The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe
"Keep Yourselves - In and From"
Every human being desires something or someone to exist greater than himself. God made us with this built-in spiritual and moral receptor for the purpose of devoting ourselves to Him. Sin, however, diverted the attention and devotion of the human heart to countless imposters. Until we become devotees to "there is one God" through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we seek false gods who, at best, cannot provide genuine life (I Timothy 2:5). At worst, they foster great harm and destruction. Even after we trust the Savior, temptations to trust in vanities abound to the degree that the Apostle John closes his first epistle with one of the most vital commands of the New Testament: "Little children, keep yourselves from idols" (I John 5:21).
We obey this command by obeying another: "Keep yourselves in the love of God" (Jude 1:21). We avoid the false by availing ourselves of the true. Like the bank teller who instantly detects a counterfeit bill because he has seen and touched so much genuine currency, born again believers in the Lord Jesus must experience the heart-fulfilling reality of the living God in order to realize and reject the idols that can only offer "the pleasures of sin for a season" (Hebrews 11:25). Keeping ourselves in our Lord's love means that we seek to live in context of His devotion to us and to others, and in the remembrance that His love is "shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5). Indeed, in any moment, what can more satisfy us to the depths of our being than "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge"? (Ephesians 3:19). Or rather, what else can satisfy our hearts?
Our spiritual enemies would tell us that many idols can do so. They lie. God made us for Himself. He alone serves as our peace, joy, and contentment of the spirit. Such grace may be manifested through people, provisions, thoughts, emotions, sensations, and experiences. Christ alone, however, is Himself the essence of all satisfaction of the human heart. "Having Him, we have all" says my wife Frances, to which I add, "We could lose everything, but if the Lord Jesus remains, we will have lost nothing." This is truth. This is reality. This is life. This is peace. This is the love in which we must keep ourselves, the love of God for which our hearts exist, and which alone can fill and fulfill to the degree that the lies of idols can be realized - and rejected. Yes, we keep ourselves from the false by keeping ourselves in the truth of knowing and availing ourselves of the One greater than ourselves, who made us for Himself.
"To live is Christ."
(Psalm 1:21)
"O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee."
(Psalm 63:1)
Weekly Memory Verse
As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God."
(I Peter 4:10)
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