"Light, Life, and Love?"

    There is a light that is darkness.  "If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:23). There is a life that is death - "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth."  There is a love that is fleshly desire - "But King Solomon loved many strange women… of the nations concerning which the Lord said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in unto them, neither shall they come in unto you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their god" (Matthew 6:23; I Timothy 5:6; I Kings 11:1-2).

   Darkness, death, and fleshly desire often disguise themselves as light, life, and love.  The devil himself enrobes his being with that which opposes his very nature in order to deceive us as a seeming "angel of light" (II Corinthians 11:14).  Little wonder that the Lord Jesus Christ warned us to "judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment" (John 7:24).  Our senses, emotions, and perceptions often trick us, or more literally, our spiritual enemies seek to use our human faculties as tools to lead us astray.  We must ever be on our guard against that which which may seem so very beautiful, good, and pleasant, but which actually offers treachery and disaster.  "There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death" (Proverbs 14:12).

   This is written a simple reminder to my heart and yours of the Biblical truth regarding the matter, and of the times we've all experienced the darkness, death, and fleshly desire we thought were light, life, and love.  Not everything is as it seems, feels, or appears in a fallen world.  Scripture warns us continually to be on our guard.  We ignore its counsel to great peril.  We heed it to great protection.  May we respond to our Heavenly Father's leading us in the light that is truly light, the life that is life, and the love that is love.

"Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try (test) the spirits, whether they be of God."

(I John 4:1)

Weekly Memory Verse

   The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.

(Psalm 118:24)

        

"Superman? Everyman!"

    Many years ago, a preacher postulated about the greatest of all modern mythological superheroes.  "Why are people so fascinated by Superman?  There's already been a "superman" in human history, the Lord Jesus Christ!  And He's not a myth!"

    Certainly our brother of old meant well in his affirmation of our blessed Savior.  But is it true that the Lord Jesus lived His earthly lifetime as a superman?  His own words provide the answer.

    "Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the Father do.  For what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise… I can of Mine own self do nothing" (John 5:19; 30).

     "The Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works" (John 14:10).

     "I live by the Father" (John 6:57).

    Without relinquishing His Divinity, the Lord Jesus took upon Himself the humanity that required His complete dependence on the Father and the Holy Spirit.  Our redemption required His identification with us not only in the fact of our humanity, but in the function of it.  Just as we must live by faith in God due to the weakness and limitations of humanity, so did our Savior.  "In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.  For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted" (Hebrews 2:17-18).

   Had the Lord Jesus' robe included an identifying insignia, it would not have been an "S", but rather an "E".  He lived His life as Everyman.  In order to justifiably make atonement for our sins as the Lamb of God, He had to identify with His sheep in all things, including the challenge of every temptation.  He never sinned, praise His holy name, but He faced the pressures of the world, the devil, and the flesh as do we ourselves.  The "fiery darts" of confrontation did not bounce off His chest, as bullets harmlessly deflected from Superman (Ephesians 6:16).  They rather penetrated into the Lord's heart and mind, wherein He overcame by faith in His Father, and by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Thus, He knows.  He knows what you and I experience in our challenges, and He knows far more because He alone was "tempted in all points like as we are" (Hebrews 4:15).  When He refused the offerings of temptation, He felt the pains of sacrifice that always accompany forgoing the momentary pleasures of sin.  Moreover, as the spotless Lamb of God, He qualified by His perfect lifetime of faithfulness "to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."

    I have loved the mythological Superman since I was a small child.  He could squash the far inferior Spiderman like, well, like a bug! :)  In truth, though, I don't love Superman.  He is a myth, and even if he were real, could we really love someone whose being experience so differs from our own?  We can love Everyman, however.  We cn love the Lord Jesus because He so loved us as to become us.  Indeed, how can we not love Him?  His devotion to us includes identification with us to the degree that He remains human even in His resurrected, glorified state as the risen Christ (I Timothy 2:5).  Certainly we rightly admire and reverence Him in heroic terms, but we cherish and love Him because for our sakes, the Lord Jesus is Everyman.

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." 

(Hebrews 2:14)

"There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

(I Timothy 2:5)

Weekly Memory Verse

   The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.

(Psalm 118:24)

     

"A Ready Christ"

    Like all others in a fallen, imperfect world, this day will offer difficulties, problems, perplexities, pains, heartaches, and even heartbreaks.  

    "Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward" (Job 5:7).

    More importantly, like all others, to the trusting sons and daughters of God in Christ, this day offers strength, solutions, answers, grace, comforts, and provision that precede our challenges. In the book of Revelation, the Apostle John refers to the Lord Jesus as "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Revelation 13:8).  Our greatest need, salvation from our sins, thus existed in the heart and mind of God before we were created. This establishes the spiritual principle that Divine supply precedes human need, eliciting a confidence of faith in those who realize we live anticipated lives, as it were.  From everlasting, our Heavenly Father has viewed this day in the present tense, thus knowing the trials we will face, and thus preparing the Lord Jesus to serve as the fulfillment of His promise, "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19).  The Lord does not have to rummage around in His supply box, as it were, to formulate His provision to our needs.  A prepared and ready Christ rather waits for us in our need, beckoning us to trust the God never caught by surprise.  

     It doesn't seem this way, of course.  In many cases, the Lord's provision does not immediately manifest itself.  A lag time between faith and supply revealed often calls us to the challenge whereby we "walk by faith, not by sight" (II Corinthians 5:7).  God's purposes may call for delays of obvious provision for more reasons than we can begin to number.  No delay ever exists in the fact of His provision, however.  We have in hand, or in heart, the supply of Christ for every need.  Our calling involves the faith that chooses to believe, and the courage, as enabled by the Holy Spirit, to await the open revelation that "the supply of Jesus Christ" for every moment of our eternal existence awaits our trusting hearts (Philippians 1:19).

    Believers live from God's supply of Christ rather than to it.  Appearances may seem to belie.  Truth, however, bestows upon us the promise that our Father has forever known every moment of this day in our lives.  He gave His Son to meet our every need before ever we existed - "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world."  Here we rest our hearts in the truth of life as anticipated by God, and in the provision that awaits us as we arrive at our destinations of need and challenge.

"The Lord is my portion, saith my soul.  Therefore will I hope in Him."

(Lamentations 3:24)

"Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgement."

(John 7:24)

Weekly Memory Verse

   The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.

(Psalm 118:24)