"Grace Days, Labor Days"

"Grace Days, Labor Days"  

   (Friends: I entitled this "Labor Days" because just as I finished the essay, I remembered that this is, in the United States, Labor Day, the time of year in which the achievement and efforts of American workers are celebrated.  The title may not strictly apply to the theme, but it does address our works for the Lord, as enabled by our working from His promised enabling.  Or, we might say, "grace days" lead to "labor days."  Thanks, Glen).

 

    Walking with our Lord involves much conscious decision and determination.  While He does much for and within us under the surface and behind the scenes, as it were, much that He would do for us requires our reasoned and chosen response to His gracious working on our behalf.  As Joshua commanded the people of Israel before his death, "Choose you this day whom ye shall serve" (Joshua 24:15).  

    Such a life of volitional activity involving both the heart and the hands would be impossibly daunting were it not for God's promised provision of both motivation and strength for the journey.

    "Work out your own salvation, for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:12-13).

    The champion weight lifter does not flinch when his wife asks him to carry in the groceries from the car.  He knows his own capacity to elevate hundreds of pounds of iron, based upon the physical strength of his body.  In far greater measure, born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ possess our Lord's spiritual strength to walk in faith and faithfulness.  "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might" (Ephesians 6:10).  We may not feel that such is the case, and our experience does not always measure up to our capacity.  However, the power of God is always present and available in the person of the indwelling Holy Spirit, the promise of His Word, and the practical working of our Lord in us "both to will and to do."  Our application of such grace begins in the faith that believes these Biblically affirmed assurances, and then goes forth in the expectation that leads to accompanying action of heart, hands, and feet.  "If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" commanded the Apostle Paul (Galatians 5:25).  Christians, in fact, do live in the Spirit - "Ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Romans 8:9).  Thus, we can walk accordingly through Christ, as enabled by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheth me" (Philippians 4:13).

   Our response to this frequently affirmed Scriptural truth requires our growing knowledge of God Himself, and the truth of His Word.  We trust others in accordance with how well we know them, and also how well we know what they have spoken and promised.  Thus, we must seek to "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" in order that we might be enabled to respond to God's Truth amid the challenges and temptations of life.  "I also labor, striving according to His working" testified the Apostle Paul, who knew his Heavenly Father well enough to consistently access Divine grace by faith (Colossians 1:29).  Our Lord calls us to the same awareness and application of grace that results in a growing measure of confidence in our Christ-enabled capacity to trust and obey God.  This leads to the practical expression of works originating with God's dynamic presence in our hearts and lives.  Our labors are thus the fruit of His labors, and of our chosen determination to trust and submit ourselves to our Lord's Person, promises, and power.

"This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

(I John 5:3-5)

Weekly Memory Verse 

     He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

(I John 5:12)

 

The Saturday Series - 30 - "With the Current, Or Against It'

(Friends:  Most Saturdays for the duration of this year, I plan on sharing a message that relates to the character and nature of God, and our response thereunto.  I hope you will find it helpful, and as always, thanks for allowing us to send the devotionals to you.  Glen).

The Saturday Series - 30

"With the Current, Or Against It"       

    

   

   

    Every atom, angel, and human being in God's creation serves "the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Ephesians 3:11).

   This presents a fascinating contemplation when we consider the curse placed on creation by the Lord after Adam's sin, along with the fact that many angels and all human beings have rebelled against Him by the misuse of their God-given freedom.  How can fallen things and beings be said to serve God's purposes?  The overall answer lies in His working of "all things after the counsel of His own will" (Ephesians 1:11).  While not forcing either obedience and disobedience on angels and humans, the Lord is prepared to use either contingency as agents in His ultimate intentions.  Moreover, the imperfect creation that "groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" fits into the fulfillment of those intentions (Romans 8:22).  As the Psalmist declared of sin's impact on the physical creation, "Fire, and hail; snow, and vapor; stormy wind fulfilling His word" (Psalm 148:8).  The upshot is simply that God is wise enough, powerful enough, involved enough, and loving enough to utilize everybody and everything for the purpose of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ and redeeming fallen creation unto holy perfection.

    In human terms, the issue lies in whether we will serve as bright lights of Christ by trusting and submitting ourselves to the will of God.  If we do, our experience of serving as willing components of God's purpose will lead to His pleasure, and to our own peace as we flow with the current of Christ's glory.  If we do not, the Lord will still fit us into His working, perhaps by using our darkness as backdrop for Light.  "There must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you" (I Corinthians 11:19).  He may also use the wicked as a means of chastening His children.  Or His revelation of wrath against sin and those who practice it without repentance can serve to display the purity of God's character, the desperate wickedness of unrighteousness, and our great need for spiritual and moral redemption through Christ.  Whichever path we travel, whether in faith or unbelief, our Father will use our journey in light or darkness to reveal and fulfill His ongoing purpose.  We will serve Him, whether by the blessedness of faith and faithfulness, or the sad experience of swimming against the current and thus revealing the wicked insanity thereof.

   One cannot exist in God's creation without serving His ultimate purposes.  With the current?  Or against it?  The Ocean inexorably flows toward the glory of Christ and His restitution and redemption of believers and the physical universe.  We can either joyfully swim with it, or miserably against it.  Either way we will swim, and the current will carry us in the flow of fulfillment, God's fulfillment of His eternal purpose in Christ Jesus.

"O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!  For who hath known the mind of the Lord?  Or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory forever. Amen."

(Romans 11:33-36)

Weekly Memory Verse 

    Wherefore 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.

(Hebrews 2:17)

   

  

"Consider Him"

"Consider Him"  

    

   "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things" (Philippians 4:8).

   

   Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ involves much thinking, as in the Apostle Paul's calling that we exercise our minds to things of truth, honesty, justice, purity, loveliness, good reputation, virtue, and praiseworthiness.  Certainly this begins with our pondering God, who is Himself the essence of all these wonderful qualities of character and its expression.  

    "I am… the Truth" (John 14:6).

    "The LORD is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all His works" (Psalm 145:17).

    "Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy throne" (Psalm 89:14).

    "The words of the LORD are pure words" (Psalm 12:6).

    "He is altogether lovely" (Song of Solomon 5:16).

    "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8:9).

    "The Lord is good" (Psalm 100:5).

    "I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness" (Psalm 7:17).

     Our minds exist first and foremost to think of their Maker.  While we must use our thinking capacities for many reasons, none compare with pondering God's nature, character, way, and working in all things.  Indeed, if we do not regularly and consistently engage our minds in the Bible's revelation of God, we can be sure that we are not thinking as well as we could about every other matter of our lives.  "Consider Him" commands the writer of Hebrews, who also promises that such thinking will keep us from being "wearied and faint in your minds" (Hebrews 12:3).

    Reading our Bibles leads us to think of Him.  Prayer directs our attention to Him.  Fellowship with other believers aids our remembrance of Him.  Realizing the primary, God-centered nature of our ability to think prepares us to use our minds for their intended purpose.  We can be sure that the Holy Spirit ever moves upon the waters of our minds, seeking to make a way in the waves for God's light to shine upon and within our thoughts.  We must respond, and thus "think on these things" by thinking about the Maker of all things.  As the old saying goes, "a mind is a terrible thing to waste."   It is a beautiful thing, however, to direct toward the Lord so worthy of our rapt attention...

"How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God!  How great is the sum of them!"

(Psalm 139:17)

Weekly Memory Verse 

  Wherefore 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.

(Hebrews 2:17)