GOD’S PLAN CARRIES HIS GRACE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY FEBRUARY 21, 2022.

SUBJECT: GOD’S PLAN CARRIES HIS GRACE!

Memory verse: “And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him.” (Luke 2 vs 40.)

READ: Psalm 105 vs 13 - 15:

105:13: When they went from one nation to another; from one kingdom to another people, 

105:14: He permitted no one to do them wrong; yes, He rebuked kings for their sake, 

105:15: saying, “Touch not my anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm

INTIMATION:

It is hard for us to enjoy life if we don't have assurance about today, peace about yesterday and confidence about tomorrow. Why is it so? It is because as long as we live we will always have to face situations for which we don't have all the answers. If we don't have something going on in our lives that we can't handle, we wouldn't need God, therefore, we wouldn't need faith, we wouldn't have to trust God. 

The Lord will see to it that we are always dependent upon Him. And He does that by allowing us get into situations that are over our head. That is why although we may get worried, God never gets worried because He already knows exactly what He's going to do. He has got a plan, a path, and a work all ready for us. For instance, when Jesus fed the multitude of five thousand men, excluding women and children, He said to Philip His disciple; “Where shall we buy bread that these may eat? But this He said to test him, for He Himself knew what He would do.” (John 6 vs 5 - 6.)

Although the Lord already has a plan for us to follow, a path for us to walk in, and a work for us to do, He won't give us all the answers today that we will need tomorrow. With each new day comes the grace that we need to live that day and meet the challenges of it. Consequently, Jesus advised us thus; “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about it’s own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (John 6 vs 34). Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will give you the grace to deal with whatever hard things that come up when the time comes. But not until you ask Him.

You may have heard the story about the young man who was in prison and about to be burned at the stake the next day for his faith in Christ. In the same cell there was an older man, more experienced believer who knew more about the way of the Lord. As it began to get dark, the younger man struck a match to light a candle, and as he did so, he burned his finger. Letting out a cry of anguish and pain, he said to his companion, "How can I stand to be burned at the stake tomorrow if I can't stand to be burned on the finger tonight?" The older man calmly replied, "Son, God didn't ask you to burn your finger, so there is no grace for that. But He is asking you to die for your faith, so when the time comes the grace will be there."

No matter what happens, God is still in control. He has a plan to handle everything that we will encounter in this life. And His grace is sufficient to meet all our needs. When the Israelites were brought out of the land of Egypt to the promised land, because it was God’s plan, His grace was sufficient for them to meet all their needs, even in the wilderness, until they arrived at the promised land.

We turn to God to seek pathways for effectiveness. We must rely on God for our effectiveness rather than simply on our own energy, effort, or talent. In Second Corinthians 12 vs 9, God told Paul, "...My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Our weakness not only helps develop Christian character, it also deepens our worship, because in admitting our weakness, we affirm God's strength.

It was God's plan to send His only Son, Jesus Christ, to die for our sins. And the Bible recorded in Luke 2 vs 40, "And the Child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.” When the time came for Jesus to do what He came for, He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed, and He said to His disciples, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.” (Matthew 26 vs 37 - 38). 

Jesus prayed to God the Father three times, asking for the same thing, saying the same words; “O My Father, If this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done” (Matthew 26 vs 42). Thereafter, God took over, the Father’s strength was made perfect in the Son’s weakness, and He became strengthened to face the planned death for mankind. God's plan carries His grace.

Prayer: Abba Father, in You I live, and move, and have my being. I can do all things through Your grace available to me. Help me, O Lord, that nothing can inhibit Your grace in my life, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Our Servant, Jesus

 “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

Not only was he the servant of his people while he lived on earth, but he will also be our servant when he comes again. “Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them” (Luke 12:37). Jesus gave that as a picture of what he will do at his return.

Not only that, he is our servant now. “‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’ So we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5–6).

Does this belittle the risen Christ — to say that he was and is and will ever be the servant of his people? It would, if “servant” meant “one who takes orders,” or if we thought we were his masters. Yes, that would dishonor him. But it does not dishonor him to say that we are weak and need his help.

It does not dishonor him to say that he is the only one who can service us with what we need most.

It does not dishonor him to say that he is an inexhaustible spring of love, and that the more he helps us and the more we depend on his service, the more amazing his resources appear. Therefore, we can confidently say, “Jesus Christ is alive to serve!”

He is alive to save. He is alive to give. And he is thrilled to be this way.

He is not burdened down with your cares. He thrives on burden-bearing, not burden-giving. He loves to work “for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4). He “takes pleasure . . . in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 147:11). His eyes “run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9).

Jesus Christ is exuberant with omnipotent service for the sake of all who trust him.

POWER OF GOD FLOW BY MONIQUE

 

Amazed at the Resurrection

 

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. (2 Peter 3:1)

As Easter approaches, let’s stir up our thankfulness and joy and admiration and amazement at what the resurrection of Jesus means for us. The curse of our fallen nature is that what once thrilled us becomes ordinary. The reality hasn’t changed. We have changed.

This is why the Bible exists. Peter says of his two letters that they are written to “stir up” or “arouse” by means of “reminder.”

So, let’s stir up our sincere minds by way of reminder.

What has God done in raising Jesus from the dead? Here are a few biblical answers.

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we are born again to a living hope.

1 Peter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Because of Jesus’s resurrection, he now has the glory for which we were made. Our ultimate destiny is to see him as he is.

1 Peter 1:21: “God . . . raised him from the dead and gave him glory.”

John 17:5, 24: “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. . . . Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

May the risen Lord Jesus himself awaken and arouse your sincere mind to new depths of worship and allegiance and joy.

ESSENTIALS OF FAITH THAT PLEASES GOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 20, 2022.

SUBJECT : ESSENTIALS OF FAITH THAT PLEASES GOD!

Memory verse: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3 vs 16.)

READ: James 2 vs 20 - 26:

2:20: But do yo want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

2:21: Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?

2:22: Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?

2:23: And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the Friend of God.

2:24: Ye see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

2:25: Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

2:26: For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

INTIMATION:

The Bible also shows us that not just any faith will do. We cannot expect God to be pleased with a faith just because we approve of it. The faith that pleases God is a belief that comes from God, not from some other source or from within ourselves. Therefore, the essentials of the faith that pleases God must be (1) Faith in Christ, (2) Obedient faith, (3) Faith that passes the test. 

1. Must be Faith in Christ. 

There is a popular idea that you need a genuine and enthusiastic faith of some kind, but it doesn't really matter what you believe. It could be a belief in yourself, or your guardian angel, or the spirits of your ancestors, or in the earth mother, or in a god, or in some great teacher. God teaches us however, that only faith in His Son Jesus Christ will be pleasing to Him. Since Jesus Christ is the only way to God, the Father, it is very essential for all people to have faith in Him (See John 3 vs 16 & 36; 14 vs 6). 

2. Must be obedient faith with works.

Though we are not justified by what we do in any way, but true faith always result in good deeds. Faith brings us salvation, active obedience demonstrates that our faith is genuine. The deeds referred to here is good deeds toward one’s fellow man. Such deeds are the manifestation of one’s faith. 

There is this popular idea is that faith stands alone and is not complemented by anything, certainly not by anything we do. It is a belief without works, and cannot be perfected by works. But this is not true. The Bible certainly teaches that works on their own, without belief, are useless. The apostle Paul especially makes this clear. However this does not mean that works are out of the question, because the Bible also certainly teaches that belief on its own, without works, is equally useless. James especially makes this clear. So we need to know that neither works alone nor belief alone will please God. (See James 2 vs 20 - 24.) 

3. Must be Faith that Passes life’s tests.

Another popular idea is that faith makes all troubles go away, and if you have troubles then this shows a lack of belief on your part. This was not true for Job. His troubles came because he had faith rather than because he lacked it. The same was true of the apostle Paul. Disciples of Christ may find their belief tested by troubles. This is not a time to question your belief, but rather a time to lean on it. A faith that endures through trials is pleasing to God.

The godly life in Christ brings persecution because Satan will rise up against all that God represents in this world. Certainly God uses Satan’s work against him, therefore, many trials are an occasion for spiritual growth and development of character. Since God uses Satan’s work against him, then persecution and trials manifest that God is going to use Satan’s work to accomplish something that is good in the life of every believer in that stead. (See James 1 vs 2 - 3; First Peter 5 vs 6 - 11.)

Let us, therefore, covet the faith that will make us well pleasing to God. The apostle Paul states thus; “Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things done in his body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (Second Corinthians 5 vs 9 - 10.)

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You immensely for the gift of Your Son, Jesus Christ, and Your grace to build up myself on my most holy faith in Him. I most sincerely wish to covet the faith pleasing to You, that I may please You in my good works, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Kind of Cold That Kills

 

He sends out his command to the earth; his word runs swiftly. (Psalm 147:15)

Tonight it will be forty degrees warmer in our kitchen freezer than it is outside here in Minneapolis. The high temperature tomorrow will be five degrees below zero (Fahrenheit). We receive this from the Lord’s hand.

He sends out his command to the earth;
his word runs swiftly.
He gives snow like wool;
he scatters frost like ashes.
He hurls down his crystals of ice like crumbs;
who can stand before his cold?
He sends out his word, and melts them;
he makes his wind blow and the waters flow.
(Psalm 147:15–18)

This is the kind of cold you do not play with. It kills.

When I came to Minnesota from South Carolina, I dressed for it. But I did not prepare life-saving support in my car in case of a breakdown.

One Sunday night on the way home from church, in this kind of cold, my car died. This was before cell phones. I had a wife and two small children in the car.

There was no one on this road. I suddenly realized, this is dangerous.

Soon it was very dangerous. No one came.

I saw in the distance through a fence a house. I am the father. This is my job. I climbed the fence and ran to the house and knocked on the door. They were home. I explained that I had a wife and two small children in the car, and asked if they would let us in. They did.

This is a kind of cold you do not play with.

It is one more way God says, “Whether hot or cold, high or deep, sharp or blunt, loud or quiet, bright or dark . . . don’t toy with me. I am God. I made all these things. They speak of me, just like the warm summer breezes do, and the gentle rains, and the soft moonlit nights, and the lapping of the lakeside, and lilies of the field and the birds of the air.”

There is a word for us in this cold. May the Lord give us skin to feel and ears to hear.

WE CANNOT KNOW GOD COMPLETELY!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 19, 2022.

SUBJECT : WE CANNOT KNOW GOD COMPLETELY!

Memory verse: "”Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him; nor can the number of His years be discovered." (Job 36 vs 26.)

READ: Job 11 vs 7 - 9:

11:7: Can you search out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limits of the Almighty?

11:8: They are higher than heaven—what can you do? Deeper than Shoel—what can you know?

11:9: Their measure is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea.

INTIMATION:

One theme in the poetic literature of the Bible is that God is incomprehensible; we cannot know Him completely. We can have some knowledge about Him, for the Bible is full of details about who God is, how we can know Him, and how we can have an eternal relationship with Him. But we can never know enough to answer all of life’s questions, to predict our own future, or to manipulate God for our own ends. Life always creates more questions than we have answers, and we must constantly go to God for fresh insights into life’s dilemmas. 

God will never be known absolutely, but we can know things about Him that are absolutely true, so much so that we can be willing to live and die for those beliefs. God has provided knowledge of Himself that is personal, relational, and sufficient for fruitful, faithful, godly living. No one will ever be able to say he lacked the necessary revelation to know God and to start living as God intends.

Because God can never be fully known, those who seek to know God should be deeply humbled in the process, realizing that they will always have more to learn. The appropriate response to God is a heart of wonder and awe in light of His incomprehensible greatness.

God’s incomprehensibility also means that beliefs can be held with firm conviction even though they may be filled with inexplicable mystery. God has given us a glimpse of the perfection of His creation. But it is only a glimpse, we cannot see into the future or comprehend everything. So we must trust God now and do His work on earth. 

The tremendous truth is that faith in God is more important than our desire to know the reason behind any predicament we find ourselves in. God is sovereign over all of nature and over our lives. God is in control—He directs, preserves, and maintains His created order. Although we can’t see it, God is divinely governing the moral and political affairs of people as well. By spending time observing the majestic and intricate parts of God’s creation, we can be reminded of His power in every aspect of our lives. 

The incomprehensibility of God is majorly due to: 1. God is infinite and His creatures are finite. By definition, creatures depend on their Creator for their very existence and are limited in all aspects. Yet God is without limitations in every quality he possesses. This Creator/creature, infinite/finite gap will always exist. 

2. The perfect unity of God’s attributes is far beyond the realm of human experience. God’s love, wrath, grace, justice, holiness, patience, and jealousy are continually functioning in a perfectly integrated yet infinitely complex way. 

3. The effects of sin on the minds of fallen humans also greatly inhibit the ability to know God. The tendency of fallen creatures is to distort, pervert, and confuse truth and to use, or rather abuse, it for selfish ends rather than for God’s glory. 

4. A final reason God can never be fully known is that in His sovereign wisdom God has chosen not to reveal some things: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29 vs 29). 

God is beyond the comprehension of man, and thus He is not the invention of man. God’s ways are unsearchable by man because He does not deal with man after the nature of the flesh. He does not deal with man after the nature by which man often deal unmercifully with one another in man-made religions. Only those who are frustrated in their efforts to understand God fully, or want God to behave as they so choose, seek to create false gods whom they can understand. 

In heaven, God’s incomprehensibility will no doubt be lessened when the effects of sin no longer ravage minds, and when He will most likely share some of His secrets. However, God will always be infinite and humans will always be finite, so He will always be beyond human ability to know exhaustively.

Prayer: Abba Father, You are beyond human comprehension, Your ways past finding out. One thing I know is that Your thoughts for me are of good, and not of evil. My absolute trust is in You. What You can’t do for me, let it remain undone. What You can’t give me, may I never have it. My faith is completely anchored on You, and may nothing take my attention off You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!