God’s blessed brat…

Putting up Christmas decorations is putting my focus on the birth of Jesus Christ and on all that He has done. This babe in a manger overwhelms me. He knew His life would be taken from Him on a cross. He knew He would suffer for the sins of the world, an enormous assignment that overwhelms my mind and as I gaze at the manger scene, all this brings both angst and joy to my heart. The joy part is expressed here:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17–21)

The deep trepidation that comes personally is because new life means more than joy. Paul expressed how serving Jesus, this babe who grew and died for his sin, would lead him and all who follow Him with our whole hearts. There would be joy and goodness, but also trials:

For he says, “In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything. We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children) widen your hearts also. (2 Corinthians 6:2–13)

This year is about my 56th year of being a child of God, five decades of new life. I cannot help but reflect. My hardships were not like Paul’s; he suffered for serving Jesus. I suffered to learn lessons about my sinfulness and God's faithfulness. Paul experienced the joyful and comfortable blessings to keep him from giving up. I have experienced blessings perhaps for the same reason and not because of persecution or the resistance of others to what I do. Satan buffets me to keep me from praying and loving God, but I’ve not experienced those other hardships. Not that I want to, yet His grace does make me often feel like God’s spoiled brat.

Either way, trials from others or trials of ordinary life, God has blessed me by using them as He promises:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

And then I read the prayer of another who said, “Not relief from pain, not relief from the weariness that follows, not anything of that sort at all, is my chief need. Thou, O Lord my God, art my need—Thy courage, Thy patience, Thy fortitude. And very much I need a quickened gratitude for the countless helps given every day.” (Source)

PRAY: Lord, every decoration and gift under the tree is my reminder of what Paul says, “Since I have these promises, may I be cleansed from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” (2 Corinthians 7:1) This is the wonder of the babe in the manger. Such a task — for all who sin, for all time, in every place — all who hear Him speak,  and who say YES — including this spoiled brat. 

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.

Basis for assurance…

 
We know a man who loves Jesus and loves people. He is continually saying that he must do something, that faith without works is dead. However he sometimes offends people by trying to ‘help’ them when they are not in need of help. The challenge in serving God is discerning His will over our good ideas. I’ve wanted to do many ‘good’ things but He did not take me down that road.

I read from five devotional books today, all on the same theme of doing the will of God. One pointed to realizing my station in life and where God puts me. From that, I know His will for my life is not to serve as a missionary in Timbuktu or a pastor in New York.

Another devotional says there is a difference between having Christ in my heart and being at one with Him, united in one will, one purpose, one interest, one life. This one says we are commanded to enter into oneness with Christ, to lay down our own lives that His life may be lived in us with no interests but His interests. This means sharing His riches, His joys, manifesting His likeness, having the same mind to think and feel and act and walk as He did.

This writer goes on to make this a matter of consenting to it, like a bride gives a willing yes to her groom. It sounds lovely, but this perfection, according to the Bible, is not ours until we see Him face-to-face in eternity (see 1 John 3:1-3).

The next devotional points out how we like a supply of goodness laid up, such as wisdom or patience and the other graces. He affirms that in God’s plan, all we need is laid up for us in Christ. We wrestle with our fleshy old nature and acknowledge our sinfulness but our life is in Christ He is our supply.

The next devotional writer says I’m not to expect to find myself any better or any nearer this ideal because I never will. I will always be utterly vile, and ignorant and corrupt. But Jesus is my life now. He is with me. The Bible says; “no more I” but Christ who lives in me. I have lost my own life and Christ’s divine life has been put in its place. My goodness is all in Christ and I must draw it from Him moment by moment as I need it.

Finally, the fifth writer says how to do this — “do not go into this dangerous world without prayer.” If I give up prayer, I will suffer for it since prayer is the way that I draw from Jesus this new life He gave me.

After all this, several Scriptures came to mind, all reminding me that Jesus is my Savior, I am not. I cannot grow or become like Him by choice. He does the work to perfect me, by grace. Cooperation is important, but willing it to happen is like waving a magic wand in the middle of the night and telling the sun to rise and shine. Each of these readings remind me of the power of God, but also the tendency of Christians to suppose that we can unite ourselves to Him and enjoy that oneness simply by choosing it.

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. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. (Galatians 2:20–21)

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12–13)

But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. (1 Corinthians 15:10)

PRAY: Jesus, if I could do it, I would be like You now, right now. I want to cooperate with You yet even that desire does not make me a spiritual giant. I am what I am and trust You to make of me what You want for me. Without You, this would be impossible.

God’s will accomplish His plan…

 

When puzzled by what is happening around me, or in the lives of others, I need to remember the important truth behind all of God’s dealings with us. Nothing is random. Nothing escapes His notice and nothing can thwart His purposes. The worst I can do is prolong His goal for me. The best I can do is see it and cooperate with it.

This is HIs goal:

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Romans 8:28–29)

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 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 3:1–3)

The end result of what happens to me and to all God’s people is that we will be like Jesus. The process can be hastened by cooperation, by making that my goal also. But I cannot fake it, put on a show of having arrived, or even think that is true. I need to keep growing and changing.

I also have to remember that this isn’t just about me. It is about the witness of God’s people to a world that needs to know Him.

Today’s reading begins with: “All the dealings of God with the soul of the believer are in order to bring it into oneness with himself that the prayer of our Lord may be fulfilled.” In this prayer Jesus asks that the Father works:

“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 17:21–23)

This glorious purpose has been the heart of God for His people from before the foundation of the world. It is called a mystery yet was accomplished in the death of Christ and made known by the Scriptures. It is also an actual experience by many of God’s people, but not all. This goal is not hidden it nor is it impossible. However, as the reading says, the eyes of many are too dim and their hearts too unbelieving for them to grasp it.

This goal is behind many events in life as the Lord works to open eyes and shake up how we think and live. He wants me to realize my sin, my weakness, all areas of resistance to Him so I will think and act more like the One who lives in me and desires my perfection.

Everything in my life is supposed to lead to union with Christ and this amazing transformation that reflects His image to an unbelieving and needy world. When something happens that upsets my hopes and plans, trying to fix it instead of letting it do what God intends only slows the process. If I resist and keep on resisting Him, the change will eventually happen but too late to have value in this world. Not only that, I will not experience the rest and peace that He died to give me, His abundant life in this life.

PRAY: Jesus, I realize that many Christians are not into this kind of radical surrender. Sometimes they pray as if You are a genie in a bottle giving wishes out for comfort and prosperity and all good, but temporary things. Forgive us for wanting You to be our servant instead of surrendering ourselves to Your purposes. How often do I need “your peace in my storms” to realize that being like You IS the abundant life You want for me.

His incredible love…

Insurance policies and other legal documents use the term “an act of God” which is defined as an instance of uncontrollable natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, meaning  anything that is beyond the control of humans. Acts of God do not absolve people from a duty to exercise reasonable care.

It interests me that this term is used only for disasters. Seldom do I hear sunshine, a balmy breeze, the birth of a baby, the bloom of flowers, or the soft wool of a lamb called an act of God. No wonder the idea of God loving us is difficult for many people to accept. He gets blamed for all the negative things we cannot control but evolution takes credit for the positives. Regardless, the Bible says:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In 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. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. (1 John 4:7–12)

This passage offers several clues to why the term “an act of God” is used as it is. One, those who know God will know that He loves people, and will love people too. But those who do not know God cannot love like He does. Many who don’t know God assume that whatever makes them uncomfortable or stressed is not good. Without knowing God, it is difficult if not impossible to see that He uses all things for the good of those He loves. We who know Him are told to be joyful in trials for God is using them to mature us. (Romans 8:28-29, James 1:2-4)

Second, the love of God sent Jesus into this world to die for our sins. The people who know this also know their sin is harmful and can ruin their lives. Eventually we learn that the love of God exposes and deals with our sin, not because He wants to hurt us but to rescue us from sin’s destructive power. His love will go to great lengths to get that job done. It includes kindness:

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Yet His love also includes discipline:

For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:6–11)

Such discipline may come through an “act of God” that I cannot make happen nor prevent. God knows what I need to be more like Jesus, and He also knows how to get me there. It might be His incredible kindness (I have seen it in my hospital stay) or in trials that I cannot control, such as being unwell without any apparent lack of self-care on my part. He is training me to be more kind by example and to be more patient by helplessness. He teaches me that all events of life including “acts of God” open my eyes to His great love that wants only the best for me, and that best is being like Jesus. And as today’s devotional says, the first step into the life hid with Christ in God is that of entire consecration. I must do it gladly, thankfully, and enthusiastically and can, because seeing all things as acts of God is the most joyful way to live.

PRAY: Lord God, as You work all things so I might be like Jesus, I sometimes feel sorry for myself as I forget the love that motivates Your will. Mercy and genuine pity for spiritual bondage is far more important than mercy and pity for physical discomfort. I’m glad You will never stop loving me.

Salvation sets me free — from what?

 

Some define salvation as a ticket to heaven, nothing more. However, Jesus said the truth will set us free — free from what? Romans 8:1 says from condemnation, but the rest of Scripture is clear; salvation is freedom from the power of sin. Instead of sin, which is basically doing life my own way and ignoring God’s way, salvation frees me from it so that I can do life God’s way. This is freedom — being free to live as God created me to live, under the power of the Holy Spirit instead of under the power of sin.

Some will claim that salvation can be earned by doing good works. That is, doing life my way by selecting good things to do, and thinking God will accept me and give me a home in heaven. The problem with that teaching is an inaccurate understanding of sin. Sin is ‘my way’ no matter if that means selfish living, a life of crime and rebellion, or doing good things. The Scriptures say we are saved by faith, not by works.

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)

The confusion comes with the Scriptures also saying, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” (James 2:14) and “a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone.” (James 2:24).

That seems to conflict with Paul’s teaching on salvation by grace through faith. Does that mean we have faith in God to save us if we add good works too? Even though some ‘Christian’ denominations teach that, it is just another false teaching. It makes salvation depend on good works, on what I choose to do. I’m not set free by the tyranny of sin (doing my own thing, running my own life) but still in bondage to it if I add works or virtuous deeds as a means of salvation.

Reading ALL of Scripture is important. James says I am “justified by works and not by faith alone” (James 2:24) and Paul describes salvation as a new life, as a huge transformation of in who I am. He says: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

Another passage says that Jesus “saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5) making us new people who do not run our own lives but are spiritually reborn and living according to the leading of the Holy Spirit. This is a gift from God, a freedom of His grace . . .

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age. (Titus 2:11–12)

This is why Jesus could say: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31–32) The freedom He promises is freedom to do good motivated by God’s Spirit rather than motivated by a human desire to earn God’s favor.

The faith described in the NT is not the same as mere assent to something. It is a faith that changes lives. Think of it: “Even the demons believe” that Jesus exists and died for sin, but they are not transformed. Saving faith is a life-changing gift, a gift that sets Christians free to choose obedience rather than yield to selfish, sinful thoughts and actions.

PRAY: Thinking each day of what the Gospel means and what it does describes true freedom. Sometimes I revert to my old way of thinking (“I can do this myself”) but it produces nothing and the outcome is not freedom but slavery. God, You continually forgive my foolishness, but You also direct me in the way of freedom. I do not have to sin. I can serve You and be a loving blessing to others. The gift of eternal life is a wonder, yet it is for this life also. The goals and desires of my heart are not the same as they once were, and I don’t think, talk or act as I once did. Your salvation has set me free! I’m no longer a slave to sin because You made me Your child!

PONDER: John 8:31–32 describes true faith. How does the Word of God affect those who genuinely believe what it says? How does that freedom affect my daily life?