Present and Powerful Love

 Present and Powerful Love

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (Romans 8:35)

Notice three things in Romans 8:35.

1. Christ is loving us now.

A wife might say of her deceased husband: Nothing will separate me from his love. She might mean that the memory of his love will be sweet and powerful all her life. But that is not what Paul means here.

In Romans 8:34 it says plainly, “Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.” The reason Paul can say that nothing will separate us from the love of Christ is because Christ is alive and is still loving us right now.

He is at the right hand of God and is therefore ruling for us. And he is interceding for us, which means he is seeing to it that his finished work of redemption does in fact save us hour by hour, and bring us safely to eternal joy. His love is not just a memory. It is a moment-by-moment action by the omnipotent, living Son of God, to bring us to everlasting joy.

2. This love of Christ is effective in protecting us from separation, and therefore is not a universal love for all, but a particular love for his people — that is, those who, according to Romans 8:28, love God and are called according to his purpose.

This is the love of Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” It is Christ’s love for the church, his bride. Christ has a love for all, and he has a special, saving, preserving love for his bride. You know you are part of that bride if you trust Christ. Anyone — no exceptions — anyone who trusts Christ can say, I am part of his bride, his church, his called and chosen ones, the ones who, according to Romans 8:35, are kept and protected forever no matter what.

3. This omnipotent, effective, protecting love does not spare us from calamities in this life, but brings us safely through them to everlasting joy with God.

Death will happen to us, but it will not separate us. So when Paul says in verse 35 that the “sword” will not separate us from the love of Christ, he means: even if we are killed, we are not separated from the love of Christ.

So the sum of the matter in verse 35 is this: Jesus Christ is right now mightily loving his people with omnipotent, moment-by-moment love that does not always rescue us from calamity but preserves us for everlasting joy in his presence even through suffering and death.

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 05, 2026.

SUBJECT: GOD’S INTEREST IN US!

Memory verse: “And now, Israel, what doth the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” (Deuteronomy 10 vs 12.) 

READ: Psalm 50 vs 7 - 15:

50:7: Hear, O My people, and I will speak, O Israel, and I will testify against you; I am God, your God! 

50:8: I will not rebuke you for your sacrifices or your burnt offerings, which are continually before Me. 

50:9: I will not take a bull from your house, nor goats out of your folds. 

50:10: For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. 

50:11: I know all the birds of the mountains, and the wild beast of the field are Mine. 

50:12: 'If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. 

50:13: Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats? 

50:14:Offer to God thanksgiving, and pay your vows to the Most High.

50:15: Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”

INTIMATION:

God is interested in our heart attitude toward Him in all we do. God judges people for treating Him lightly. He demands that we have reverence for Him, walk in His ways, love Him, serve Him with all your heart and soul, and keep His commands. If anything is done superficially, it is unpleasant to Him. 

In the passage we read today, God speaks about the superficial religious people who bring their sacrifices but are only going through the motions. They do not honor God with true obedience, praise and thankfulness. He demands genuine thanksgiving and trust in Him. The people were offering sacrifices and forgetting their significance! 

We may fall into the same pattern when we participate in religious activities, tithe, or attend church out of habit or conformity rather than out of heartfelt love and obedience. God wants righteousness, not empty rituals. God was saying that His disagreement with them wasn't about a lack of sacrifices on their part; they had been offering sacrifices continually. His complaint against them was the heart attitude they had in making offerings. They were missing the point! 

They thought they were making the sacrifices because God somehow needed their bulls and goats. God was making it clear that He didn't need anything from them; everything already belongs to Him. God said, "If I were hungry, I wouldn't tell you! The world is Mine, and everything in it." The truth was that the Israelites needed those sacrifices. They needed to give back to God and show their trust and dependence upon Him. It wasn't for God—it's for them.

The psalmist, David, says, “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire; my ears You have opened. Burnt offering and sin offering You did not require.” (Psalm 40 vs 6.) The religious rituals in David’s days involved sacrificing animals in the tabernacle. David said these acts were meaningless unless done for the right reasons. 

Today we often make rituals of going to church, taking Communion, or paying tithes. These activities are also empty if our reasons for doing them are selfish. God doesn’t want these sacrifices and offerings without an attitude of devotion to Him. The prophet Samuel told Saul, “To obey is better than sacrifice” (First Samuel 15 vs 22). Make sure that you give God the obedience and lifelong service He desires from you.

A sacrifice is a ritual transaction between a person and God that physically demonstrates a relationship between them. But if the person’s heart was not truly repentant or if he did not truly love God, the sacrifice was a hollow ritual. Religious ceremonies or rituals are empty unless they are performed with an attitude of love and obedience. “Being religious” (going to church, serving on a committee, giving to charity) is not enough if we do not act out of devotion and obedience to God.

Regarding tithing, for instance, your attitude toward your money is actually more important than what you do with it. God doesn't need your money any more than He needed those Old Testament sacrifices. The reason for the tithe is for you to learn to recognize God as the source of all of your money. 

It's one thing to say you believe God is your source, but it's another thing to prove it. The way you prove to yourself, not God, that you believe God is your source is to give a portion of what you make back to Him. People who don't really see God as their source are going to balk at giving part of what they have away. They are going to think, I need that money! But giving back some of what God has already given you is nothing when you see God as your source.

Some people glibly recite God’s laws but are filled with deceit and evil. They claim His promises but refuse to obey Him. This is sin, and God will judge people for it. We, too, are hypocrites when we are not what we claim to be. To let this inconsistency remain shows that we are not true followers of God.

Just because God is silent does not mean He is condoning sin or is indifferent to it. Instead, He is withholding deserved punishment, giving time for people to repent (Second Peter 3 vs 9). God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked and wants them to turn from evil (Ezekiel 33 vs 11). But His silence does not last forever—a time of punishment will surely come.

Prayer: Abba Father, You are my Source of everything. In You I live, and move, and have my being. I rather die than allow anything come between us! I give my whole heart to You, in Jesus’ Name I prayed. Amen. 

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Goal of Christ’s Love

 The Goal of Christ’s Love“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.” (John 17:24)

Believers in Jesus are precious to God (we’re his bride!). And he loves us so much that he will not allow our preciousness to become our god.

God does indeed make much of us (he adopts us into his family!), but he does so in a way that draws us out of ourselves to enjoy his greatness.

Test yourself. If Jesus came to spend the day with you, sat down beside you on the couch, and said, “I really love you,” what would you focus on the rest of the day that you spend together with him?

It seems to me that too many songs and sermons leave us with the wrong answer. They leave the impression that the heights of our joy would be in the recurrent feeling of being loved. “He loves me!” “He loves me!” To be sure, this is joy indeed. But not the heights, and not the focus.

What are we saying with the words “I am loved”? What do we mean? What is this “being loved”?

Would not the greatest, most Christ-exalting joy be found in watching Jesus all day and bursting with, “You’re amazing!” “You are amazing!”

He answers the hardest question, and his wisdom is amazing.

He touches a filthy, oozing sore, and his compassion is amazing.

He raises a dead lady at the medical examiner’s office, and his power is amazing.

He predicts the afternoon’s events, and his foreknowledge is amazing.

He sleeps during an earthquake, and his fearlessness is amazing.

He says, “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58), and his words are amazing.

We walk around with him all afternoon, utterly amazed at what we are seeing.

Is not his love for us his eagerness to do for us all he must do (including die for us) so that we can marvel at him and not be incinerated by him? Redemption, propitiation, forgiveness, justification, reconciliation — all these have to happen. They are the act of love.

But the goal of love that makes those acts loving is that we be with him, and see his jaw-dropping glory, and be astounded. In those moments we forget ourselves as we see and savor all that God is for us in him.

So I am urging pastors and teachers: Push people through the acts of Christ’s love to the goal of his love. If redemption and propitiation and forgiveness and justification and reconciliation are not taking us to the enjoyment of Jesus himself, they are not love.

Press on this. It’s what Jesus prayed for in John 17:24, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.”

What’s New About the New Covenant

 What’s New About the New Covenant

“This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jeremiah 31:33) 

Jesus shatters any absolute dissociation of commandments and love. 

He says, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. . . . Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father” (John 14:15, 21). “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love” (John 15:10). 

Thinking in terms of commandments and obedience did not stop Jesus from enjoying the love of his Father. And he expects that our thinking of him as one who commands will not jeopardize our love relationship with him either. 

This is crucial to realize because the new covenant relationship that we have with God through Jesus Christ is not a covenant without commandments. The basic difference between the old covenant offered by God through the Mosaic law and the new covenant offered by God through Christ is not that one had commandments and the other doesn’t. 

The key differences are that (1) the Messiah, Jesus, has come and shed the blood of the new covenant (Matthew 26:28; Hebrews 10:29) so that henceforth he is the Mediator of a new covenant, so that all saving, covenant-keeping faith is conscious faith in him; (2) the old covenant has therefore become “obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13) and does not govern the new-covenant people of God (2 Corinthians 3:7–18; Romans 7:4, 6; Galatians 3:19); and (3) the promised new heart and the enabling power of the Holy Spirit have been given through faith. 

In the old covenant, the gracious enabling power to obey God was not poured out as fully as it is since Jesus. “To this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear” (Deuteronomy 29:4). What’s new about the new covenant is not that there are no commandments, but that God’s promise has come true! “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:33). “I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes” (Ezekiel 36:27).

Every day in the God's Word

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 03, 2026.

SUBJECT: UNDERSTANDING GOD’S FAVOR!

Memory verse: “And having come in, the angel says to her, ‘Rejoice highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women." (Luke 1 vs 28.)

READ: First Samuel 2 vs 26; Luke 2 vs 40 & 52:

First Samuel 2:26: And the child Samuel grew in stature, and in favor both with the Lord and men.

Luke 2:40: And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom. And the grace of God was upon Him.

2:52: And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.

INTIMATION: 

Favor is described as kindness; approval, friendly regard from a superior. Favor is, objectively, the grace in a person. When the favor is of God, it is known as divine or supernatural favor—the grace or power from God in a person that enables him act graciously or favorably. And grace is described as unmerited, unearned, undeserved favor; the power that comes from God through the Holy Spirit indwelling us to help a person overcome all life’s challenges, and to meet every of our needs. 

The word “grace” and the word “favor” are both translated from the same Greek word “charis.” So, the grace of God is the favor of God. And favor of God is the grace of God—that which causes things to happen in our life that need to happen through the channel of our faith. It is the power of the Holy Spirit we receive to change us and to change our circumstances. One of the twenty-five names of the Holy Spirit found in the Bible is "The Spirit of grace." It is by God's Spirit of grace that we find favor with God and with man.

To be favored is to be featured—you attract a special attention or presented prominently; the Lord shining His light upon you, all to His glory. Although that light is real, it is usually invisible to the human eyes. Most of the time people don't even know why they look upon you with favor. They don't know why they like you, accept you, trust you, approve of you, enjoy being around you, prefer you over others. They just do, because God shines His light of grace upon you and gives you favor. If we keep our attitude right; giving God the glory, instead of becoming haughty and proud, then He will continue to pour out His favor upon us and treat us like His favorite.

Being featured, in my considered opinion, is not pride when the favored or featured position comes from God, not from our own personal ambitions or our own selfish efforts to call attention to ourselves. In all honesty, I find it very delightful to be featured by God. I like to see God move on my behalf, and I think everyone feels the same way. I must admit that it is fun to watch God single out someone for special attention and preferential treatment, especially in the presence of others. 

It is always enjoyable to have favor from God. It just seems that it doesn't happen as often as we would like. Part of the problem is us. There are so many things that God would love to do for us, but He cannot because we won't ask. One reason we won't ask is because we don't feel worthy. We don't have nearly as much fun with the Lord as we should. We should have more freedom and liberty, and less fear and legalism. The only time we will go to God and ask for special favor is when we are absolutely desperate, when we have gotten ourselves into a situation that we cannot possibly handle on our own.

The Lord wants to be personally involved in our lives. He wants to be involved with us in the gas station queue, He wants to be involved with us in the grocery store checkout line. He wants to be involved with us when we get caught in a traffic jam and can't move and so on. God is interested and wants to get involved in everything about us. God wants to give us supernatural favor because it provokes genuine praise and thanksgiving which are very delightful to God because it is the only thing He can't do for Himself.

Prayer: Abba Father, my utmost heart desire is that Your Spirit of grace rest upon me always, that I may continually obtain Your favor in my life in all the things I do, owning all circumstances that may confront me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The “I Will” of God

 The “I Will” of God

“Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.” (Zechariah 2:4–5)

There are mornings when I wake up feeling fragile. Vulnerable. It’s often vague. No single threat. No one weakness. Just an amorphous sense that something is going to go wrong and I will be responsible.

It’s usually after a lot of criticism. Or maybe after a lot of expectations that have deadlines, and that seem too big and too many.

As I look back over about 50 years of such periodic mornings, I am amazed how the Lord Jesus has preserved my life. And my ministry. The temptation to run away from the stress has never won out — not yet anyway. This is amazing. I worship my great God for this.

Instead of letting me sink into a paralysis of fear, or run to a mirage of greener grass, he has awakened a cry for help and then answered with concrete promises.

Here’s an example. This is recent. I woke up feeling emotionally fragile. Weak. Vulnerable. I prayed: “Lord, help me. I’m not even sure how to pray.”

An hour later I was reading in Zechariah, seeking the help I had cried out for. It came.

“Jerusalem shall be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of people and livestock in it. And I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord, and I will be the glory in her midst.” (Zechariah 2:4–5)

There will be such prosperity and growth for the people of God that Jerusalem will not be able to be walled in any more. “The multitude of people and livestock” will be so many that Jerusalem will be like many villages spreading out across the land without walls.

Prosperity is nice, but what about protection?

To which God says in verse 5, “I will be to her a wall of fire all around, declares the Lord.” Yes. That’s it. That is the promise. The “I will” of God. That is what I need.

And if it is true for the vulnerable villages of Jerusalem, it is true for me a child of God. That is how I apply the Old Testament promises to God’s people. All the promises are yes to me in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20). There is a “how much more” after every promise for those who are in Christ. God will be a “wall of fire all around” me. Yes. He will. He has been. And he will be. 

And it gets better. Inside that fiery wall of protection he says, “And I will be the glory in her midst.” God is never content to give us the protection of his fire; he aims to give us the pleasure of his presence. I love the “I wills” of God!

Devastated and Delighted

 Devastated and Delighted

“The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 7:6)

What would the doctrines of grace — the old Puritan term for the Calvinistic teaching of God’s sovereign grace in our salvation (TULIP) — what would those doctrines of grace sound like if every limb in that tree were coursing with the sap of Augustinian delight (that is, “Christian Hedonism”)?

Total depravity is not just badness, but blindness to God’s beauty, and deadness to the deepest joy.

Unconditional election means that the completeness of our joy in Jesus was planned for us before we ever existed, as the overflow of God’s joy in the fellowship of the Trinity.

Limited atonement is the assurance that indestructible joy in God is infallibly secured for God’s people by the blood of the new covenant.

Irresistible grace is the commitment and the power of God’s love to make sure we don’t hold on to suicidal pleasures, and to set us free by the sovereign power of superior delights.

Perseverance of the saints is the almighty work of God not to let us fall into the final bondage of inferior pleasures, but to keep us, through all affliction and suffering, for an inheritance of fullness of joy in his presence, and pleasures at his right hand forevermore.

Of those five, unconditional election delivers the harshest and the sweetest judgments to my soul. That it is unconditional destroys all self-exaltation (that’s the harsh part); and that it is election makes me his treasured possession (that’s the sweet part).

This is one of the beauties of the biblical doctrines of grace: their worst devastations prepare us for their greatest delights.

What prigs we would become at the words, “The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6), if this election were in any way dependent on us. But to protect us from pride, the Lord teaches us that we are unconditionally chosen (Deuteronomy 7:7–9). “He made a wretch his treasure,” as we so gladly sing.

Only the devastating freeness and unconditionality of electing grace — followed by all the other works of saving grace — let us take and taste such gifts for our very own without the exaltation of self.