God’s Final, Decisive Word

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son. (Hebrews 1:1–2)

The last days begin with the coming of the Son into the world. “In these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.” We have been living in the last days since the days of Christ — that is, the last days of history as we know it before the final and full establishment of the kingdom of God.

The point for the writer of Hebrews is this: The Word that God spoke by his Son is the decisive Word. By the Son’s own design, that word has been captured for the ages in the writings of the New Testament. He explicitly made provision for this, lest every generation be left to itself to dream up the decisive word of God. This word will not be followed in this age by any greater word or replacement word. This is the Word of God — the person of Jesus, the teaching of Jesus, and the work of Jesus, captured by inspiration in the apostolic writings we call the New Testament.

When I complain that I don’t hear the Word of God, when I feel a desire to hear the voice of God, and get frustrated that he does not speak in ways that I may crave, what am I really saying? Am I really saying that I have exhausted this final, decisive Word revealed to me so fully and infallibly in the New Testament? Have I really exhausted this Word? Has it become so much a part of me that it has shaped my very being and given me life and guidance?

Or have I treated it lightly — skimmed it like a newspaper, clicked through like a quick series of internet postings, dipped in like a taste-tester — and then decided I wanted something different, something more? This is what I fear I am guilty of more than I wish to admit.

God is calling us to hear his final, decisive, inexhaustible Word — to meditate on it and study it and memorize it and linger over it and soak in it until it saturates us to the center of our being.

CRAVE FOR DIVINE DIRECTION!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY OCTOBER 22, 2021.

SUBJECT : CRAVE FOR DIVINE DIRECTION!

Memory verse: "This says the Lord, your Redeemer, The Holy One of Israel: "I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit, Who leads you by the way you should go." (Isaiah 48 vs 17.)

READ: Second Samuel 5 vs 17 - 20:

5:17: Now when the Philistines heard that they had anointed David King over Israel, all the Philistines went up to search for David. And David heard of it and went down to the stronghold.

5:18: The Philistines also went and deployed themselves in the Valley of Rephaim.

5:19: So David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?” And the Lord said to David, “Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.”

5:20: So David went to Baal Perazim, and David defeated them there, and he said, “The Lord has broken through my enemies before me, like a breakthrough of water.” Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim.

INTIMATION:

God's ability to direct our lives well is infinitely beyond our ability. Divine direction is our heritage in Christ, because when you have received Him, He gave you the right to become the child of God. (John 1 vs 12.) The child of God enjoys the leading of the Father.

Though divine direction is your heritage, but you must seek it in order to enjoy it. Divine direction can be obtained through prayer of enquiry. In Matthew 7 vs 7, Jesus said, "Ask and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock; and it will be opened to you." If the path you are going on seems like a dead end, ask Him, "Lord, where is the right side of this venture?" When you locate the path of life, you enjoy fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, which is our ultimate goal in prayer.

God is committed to leading you in the path of life He has ordained for you, even before you were born. But inquiring in prayer ensures your access to His leading. David was a man who understood superbly that nature of God, and used it greatly. The power of the prayer of enquiry was outstanding in his life, hence God called him a man after His heart. 

In the passage we read today, we saw David’s exploits through inquiry and receipt of  divine direction from the Lord. Further in the same chapter, David again inquired of the Lord about the Philistines, and the Lord instructed him on what to do; “And David did so, as the Lord commanded him and he drove back the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer.” (vs 25) 

When you ask, God gives liberally, because He is committed. He is a loving Father, so be relaxed in His presence and ask as many questions as you need, to be clear on every vital issue of your life. David wrote of the Lord in Psalm 16 vs 11, "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore." 

When God leads you, you can't but become outstanding in life. Some people are not cut out for business, but have chosen to do it, either because of social influence or personal affection. Others are into all manner of professions where their star may never shine, because they haven't located the right path. They just keep groping around. But you can't afford to go through life doing what seems right to you. It is too risky! "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." (Proverbs 16 vs 25.) The apostle James said, "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him." (James 1 vs 5.)

We are often confused by the events around us. Many things we will never understand; others will fall in place in years to come as we look back and see how God was working. You need not understand God's ways (His ways are beyond our understanding), or worry if you don't understand everything as it happens. Instead, we should trust that God knows what He is doing, even if His timing or design is not clear to us. 

Don't give up in your efforts to seek God. Continue to ask Him for more knowledge, patience, wisdom, love, and understanding. He will give them to you. When you ask, God is committed to answer; He knows that without His direction your destiny is not secured. But until you ask Him, you will just keep doing what seems right, not what is right, and until you do what is right, you can't be marked right in life. David, in Psalm 37 vs 23, gives us the reassuring promise of God's direction in our lives; "The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way."

When God leads you, He makes a leader out of you. But one wrong step can lead to a 40-year setback in life, as was the case of Moses and the children of Israel. Jesus tells us to persist in pursuing God. People always give up after a few halfhearted efforts and conclude that God cannot be found. But knowing God takes faith, focus, and follow-through (I call it the three 'Fs'), and Jesus assured us that we will be rewarded. (Matthew 7 vs 7 - 8.)

Divine direction was what rescued the disciples from an all-night futile toiling on the sea. Jesus came and said to them, "Cast your net on the right side of the ship and you shall find." They did, and were not able to draw in the net, for the multitude of fishes (John 21 vs 3 - 8).

Do you want breakthroughs? Then inquire of God in prayer concerning any issues before you take any steps. He will answer you, because He is interested in everything that concerns you. God is the only One who can lead you to true pastures and He is set to do so. If only you will let Him. He said; "Call upon Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know." (Jeremiah 33 vs 3.)

Remember, you can't wish problems away, you must rise up to the challenge, and effect a change. You don't have to accept the status quo, you are a child of destiny! Where you are now may not be God's ultimate for you. You can get to the top, if only you will push in prayers. You too can  live a problem-free life, and I see you getting there, in Jesus' name!

Prayer, Abba Father, You are my Loving Father, and Faithful Companion. Outside of You, I can do nothing, and without Your direction, I can never fulfill my destiny. Engrace me, O Lord, to constantly inquire of You concerning any issues in my life, that I may obtain the leading of the Holy Spirit indwelling me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Hedonism for Husbands and Wives

 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Ephesians 5:24–25)

There is a pattern of love in marriage ordained by God.

The roles of husband and wife are not the same. The husband is to take his special cues from Christ as the head of the church. The wife is to take her special cues from God’s design for the church as submissive to Christ.

In doing this, the sinful and damaging results of the fall begin to be reversed. The fall twisted man’s loving headship into hostile domination in some men, and lazy indifference in others. The fall twisted woman’s intelligent, willing submission into manipulative obsequiousness in some women, and brazen insubordination in others.

The redemption we anticipated when the Messiah finally came in Jesus Christ was not the dismantling of the created order of loving headship and willing submission, but a recovery of it. Wives, redeem your fallen submission by modeling it after God’s intention for a joyful church! Husbands, redeem your fallen headship by modeling it after God’s intention for the lavishly loving Christ!

I find in Ephesians 5:21–33 these two things: (1) the display of Christian Hedonism in marriage and (2) the direction its impulses should take.

Wives, seek your joy in the joy of your husband by affirming and honoring his God-ordained role as “head” or leader in your relationship. Husbands, seek your joy in the joy of your wife by accepting the responsibility to lead as Christ led the church and gave himself for her.

I would like to bear witness to God’s goodness in my life. I discovered Christian Hedonism the same year I got married, in 1968. Since then, Noël and I, in obedience to Jesus Christ, have pursued as passionately as we can the deepest, most lasting joys possible. All too imperfectly, all too half-heartedly at times, we have stalked our own joy in the joy of each other.

And we can testify together after almost 50 years of marriage: For those who marry, this is the path to the heart’s desire. For us, marriage has been a matrix for Christian Hedonism. As each pursues joy in the joy of the other and fulfills a God-ordained role, the mystery of marriage as a parable of Christ and the church becomes manifest for his great glory and for our great joy.

GUARD AGAINST OFFENSE TOWARD GOD AND MAN!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY OCTOBER 21, 2021.

SUBJECT : GUARD AGAINST OFFENSE TOWARD GOD AND MAN!

Memory verse: “And blessed is he who is not be offended because of Me." (Matthew 11 vs 6.)

READ: Job 9 vs 4; Isaiah 45 vs 9 - 10:

Job 9:4: God is wise in heart, and mighty in strength. Who has hardened himself against Him, and prospered?

Isaiah 45:9: “Woe to him who strives with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ 

Or shall your handiwork say, ‘He has no hands’?

45:10: Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What are you begetting?’ Or to the woman, ‘What have you brought forth?’”

INTIMATION:

Everything that moves you to question the integrity of God, or His love for you must be destroyed, so that the altar of your heart can be prepared for the fire from heaven. While preparing your heart to approach God in prayer, one of the things you must guard against is offense. So many have their conscience ensnared with offenses toward God or man, and all they do in prayer is nothing but complain, and murmur. When you are offended in God, you turn Him against yourself; and if God is against you, who will save you? If you despise Him, who will lift you?

When you are offended in God or man, you bear iniquities in your heart that inhibits God from hearing you (Psalm 66 vs 18). Many are stranded because of offenses. When they stand in prayer, they justify themselves against God. They say, "Lord, I've paid my tithe, I have done everything that You commanded. Only You haven't done your part." In other words, they count themselves faithful and God unfaithful. But the Bible says, "...Let God be true but every man a liar..." (Romans 3 vs 4.) Anything that makes you to murmur against God is moving you against your destiny. You can't expect Him to answer your prayers when your heart is full of complains and offenses toward God or man. 

If He withdraws His breath from you for three seconds, you will be dead. If you have lost anything, God is the reason you didn't loose everything. May be the enemy's intention was to take your life, but God stepped in and you only lost your car. But here you are, offended and complaining against Him in prayer. If He withdraws His hand from your life, can you imagine what will become of you?

In our memory verse, Jesus said that those who do not take any offense in the Lord are fortunate and blessed. Jesus said this when John the Baptist who was in prison, and began to have some doubts about whether Jesus really was the Messiah. John thought in his heart that if his purpose was to prepare people for the coming Messiah, then why was he in prison when he could have been preaching to the crowds, preparing their hearts. John expected that the coming Messiah should be able to save him from prison. 

When John the Baptist’s disciples came and put his question before Jesus,—"Are you the Coming One, or do we look for another?" Jesus knew that he was already offended in Him. He asked those disciples to go back to him with the good news of His exploits—The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. Obviously, that would have offended John the more because he already had heard all those evidence that indicated the real identity of Jesus, and wondered why He didn't want to save Him from prison. 

The wise and right thing to do when you are in doubt because of happenings around you is turn to Him, and not turn away from Him. Remember, it was in the same prison and the same Jailer that held Paul and Silas. They were doing the work of the Messiah when they were arrested and jailed. But they didn't get offended, both toward God or the men, but instead sang and praised God while in there, and God came in His Might and saved them. But for John, he was eventually beheaded when the King's daughter, on the advice of her mother, the king’s wife, asked for his head in a platter.

Romans 8 vs 28 says, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." So, set your heart right before Him. Count Him faithful in all things. Refuse to complain, but rather let God know that you have no alternative beside Him, and that you are ready to hang on till your answer comes from Him. Any attempt to step away from God, is stepping into doom for you. Certainly, there is no unrighteous with God! (Romans 9 vs 14.)

Let your conscience be as that of the apostle Paul who said, "This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense toward God and men." (Acts 24 vs 16.) Give your destiny motion by clearing off every offense from your heart, to establish a thoroughfare to heaven in prayers. This is the way to maintain a good communication line with God.

Prayer: Abba Father, You are the Lord, the Creator of all things for Your purposes. You are the All-knowing God, and the end known to You from the beginning. Give me the grace to have a conscience without offense toward You or men, that You may hear me when I call, and I will be worthy of Your blessings accardingly, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Mystery of Marriage

 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31–32)

Here in Ephesians 5:31 Paul is quoting Genesis 2:24, which Moses spoke — and Jesus said God spoke through Moses (Matthew 19:5) — “A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Paul says this word of God, spoken before the fall into sin, is a reference to Christ and the church and contains therefore a great mystery.

What this implies is that when God engaged to create man and woman and to ordain the union of marriage, he didn’t roll the dice or draw straws or flip a coin as to how they might be related to each other. He patterned marriage very purposefully after the relationship between his Son and the church, which he had planned from all eternity.

Therefore, marriage is a mystery — it contains and conceals a meaning far greater than what we see on the outside. God created man male and female and ordained marriage so that the eternal covenant relationship between Christ and his church would be imaged forth in the marriage union.

The inference Paul draws from this mystery is that the roles of husband and wife in marriage are not arbitrarily assigned, but are rooted in the distinctive roles of Christ and his church.

Those of us who are married need to ponder again and again how mysterious and wonderful it is that God grants us in marriage the privilege to image forth stupendous divine realities infinitely bigger and greater than ourselves.

This mystery of Christ and the church is the foundation of the pattern of love that Paul describes for marriage. It is not enough to say that each spouse should pursue his or her own joy in the joy of the other. That is true. But it is not enough. It is also important to say that husbands and wives should consciously copy the relationship God intended for Christ and the church. That is, each should seek to live after the distinctive model of God’s pure and glad design for Christ and the church.

I hope you will take this seriously whether you are single or married, old or young. The revelation of the covenant-keeping Christ and his covenant-keeping church hangs on it.

Prayer’s First Priority

 “Pray then like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” (Matthew 6:9)

In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches that the first priority in praying is to ask our heavenly Father to cause his name to be hallowed. In us. In the church. In the world. Everywhere.

Notice that this is a petition, a request. It is not a declaration or acclamation. It is not an expression of praise, but petition. For years I misread the Lord’s Prayer as if it began with praise: “Praise God, the Lord’s name is hallowed, revered, honored!” But it is not acclamation. It is supplication. It is a request to God that he would see to it that his own name be hallowed.

It is like another text, Matthew 9:38, where Jesus tells us to pray to the Lord of the harvest that he would send out laborers into his own harvest. It never ceases to amaze me that we, we laborers, should be instructed to ask the owner of the farm, who knows the harvest better than we do, to add on more farm hands.

But isn’t this the same thing we have here in the Lord’s Prayer — Jesus is telling us to ask God, who is infinitely jealous for the honor of his own name, to see to it that his name be hallowed, which means honored, revered, exalted as supremely precious?

Well it may amaze us, but there it is. And it teaches us two things.

One is that prayer does not move God to do things he is disinclined to do. He has every intention to cause his name to be hallowed. Nothing is higher on God’s priority list. But we should ask anyway.

The other is that prayer is God’s way of bringing our priorities into line with his. God wills to make great things the consequence of our prayers when our prayers are the consequence of his great purposes.

Bring your heart into line with the jealousy of God to hallow his name, and you will pray with great effect. Let your first and all-determining prayer be for the hallowing of God’s name, and your prayers will plug into the power of God’s jealousy for his name.

FORGIVENESS ENGENDERS FORGIVENESS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 20, 2021.

SUBJECT : FORGIVENESS ENGENDERS FORGIVENESS!

Memory verse: "Bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, If anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do." (Colossians 3 vs 13.)

READ: Matthew 6 vs 12; 14 - 15; Mark 11 vs 25 - 26:

Matthew 6:12: And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

6:14: For If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

6:15: But If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Mark 11:25: And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you Your trespasses.

11:26: But If you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.

INTIMATION:

Forgiveness is to pardon; to acquit of sin. Forgiveness is an expression of love. When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, one of the things He told them to say was, "And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us." That is to say, "Lord forgive us, just the way we forgive others. Don't forgive us when we don't forgive others." 

When we don’t forgive others, we are denying our common ground as sinners in need of God’s forgiveness. It’s easy to ask God for forgiveness but difficult to grant it to others. Whenever you ask God to forgive you your sin, you should ask thus, “Have I forgiven the people who have wronged me?”

If we document other people's sins against us, then the Lord will document ours also, if we desire their hurt, He will desire our hurt also. So, when you don't forgive those who have offended you, your sins also remain unforgiven. Until your sins are forgiven, you don't have any fellowship or prayer access to God. 

The key to forgiving others is remembering how much God has forgiven you. Realizing God’s infinite love and forgiveness should help you love and forgive others. Is it difficult for you to forgive someone who has wronged you a little when God had forgiven you so much? Forgive those who have wronged you, and let God worry about the wrongs you have suffered. 

Many have been crying in all manner of prayers, fasting and vigils, yet God hasn't heard them, because they are holding back the sins of others in their hearts. You probably may have told your offender, "I have forgiven you, it is all over." But it is not over yet in your heart. And because the Bible says in Psalm 66 vs 18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me," your prayers go unheard. 

You may pray as long as you like, remain on your knees all the days of your life and fast as many days as possible, if you have imprisoned somebody in your heart through unforgiveness, you will never have a breakthrough, because the Scriptures cannot be broken. Love is your vital link with God and the foundation stones of the altar of your heart. There is a future in forgiveness. Let love flow from your heart to everyone and you will see God step into the affairs of your life.

It is spiritual foolishness to live with unforgiveness; the cost is too high. It is one of the traps of the devil to make you lose favor with God. Jesus told a parable in Matthew 18 vs 23 - 35, likening the kingdom of heaven to forgiveness;  A king had a servant who owed him and was unable to pay. The king wanted to sell him and members of his household to recover his money. But when the servant begged the king, he was moved  with compassion, and he forgave him the debt.

But that same servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him, and seized him by the throat, insisted he must pay him. His fellow servant begged him, but he refused and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. His master got the wind of what he did and was very angry. And since he was not able to be compassionate to his fellow servant who owed him, he was delivered to the torturers until he pays all that was due to his master..

When God forgives you your sins but later sees the way you are tormenting somebody who has offended you, He will bring your records out again and deal with you. Forgiveness brings you into eternal friendship with Jesus and gives you access to heaven's hotline. Until you free that man or woman, God will not hear your cry of affliction. That man might have really cheated you, and that woman insulted you terribly, but let him go! Let her go! Until the love foundation is in place, effectual prayer is impossible.

Watch any person who walks in hatred, malice and unforgiveness, the person's life keeps drying up. And because the person has no access to God's favor, he or she is a cheap prey to the devil. Your expression of love for your fellow human is the authentic proof of your salvation. Examine yourself, to see if there is anywhere your altar has been broken down, and plead the mercy of God for restoration. Rededicate your life to God and be determined never to be found doing what displeases Him. That long-awaited answer to your prayers will be delivered to you now, in Jesus' name!

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of forgiveness and love for one another, that I may be able to have eternal fellowship with You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!