LOVE IS THE PIVOT OF IDEAL CHRISTIAN LIFE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY JULY 07, 2021.

SUBJECT : LOVE IS THE PIVOT OF IDEAL CHRISTIAN LIFE!

Memory verse: "By this we know love, because He laid His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.”  (First John 3 vs 16.)

READ: First Corinthians 13 vs 1 - 8:

13:1: Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal.

13:2: And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing.

13:3: And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profits me nothing.

13:4: Love suffers long, and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up,

13:5: does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;

13:6: does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;

13:7: bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

13:8: love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away.

INTIMATION:

Love is the pivot of an ideal Christian life. It makes our actions and gifts useful. Although people have different gifts, love is available to everyone. Love is more important than all the spiritual gifts exercised in the church body. Great faith, acts of dedication or sacrifice, and miracle-working power have little effect without love. Without love, the privilege of understanding all things in reference to God’s work among men is useless. Without love that moves us to respond to our brother’s needs, the ability of one to remain personally faithful to God is useless. 

One could legally perform the duties of his beliefs after a meritorious manner. However, the doing of such is worthless without being moved by a heart of love. One could even meritoriously give himself into the hands of those who would persecute him to death for his faith. However, if the giving is not a love response to the grace of God, then it is useless. However, meritorious performances do not prepare one’s character for eternal dwelling in heaven. One can meritoriously do the works without a heart of love, but one cannot love without doing the works. It is a heart of love that is essential for one to be able to dwell in heaven.

In the passage we read today, verses 4 - 7, have fifteen qualities explained here concerning the nature of love. These are qualities that are manifested in one’s relationship with his fellow man. In this case, this should be the nature of the Christians’ relationship with one another in their behavior as disciples of Jesus. 

Love “suffers long”; patiently endures the weaknesses of others. It is not quick to discard a relationship simply because of a disagreement. Love is “kind”; it does not portray a harsh attitude with one’s brother or sister or spouse or child. Through kindness, love actively works toward the benefit of all those with whom it comes into contact. Love “does not envy”; it is not jealous over the accomplishments of others, nor does it seek for the possessions of others. It will thus build up and not tear down. 

Love does “not parade itself”; it does not push itself forward in order to be recognized, but is willing to humbly work in the background of the crowd in order to exalt others. It does not work in order to draw attention to itself. Love is “not puffed up”; it is not prideful or arrogant, and thus, does not insist on having its own way or consider itself better than others. It does not exalt itself above others. It does not lift itself up by knocking others down. Love “does not behave rudely”; it does not behave in a manner that manifests little consideration for others. It does not ignore the person of others for the sake of exalting itself.

Love “does not seek its own”; it does not love to be first. It does not seek to have its own way by ignoring the thoughts and dreams of others. Love is “not easily provoked”; it does not easily lose temper when something either goes wrong or is said that would generate anger. It does not react in disagreeable situations with rage and anger, but responds with calmness and gentleness. Love “thinks no evil”; it does not search for evil in the lives of others. Love does not search for evil in order to destroy its enemies by slanderous character assassination. It realizes that one’s perceptions of others is usually based on wrong information. It thus assumes the sincerity of others without questioning the motives of others.

Love does “not rejoice in iniquity”; it does not take pleasure in finding sin or failures in the lives of others. It does not rejoice when another sins or makes a mistake. It does not exalt itself above others by pointing out the mistakes of others. Love “rejoices in the truth”; it seeks truth and not evil. It is identified in the one who searches for truth and not evil in the lives of others. Love “bears all things”; when things becomes difficult, it does not cease to work. Without retaliation, it endures malicious slander that is spoken against it. When one is sinned against, one forbears without retaliation.

Love “believes all things”; it believes and seeks the good in all situations and people, and thus hopes for the best. Love is positive about life, and not negative. Love “hopes all things”; it believes that all things are working together for the good of the Christian. It believes that the best is yet to come. Love “endures all things”; because it believes that all things are working together for good, it looks on the positive side of things when things seem to go wrong. It is always confident about the future. True love never quits though things may go wrong. It never quits in the face of trials, discouragements, persecutions and temptations.

Ideally the fifteen character traits discussed above should be the hallmark of a perfect Christian life. Self evaluation is ours to do. Hallelujah!

Prayer: Abba Father, You have poured out Your love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit given to us. Consequently, as You are so You have empowered us to be in this world. Endue me with the spirit of true love, and selflessness, that I may exhibit the ideal Christian life, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

When Another Christian Hurts You

 

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24)

What is the basis of our not holding grudges against Christian brothers and sisters who repent?

Our moral indignation because of a terrible offense done against us does not evaporate just because the offender is a Christian. In fact, we may feel even more betrayed. And a simple, “I’m sorry” will often seem utterly disproportionate to the painfulness and ugliness of the offense.

But in this case we are dealing with fellow Christians and the promise of God’s wrath against our offender does not apply, because there is “no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). “God has not destined [Christians] for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:9). It looks like they are going to get away with it!

Where shall we turn to assure ourselves that justice will be done — that Christianity is not a mockery of the seriousness of sin?

The answer is that we look to the cross of Christ. All the wrongs that have been done against us by genuine believers were avenged in the death of Jesus. This is implied in the simple but staggering fact that all the sins of all God’s people were laid on Jesus. “The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 2:24).

The suffering of Christ was the real punishment and recompense of God on every hurt you have ever received from a fellow Christian. Therefore, Christianity does not make light of sin. It does not add insult to our injury.

On the contrary, it takes the sins against us so seriously that, to make them right, God gave his own Son to suffer more than we could ever make anyone suffer for what they have done to us. If we go on holding a grudge against a fellow believer, we are saying in effect that the cross of Christ was not a sufficient recompense for the sins of God’s people. This is an insult to Christ and his cross you do not want to give.

AS THE FATHER IS SO HIS CHILDREN SHOULD BE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY JULY 6, 2021.

SUBJECT : AS THE FATHER IS SO HIS CHILDREN SHOULD BE!

Memory verse: "Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgement, because as He is, so are we in this world." (First John 4 vs 17.)

READ: Hebrews 11 vs 1 - 3:

11:1: Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

11:2: For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.

11:3: By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

INTIMATION:

God is a faith God, therefore His children should be faith children. God’s faith nature is as expressed in the passage we read today, "By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible" (Hebrews 11 vs 3). God called the universe into existence out of nothing, he declared that it was to be, and it was. 

All that God did to create the universe was to say, "Let there be.” He said, "Let there be an earth," and the earth came into being. “Let there be light in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth," and the sun, moon, and stars came into being. God's only machinery for creation was His Word. In that Word was the faith of God expressed. God first believed it into being.

God has given us His nature in the new birth; “as He is so are we in this world.” We have learned overtime that our words can be filled with either faith or unbelief, or cold speculation. Faith gives substance to the Word of God. It gives substance to the things we hoped for. Faith makes man God-like, just as love makes him God-like. Our whole struggle in the faith life is to take the Word of God instead of the word of man—to rest in God's Word rather than in man's word.

God is a faith God, and when man links up with God, he becomes a faith man. He and God work and walk together. The believer is a faith person. He does not walk by reason. He does not walk by sense knowledge. He lives and walks in the realm of faith as expressed in Second Corinthians 5 vs 7:- "For we walk by faith, not by sight."

Take note of the Scriptures in Hebrews 11 vs 1; "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Or "a reality of things not seen." You never expect anything now, for which you hope. Hope is always in the future. There is nothing firm, or solid or tangible about hope. But faith gives reality to the things that you have hoped for, that you never would have had otherwise.

In Romans 4 vs 17, the Bible says, "(As it is written, 'I have made you a father of many nations') in the presence of Him whom he believed - God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did." That is faith by God. Speaking of Abraham in the next verse (18) He said, "Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken."  This is a striking Scripture. Abraham had a battle with hope. Finally he arrived. He believed against hope. He counted God's word to be absolute.

Now, look at Romans 4 vs 19 - 21; "And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform."

Reason would have conquered had he yielded to it. Reason said, "Tradition shows that no man has ever had youth renewed, that no woman past ninety years of age has ever had a child. Yet this man believed against all the evidence of sense knowledge, and counted that God was able to make good what He had promised.

Abraham moved into God's class. He counted the things that were not as though they were, and they became. He counted his body to be as good as it was at the age of thirty five years. He considered Sarah to be as young, and capable of bearing children. He counted the thing that was not as though it was, and it became. God created us in His image and after His likeness, and gave us His nature the new creation, hence you and I should be like Him; faith man, or faith woman.

Prayer: Abba Father, in You I live, and move, and have being. Give me the grace to be in this world as You are, leading a faith life built completely in You, and Your Word, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

How Christ Conquered Bitterness

 

When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. (1 Peter 2:23)

No one was more grievously sinned against than Jesus. Every ounce of animosity against him was completely undeserved.

No one has ever lived who was more worthy of honor than Jesus; and no one has been dishonored more.

If anyone had a right to get angry and be bitter and vengeful, it was Jesus. How did he control himself when scoundrels, whose very existence he sustained, spit in his face? First Peter 2:23 gives the answer: “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.”

What this verse means is that Jesus had faith in the future grace of God’s righteous judgment. He did not need to avenge himself for all the indignities he suffered, because he entrusted his cause to God. He left vengeance in God’s hands and prayed for his enemies: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34).

Peter gives us this glimpse into Jesus’s faith so that we would learn how to live this way ourselves. He said, “You have been called [to endure harsh treatment patiently] . . . because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21).

If Christ conquered bitterness and vengeance by faith in what God, the good Judge, had promised to do, how much more should we, since we have far less right to murmur for being mistreated than he did?

BELIEVERS HAVE COMPLETE AUTHORITY IN CHRIST!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY JULY 5, 2021.

SUBJECT : BELIEVERS HAVE COMPLETE AUTHORITY IN CHRIST!

Memory verse: "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” (Matthew 28 vs 18.) 

READ: Colossians 2 vs 9 - 10; 14 - 15: 

2:9: For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

2:10: and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

2:14: Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

2:15: Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

INTIMATION: 

Jesus has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. All that authority belongs to, and is for the benefit of His body—the church. If He conquered all the forces of darkness and left them paralyzed and broken before He arose from the dead, it is as though we had accomplished the mighty work. It is reckoned for us as our credit, because He accomplished all that in His body, of which the church consists.

The question is, ‘When will our hearts take it in, and our minds become fruitful with this mighty unveiling of what we are in Christ?’ God put all things under the feet of Jesus, and had appointed Him the universal and supreme Head of the church—His body, and that in that body lives the full measure of Him Who fills all in all. 

We are His body—the Church, therefore, all these malignant, wicked influences are beneath our feet. We have been made masters of them all. He did not defeat them for Himself, but for us. He did not fight that battle for His glory, but for our good. Hence He gave us authority over them; “Behold, I gave you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10 vs 19).

Adam had sold us out in his sin of high treason. Jesus redeemed us, defeated our enemy and put him beneath our feet. That knowledge should become as common to us, and as usable as the multiplication table. And when this is done believers will spend less or no time glorying the devil. Instead they use that time to glorify Jesus Christ for His triumph over Satan and his cohorts.

We are the fullness of Him; "Of His fullness have we all received" (John 1 vs 16). In Jesus Christ is the whole fullness of Godhead, that is, complete expression of the divine nature. And we are in Him, made full, and having come to fullness of life, we too are filled with the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—the full spiritual stature. He is not only our fullness, but we are His fullness also. The word, "fullness" comes from a Greek word that is almost untranslatable: "pleroma," which means "completeness," "perfectness," or any other synonym that suggests fullness. 

God in Christ Jesus gave us the triumph over Satan; "But thanks be to God, who always lead us in triumph in Christ." (Second Corinthians 2 vs 14.) That is the Hallelujah chorus of the new creation, and it never becomes real until we begin to confess it, begin to tell to the world what we are in Christ.

This redemption wrought for us in Jesus Christ is eternal (Hebrews 9 vs 12). Not just a redemption for the hour in which it was done, but that Satan is as much defeated now as he was when Christ arose from the dead; that he is as much a subject today to the Name of Jesus as he was when Jesus conquered him.

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You most gracious Lord for Your triumph over Satan in Christ for us, and for given us Your fullness in Him. You have given us all that pertains to life and godliness. May Your Name forever be praised forever, in Jesus’ mighty Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Give God Your Revenge

 

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)

Why is this such a crucial promise in overcoming our bent toward bitterness and revenge? The reason is that this promise answers one of the most powerful impulses behind anger — an impulse that is not entirely wrong.

In many cases, real wrongs have been done to us. Therefore, it is not entirely wrong to feel that justice should be done. What’s wrong is to feel that we must make it happen and that we may feel bitter until it does. This would be a deadly mistake.

During my seminary days, Noël and I were in a small group for couples that began to relate at a fairly deep personal level. One evening we were discussing forgiveness and anger. One of the young wives said that she could not and would not forgive her mother for something she had done to her as a young girl.

We talked about some of the biblical commands and warnings concerning an unforgiving spirit.

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32)

If you do not forgive others . . . neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:15)

But she would not budge. So I warned her that her very soul was in danger if she kept on with such an attitude of unforgiving bitterness. But she was adamant that she would not forgive her mother.

The grace of God’s judgment is promised to us here in Romans 12 as a means of helping us overcome such a deadly spirit of revenge and bitterness.

Paul’s argument is that we can be sure that all wrongs will be dealt with by God and that we can leave the matter in his hands because vengeance belongs to the Lord. To motivate us to lay down our vengeful desires he gives us a promise: “I will repay, says the Lord.”

The promise that frees us from an unforgiving, bitter, vengeful spirit is the promise that God will settle our accounts. He will do it more justly and mercifully and more thoroughly than we ever could. He punishes all sin. Nobody gets away with anything. He punishes it either in Christ on the cross for those who repent and trust him, or in hell for those who don’t. Therefore, we can back off and leave room for God to do his perfect work.

DO NOT REASON GOD’S WORD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY JULY 04, 2021.

SUBJECT: DO NOT REASON GOD’S WORD!

Memory verse: “Casting down arguments , and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ;” (Second Corinthians 10 vs 5.)

READ: First Corinthians 1 vs 18 - 25:

1:18: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1:19: For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

1:20: Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

1:21: For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

1:22: For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom;

1:23: but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness;

1:24: But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

1:25: Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

INTIMATION:

To reap the inherent benefits in the Word of God, you must discourage any form of reasoning or arguing on God’s word as it appears to human reasoning or conception. God said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55 vs 8 - 9.) God’s knowledge and wisdom are far greater than any human’s. We are foolish to interpret or argue God’s Word using our sensual or human knowledge.

In accordance with our memory verse and the passage we read today, we must cast down reasonings (arguments or imaginations), for men have deified reasonings. The great reasoners of the world and the great philosophers of the world have gained the ascendancy over the human mind. Philosophy has never given anything of any value to the body of Christ—the Church. What we call our Christian philosophers are often men who denied the miraculous and the supernatural, always wanting to explain it away through sense knowledge activities and reasonings.

We are to cast down imaginations or reasonings, everything that sense knowledge has exalted against the Word of God, and we are to bring into captivity our thinking so we will think God's thoughts instead of man's thoughts. So we will be inspired by the Word of God rather than by the word of men. And it is in doing so that we reap immensely from the inherent power in the Word of God. When we submit to the Lord with total devotion, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to capture every thought and yield it to Christ. 

When exposed to ideas or opportunities that might lead to wrong desires, you have a choice. You can recognize the danger and turn away, or you allow unhealthy thoughts to take you captive. You capture your fantasies and desires when you honestly admit them to the Lord and ask Him to redirect your thinking. Ask God to give you the spirit of discernment to keep your thoughts focused on His truth.

God said in the Scripture, “Therefore, behold, I will do a marvelous work among the people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.” (Isaiah 29 vs 14.) 

Now, consider the Scripture in Romans 4 vs 19 - 21, "And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform."

Abraham looked at his body and saw it exactly as it was, impotent, a worn out thing. He looked at Sarah, another broken vessel. Yet looking unto the promise of God, he waxed strong. He counted that God could make good what He had promised.  Abraham moved into God's class. He counted the things that were not as though they were, and they became. He counted his body to be as good as it was at the age of thirty five years. He considered Sarah to be as young, and capable of bearing children. He counted the thing that was not as though it was, and it became.

Reason would have conquered had he yielded to it. Reason said "Tradition shows that no man has ever had youth renewed, that no woman past ninety years of age has ever had a child.” Yet this man believed against all the evidence of human reasoning or sense knowledge, and counted that God was able to make good what He had promised.

The Good News of Jesus Christ still sounds foolish to many. He will save us from eternal death and give us everlasting life if we trust Him as Savior and Lord. This sounds so simple that many people won’t accept it. They try other ways to obtain eternal life (being good, being wise, etc.). Jesus offers His kingdom to those who have faith, not to those who do all kinds of good deeds to try to earn salvation. This looks foolish to the world, but Christ is the mighty power of God, the only way we can be saved. Knowing Christ personally is the greatest wisdom anyone can have. The “foolish” people who simply accept Christ’s offer are actually the wisest of all, because they alone will live eternally with God.

Prayer: Abba Father, forever Your Word is settled in heaven. Endue me with the spirit of complete devotion to Your Word that there will not be room for any reasoning in it, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!