Monday, November 5, 2012
Remember, America....
When you are in the voting booth tomorrow, where no one sees but yourself--and God--be sure the lever you pull reflects God's values and Christ's truth. Some day, when you meet Him face-to-face, He will have this information to evaluate in His determination of how you employed the liberty you were given to lift His standard among men.
Quickened to Life
November 5
There are some things that simply cannot be expanded upon from the way they are stated in the immutable Word of God. Perhaps nothing in His Word can be explained or clarified or extended in any meaningful way, although people like me endeavor in our frail way to do so.
One of those beautifully complete passages is found in Romans 3:23-26 where Paul says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has established to be the propitiation for our sin through faith in His blood, we are made clean…
“The remission of our sins is accomplished through the great forbearance of God. Because of the cleansing blood of Jesus, I say, ‘He is righteous and Jesus is the justifier of all who believe in Him.’” Everyone who hears or reads and grasps the magnitude of these words realizes that he is the recipient of an amazing gift!
Anyone who will appropriate the promise of this passage to himself will find himself transformed! He will be new. He will be clean. He will be forgiven. He will be established on God’s path that leads to eternal justification. He who was “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) is quickened to life! Nothing says it better.
There are some things that simply cannot be expanded upon from the way they are stated in the immutable Word of God. Perhaps nothing in His Word can be explained or clarified or extended in any meaningful way, although people like me endeavor in our frail way to do so.
One of those beautifully complete passages is found in Romans 3:23-26 where Paul says, “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, but, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has established to be the propitiation for our sin through faith in His blood, we are made clean…
“The remission of our sins is accomplished through the great forbearance of God. Because of the cleansing blood of Jesus, I say, ‘He is righteous and Jesus is the justifier of all who believe in Him.’” Everyone who hears or reads and grasps the magnitude of these words realizes that he is the recipient of an amazing gift!
Anyone who will appropriate the promise of this passage to himself will find himself transformed! He will be new. He will be clean. He will be forgiven. He will be established on God’s path that leads to eternal justification. He who was “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1) is quickened to life! Nothing says it better.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Addendum: Vote Wisely, America!
Americans will go to the polls on November 6, the day after tomorrow, to vote for the candidate they feel will be the best president for the next four years. Doing so is a RIGHT, granted to us by our matchless Constitution.
As we assume this right we will vote for the man, the administration he will put together, that we believe will afford us the best opportunity to maintain the “inalienable rights” granted by the superior document that our founding fathers bequeathed to us.
The “inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” have been enjoyed in great degree by the citizens of this nation for over two hundred years. If there is one grave danger to our continuing to enjoy these rights, it is the fact that we have become complacent about them; we take them for granted.
We can’t begin to fathom that we will ever be without them—rather like the frog placed in cold water over a gradual heat that intensifies until it takes his life without his ever realizing his plight, we are in danger of allowing our freedom to be eroded gradually—and we won’t realize we’ve lost anything until our freedom is gone.
As you contemplate your vote, America, require yourself to define the basis for your vote. Is it party loyalty? Is it skin color? Is it perception of personal
expediency (the ‘free phone’ for example)? Is it based on a candidate’s adherence to the Constitution? Is it based upon a candidate’s adherence to the law of God?
Each voter must assess his own motivation—and each voter must be mindful that the vote he casts will impact not only himself, but generations that will follow. Each voter must ask himself if American freedom is worth voting to maintain. Each voter must assure that he does not vote away his children’s opportunity to live in a free nation where every man is limited only by his own resolve.
Those promises of ‘free’ government benefits? Remember Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge and lentils (see Genesis 25:30-34). What the government can give you, it can take away—and it will, once you’ve sold your freedom for its ‘bowl of lentil stew’.
As we assume this right we will vote for the man, the administration he will put together, that we believe will afford us the best opportunity to maintain the “inalienable rights” granted by the superior document that our founding fathers bequeathed to us.
The “inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” have been enjoyed in great degree by the citizens of this nation for over two hundred years. If there is one grave danger to our continuing to enjoy these rights, it is the fact that we have become complacent about them; we take them for granted.
We can’t begin to fathom that we will ever be without them—rather like the frog placed in cold water over a gradual heat that intensifies until it takes his life without his ever realizing his plight, we are in danger of allowing our freedom to be eroded gradually—and we won’t realize we’ve lost anything until our freedom is gone.
As you contemplate your vote, America, require yourself to define the basis for your vote. Is it party loyalty? Is it skin color? Is it perception of personal
expediency (the ‘free phone’ for example)? Is it based on a candidate’s adherence to the Constitution? Is it based upon a candidate’s adherence to the law of God?
Each voter must assess his own motivation—and each voter must be mindful that the vote he casts will impact not only himself, but generations that will follow. Each voter must ask himself if American freedom is worth voting to maintain. Each voter must assure that he does not vote away his children’s opportunity to live in a free nation where every man is limited only by his own resolve.
Those promises of ‘free’ government benefits? Remember Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of porridge and lentils (see Genesis 25:30-34). What the government can give you, it can take away—and it will, once you’ve sold your freedom for its ‘bowl of lentil stew’.
What Can Make Me Right?
November 4
Indeed, it is faith that pleases God, yet not all faith has the ability to satisfy His righteous requirement. There are pagan worshipers whose idea of complying with the demands of the cruel, demonic gods they serve is to sacrifice their children to them.
One of the world’s three monotheistic religions teaches its children from an early age that there is no greater way to please their god than to sacrifice their lives for him. This bloodthirsty god demands not only their sacrifice of themselves but the murder of innocents in the process of expediting themselves.
It takes great faith to throw ones children to crocodiles or to detonate a bomb that will leave ones mortal body in fragments. But, if the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the true God; if the God who spoke to Moses and said, “Thou shalt not kill” is the only Deity worthy of worship that He purports Himself to be (See Exodus 20:1-17), then no amount of faith to do heinous deeds will favorably impress Him!
Man cannot make himself right with God through any extreme act of violence or devotion on his own part. The only thing that can wash away man’s sin is that which is stated by Paul in Romans 3:22, “God makes people right with Himself through their faith in Jesus Christ…” Believing Jesus makes man spiritually alive—no one, nothing else.
Indeed, it is faith that pleases God, yet not all faith has the ability to satisfy His righteous requirement. There are pagan worshipers whose idea of complying with the demands of the cruel, demonic gods they serve is to sacrifice their children to them.
One of the world’s three monotheistic religions teaches its children from an early age that there is no greater way to please their god than to sacrifice their lives for him. This bloodthirsty god demands not only their sacrifice of themselves but the murder of innocents in the process of expediting themselves.
It takes great faith to throw ones children to crocodiles or to detonate a bomb that will leave ones mortal body in fragments. But, if the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is the true God; if the God who spoke to Moses and said, “Thou shalt not kill” is the only Deity worthy of worship that He purports Himself to be (See Exodus 20:1-17), then no amount of faith to do heinous deeds will favorably impress Him!
Man cannot make himself right with God through any extreme act of violence or devotion on his own part. The only thing that can wash away man’s sin is that which is stated by Paul in Romans 3:22, “God makes people right with Himself through their faith in Jesus Christ…” Believing Jesus makes man spiritually alive—no one, nothing else.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Only Our Faith
November 3
Your righteous works can’t please God. Your generous giving can’t please God. Your preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can’t please God. Your humility can’t please God. Your exemplary life can’t please God. What can? What can any mortal lay at the feet of the perfect, holy God of Creation that will favorably impress Him?
Faith. For example, Galatians 3:6, 7 says, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to Him for righteousness. So you should know that the true children of Abraham are those who have faith.” Abraham was a man whose integrity was renown throughout the world in which he lived, but none of that impressed God. His faith did.
God’s regard for faith is stated quite clearly in Hebrews 11:6 where Paul says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for anyone who comes to God must believe that He is God and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. No half-hearted inquiries will suffice. God will not allow His integrity to rise or fall on a man’s opinion of Him.
God is so far above and beyond our frail ponderings regarding Him that, just as there is nothing we can do to impress Him, neither is there anything we can think regarding Him that can impress Him. Because “…things which are impossible with man are possible with God,” Luke 18:27, all we have of value to lay before Him is our faith.
Your righteous works can’t please God. Your generous giving can’t please God. Your preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ can’t please God. Your humility can’t please God. Your exemplary life can’t please God. What can? What can any mortal lay at the feet of the perfect, holy God of Creation that will favorably impress Him?
Faith. For example, Galatians 3:6, 7 says, “Abraham believed God and it was accounted to Him for righteousness. So you should know that the true children of Abraham are those who have faith.” Abraham was a man whose integrity was renown throughout the world in which he lived, but none of that impressed God. His faith did.
God’s regard for faith is stated quite clearly in Hebrews 11:6 where Paul says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for anyone who comes to God must believe that He is God and that He rewards those who diligently seek Him. No half-hearted inquiries will suffice. God will not allow His integrity to rise or fall on a man’s opinion of Him.
God is so far above and beyond our frail ponderings regarding Him that, just as there is nothing we can do to impress Him, neither is there anything we can think regarding Him that can impress Him. Because “…things which are impossible with man are possible with God,” Luke 18:27, all we have of value to lay before Him is our faith.
Friday, November 2, 2012
The Great Escape
We have already established that the Apostle Paul (who was originally known as Saul) hated believers in Christ until he had a life-changing encounter with the living Lord on the Road to Damascus. While on his way to arrest those who professed faith in Jesus, he met the Savior face-to-face.
The words he heard arrested him! “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” All the religious zealot could do was stammer, “Who are You, Lord?” The answer was probably the last thing the well-intentioned persecutor of the fledgling faith could have imagined hearing! “I am Jesus…” (See Acts 9:4-16).
Paul’s vantage point on life in general, and on his ability to please God with his righteousness in particular, were changed at that moment. In Philippians 3:8, 9 he says of himself following his encounter with the Lord, “I count all things as dung compared with the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him, I have renounced all those things I once cherished, knowing they are worthless.
“I now have Christ and belong to Him. I am now right with God, not because I follow the law but because I believe Jesus who perfected the law in my behalf. My faith in His finished work makes me right with God.” May we be like Paul, who awakened to the reality that there is nothing a man can do to escape the wrath of our Holy God except to exchange our unworthiness for His righteousness by receiving Christ’s unspeakable gift.
The words he heard arrested him! “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” All the religious zealot could do was stammer, “Who are You, Lord?” The answer was probably the last thing the well-intentioned persecutor of the fledgling faith could have imagined hearing! “I am Jesus…” (See Acts 9:4-16).
Paul’s vantage point on life in general, and on his ability to please God with his righteousness in particular, were changed at that moment. In Philippians 3:8, 9 he says of himself following his encounter with the Lord, “I count all things as dung compared with the greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him, I have renounced all those things I once cherished, knowing they are worthless.
“I now have Christ and belong to Him. I am now right with God, not because I follow the law but because I believe Jesus who perfected the law in my behalf. My faith in His finished work makes me right with God.” May we be like Paul, who awakened to the reality that there is nothing a man can do to escape the wrath of our Holy God except to exchange our unworthiness for His righteousness by receiving Christ’s unspeakable gift.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Encounter Him
November1
I Corinthians 1:30 is powerful. In this verse a man who had been a hater of Christ and a persecutor of Christians boldly proclaimed the truth that transformed his life. It took him from being a man who assented to the persecution and death of anyone who named the name of Jesus to being one of the believers who were persecuted for that name that is above all names.
Here Paul says, “Because of God you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God. In Christ we are put right with God and have been made holy and have been set free from sin.” If anyone knew firsthand the fallacy of endeavoring to save oneself through works to please God, it was Paul.
Indeed, Paul thought he did God a favor when he went about breathing out threatenings against the small band of believers who claimed Jesus was the Messiah of Israel. The religious doctrine in which he had been steeped the entirety of his life was being assailed by this upstart religion and Paul was intent that he would put an end to it! But, instead, he was converted to it by a powerful encounter with the living Christ (see Acts, Chapter 9).
He who had persecuted the faithful became a faithful one who was himself persecuted. He who had been a hater of the Lord Jesus became one who loved Him unto death. May our prayers be fervent for those who are today enemies of the gospel of Jesus—that rather than slander or slay people of faith, they may themselves encounter Him, whom to know is life—that they, too, may be transformed from living death to eternal life in Him.
I Corinthians 1:30 is powerful. In this verse a man who had been a hater of Christ and a persecutor of Christians boldly proclaimed the truth that transformed his life. It took him from being a man who assented to the persecution and death of anyone who named the name of Jesus to being one of the believers who were persecuted for that name that is above all names.
Here Paul says, “Because of God you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God. In Christ we are put right with God and have been made holy and have been set free from sin.” If anyone knew firsthand the fallacy of endeavoring to save oneself through works to please God, it was Paul.
Indeed, Paul thought he did God a favor when he went about breathing out threatenings against the small band of believers who claimed Jesus was the Messiah of Israel. The religious doctrine in which he had been steeped the entirety of his life was being assailed by this upstart religion and Paul was intent that he would put an end to it! But, instead, he was converted to it by a powerful encounter with the living Christ (see Acts, Chapter 9).
He who had persecuted the faithful became a faithful one who was himself persecuted. He who had been a hater of the Lord Jesus became one who loved Him unto death. May our prayers be fervent for those who are today enemies of the gospel of Jesus—that rather than slander or slay people of faith, they may themselves encounter Him, whom to know is life—that they, too, may be transformed from living death to eternal life in Him.
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