"Relational" Part 2

     The relationship that begins by God's grace received through faith continues in the same way.

    "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, abounding therein with thanksgiving, as ye have been taught" (Colossians 2:6-7).

    The "Author" of our faith also serves as its "Finisher" (Hebrews 12:2).  The Apostle Paul declares that the new birth "roots" us in Christ, and then "builds" us up in our Savior.  Thus, we look to the Lord Jesus for the living of life no less than we trusted Him for the giving of life - "the just shall live by faith" (Romans 1:17).  Our spiritual enemies know this truth, likely far better than do we ourselves.  They seek either to discourage our confidence in God or to distract us from the Source and Power of faithfulness to God.  As a friend suggests, "the devil either attempts to stand in front and hinder, or to get behind and push."  Either way, the issue involves the grace of God, as received by trusting the Lord Jesus.  This constitutes the Christian life in blessedly relational terms.  Indeed, is there anything more personal than promises made and promises trusted?  Faithfulness, God's, and faith, ours, unite to grace our walk with the Lord in living and loving relationship, as opposed to either ritual or neglect.

    I can still see the image of my late mother as she took our youngest daughter Emmie for a walk around the block when Emmie was a baby.  I trusted my mother completely to care for Emmie and knew that she would protect her at any cost.  Would I have done the same if a stranger had knocked on our door one day and offered to take Emmie for a stroll?  Not a chance!  We trust others to the degree that we know them.  This is true in our relationship with people, and even more true with God.  We must increasingly know Him if we are to increasingly trust Him.  We must know His grace and the truth wherein the Holy Spirit administers our Heavenly Father's freely given favor in Christ.  This is relational Christianity, the only authentic version.  This is grace through faith Christianity, the personal bond with God that begins and continues in His faithfulness, and through our faith.  And this is love, the glory of our Lord's wondrous heart as known in the trusting hearts of those who "look unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2).

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God."

(Romans 5:1-2)

"Faith... worketh by love."

(Galatians 5:6)

"Grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

(II Peter 3:18)

Weekly Memory Verse

   I cried unto Thee, o Lord, I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.

(Psalm 142:5)

    

"Relational"

     Life is relational, beginning with the God who is one, but who also eternally exists as three persons in the unity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4; John 20:17; Hebrews 1:8; Job 26:13).  Loving fellowship eternally exists in the Trinity, even as the Lord Jesus Christ declared in His prayer recorded in John 17: "And now, o Father, glorify Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was… Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:5; 24).

     Created in His image, the necessity of relationship regarding the well being, peace, and joy of our hearts comprises the very essence of our existence.  First and foremost, we must intimately know God in order to be truly alive.  "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).  We were made for this bond of Heart to heart, and we can be sure in this moment and forevermore that our Heavenly Father works to enhance our expectation and experience of His loving presence.  Indeed, wherever we may be in our relationship with God, the Holy Spirit beckons us to come further, climb higher, and dive deeper into the knowledge of the Father and the Son.  Moreover, He works in our hearts and lives to motivate and empower our freely determined response of devotion: "I will love Thee, o Lord my strength!" (Psalm 118:1).

    Upon this basis and from this wellspring of genuine life, our Lord then moves within us to enable loving relationship with other human beings.  "And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love toward one another, and toward all men" (I Thessalonians 3:12).  No genuinely loving relationship with God can fail to foster genuinely loving relationship with people.  "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can He love God whom He hath not seen?" (I John 4:20).  This aspect of relational living involves complications in comparison to our bond with God.  He is perfect and worthy of our complete devotion, affection, and commitment.  People are not (including ourselves). Thus, we must love in grace, even as we are loved in grace.  This provides a sublime, albeit challenging feature of loving relationship that could not exist in the context of perfection.  The beauty of forgiveness shines forth, along with bestowals of goodness to one another that originate not in merit, but in mercy.  "Freely ye have received, freely give" commanded the Lord Jesus, offering to us the possibility of relating to people as God relates to us (Matthew 10:8).  To love people as the fruit of His love for us and our love for Him reveals that we are truly alive (in Him), causing "life eternal" to be known in our particular sphere of space and time.

    Many realities of life will demand our attention and time today.  Relationship - with God and with people - offers to us the experience of life in its essence.  The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit live in such a glory of love.  The presence of Spirit of Christ in our hearts makes possible in us the same devotion to that which matters most, even as we fulfill our practical responsibilities.  Life is relational and relationship is life, both in God and in ourselves.

"In Thy presence is fullness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore."

(Psalm 16:11)

"Love one another, as I have loved you."

(John 13:3)

“Known Truths"

"Known Truths"  

     God's "ways" always originate and proceed from His "wise".  

    "O Lord, how manifold (many) are Thy works!  In wisdom Thou hast made them all!" (Psalm 104:24).

    I recently shared with a friend that when we cannot understand our Lord's personal working in our lives, we fall back upon those truths we can comprehend.  The wisdom of God comprises one of those primary foundations upon which our hearts rest when our minds are tossed and troubled.  The Lord cannot determine or allow anything apart from His pristinely perfect knowledge and ability to rightly apply what He knows.  "As for God, His way is perfect" (II Samuel 22:31).  This we know to be true.  Everything Christians believe rests upon the foundation of our Heavenly Father's unadulterated wisdom that assures us when His ways bewilder us.  Indeed, we may often wonder "Why?" or "How?" or "When?" or "What?" when pondering the works of God in our lives.  Never, however, should we question His motives or the current of perfect wisdom in which they flow for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ and our best interests.  "Thou art good, and doest good" (Psalm 119:68).

     Our convictions regarding known truths keep and guide us when unknown factors and purposes lead us down paths of challenging bewilderment.  "His way is perfect" enables us to trust our Father when His determinations and allowances are, to our minds, strange.  As the saying goes, when we cannot understand God's ways, we trust His heart.  We shall not be disappointed as we make the hard choices of faith, even as Job affirmed in the anguish of his extreme and perplexing trial…

"Thou He slay me, yet will I trust in Him!"

(Job 13:15)

"He is the rock, His way is perfect.  All His works are judgment."

(Deuteronomy 32:4)

Weekly Memory Verse

   I cried unto Thee, o Lord, I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.

(Psalm 142:5)