The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
(a rewrite of a message from 2014)
"As the Scripture Hath Said"
"He that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of His belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38).
We must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ "as the Scripture hath said." In his second epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks of those who preach "another Jesus" (II Corinthians 11:4). Paul's warning portends the possibility that we can be misled by false representation of the very source and heart of our faith. We must therefore determine to know the true and living Lord Jesus in the terms He set forth, that is, by the authority, text, and context of the Bible. Thereby, our innermost being becomes a fountain of flowing spiritual life. Conversely, if the Christ we know bears little or no resemblance to the Biblical Lord of Heaven, we will misrepresent Him to our world. Rather than "living water," we will dispense deception and death particularly misleading because we attach the Lord's name to our claims. "Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore, it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness" (II Corinthians 11:14:15).
This presents the ongoing challenge: are we thinking rightly - Biblically - about the Lord Jesus and His involved presence in our lives? No Christian escapes the possibility of deception or distraction in this most vital of matters. We must seek to be as precisely accurate as possible in our understanding of our Lord's person and work. Who is Christ? What has He done for His Father's glory and our benefit? What is He doing? What will He do forevermore as the Son of the Father and the Savior of the church? To the degree we walk in truth regarding these greatest of all questions will be the degree to which we serve as the tributary for living waters to abundantly flow to our needy sphere of influence. Our world must see the Lord Jesus exemplified in our countenance, demeanor, attitudes, words, and actions. When opportunity arises to speak of Him, we must be ready to confess Christ as He truly is, "as the Scripture hath said." Such outpouring of life, His life, begins with our determination to trust the living Word of God - the Lord Jesus - in accordance with the written Word of God - the Bible. "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).
No aspiration of life compares with the holy purpose of knowing the Lord Jesus. God made us by Him and for Him. "Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 3:18). Again, do we know Him as He truly is? No believer can claim perfect knowledge and understanding of the Savior. Thus, we set forth in this day and forevermore in the holy pursuit, as declared by David, "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple" (Psalm 27:4). We must join the Psalmist in his quest, and in the completed Bible he did not possess, wherein we have far more means to behold and inquire of Christ - as the Scripture hath said.
"Thy Word is truth."
(John 17:17)
"When Thou saidst, Seek ye My face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek" (Psalm 27:8).
(Psalm 27:8)
Weekly Memory Verse
Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
(Ephesians 3:20-21)
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