"For the Sake of Love"

    The Apostle Paul wrote that knowledge, accumulated for its own sake, "puffeth up" (I Corinthians 8:1).  That is, it inflates with self-gratifying air rather than Christ-exalting spiritual substance.  

    By this, Paul did not mean to encourage the closing or stilling of our minds to truth, but rather to ensure that we establish the proper motive for seeking to know and to understand.  Love alone provides this reason, the love of God, love for God, and love for others as the holy result of mutual devotion between the Lord and ourselves.

    "Though I… understand all mysteries and all knowledge… and have not charity (love), I am nothing" (I Corinthians 13:2).

    God calls born again believers in the Lord Jesus to think.  We do not have to be brilliant or even smart.  We must, however, consistently engage our minds in order to love, trust, and obey our Lord, and then to communicate Him to others.  "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God… with all thy mind" (Matthew 22:37).  We do so as a matter of heart first, and then of mind.  God Himself ponders and meditates accordingly - "The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations" (Psalm 33:1; emphasis added).  We think, we seek knowledge, and we gain understanding for the sake of love.  This is substance, that is, the reality of the Lord Jesus and His truth whereby active minds flow from active hearts, His heart and our own.

"I remember the days of old; I meditate on all Thy works, I muse on the work of Thy hands."

(Psalm 143:5)

Weekly Memory Verse

    When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?

(Psalm 8:3-4)

”The One Who Can Fix Us"

    The One who made us is the One who can fix us.

    "It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves… It was Jesus which made him whole" (Psalm 100:3; John 5:15).

   We're all in need of repair, aren't we?  Long ago in Eden, Adam's choice to disbelieve and disobey God led to spiritual and moral disrepair in his life and in the human race that sprang forth from him.  Moreover, we've all made a mess of things ourselves, like sheep gone astray down paths of destruction (Isaiah 53:6).  We try to fix our own hearts and lives, leading to great failure and frustration until finally someone tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ is a redeemer of things lost, a restorer of things broken.  It is He who makes us whole, and He alone can continue the ongoing repair and redemption of those who trust and submit themselves to Him.

    "Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:6).

    Thankfully, our Creator and Redeemer finishes what He starts.  He fixes that which we broke as we look to the One who perfectly knows the inner and outer components of our being.  Our role involves the humble and trusting recognition of such grace, and the determination to remain close in heart to the only hope of our hearts.  At the end of our lives and throughout eternity, the anthem will ring when our story is told: "It was Jesus which made him whole."  It is Jesus presently making us whole, and the work in progress we are redounds to His glory.  Let us therefore bring our remaining brokenness to Him, seeking and expecting grace as we seek and expect the change God purposes to effect in us.  We shall not be disappointed, and one day the work in progress shall be completed as our Father completes His purpose of conforming us to the image of His Son…

"He restoreth my soul."

(Psalm 23:3)

"I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor anything taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before Him."

(Ecclesiastes 3:14)

Weekly Memory Verse

    When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?

(Psalm 8:3-4)

"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).

    It is more than possible to believe in a "Jesus" who bears little or no resemblance to the glorious person declared by the Bible.  In his second epistle to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks of those who preach "another Jesus" (II Corinthians 11:4).  Thus, we must determine to know the true and living Lord Jesus Christ in the terms He set forth - "as the Scripture hath said."  As we do, our innermost being becomes a reservoir and subsequently a fountain of flowing spiritual life for others.  Conversely, if the Christ we know bears little or no resemblance to the Biblical Lord of Heaven, we will misrepresent Him to our world.

   This presents the ongoing challenge: are we thinking rightly - Biblically - about the Lord Jesus and His involved presence in our lives?  No Christian is beyond 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 His person and work.  Who is Christ?  What has He done for His Father's glory and our benefit?  What is He doing?  And what will He be doing forevermore?  To the degree we walk in truth regarding these great questions of our existence will be the degree to which we possess the capacity to serve as the tributary for living waters to gush forth in abundance to our needy sphere of influence.  The fish in our little pond, as it were, must see the Lord Jesus exemplified in our attitudes, demeanor, actions, and relationships.  When opportunity arises to speak of Him, we must be ready to confess Christ as He truly is, again, "as the Scripture hath said."  Such outpouring of life, deed, and word begins with our determination to trust the living Word of God in accordance with the written Word of God.  "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).

    No aspiration of life compares with the holy purpose of knowing the Lord Jesus.  Our hearts, minds, and being were made 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 make the claim of absolute perfection in our understanding of the Savior.  Thus, we set forth in this day and forevermore in the holy pursuit of discovery.  As David declared, "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 do well to join our brother of old, and in the completed Bible he did not possess, we have far more means to behold and inquire of Christ as the Scripture hath said...

"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

    When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained; What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, and the son of man, that Thou visitest him?

(Psalm 8:3-4)

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