Happy Old Year…

 

Last night a friend came for dinner and we swapped God stories for several hours. It was more than incredible fellowship as we also worshiped together in the wonder of the way the Lord works and how He hears and answers prayer, even those just thought rather than verbalized.

In every instance, we shared the power and love of God, even in the darkest of our experiences, the losses of loved ones, the disappointments and concerns. We could do this because the Lord has shown us the truth of this passage from the New Testament:

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35–39)

What a great way to end the year — remembering the stories and worshiping the Lord for His never-ending love. And what a great way to begin the year, knowing that whether we experience trouble, or distress, even persecution, or famine or any such thing including having nothing, or being in danger, the love of God will not only be with us but give us victory in all things.

This is not about winning, beating down our opponents or enemies, or having lots of money or good health or worldly success of any kind. It is about knowing God’s love and experiencing it in the midst of whatever happens — to the point that His joy will override the negatives that we may experience.

PRAY: Ending a year is always a time to reflect. Jesus, I am thrilled to be able to reflect on the things You do that have changed our lives, even the difficulties and painful events You used for good. Even more is that You often allow us to see the wonder of Your wisdom and grace in all of it. We are thankful for the positives, but also learning to be thankful for what most people would call the negatives because Your grace is consistent in both and in teaching us that no matter what, we can trust You totally. Thank You for 2024 and for the hopes and blessings in the years to come!

The results of hearing God

 

A few weeks ago a woman came a bit late to our church and took a seat on the end of the row in front of us. The congregation was singing, but she was sobbing uncontrollably. To my eye, she appeared devastated by loss and overwhelmed by sorrow. The Lord prompted me to step forward and go to her. As I put my arm around her, she leaned into me and continued to sob. She only said one thing: “He is so beautiful.”

I had no idea who or what she was talking about. A lost child? A broken relationship? Bad news of some sort? As the song neared the end, she settled and nodded when I asked if she was okay. I returned to my seat. After the service, we invited her to sit with us at brunch (a weekly event at our church) and she told us that her tears came when she realized the beauty of Jesus and was overwhelmed with joy.

This reason never entered my mind, yet now I understand the transparency of her response. As today’s reading says, to some the revealing of the Lord comes as a mighty and overwhelming power, yet to others He comes as the tender and gentle presence of love. Either way, He always makes His presence manifest and real to those who experience it. Jesus described it and the certainty of this wonderful gift, even though many would be too self-conscious to allow this revelation to affect them so deeply in a public place full of strangers. But as He said…

In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. (John 14:20)

I was deeply impressed by this woman and her response to meeting Jesus. It was not the first time. She told us of her faith and how God revealed Himself and His will to her. Today’s devotional says we may have believed certain things before because God says it in the Scriptures, but when He gives it to us with the testimony of an inward consciousness, it becomes ours — totally unassailable by any form of questioning or doubt.

Our son told us that God was revealing much to him about the source and extent of evil in this world. He added, “I couldn’t see it before, but now I do and sometimes I wish I could un-see it.” In other words, when what God says is heard, it sticks. Not that we don’t have lapses. Our spiritual enemies (principalities and powers in heavenly places) make many efforts to rip truth from our minds and plunge us into darkness, yet that light from the Lord cannot be extinguished.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1–5)

In the OT stories, the Israelis believed the Lord was in their midst during their wanderings and in their years of bondage, even when no sign of His presence was seen among them. After they settled and Solomon built the temple, Solomon prayed: “But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!” (2 Chronicles 6:18)

I can relate to Solomon’s prayer: How can God be in my life? Yet “As soon as Solomon finished his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple.” (2 Chronicles 7:1) At once, without the need of any command from Solomon, the people bowed themselves with their faces to the ground and worshiped and praised the Lord. In the midst of whatever happened, they knew He never abandoned them.

PRAY: Lord, Solomon’s prayers and requests affirmed faith and You answer me just as You answered Solomon, “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.” (2 Chronicles 7:12) The sacrifice part is as real as the understanding that You are with me, even when all seems dark. If I did not know your presence, I would fight or flee the discomfort and pain sacrifices bring. However, hearing You makes a difference. Your voice helps me accept that Your plan involves death to self and giving up my desires. Your voice also reveals Your plans. Not only that, when I hear You, I know You are standing very close to me!

Hearing God Speak…

 

Years ago two cult members came to my door. They were interested in what I believed, but they insisted that someone must have taught it to me. When I told them that I learned about God by reading His Word and by the things He revealed to me, they insisted all that I knew must have came by teaching from someone else. Eventually I realized that this was the only way of learning that they knew; a revelation directly from God by the Holy Spirit and through what the Bible says was foreign to them.

Faith is an important part of how everyone lives in ordinary life, not only in spiritual matters. If I believe something, I act upon it in little matters like turning on the lights or running water into the sink. Because I believe my children are capable of doing many things, I don’t worry about them all the time. Because faith tells me the sun will come up in the morning, I’m not looking for a flashlight to get me through the day. All sciences and activities are based on faith also. Those engaged in anything must believe something about it or they would not do it.

I read this morning that God made us like that. However, in matters related to faith in Him, it isn’t about some idea or proof or evidence that I come up with, or that someone else teaches me. This does not negate Christian teaching, but if that is the only ground for faith in God, then I could change my mind if something else is more appealing to me.

The nature of true faith depends on God revealing it and giving me the ability to believe what God says, not the content of what He says so much as that fact of who is saying it. When God speaks to me through His Word and His Spirit, and I hear it, I cannot deny it. That is faith.

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!” But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:15–17)

However, the Bible is clear — merely hearing the Gospel does not automatically result in saving faith; I must hear God speaking in whatever form that hearing happens, either in reading His Word, or hearing it preached, or when someone says His truth and God uses it to speak to me. It is the Word of Christ that produces faith, not the words by themselves.

My experience verifies this, even though it needs no such proof. After many years of daily Bible reading without understanding it, I was reading a non-Christian book and God spoke to me through a verse of Scripture quoted in that book. This time, I heard God and faith happened. In that instance, He changed my life to one of faith in Him instead of trusting myself or my own judgment.

Lately I’ve noticed that many who call themselves Christian have not really heard God. They have had much Christian teaching, but like the cult members who came to my door, hearing it from others, even if what others say is true (not so in the cults). That alone does not create belief in what they say. To have genuine saving faith means hearing the Lord speak. When that happens, so does obedience and a change of life.

Merely hearing it from a human source without the voice of God may produce a form of believing, but it does not change lives nor does it last. The idea of “I must be good enough” remains, the idea of “I need to earn it” remains and motivates.

Once I asked a different member of that same cult mentioned above to read this aloud to me:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

Then I asked her how a person is saved according to what those verses say, and she replied, “By doing good works.” She did not hear God speak nor even understood the words and remained in spiritual darkness.

PRAY: Lord, I know too many who never hear You or expose themselves to hearing You. Some of them go to church and will say, “Oh what a good speaker” about the sermon and yet their lives are not changed. I know that it is possible to shut my mind and at times put faith in myself. I need You to speak to me, even now as a saved person. My heart aches for those who think they must earn salvation and for those who are not at all interested. Speak, Lord. We all need to hear You.

 

Living by Faith

One OT prophet asked God something that I’ve asked, as do many others. We watch the news on Saturday and hear of atrocities and realize some of the victims are God’s people. Then we go to church on Sunday and hear about the goodness of God and wonder the same question the prophet asked:

You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong, why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he? (Habakkuk 1:13)

What is God doing when evil people abuse, persecute, and even slaughter His people? Habakkuk asked and explained his dismay then said, “I will take my stand at my watch post and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.” (Habakkuk 2:1)

Habakkuk wrote about 640–615 b.c., just before the fall of Assyria and the rise of Babylon. God used Assyria to punish Israel and was about to use Babylon to punish Assyria and Judah. When this prophet understood that would happen, he was upset, yet he wisely waited on God for the answer. God did not have to tell him, but He gave an answer that is familiar to believers. It was repeated three times in the NT, each in a different context, but it fits everyone who has been justified by faith:

Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him, but the righteous shall live by his faith. (Habakkuk 2:4)
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17)
Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Galatians 3:11)
But my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” (Hebrews 10:38)

I was given eternal life by faith, justified by faith, and of course must live by faith. This means ceasing from my own works and yielding to Jesus Christ who works in me to do what He wills for my life.

Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6–7)

I received Him by faith and not my own effort or claiming any worth or works, totally trusting Him. And so must I live, even when my sovereign Savior does things that I do not understand or expect.

In the past few weeks I’m hearing God say many things about His power to use evil for good. He even used all Satan’s plans to fulfill His Redemption plan. His power overrides all evil and uses (and even plans) calamity for His purposes… always because of His great love for people and His opposition to evil. In this, I must trust Him. Walk by faith, even though I cannot see or understand. Just trust Him. Endure in faith. Be filled with His Spirit and rejoice that He is in control and that He wisely knows what He is doing.

His wisdom, power, and righteousness are all engaged for His people. I trust Him for eternal life and must have that same trust when He takes any believer out of this world, no matter the method. We have an eternal hope. So did Habakkuk, and this is why God could tell him to walk by faith. He could do it because he was made just before God by faith.

PRAY: Jesus, I know that walking by faith is for those who have been saved from sin by faith. Trusting God when I watch the news would be impossible without the faith You granted me at salvation. Denying what my flesh tends to want (proof) or believe (only what I see) yet faith enables me to be dead to that and alive to trusting You in this messed up world. You remain on the throne and remain the One to trust no matter what is going on around me. I’m so grateful for the gift of faith.

Evil is not unlimited...

The devil was told in Genesis that he was going to lose. He knew a Messiah would come, and had the idea that if he could kill Him, he would not be a loser. So he tempted the Jews to crucify the Son of God, but this had a contrary success to when he tempted Adam to eat of the tree. The first death he brought upon Adam ruined us, and the death he brought upon the second Adam, restored us. The first tree had a part in his triumph over the world. The second tree, or actually the ‘fruit’ hanging upon it, destroyed his power over us.

Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, (Jesus) Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, (Hebrews 2:14, NASB)

This enemy of God and man ruined his own kingdom while he attempted to confirm and enlarge it. He was defeated by his own plan that he thought would keep humanity under his chains, and deprive the Creator of His glory. What deeper plan could he have for his own security than to destroy the man who was God and bring this Redeemer to disgrace on a criminal’s cross?

However, the wisdom of God shone in the methods of Satan, even above this enemy’s suspicions. He did not imagine that we should be healed and purified by shed blood, made alive by death, crowned by a cross, advanced to the highest honor by the lowest humility, comforted by sorrows, glorified by disgrace, absolved by condemnation, and made rich by poverty.

Just as the sweetest honey came out of a dead lion, so also came the sweetest grace out of  the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and out of the heart of the living God. In wisdom, the Seed of the woman Eve was born to a virgin, brought forth in a stable, spent his days without any pomp and splendor, grew up in a carpenters shop with carpenter’s tools, then exposed to a horrible and disgraceful death — and He was the One who could pull down the gates of hell, subvert the kingdom of the devil, and be the hammer to break in pieces that power, which this enemy had so long exercised over the world! Jesus became the author of our life by being bound for a while in the chains of death, defeating the most malicious power by being a prisoner for us and the target of his rage and fury.

Thus is the wisdom of God seen in giving us ground to the surest confidence, and furnishing us with incentives to the greatest obedience, by the horrors of wrath, death and suffering of our Savior.

God is the sovereign cause of all. We remain empty and completely dependent on Him. Sin is defeated by faith in the One who defeated sin. As fallen sinners, our joy and life remain in His hands. We experience goodness by His grace and happiness in our emptiness because we now have His Spirit to fill us with all that we can hold of Him who died for us.

The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. (Isaiah 2:11)
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5)

These thoughts give me confidence that God is still wisely using the worst that the devil can come up with for His purposes. He defeated this enemy using the enemy’s own devices to destroy him. The daily news is only about those visible devices, but one day the headlines will declare the our Lord God has totally triumphed over evil.

PRAY: Jesus, these thoughts motivate me to pray with confidence that You are busy using all things for good on behalf of those who love You — that we might be transformed even further into Your likeness and that we “may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom we also shine as lights in the world.” (Philippians 2:15) I am awed by Your wisdom and power and excited to see it unfold.

Two marvels in one action...

 

Multitasker's really are not. We switch from one to the other but humanly only do one thing at a time. Not God. In redemption’s great climax at Calvary, He not only made clear two contrary affections at the same time and in one act, but dealt with both. Charnock writes of this and fills my heart with worship.

At the Cross, God manifests great hatred of sin, and the great love to the sinner by punishing the sin without ruining the sinner, and repairing the ruins of the sinner without indulging the sin. God shows His eternal love and eternal hatred by condemning sin to what it deserved, and advancing sinners to what we could not expect.

He showed His hatred of sin in other ways: in punishing the devil without remedy; sentencing humanity to an expulsion from paradise, yet ultimately pouring out His wrath on His Son. In condemning Jesus to a horrible death, He was a spectator who was “satisfied” by that horrible scene.

God put on His Son the pain we deserved that we might be restored to the place we had forfeited. He hates the sin so as to condemn it forever, and loves the sinner who believes and repents granting us joy and eternal life. He is at eternal defiance with sin, yet nearer in alliance with the sinner than he was before sin happened, almost as if our rebellion endeared us to Him. These verses sum it up:

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. (Ephesians 1:7–12)

God, in great wisdom, twisted together the happy restoration of our broken relationship with an everlasting curse upon sin which caused the breach. Satan who seduced the sin fell also in this great plan of redemption. Hatred and love manifested together — hate for sin in the death of Christ, and love to sinners. This is the wisdom of God: Redemption that defeats sin and recovers the sinner.

 Christmas has become a gift-giving and gift-receiving event, eating too much and, for many, not a very happy time. The plan of God is sometimes celebrated in token, sometimes in deep reverence, but mostly not at all. Even so, we sense the wonder even if we do not understand what it is or why.

PRAY: Lord Jesus, I’ve sung “little Lord Jesus” but You are anything but little in my mind and heart. You agreed to the Father’s wisdom and in the power of the Spirit and the reality of Your love to do His will, You arrived, lived, died, and then rose again to redeem and deliver us from sin. What a wonder You are, and the best gift that could be given — and received.

The Perfect Gift

 

Last night’s Christmas Eve Service brought words like, “This was perfect.” I saw a young child and thought how perfect he looked. We bought some goodies yesterday that we thought were perfect. Obviously, God’s work and law are perfect as He is perfect. However, the definition of perfect can vary depending on who is defining it.

In Scripture this word “perfect” is used for all sort of things, including buildings. Each verse that uses the word must be considered in its context and how it aligns with other Scripture. The idea of perfection cannot contradict other passages. Those who study original languages say this:

perfect — adjective. being complete of its kind and without defect or blemish.
to perfect — verb. to make complete of its kind and without defect or blemish.
to be perfected — verb. to be or become in a perfect or consummate state with respect to a specific attribute.
perfection — noun. the state of being complete and without defect or blemish.
complete — adjective. perfect and complete in every respect; having all necessary qualities.
perfect thing — noun. anything that is without flaw or defect.
perfecter — noun. a person who brings something to completion without defect or blemish.
perfection — noun. the act of making something complete and without defect or blemish.
perfection — noun. an ideal instance; a perfect embodiment of a concept.

The New Testament depicts perfection or completion in terms of maturity or being fully grown into the design that God has for humanity. This means to be in the image and likeness of Christ, a designation only for those who are “in Christ” and part of His forever family.

The NT speaks of imparting wisdom to the mature: “Yet among the mature (perfected) we do impart wisdom…” (1 Corinthians 2:6) and it tells of power made perfect in weakness: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” ((2 Corinthians 12:9) Both verses strongly say that perfection is not being without a need for wisdom and having weaknesses. 

Paul, who seem to be the epitome of a complete and totally devoted believer, also said of himself: “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” (Philippians 3:12). He knew he was not yet perfect.

James calls for believers to “be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:4) and other NT writers proclaim that we find perfection and completeness not in our own efforts, but “in Christ” who “by a single offering … perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.” (Hebrews 10:14).

In other words, perfection is a goal but it is not obtained by my efforts nor will it show up in this life as a goal reached.

The Galatians tried and Paul told them: “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3) John encourages his readers with:

Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. (1 John 3:2–3)

From these verses and many more, I get the message that Christ is my perfection, that He is using all things to conform me to His image so that I think, talk, and live as He did, but I will not reach that level of completion until I see Him as He is. Further, no one can claim perfection in themselves for this is a gift from God. Jesus is not only the founder and perfecter of our faith, but abides in us to perfect our love for one another, and give us all that He is so we can glorify Him.

Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. (James 1:16–18)

PRAY: Every good and perfect gift arrived as a Baby — and today we celebrate Your birth and rejoice in God’s gift to us — Your perfections are mine, now and forever. Today my weaknesses and flaws remain, even as Your perfections work to transform me. Needless to say, any maturity that shows up is still a gift from You and not my doing. For the gift of You, I am so grateful!

The Plan Revealed

Does anyone noticing the wonder of Christmas know where this sense of wonder comes from? Do we understand the power of the Holy Spirit who puts hearts at rest, fills us with generosity, gives us this unusual joy that begins a few weeks earlier than the day? Do we know why our hearts are more deeply grieved at the losses of loved ones now more than ever? What is it about Christmas that brings out emotions, makes us smile at excited children, or even produces a ‘bah, humbug’ in attempts to avoid the delight of it?

I know Christmas is challenging for some. Those with limited budget, or no faith, or another faith, or the loss of dear ones, yet there is this thing in the air. Some call it the spirit of the season, or related to the delights of giving and receiving, but could it be that this is the Spirit of God reminding us that love came down? That He did not want heaven without us? That we, sinful and proud of our own goodness really know nothing about goodness until that Baby was born?

The reality of Christmas is that God loves us, yet He cannot welcome us to Himself because of our sin. Sin separates. It separates relationships, married people, fathers from their children, but most seriously, us from our Creator. What is He to do about that? Christmas is the beginning of a plan created long before humanity appeared:

He (Jesus) was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you (1 Peter 1:20)

While the Jews who knew the promise did not expect a baby, nevertheless that was how the plan unfolded, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.” (Ephesians 1:4)

Redemption’s blueprint was drafted in love: “This is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” (1 John 4:10) His plan to deal with sin removed the barrier for all who respond to this Babe who grew to manhood, and who calls as the Father sends: “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out.” (John 6:37)

And for those who are called and who come, their lives are changed forever, and this is part of the wonder. The power of God, even is hinted to those at Christmas who know nothing or very little about the child born in a manger. For those who do, the Bible says:

And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:30–31)

And because of this, I see and feel the wonder this day, and most all other days...

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Romans 11:33)

PRAY: Lord, for many this season is only about gifts and glitter, a mad rush to measure up to the expectations of others — real or imagined. It can bring headaches too, and sad memories, pressures and no joy at all. For those who hurt or even hate this time of year, I pray that they will discover the plan of God that started before the world began, and was made known beginning with a baby in a wooden straw-filled manger who eventually cried “It is finished” from a blood-stained wooden cross.

Distracted by a non-issue

God graciously explains the struggles of last week. He reveals that I was concerned about a “what if?” instead of something that was actually happening. The distraction was: “If you do all that God says, the enemy will constantly attack and you will be in a joy-destroying battle until the end of your days. To avoid such misery, you need to choose what you will do.”

This reminds me of a friend who wanted to go to the mission field with the caveat that where she was sent didn’t have a lot of big insects and other crawling critters. She soon learned that loving others meant dropping personal preferences!

Yesterday’s sermon was about cultivating love. The application: 1. Cultivate community…reach out to lonely people, go bless someone else. 2. Practice generosity. It is always a greater joy to give than receive. Besides, generosity is an act of worship. 3. Contemplate God’s love and be driven to gratitude. (There is even an app to help that!) Remember why I am here.

This made me think about my anxiety and realize I was supposing and fearful rather than facing any issues in faith. God was not asking me to do something difficult or make a great sacrifice, nor was the devil trying to stop me from any direct command. Fighting an imaginary war is like a nightmare; not real but still feels as if it is — for a shot time.

Today’s readings describes the wisdom of God in making Jesus our Mediator. He is fully God and fully man, not distant from either, near to both in nature, possessing all of both except without sin.

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Hebrews 4:15–16)

Jesus had a nature to be compassionate to us and victorious for us, to pity us and be patient to bear with us. If he had been only God, he would not have had an experimental sense of our misery; and if he had been only man, he could not have vanquished our enemies; had he been only God, he could not have died; and had he been only man, he could not have conquered death.

The justice of the law had been honored by man’s sufferings, but in Christ the holiness and equity of the law had been honored by man’s obedience. Charnock writes that the life of our Savior is a conformity to the precept, and his death is a conformity to the penalty. The transgression of the law was condemned in the flesh of the Redeemer, and the righteousness of the law was fulfilled in His person, and imputed to the believing sinner.

For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. (Romans 5:19)
For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3–4)

As he died for us, and rose again for us, so he lives for us. His work is finished and now I can rest in it and not worry about anything. Worry is pride in action. That is why God says…

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:6–7)

Today’s devotional says that our anxieties refer to “distraction of mind” but God’s care signifies “fixation of mind.” This speaks to me and my ADHD, mild as it is but a target for the enemy! He uses it on me far too often. However, this verse helps…

You keep (her) in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because (she) trusts in you. (Isaiah 26:3)

PRAY: Jesus, this experience was something like a vivid bad dream, so vivid that it seems real after waking up and requires strong self-talk to quiet the emotions. The enemy hits my mind like that, producing vivid emotions. He hits my body too, but You are in my mind and have given me the will and a stronger desire to love and serve You. The cost of obedience cannot destroy any of my new life. It simply points to the reality that I belong to You and am Your child, and even my body is in Your total care and protection. Not my will but Thine be done.

Jesus can untie the knots

This past couple of weeks I’ve had a knot in my stomach. It comes from reading how God will use those who determine not to listen to the demands of the old nature with its desires for comfort and protection. While my husband says “most people will not die healthy” that isn’t taken lightly. I know what happens when I obey God. The devil does not like it and tries to stop me, usually along the lines of being too tired to function.

This morning’s devotional was about the power of Jesus to satisfy our desires to be godly people right to the end. The writer used verses like these promises:

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. (John 6:35)
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (Matthew 5:6)

Then added, “Our hunger and our thirst are all satisfied forever in Him.” Of course He keeps these promises, yet He also says,

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (John 20:21)
“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16)

My reading about praying Scripture and sticking with God’s commands tells me that all history shows that most who do persist make incredible sacrifices in the process. The enemy does not like that sort of commitment and works to put a stop to it by appealing to the human (and often sinful) desire for comfort. It sounds something like this: “Send me God, but not there…”

Age is also a factor. God has treated me well. I call myself His spoiled brat. Now I’m hearing that if I persist in obedience, that could change. I think of this prayer:

O God, from my youth you have taught me, and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds. So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, do not forsake me, until I proclaim your might to another generation, your power to all those to come. Your righteousness, O God, reaches the high heavens. You who have done great things, O God, who is like you? You who have made me see many troubles and calamities will revive me again; from the depths of the earth you will bring me up again. You will increase my greatness and comfort me again. (Psalm 71:17–21)

Will He? I clicked on the cross reference and got this answer…

“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save. (Isaiah 46:3–4)

The knots persist, so that leaves me to confess my doubts and fears, to decide what to believe; the fears that put them there or the promise of God to carry me through whatever might be in my future, including all those knots.

PRAY: I will not fake this, Jesus. I’m not excited about the howl of wolves, especially knowing the nature of this sheep. I hear You saying something like “no matter what” and am not there yet. However, the message for today at our church contains this verse: “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19) and You know what I need to get those knots untied.

LATER: Hear what I heard this morning. Knots are on the way out.

Spiritual War

 

Last night I dreamed about a huge gathering of people to honor soldiers. These were not ordinary military but those in the song, “Onward Christian soldiers, marching on to war…” the members of God’s family who had been actively resisting sin and the enemy of our souls. In the dream I was aged enough to be an observer who prayed rather than being part of the army whose fight involved more than prayer. Today I’m thinking how apt for the NT writers to liken Christian life to that of a soldier.

First we are enlisted by the Holy Spirit to join up. Some think we volunteer and offer ourselves, but if that is so, it is only because the Spirit has been calling and the ability to respond was His doing.

Once in His army, we may have stereotypes about how to live as a soldier, but mainly no clue how a genuine soldier is supposed to behave. Status wise, we are soldiers, but in experience we need to be trained, put through bootcamp before we really know much about it. Not only that, learning comes at different rates and with different ‘lessons’ depending on each person’s background and former habits. Unlike a military army, our Commanding Officer takes this into consideration. He does not insist that everyone looks and acts the same. We progress according to individual mentoring as He knows best.

Yet we do progress. Each one IS a soldier, no matter if one marches out of step or another salutes with the wrong hand. Our identity in the army of God is the same — we belong to Jesus no matter how much we know about how to act or even how to go to battle. One thing is certain:

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)

Sometimes a military person goes AWOL or drops out, or gets put out, but this is not true of God’s army. OT and NT believers are spoken of as God’s people who endure in faith and persist in obedience. Some “who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.” (Hebrews 11:33–34) And “No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.” (2 Timothy 2:4)

As I read books like “Born for Battle” and “Praying the Bible” God impresses on me the hard work of being in His army is not physical service (as hard as it can be) but prayer. After times of fervent prayer, I can feel as exhausted as if I had spent the day tending to the needs of those who have nothing. The “foreign armies” are not other belief systems or anti-God people but:

“We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

It is little wonder that the rest of Ephesians tells of the armor needed to fight this fight. If my head and heart are not protected by true thoughts, or if I’m not clothed in truth or using the Word of God which is my sword, I will experience no words to say, no perseverance in saying them in prayer or to others, and even no prayer at all. The enemy knows how to distract and disarm me, how to discourage and sidetrack me, even how to make me feel so tired that I’d rather sleep than do anything else, including battle him in prayer.

PRAY: Jesus, after years of civilian pursuits and trying to please myself or other people, You are putting my focus on my duties as Your soldier. Actually that dream was not quite the same as reality in Your army. Those who pray on the sidelines are warriors too, perhaps even in a greater sense than those more visible in ministry that involve physical effort in all sorts of serving. Right now, all I want is to be faithful in whatever You give me to do, not only in marching on to war, but making certain that Your cross and Your words go before to lead me, and that I am praising You and causing hell’s foundations to quiver. In this battle, the devil flees, and Your people are victorious and totally effective in defeating his lies and making You known. Amen!

Who is this Babe in a manger?

 

Can anyone adequately describe God? Or the Son of God who is the Word made flesh? Or the Holy Spirit who impresses truth in our hearts? Charnock tries, first by what the Bible says about their roles. All three had a role in creation. The Father is the lawgiver who presented His holiness to humanity and the way to our happiness. However, the fall into sin made us impotent to obey His law or experience the joy of union with Him. Redemption became necessary that humanity could be recovered. Jesus was given the task, but because humanity was blinded by sin and had turned to our own way, enlightenment was needed to change that condition. This work is assigned to the Holy Spirit.

In brief, the Father sends, and the Son is sent because God cannot properly send himself, so the Son acts, and the Holy Spirit applies it by purifying our souls to understand, believe, and love these mysteries. It is the wisdom of God to prepare and present these truths, then impress them on those He chooses.

As to the deity of Jesus Christ, God wisely “unites finite and infinite, almightiness and weakness, immortality and mortality, immutability, with a creature subject to change; to have a nature from eternity, and yet a nature subject to the revolutions of time; a nature to make a law, and a nature to be subjected to the law; to be God blessed forever, in the bosom of his Father, and an infant exposed to calamities from the womb of his mother — terms seeming most distant from union, most incapable of conjunction, to shake hands together, to be most intimately conjoined; glory and vileness, fulness and emptiness, heaven and earth; the creature with the Creator; he that made all things, in one person with a nature that is made; Immanuel, God, and man in one; that which is most spiritual to partake of that which is carnal flesh and blood; one with the Father in his Godhead, one with us in his manhood; the Godhead to be in him in the fullest perfection, and the manhood in the greatest purity; the creature one with the Creator, and the Creator one with the creature. Thus is the incomprehensible wisdom of God declared in the ‘Word being made flesh.’ ”

As Charnock says, this union of two natures in Christ is incomprehensible: and it is a mystery we cannot fully fathom. How can the Son who is the same nature as the Father and the Holy Spirit be united to human nature, without its being said that the Father and the Holy Ghost were made flesh? The Scripture speaks only of the Word being made flesh, and that He is “the only begotten of the Father.”

As the Bible affirms, deity is not changed into flesh, nor flesh transformed into God: they are distinct and yet united, conjoined and yet unmixed. It is impossible that the majesty of God can be altered or the “meanness of humanity” be changed into deity, yet the Incarnation of Jesus Christ unites the two so that the properties of both remain firm. Two become one person in two natures containing the perfections of the Divine, and the weaknesses of the human.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. (Colossians 2:9)
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14–15)

This Christmas season puts my focus even more on who Jesus is, this babe born in a manger. Reading the above explanations fills my heart with joy. I know that Jesus delivers from the power of sin as well as from the guilt of sin. I’ve learned how trusting Him keeps me from evil and delivers me from temptation. I do not need to rely on my own ideas or efforts for salvation because Christ is able and willing to keep me from falling and will restore me even when I do fall.

PRAY: Jesus, You have cleansed my heart and by grace continue to work through the power of Your Spirit to transform me into the person You intend me to be. I give myself to You because only You can purge me, cleanse me, and sanctify me. Your plan shows both my need and Your incredible ability to  meet that need, to change my heart and delivery me from both the penalty and the power of sin. I look forward to being with You and being delivered from even the presence of sin. You are able and willing and I am joyful.

Put off the dead stuff…

Imagine having a billion dollar bank account, getting statements each month, but not believing it, so you are working hard to keep afloat financially. If that seems silly, imagine having faith in Christ and being dead to sin, reading what God says and still not sure this is true, particularly each time you disobey God. In both cases, inner thoughts do not line up with facts like this:

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. (Colossians 3:1–10)

Key to both issues is what I am listening to? Is it the statements regarding my wealth? Is it the Word of God stating my status? Or am I looking at something else? The above passage asks, “If you have been raised with Christ” — a question puts those who hear it into a dilemma. How do I measure the answer?

I remember one man who claimed to be sinless. He said that salvation was death to sin and since he was saved, he no longer sinned. Anyone who knew him knew otherwise, but this man measured his answer by what he wanted to be true, and that desire blinded him to reality:

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8)

If I have money in the bank and yet insist I am poor and do not rely on that money, I would be like a person who claims to be saved, but is not relying on the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem him. I might be trying hard to redeem myself, or like the man I knew, denying I needed further work and denying there is any sin left to fight. What is true?

Today’s devotional talks about reckoning or considering. The Bible says that because of faith in God’s Word, I have died and my life is hidden with Christ in God. But it also speaks of earthly things in me, things to put off and not rely on or be involved in. I have to live according to what God says, not according to what I think or want.

The error comes by supposing “to live I must first die” or lose my life and find my life hid with God. However, the Bible says I am already dead. I don’t need to die, but to realize what I already am dead to that old life because of what Jesus has done. Reckoning is thinking the truth, not making it happen. When I think the truth, it shows up in the way I live, not the other way around. In other words, I don’t have to make a large income and deposit it in my account because that account is already full, established, there for me to live. Not ignore as if I didn’t have it and had to work hard to get it.

Putting off the old way is realizing the old way is a lie and no longer alive. Instead, I am not spiritual poor but very rich in the resources of my Redeemer!

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Losing the old life is key to discovering the new, but key to losing the old life is realizing and believing it is already lost, dead to God and useless. What I have in Christ is life and truth and reality, not a charge to go get it.

PRAY: Feelings, sinful behavior, any kind of selfishness can mess with truth, and Jesus, that is a big reason You tell me to shed that stuff and live in the joy You give. It happens by loving You and loving others and reckoning truth about me — truth that You proclaim and even put in writing for me to read and rejoice — to believe and obey. Sometimes this is difficult to explain, yet knowing the truth sets me free from that deceptive and useless self-effort.

 

Pray as Jesus prayed

 

The Lord has brought so much to my attention concerning prayer that I’ve been emotional as well as uncertain when I talk to Him. At times, just knowing His presence seems enough. He is sovereignly working out His purposes in this world, even using the evil for good (How can that be?) And hearing every thought, not just those spoken. He has shown me that He reaches people according to each one’s situation and nature, that He knows their hearts and where they are on their spiritual journey. I’m ignorant of all that, unless He reveals it to me. How then do I pray for others?

This morning, God directs me to how Jesus prayed. His prayer is longer, but these verses tell me more about communication with Him:

I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:14–23)

His Word alone is filled with prayer instruction, not only the outline given in what we call “The Lord’s prayer” but the cry of His people is recorded from Genesis to Revelation. My prayer life is not always following those examples or using what the saints of old said to help me with what to say.

Because the world hates Christians, that also is instruction for prayer, not to ask that unsaved people love me, but ask that my life is so filled with the Spirit of God that I fall into that category. I must not let the ideas of the world stop me from prayer or influence the way I pray either.

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17)

 Fleshy desires could include prayers asking for personal comfort, for a new car, for that dress in the store window, for recognition, all sorts of ego boosters. With Jesus in my heart and oneness with Him, I recognize selfish I-wants when they pop up. Godly praying confesses such desires rather than asking God for them.

Sanctified by truth means reading it and praying it. Praying that I be set apart to serve Jesus and tell others about Him is also part of what Jesus asked for me. If I am one with Him, then my priorities in prayer need to fit with His priorities. He wanted the world to believe that God the Father sent God the Son to love them and to die for them. That is a high priority on His prayer list and should be on mine.

He prayed about giving me the glory that God gave Him — so people would know the truth. Praying that I live out that glory and not hide it out of fear because those who see it hate it. I don’t want them to hate me also but it can happen. So I need to pray for boldness and a deep desire to glorify Jesus and not myself.

PRAY: This prayer You prayed is filled with instruction on how to pray. I am not You, but am one with You and what better way to show it than praying for myself and for others as You prayed for us… so I will. Amen.

Justice or mercy — or both?

Loving parents fall into a quandary when they make a rule that requires strict obedience, their child breaks that rule, and the parent feels terrible about inflicting punishment. If there is none, rules will be meaningless. If inflicted, the relationship will likely suffer.

Think of God in Eden. “Do not eat that fruit” and when it happened, the justice of God pleads for punishment, but the mercy of God pleas for pardoning. What is a loving God to do? How does the all-wise God deal with this situation?

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

Jesus died to take our punishment — “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” And the love of God sent Him to satisfy the demands of both justice and mercy. Justice is served by the shedding of His blood without one drop of our own.

As Charnock writes, the riches of grace are twisted with the terrors of wrath and the depth of God’s mercy is wound about the flaming sword of justice and that sword of justice protects and secures the depth of mercy. Because of what Jesus did, justice cannot complain for want of punishment, nor mercy for want of compassion. This infinite sacrifice satisfies justice and delights mercy and shouts out to us the wisdom of God.

How amazing that God is righteous without being cruel, and merciful without being unjust. His mercy shines in the midst of all that sin deserves. Yes, all have sinned and fall short, but we…

…are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. (Romans 3:24–25)

As Charnock points out in his section on the wisdom of God, both justice and mercy would be unknown if one of them been sacrificed for the other. Had we been solely fostered by mercy, justice would have forever been secluded. Had we being guilty and been absolved, mercy might have rejoiced, and justice might have complained; but had we been solely punished, justice would have triumphed, and mercy grieved.

Because of God’s wisdom, justice and mercy are both satisfied. The death of His sinless Son is a horror, but if God went one way or the other, we would face “either an unrighteous mercy, or a merciless justice.” Instead, His love gave us a righteous mercy, and a merciful justice.”

Not only that the wisdom of God comes in a great variety of ways, all mysterious and every example fillsl me with wonder. This list describes His redemption plan and how it brought the glory of God with the salvation of man, the defeat of the apostate angels, the discovery of the blessed Trinity in God’s nature, and all He does in combined and distinct acts and expressions of goodness. Salvation reveals the conjunction of three natures, infinitely distinct from one another; the union of eternity and time, mortality and immortality, and death is made the way to life, with shame becoming the path to glory.

Not only that, the weakness of the cross is the reparation of man, and the creature is made wise by the foolishness of preaching. Fallen man grows rich by the poverty of the Redeemer, and we are filled by the emptiness of God. The heir of hell is made a child of God by God taking upon Himself the “form of a servant” and children of men advanced to the highest degree of honor by the Son of God becoming of “no reputation.”

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. (Hebrews 2:10)

And Jesus in the garden praying with drops of blood and saying: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” (Luke 22:42) Was there no other way? Had the sinless Jesus something else in mind? Likely not, but even if He did, He yielded to death that we might live.

PRAY: I cannot fathom Your wisdom, Lord God, nor question it. You choose the only way to punish sin yet save sinners. My heart rejoices at the great decision You made so I could be set free to love and serve You. Not my will but Yours be done.

 

The nature of saving faith…

Human faith is knowing the lights will turn on when the switch is flipped because we have tried it and proven to our minds that it is true. Human faith is also deciding to believe the salesman because we have done our homework and found that the product he pitches has been tested and approved by 99% of other customers. Human faith is based on evidence.

What about spiritual faith, the faith that gives us a relationship with Jesus Christ and the sure promised of eternity with Him? The Bible says this is different:

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)
By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. (Hebrews 11:8)
By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back. (Hebrews 11:17–19)
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:17)

Human faith requires proof and a decision. However, faith in Christ is a gift from God through hearing Him speak.

However, God also says of those who heard: “But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’ But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, ‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.’ Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, ‘I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.’ But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.’ ” (Romans 10:18–21)

Israel rejected what they heard. Their faith was in themselves rather than in the Lord, and their response to Him was clouded by their DIY determination, as the NT explains:

For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. (Romans 10:2–4)

Human faith trusts all sorts of things, but the faith that saves sinners from God’s wrath is about not trusting myself or anything I do or think. It is trusting Jesus Christ and what God says about Him. He took my penalty for sin and died in my place. This faith is about the object, about who or what we trust.

“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:6)

He rose from the dead. He promises that all who trust Him are set free from the law that says ‘sin and die.’ He grants His righteousness to all who believe and in Him. We are no longer condemned.

The only thing that can keep anyone from the punishment sin deserves is that “do it yourself” attitude. God says no one can be saved that way because that way is actually sinful — it is a declaration of “I don’t need God” and a denial of His gift, even if the person who thinks that way has never heard about Jesus.

Today’s reading says, “A large proportion of God’s children never get beyond these hopes and longings. “I hope my sins will be forgiven some day”; “I hope I may be favored to reach heaven at last”; “I hope God loves me”; “I hope Christ died for me.” How can these be called “God’s children” for without faith, they are only His by creation and not part of His forever family because they lack genuine saving faith.

PRAY: Jesus, Your Word says it plainly to me, yet it seems many are filled with doubts rather than assurance of eternal life. You know who belongs to You and who makes the claim without genuine faith. You also know what to do about it. So again I pray for those who are unsure and leave them in Your capable hands. Turn them from ‘hope so’ to ‘know so’ as You see fit and as only You can do.

God’s power over evil…

Someone I know well is a member of a cult. His faith is not in Jesus as God in human flesh who took our punishment for sin. He believes Jesus died to give us the right and power to earn our salvation. While that idea is not biblical, he also believes a few things that do agree with the Bible. One of them is the confidence that God will defeat evil, yet not realizing that He already has.

Today’s chapter in “Born for Battle” says that despite the suffering in the world and the severe persecution of genuine Christians and even of those who claim to be but are not, the power of God will overcome Satan. Actually, He already has. This enemy is now on a short leash, and as the reading says, he is merely a pawn in God’s will, as are those who hold firm to their sin.

Surely the wrath of man shall praise you; the remnant of wrath you will put on like a belt. (Psalm 76:10)

That book’s author also quotes this verse to show that the storm of hate that evil stirs up is used for God’s purposes: "This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." (Acts 2:23)

The very worst evil could do actually turned out to be the very best that ever happened. And because of that, I need to be careful how I evaluate the events of life. Peter was not thinking right when he heard and responded as Jesus told him what would soon happen:

From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” But he turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” (Matthew 16:21–23)

The idea of God killing Jesus was foreign to him and still is for many. The Jews did it, or the jealous Pharisees, but how could God crucify His sinless Son?

Yet He did. There was no flaw in His plan. For a time, Peter thought so and became Satan’s mouthpiece. Eventually he learned that God’s redemptive purpose moves along a path of suffering and sacrifice — and as my reading says, any diversion from that is from Satan. For that reason, I’m learning to be careful how I think about the world news and God’s will. We Christians tend to want heaven on earth, a return to Eden in our lifetime. However, the Bible does not promise this and we  remain in a spiritual battle.

Jesus has defeated the enemy, yet this enemy still thrashes about, injuring and deceiving, destroying and duping even sincere people away from faith in the true Savior, salvation that could be theirs by the grace of God. Yet the God who makes the wrath of man praise Him can also take the evil done by their wrath and use it to bring those who fight Him to their knees at the foot of the cross. For me, this is truth that instructs me how to pray for hardened sinners. God can use their sin to save them. Nothing is too difficult for God.

PRAY: Lord Jesus, even my own sin drives me to You. May the sin in the world have that effect on many, that Your goodness is recognized and glorified, even in the mess we humans insist on making. You rebuked Peter for setting his mind on ‘comfortable’ yet You also made of him a strong testimony to Your grace. How badly I need that same power in my life that You may be exalted and the enemy resisted.

God uses calamity for good…

My husband is spiritually gifted as a leader and drawn to watch the daily news. I’m an ‘information gatherer’ yet have little desire to gather that information. The difference between us is intriguing. He is big picture and I am details. However, today’s readings from Charnock give me more interest in world events. This writer explains how God, in His wisdom, brings disasters for His purposes.

Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in all the works that he has done, and we have not obeyed his voice. (Daniel 9:14)

First, His timing is always perfect. The judgment on Sodom was suspended until Lot was safe. The early church was not invaded by violent persecutions until established in the faith. Paul was secured from Nero’s chains and the nets of his enemies until he had broke off the chain of the devil from many cities of the Gentiles.

God’s wisdom brings good out of evil using even sin and punishment. The church is more like heaven when most persecuted; the storms of trials have often cleansed it. Job’s integrity was clarified when the devil was permitted to afflict him. God outwits Satan when He uses his temptations to purify us. He brings the clearest light out of the thickest darkness, makes poisons to become medicines. Death itself, the greatest punishment in this life, God has made to his people the gate of heaven, our entrance into immortality.

More examples: The Jews bind Paul and send him to Rome. His mouth is stopped in Judea, but opened in one of the greatest cities of the world, and his enemies unwittingly contribute to the increase of the knowledge of Christ by those chains where he was faithfully “proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” (Acts 28:31)

His bonds also encouraged others: “And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” (Philippians 1:14) How often has God used suffering which appears like judgment to gain favor to the gospel among sinners? How often has He multiplied the church by death and massacres and increased it by those means used to annihilate it?

God could use supernatural means, but often does not. For instance, when Jacob’s family was facing starvation in Canaan, He could have turned the stones of their country into bread, but He sends them to Egypt opening a way for their their removal from that place and revealing His saving power.

God could have struck Goliath with a thunderbolt from heaven when he blasphemed His name, but He used the natural strength of a stone and the motion of a sling by the arm of David to confront the giant and free Judea from this enemy.

God can use anything from the veering of the wind to change the results of a naval battle or even the accidental stumbling of a horse to fling a leader in battle. The wisdom of God uses the natural order to work out His intended preservation of His people.

I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things. (Isaiah 45:7)

Charnock changed my interest in the news by saying “troubles and wars among a people are many times not destroying, but medicinal” and intended to cure people of the sin that is going to destroy them, sin often contracted during a long term of peace. This is not obvious, yet it makes sense and fits with God’s goodness.

PRAY: Jesus, I now better understand how and why the world is in such a mess. It seems to me that You are saying “You want to run your own lives? Let’s see how that works.” Yet this goes farther. You allow the turmoil to correct, or to bring out good, that many people will not experience the wrath yet to come. May Your will be done.

 

Read Carefully

When reading the Bible, I’m seeing the importance of word order. For instance, one verse says to yield to God and resist the devil and he will flee from me. It does not say God will flee or that I can resist the devil first and then yield to God. If I’m not yielded to God, I have no power to resist the devil.

Another passage, quoted in today’s devotional, has a sequential order too. Without paying attention to it, I could make a serious error:

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:1–4)

Several versions interpret “turn” as repent or “be converted” which definitely comes first according to the rest of Scripture. Being reborn begins the transformation to child-likeness and that new birth is the entrance to God’s kingdom. After that, the humbling process of spiritual growth makes the new Christian greater than he/she was before that conversion, and more like a humble child. Those who are humbled in that childlike way become great in God’s kingdom.

Unfortunately, some will interpret this passage to say that getting into the kingdom is only for those who first become like little children. One example: “Become a little child, then, by laying aside all your greatness, self-assertion, self-dependence, wisdom, and strength, and consent to die to your own self-life and be born again into the kingdom of God.” This makes salvation a matter of assuming the right attitude, doing the right things, all good works, yet the NT repeatedly affirms that doing the right things is the ‘result’ of salvation. No one is saved by their own efforts.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8–9)

I’ve met those who attend church, serve in various ways, and speak often of “I decided to follow…” or “I did…” They seem to mean well yet their salvation is about their choice to follow Jesus. However, Jesus said:

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. (John 15:16)

This topic of genuine salvation seems to come up often. It reminds me repeatedly how Jesus came into my life and surprised me. I don’t remember the date but vividly recall the day. He changed my life. I’ve nothing to boast about. Since then, He keeps dealing with my stubborn pride, showing me how helpless I am without His Spirit, and that being like a child is impossible as a decision or an action. As my King and my Savior, He must do this in me. Those who speak of laying aside self don’t seem to realize that that kind of statement comes across as a do-it-yourself project and is in total contradiction to:

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

How did I get to this understanding? It was not by choice. The Holy Spirit and circumstances of life, the thorns in my flesh, the trials and failures, the love of God — all teach me that I am nothing and Jesus is everything. He is wisdom and grace and goodness. Without Him, I can do nothing and am merely a blip in the passage of time.

PRAY: Jesus, these claims of being able to choose and to turn our lives around make me incredibly sad. As long as a person thinks that way, the humility of a child cannot describe them. Isn’t childlikeness being aware of my limitations, not that ‘I can do it myself’ attitude? Isn’t trusting You about leaning on You for everything, even the ability to lean on You? Oh Lord, enable me to pray rightly for those who twist Your Word to justify their self-effort, but also never to fall into that same misunderstanding. If pride in self shows up, deal with it quickly — that You are glorified and never me.

Motivated by a new life…

 

Today’s reading from Charnock’s amazing book describes how God reaches those who are not yet His people and uses their ‘nature’ as part of His offer. He begins by saying how the devil tempts us by offering that which appeals to our corrupt nature. For instance, if a person is violent, the temptations will fit that temperament. If they are gentle, the temptation will not be the same, but more suited to the nature already in that person.

He then says that the wisdom of God does not destroy a person’s nature or try to change it to a radical opposite, but makes it correspond to our faculties. His example is Saul, who wanted what he thought was right and vigorously went after it. Then on the road to Damascus, God confronted this man and revealed to him what genuine rightness was (Christ) and this man vigorously went after it, not in His own strength but in the power of the Holy Spirit. His motivation was still there but transformed to God’s will.

I’ve taken courses in spiritual gifts that say those seven motivational gifts in Romans 12 are present before salvation — a part of human nature but corrupted by sin. When Christ comes in, these motivations are activated, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, they form the way God uses that person.

Charnock describes the process of God in clearing our understanding of dark principles so we may see his truth, our own misery, and the source of true happiness. He bends our wills according to this light, to desire and move to this end of our calling “efficaciously, yet agreeably; powerfully, yet without imposing on our natural faculties; sweetly, without violence, in ordering the means; but effectually, without failing, in accomplishing the end.”

Charnock says the Scripture calls it teaching, alluring, and calling. Teaching is an act of wisdom: “It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.” (John 6:45).

Alluring is an act of love: “And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt” (Hosea 2:15).

Calling is an act of authority: “You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” (Psalm 27:8).

He says, and I agree, that none of these are violent constraints. God moves in them and the human will concurs. He changes the moral nature but not the physical. He lets the nature remain, but changes the principle in it: the understanding remains understanding, and the will remains will. But where there was before folly in the understanding, He puts in a spirit of wisdom; and where there was before a stoutness in the will, He forms it to a pliableness to his offers.

There is more, but this is enough to fill me with awe. A book on spiritual gifts lists what appeals to each of the gifts. For instance, those gifted as teachers are information gatherers and want to know facts that make sense. Those gifted in compassion are concerned about feelings rather than logic and want to experience God’s love.

This information hits me as I am praying for many who do not know Jesus. However, they are motivated in various ways. I know the servers and exhorters among them, and now God shows me how He works with these motivations so giving me ideas for how to pray for them.

PRAY: Jesus, there are times when You answer my prayers about how to pray for others and Your answers leave me stunned, yet eager to get at it. This is one of those times. My heart is almost dizzy to see the connection between human nature and the varying ways that You teach, allure and call people to Yourself. My desire for information and for knowing the right way to do things, has always been part of who I am. Now I understand much more about who others are and how to pray for them in ways that fit with Your wisdom. This is amazing, and I’m so thankful.

Eagles or Horses?

Writers love using familiar events or illustrations from nature, science and other human experiences to illustrate spiritual truths. The Lord is my Shepherd is a familiar one. Some verses liken the care of God to a mother hen spreading her wings over her chicks. Today’s devotional uses horses and eagles.

I have both positive and negative memories for both. My horses were my best friends, but one of them took a notion to run under a tree. My head hit a hefty branch and I lost my memory for a time. Another stepped in a badger hole and both of us went head over heels.
As for eagles, my best memory is seeing one in Alaska being harassed by a crow. Finally the eagle convulsed as if hurt, but it wasn’t. It had tightened its talons and the crow dropped from the sky.

Today’s devotionals cites two passages. One is about eagles…

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. (Isaiah 40:28–31)

This powerful bird illustrates the strength God gives to those who wait for the Lord rather than moving forward without His guidance or strength. Like an eagle, we rise above our fatigue and the feeling of being weak and unable.

The other passage is about horses…

For thus said the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.” But you were unwilling, and you said, “No! We will flee upon horses”; therefore you shall flee away; and, “We will ride upon swift steeds”; therefore your pursuers shall be swift. A thousand shall flee at the threat of one; at the threat of five you shall flee, till you are left like a flagstaff on the top of a mountain, like a signal on a hill. (Isaiah 30:15–17)

Instead of waiting, if I pick something else that I think will accomplish the task at hand, I will find that I cannot escape the problem. These word pictures not only spell out the folly of taking matters into my own hands, but that God can use me as an example for others to show them what not to do — like a flag or a signal on a hill.

Another passage comes to mind...

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or consult the Lord! And yet he is wise and brings disaster; he does not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. The Egyptians are man, and not God, and their horses are flesh, and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together. (Isaiah 31:1–3)

Egypt points to bondage and the power of sin to enslave. If I trust the things of my old life that appear to be powerful and fail to consult the Lord, I’m relying on flesh rather than Spirit. Another prophet warns: “Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.” (Jeremiah 17:5)

The NT states this clearly:

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:5–8)

PRAY: Thankfully, the next verse says, “You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8:9–10) Jesus, I rejoice in the new life and in Your gift of being able to soar like an eagle and see the trials of life fall beneath me and into Your hands. Thank You so much.