September 30
The unbeliever has no conflict. The unbeliever walks after his flesh to fulfill all its lusts. He goes where he wants, does what he wants, pursues what he wants. Whatever his eyes or his passion desire, his energy will be directed toward obtaining it.
The believer who focuses on Jesus and His Kingdom’s purposes with a single eye has no conflict. He endeavors to please the Lord and to fulfill His will with the entirety of his life. He directs his energy toward the attainment of the mission of Christ within the inner man and in external circumstances.
The ‘soulish Christian,’ on the other hand is the believer who yearns for the things of time as much as or more than he desires the purposes of the Lord. It is this type of individual who is identified in Galatians 5:15-18. Of such it is said that they, “bite and devour one another…”
“…Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. The flesh and the Spirit are contrary…but if you are under the Spirit, you are not under the law.” To be surrendered to the Holy Spirit of the Living God is to be at peace with Him and thereby at peace with yourself—to be without conflict in conforming your purposes to in His.
Monday, September 30, 2013
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Receive What You Ask
September 29
The Lord Jesus Christ, who cannot fail and cannot lie makes an astounding promise in Matthew 21:22. Here He says, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” That’s a very straight forward assertion regarding the power that is afforded to the person of faith.
The key word, believe, conveys much. It involves embracing the claims of the Lord; it involves knowing who He is and what He stands for. It requires that in understanding Him, the believer empathizes with all that His character and person entail.
The one who knows Christ as Savior and Lord will align the things for which he asks in prayer with the will of God. The one who prays, believing in the integrity of the One who promised and in the veracity of His message will not ask for anything that would be counter to the Lord’s ministry or to His will.
The person who truly understands and believes and embraces the Truth that is Christ will ask nothing amiss or for selfish gain. The motivation of his asking will be to further the purpose of the Lord in the establishment of His Kingdom within the hearts of men—and that is a powerful prayer that will not be denied.
The Lord Jesus Christ, who cannot fail and cannot lie makes an astounding promise in Matthew 21:22. Here He says, “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” That’s a very straight forward assertion regarding the power that is afforded to the person of faith.
The key word, believe, conveys much. It involves embracing the claims of the Lord; it involves knowing who He is and what He stands for. It requires that in understanding Him, the believer empathizes with all that His character and person entail.
The one who knows Christ as Savior and Lord will align the things for which he asks in prayer with the will of God. The one who prays, believing in the integrity of the One who promised and in the veracity of His message will not ask for anything that would be counter to the Lord’s ministry or to His will.
The person who truly understands and believes and embraces the Truth that is Christ will ask nothing amiss or for selfish gain. The motivation of his asking will be to further the purpose of the Lord in the establishment of His Kingdom within the hearts of men—and that is a powerful prayer that will not be denied.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Snared by Time
September 28
The evil one does not stand idly by when a man who has been caught within his snare of sin, who has been living a life that was moving along the conveyor belt to hell, hears the gospel of Jesus Christ and escapes the flame of the pit toward which he was bound.
In Mark 4:25, Jesus tells us that when the seeds of the knowledge of truth and life are sown into a heart, Satan, “…immediately comes and scatters tares," (Matthew 13:29-30) or “takes away the word that was planted there.”
Immediately. Someone, something, some circumstance will interject itself into the life of the newly saved, infant believer, and he will question his decision. He will wonder at the wisdom of turning his back on old friends, old habits, old pursuits. He will weigh all he’s lost in the realm of time with the potential of all he’ll gain eternally.
If he wants to live for Jesus, he will long to appropriate for himself the entirety of the promises that are now his; but he may be like the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-24) who esteems the treasure of earth to be greater than that of eternity and is snared by the evil one because of his affinity for the allure of the things of time.
The evil one does not stand idly by when a man who has been caught within his snare of sin, who has been living a life that was moving along the conveyor belt to hell, hears the gospel of Jesus Christ and escapes the flame of the pit toward which he was bound.
In Mark 4:25, Jesus tells us that when the seeds of the knowledge of truth and life are sown into a heart, Satan, “…immediately comes and scatters tares," (Matthew 13:29-30) or “takes away the word that was planted there.”
Immediately. Someone, something, some circumstance will interject itself into the life of the newly saved, infant believer, and he will question his decision. He will wonder at the wisdom of turning his back on old friends, old habits, old pursuits. He will weigh all he’s lost in the realm of time with the potential of all he’ll gain eternally.
If he wants to live for Jesus, he will long to appropriate for himself the entirety of the promises that are now his; but he may be like the rich young ruler (Luke 18:18-24) who esteems the treasure of earth to be greater than that of eternity and is snared by the evil one because of his affinity for the allure of the things of time.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Why, Then?
September 27
Romans 12:3 tells us that God has given to every man a measure of faith. It does not suggest that it is the same measure given to each man or that it is not an equal measure. The important thing isn’t the amount of faith a man has but how he uses it.
In fact, in Matthew 17:20, Jesus says, “If you have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here and be cast into the sea,’ and it will be done.”
A mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds, so by extrapolation, Jesus is saying if we have even a miniscule amount of faith, we will be able to do mighty spiritual exploits.
Why then do we not see great miracles abounding? Perhaps the answer is as simple as the reality that we live our lives so preoccupied with the temporal that we neglect to exercise the spiritual power that is ours.
Romans 12:3 tells us that God has given to every man a measure of faith. It does not suggest that it is the same measure given to each man or that it is not an equal measure. The important thing isn’t the amount of faith a man has but how he uses it.
In fact, in Matthew 17:20, Jesus says, “If you have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, you will tell this mountain, ‘Move from here and be cast into the sea,’ and it will be done.”
A mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds, so by extrapolation, Jesus is saying if we have even a miniscule amount of faith, we will be able to do mighty spiritual exploits.
Why then do we not see great miracles abounding? Perhaps the answer is as simple as the reality that we live our lives so preoccupied with the temporal that we neglect to exercise the spiritual power that is ours.
Thursday, September 26, 2013
Christ's Prayer Covers Us
September 26
When we are safely within the fold of faith, our worries are over, right? We would like to hope so. We would like to embrace the ideology of the ‘prosperity gospel’ that tells us that once we’ve accepted Jesus the path ahead of us will wend through some beautiful, secure places.
But that ignores the evidence of the scriptures where we see each apostle (other than John who died of old age on the Isle of Patmos after being exiled there) being cruelly tortured and executed because of his unswerving faith in the Christ whose person and whose gospel he loved better than life.
It negates the evidence of the lives of people of faith through the centuries who have endured hardship and pain and ostracism and death because they counted Jesus and His Word the Bible to be the only Truth in a world of lies. And they esteemed that Truth to be worthy of their own lives if that became the price they had to pay to embrace it.
Jesus warns us through His admonition to Peter in Luke 22:31, 32, “Simon, look out! Satan has asked to sift you like wheat that he may destroy you, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” That prayer covers us, too. Jesus desires that we be strong for Him, that we not allow either the blessings or the hardships of the Christian life to cause us to divert our eyes from Him who is Life.
When we are safely within the fold of faith, our worries are over, right? We would like to hope so. We would like to embrace the ideology of the ‘prosperity gospel’ that tells us that once we’ve accepted Jesus the path ahead of us will wend through some beautiful, secure places.
But that ignores the evidence of the scriptures where we see each apostle (other than John who died of old age on the Isle of Patmos after being exiled there) being cruelly tortured and executed because of his unswerving faith in the Christ whose person and whose gospel he loved better than life.
It negates the evidence of the lives of people of faith through the centuries who have endured hardship and pain and ostracism and death because they counted Jesus and His Word the Bible to be the only Truth in a world of lies. And they esteemed that Truth to be worthy of their own lives if that became the price they had to pay to embrace it.
Jesus warns us through His admonition to Peter in Luke 22:31, 32, “Simon, look out! Satan has asked to sift you like wheat that he may destroy you, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” That prayer covers us, too. Jesus desires that we be strong for Him, that we not allow either the blessings or the hardships of the Christian life to cause us to divert our eyes from Him who is Life.
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
We Have Received Grace
September 25
God’s unfathomable love for us caused Him to send a Savior who would redeem us from our sin, who would ‘buy us back’ for fellowship with Him and for presenting us blameless before the Throne of Mercy and Grace. Apart from the cleansing we receive when bathed in Jesus’ shed blood, we can have neither.
That is the motivation behind all the works of the Holy One that have transpired through the ages and are recorded in the Scriptures. The sole purpose of the exploits in the behalf of His ancient people, the thread of salvation that is woven through the entirety of the books of the Bible, the life and death and resurrection of Christ is toward the end that mankind be saved.
And once we come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, there can be only one underlying purpose for our lives. Whether we are salesmen or housewives or teachers or physicians or engineers or architects, He wants us to take up the cause for which Jesus laid down His life. He wants us to be messengers who carry the gospel into the world around us (Matthew 16:15) as well as celebrate it in the church (Hebrews 10:25)!
In Romans 1:5 Paul articulated that purpose clearly and his life demonstrated it unmistakably, “We have received grace…through Him to bring about the obedience of faith among the nations on behalf of His name.” When we ‘embrace the grace’ and enfold to our hearts the Gracious One, He then sends us among the lost that we might impart the knowledge of grace to them.
God’s unfathomable love for us caused Him to send a Savior who would redeem us from our sin, who would ‘buy us back’ for fellowship with Him and for presenting us blameless before the Throne of Mercy and Grace. Apart from the cleansing we receive when bathed in Jesus’ shed blood, we can have neither.
That is the motivation behind all the works of the Holy One that have transpired through the ages and are recorded in the Scriptures. The sole purpose of the exploits in the behalf of His ancient people, the thread of salvation that is woven through the entirety of the books of the Bible, the life and death and resurrection of Christ is toward the end that mankind be saved.
And once we come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, there can be only one underlying purpose for our lives. Whether we are salesmen or housewives or teachers or physicians or engineers or architects, He wants us to take up the cause for which Jesus laid down His life. He wants us to be messengers who carry the gospel into the world around us (Matthew 16:15) as well as celebrate it in the church (Hebrews 10:25)!
In Romans 1:5 Paul articulated that purpose clearly and his life demonstrated it unmistakably, “We have received grace…through Him to bring about the obedience of faith among the nations on behalf of His name.” When we ‘embrace the grace’ and enfold to our hearts the Gracious One, He then sends us among the lost that we might impart the knowledge of grace to them.
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
We Are The Ones
September 24
Just as our blood sacrifices cannot cleanse us of sin, neither can our good works that we endeavor to perform through our righteous living. Oh, certainly, God wants us to live honorable lives. The best of us strive to do so and the worst of us endeavor to give the appearance of doing so, but neither is sufficient.
A holy God cannot be appeased through the vain endeavors of man to please Him or to assuage His rightful anger over our failure to comply with His law which reflects His perfection to a degree that we cannot even see, let alone begin to understand.
What recognition can we possibly have of the perfect law of God which requires holy eyes to behold? What compliance can we have with God’s immutable code when our minds cannot begin to grasp the meaning of the word ‘holy’? Because God is holy, He sees through His holiness. We see through a veil of sin. But Philippians 3:3 extends to us the way to extricate ourselves from our dilemma.
Here we are told, “We are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus and do not put confidence in the flesh.” When we receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, He gives us His Holy Spirit who empowers us to live the righteous life we cannot live on our own. Just as no blood but His own can cleanse us, no spirit but His own can enable us to walk in His righteousness.
Just as our blood sacrifices cannot cleanse us of sin, neither can our good works that we endeavor to perform through our righteous living. Oh, certainly, God wants us to live honorable lives. The best of us strive to do so and the worst of us endeavor to give the appearance of doing so, but neither is sufficient.
A holy God cannot be appeased through the vain endeavors of man to please Him or to assuage His rightful anger over our failure to comply with His law which reflects His perfection to a degree that we cannot even see, let alone begin to understand.
What recognition can we possibly have of the perfect law of God which requires holy eyes to behold? What compliance can we have with God’s immutable code when our minds cannot begin to grasp the meaning of the word ‘holy’? Because God is holy, He sees through His holiness. We see through a veil of sin. But Philippians 3:3 extends to us the way to extricate ourselves from our dilemma.
Here we are told, “We are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God, boast in Christ Jesus and do not put confidence in the flesh.” When we receive Jesus as Savior and Lord, He gives us His Holy Spirit who empowers us to live the righteous life we cannot live on our own. Just as no blood but His own can cleanse us, no spirit but His own can enable us to walk in His righteousness.
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