things consist."
(Colossians 1:17)

Weekly Memory Verse
    But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Thy kingdom.
(Hebrews 1:8)   


   
    

Friday, February 16, 2018

Saturday Songs - 7 - "There Is a Day"


(Friends, each Saturday this year, we are sending the lyrics and a recorded version of one of our songs.  This week's edition, entitled "There Is a Day," was one we had forgotten.  We rediscovered it last week, and decided to record it and send it along.  It concerns that time when we will go to be with our Lord, whether by His return some day, or by our passage from this life to the next.  I hope you'll find it encouraging.  Thanks, Glen).




There Is A Day
Words and Music by Glen Davis

There is day that’s coming soon
when we will go to be with Him.
And every tear will be wiped away 
by our Father in that new blessed day,  oh

There is a day, there is a day.


There is a grace that pardons those
who look into the face of God’s own Son.
For every sin is wiped away
when we place our trust in the Holy One, oh

There is a day, there is a day.

 
There is a love that fills this moment,
as given by the Holy Spirit.
He leads us by God’s blessed Word,
just listen now and you can hear it, oh

There is a day, there is a day.
There is a day, there is a day…

“The Path of Pardon”


"The Path of Pardon"


     The Apostle Paul commanded that we "avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath" (Romans 12:19).  What is the "place" for wrath?  Paul continues, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay, saith the Lord."  

    The human heart and psyche does not do well when entertaining notions of revenge.  The intruder often seems like the most appropriate guest, but he leaves the stain of bitterness if allowed to enter and remain within our thoughts and emotions.  This poisons even as it may seem pleasant, harming not only ourselves, but also others with whom we live our lives.  "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness trouble you, and thereby many be defiled" (Hebrews 12:15).  Only God can execute appropriate consequences for wrongs committed against us.  Our calling involves the high standard of Christ's character and command:

    "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you… But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you" (Ephesians 5:32; Matthew 5:44).  

    Thankfully, the Spirit of Christ indwells believers to enable our walk in grace and mercy rather than vengeance and bitterness.  "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).  The path of pardon is not easy.  Again, revenge, in whatever form, rests comfortably in our flesh until it results in troublesome consequences.  However, it never helps our hearts or the other hearts in our sphere of influence.  Our Lord therefore calls us to obey Him by directing the execution of consequences to Him, and to trust Him for the enabling to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving to those who wrong us.  We are to love, bless, do good, and pray rather than seek and act out vengeance.  Such a path of pardon honors our Lord, blesses others by revealing the Lord Jesus, and maintains the peace of mind that realizes our hearts are no place for vengeful wrath.

"Recompense to no man evil for evil."
(Romans 12:17)

Weekly Memory Verse
   Rejoice the soul of Thy servant: for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
(Psalm 86:4)    



Thursday, February 15, 2018

“A Journey Into God”

"A Journey Into God"


     For the born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, every day of life involves a journey into God.

     "To live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).

    Such glory is factual and actual whether or not we remember that we are in Christ, and Christ is in us.  Of course, we presently "see through a glass darkly" (I Corinthians 13:12).   We all miss so much as earthly realities cloud our spiritual perception and awareness.  We forget, or are distracted, or sometimes choose to disbelieve the involved presence of the  One in whom "we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28).  The truth nevertheless remains that our Heavenly Father beckons us into the glories of His heart, mind, character, nature, and way.  "Call unto Me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not" (Jeremiah 33:3).  His Spirit works in us to maintain and strengthen our wakefulness to a life of wonder as lived in God, and a journey into glories presently known by faith rather than sight.  

    Much of our experience involves anticipation, even as the Psalmist declared, "My expectation is from Him" (Psalm 62:5).  Will we open the window of our hearts to gaze upward, outward, and away as we venture into the realm of God's reality?  Or do the aforementioned earthly realities discourage the confidence that our Lord awaits us in every venue, and even journeys with us as we go?  The choice is ours, a choice perpetually offered for our consideration by the indwelling Holy Spirit, the Word of God, fellow believers, and even the world in which we live.  "I will look for Him" (Isaiah 8:17).  We won't see all in this present life, or even in eternity as we voyage into an infinite God whose being comprises a sea without shore, and a horizon that forever beckons us to come further.  We can see much, however, or at least more than we have.  We will live this day and all others in Christ.  He will live this day in us.  Factual.  Actual.  For the believer, nothing changes the truth of the voyage, or the eternal course set by our Lord.  The only issue involves our awareness, as based on anticipation whereby we open the window of our hearts through which we realize the reality of our journey into God.

"He is thy life."
(Deuteronomy 30:20)
"They looked unto Him and were lightened."
(Psalm 34:5)

Weekly Memory Verse
   Rejoice the soul of Thy servant: for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
(Psalm 86:4)    



Wednesday, February 14, 2018

"To Be"

"To Be"


        Lucifer sought to "be like the Most High" rather than an angel.  Adam and Eve succumbed to the devil's temptation to "be as gods" rather than human (Isaiah 14:14; Genesis 3:5).  Obviously, sin involves the quest of created beings to be more or other than God made them to be.

    Righteousness must therefore involve the redemption of our hearts from the darkness of delusion unto the light of being who and what God purposes.  The Apostle Paul declared such truth to the Ephesians believers: "Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light" (Ephesians 5:8).  This requires the ongoing illumination and application of His Word by His Spirit, and the realization that we remain susceptible to the temptation to be more and other than we are.  Indeed, our doings proceed from our being, and from our perception of our being.  If we view ourselves rightly, according to the Word of God, we will consistently and increasingly walk accordingly by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Conversely, the devil, the world, and the flesh still entice us to erect a false god in our minds, an image of ourselves that conflicts with our Heavenly Father's determined purpose.  We must therefore consistently seek His light regarding who He would have us to be, and how we may live accordingly.  "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).

    We exist to be the dwelling place of the Spirit of Christ.  How such "hope of glory" molds and shapes us will be different in each of us, based upon God-determined heritage, disposition, personality, calling, and relationships with other people (Colossians 1:27).  Peter will not be Paul, and Mary will not be Martha.  All, however, bear the indwelling nature and character of the Lord Jesus.  His light will shine through the particular facets of every believer in varying modes and measures of Christ's glorious goodness.  We will serve as lamps, humbly acknowledging that we possess no inherent light, but confidently asserting that we do possess the Holy Spirit who reveals in us the Light of Another.  "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day" (I Thessalonians 5:50).

    "Heavenly Father, thank You that through the Lord Jesus, You have delivered us from the darkness of seeking to be other than what You would have us to be.  Still, Father, we sometimes forget and always need further understanding regarding who and what You made and redeemed us to be in Christ.  We therefore seek Your light for this day.  Reveal to us in greater measure who You are, and who we are as related to You.  And lead us to think, speak, act, and relate accordingly for Your glory. In the name of the Lord Jesus we pray, Amen."

"It is He that hath made us and not we ourselves.  We are His people and the sheep of His pasture."
(Psalm 100:3)
"Ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
(II Corinthians 6:16)

Weekly Memory Verse
   Rejoice the soul of Thy servant: for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
(Psalm 86:4)
    


   

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

"Two Winds"


"Two Winds"


   We bear His innocence because He bore our guilt.  

    "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).

    Such Truth bears witness to perhaps the simplest, but most wondrous reality of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Our perfectly faithful Shepherd suffered and died for His wayward lambs by Himself becoming "the Lamb of God" (John 1:36).  We must never forget the simplicity of salvation, nor the incomprehensible glory of it.  We state the case of Christ in starkly plain terms, so elementary a child can understand.  Such grace and truth then leads to a lifetime and eternity of what can only be termed bewilderment as we ponder the wonder.  How can it be so simple?  He can He be so sublime?  He died that I might live?  I believe, with my heart, and am forgiven and made new?  He is that completely, mind numbingly, and heart rendingly good?  

    Simple.  Sublime.  Both winds of the Spirit course through the hearts of the redeemed.  One leads to a realized and manageable faith that enables us to live Heavenly lives in an earthly world.  The other keeps us on the knees and faces of our spirits, and sometimes our bodies.  Sometimes the emphasis seems to waft upon one, or the other, based upon God's purposes, the needs of others, and our own requirements.  A turbulent world batters us with its complexities, resulting in a mind full of perplexities.  The Holy Spirit leads us to remember and affirm "the simplicity that is in Christ" (II Corinthians 11:3).  At other times, we find ourselves inexcusably wandering down paths of the inane and the trivial.  The same Holy Spirit jolts us to our senses with remembrance and affirmation of the only One who provides real meaning and significance to our existence.  "When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead" (Revelation 1:17).  Simple.  Sublime.  Two winds, of one Spirit, both coursing through us to remind us of the Christ so available and approachable, and so awe-inspiringly good and glorious.

"And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.  And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth."
(Revelation 5:5-6)

Weekly Memory Verse
   Rejoice the soul of Thy servant: for unto Thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
(Psalm 86:4)