OUR FRIENDSHIP WITH JESUS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY MARCH 12, 2022.

SUBJECT : OUR FRIENDSHIP WITH JESUS!

Memory verse: ".....There is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." (Proverbs 18 vs 24.)

READ: John 15 vs 9 - 16:

15:9: As the Father loved Me, I also love you, abide in My love.

15:10: 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.

15:11: These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.

15:12: This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

15:13: Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends.

15:14: You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.

15:15: No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.

15:16: You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.

INTIMATION:

Jesus Christ is our Friend. He is a friend Who sticks close, listens, cares, and offers help when it is needed, both in good and bad. He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother, even than the clothes we put on. Friendship with Jesus, because of His special ways, brings warmth and beauty to our heart. His goodness and kindness brighten us up so much and make many happy moments start. The apostle Paul, in the Book of Ephesians, gives the believers a rich understanding of the scope of God's eternal purposes and blessings, along with His high standard for us.

Friendship with Him ensures enjoying His presence at all times. He is ever ready to listen, and really understands and cares. He sees the best in us and helps us grow. He is a friend who knows our hopes and fears and all we're dreaming of, who is on our side in everything we do. He is a friend full of love and will give us joy our whole life through.

In the passage we read today, Jesus unequivocally told us what to do to ensure our friendship with Him brings the promised reward of abiding in His love. And to abide in His love we should keep His commandment. What is His commandment? It's that we should love one another as He loved us. Jesus here emphasizes that keeping His commandment is necessary for one to abide in the love and grace of God. The singularity of the commandment that Jesus here gave us is based on the second greatest commandment; “You will love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22 vs 39.) 

Christianity is based on love. All human relationships that are true and enduring find their bond in the action of love. The extent to which Jesus went to give Himself for His friends, the believers, manifests the extent of the love about which Jesus speaks. The greatest expression of love that can be made is that one lay down his life for his friend.   

Though this seems a very high standard and unattainable, but God will never give us an impossible task. This is because, as a believer, you are assured of His fellowship with you at all times (Matthew 28 vs 20), and with Him nothing is impossible (Luke 1 vs 37). I am persuaded that it is achievable, and starts with the very first step of obedience to the commandment. Just start today to show love, no matter how minute it might be or seem, then the Holy Spirit, our Helper, will strengthen you to do more. 

Please take just a minute to imagine and appreciate the extent of Christ's love for us. Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." ,(John 15 vs 13.) He gave up His life that you and I would live. He knew no sin, but was made sin because of you and I, that we might be made that righteousness of God in Him (Second Corinthians 5 vs 21). Again for His grace, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich (Second Corinthians 8 vs 9). In my considered opinion, His love for us is unimaginable and unparalleled!

Christians are supposed to have "an inexpressible and glorious joy" in Christ. But many have not yet begun to imagine the kind of Christian experience awaiting them in friendship with the Lord in whom they have placed their faith and trust. Unfortunately, the experience of many is more like "an inexpressible depression and life filled with worry". Nonetheless, one thing is certain; our personal and intimate relationship with God of the universe is exciting and will produce significant spiritual and physical benefits as our knowledge of Him and intimacy grows.

Prayer: Abba Father, You chose me even when I am worthless in my sin nature. You loved me and gave Your precious and inestimable life for me. You have appointed me that I should bear fruit in obedience to Your commandment. Engrace me, My Messiah, in my quest to obey, amidst my weaknesses, that I may be worthy of an intimate friendship and relationship with You, in Jesus' Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

When the Potter Is for Us

 

Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?” (Isaiah 45:9)

The majesty of God is magnified when we see him through the lens of creation ex nihilo (out of nothing). He commands nothingness, and it obeys and becomes something.

Out of nothing he makes the clay, and out of the clay he makes us — the pottery of the Lord (Isaiah 45:9) — his possession, destined for his glory, in total dependence on him.

“Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture” (Psalm 100:3). It is a humbling thing to be a sheep and a pot that belong to somebody else.

This morning I was reading in Isaiah and found another statement about God’s majesty. When I put it together with God’s absolute power and rights as Creator, there was a combustion that went off in my heart. Boom!

Isaiah 33:21 says, “The Lord in majesty will be for us!”

For us! For us! The Creator is for us and not against us. With all the power in the universe and with absolute right to do as he pleases with what he made — he is for us!

“No eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4). “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

Can you think of anything (I mean anything) that is more comforting and assuring and delighting than that the Lord in his majesty is for you?

Two Infinitely Strong and Tender Truths

 I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. (Revelation 5:4)

Have you ever thought of your prayers as the aroma of heaven? This is the picture we get when we read Revelation 5. Here is a glimpse of life in heaven.

In Revelation 5, we see God almighty on the throne with a scroll in his hand. The scroll had seven seals. They all had to be pulled off before the scroll could be opened.

I think the opening of the scroll represents the final days of history, and the pulling off of the seven seals represents the kind of history we will pass through as we move toward those days.

At first, John wept that there was no one worthy to open the scroll and look into it (Revelation 5:4). But then one of the elders in heaven says, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:5).

By dying on the cross, Jesus had earned the right to open the remainder of redemptive history and lead his people victoriously through it.

In the next verse, the Lion is pictured as a Lamb, “standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). Isn’t this a beautiful image of Jesus’s victory on the cross? Standing, not lying, though it had been slain!

It is as sure as though a lion had devoured the foe — but the way he achieved the victory was by letting the foe slay him like a lamb!

So, now the Lamb is worthy to take the scroll of redemptive history from God’s hand and open it. This is such a kingly act that the twenty-four elders of heaven (God’s worship council, as it were) fall down before the Lamb in adoration.

And do you know what the golden bowls of incense are? Revelation 5:8 says they are “the prayers of the saints.” Does not this mean that our prayers are the aroma of heaven, sweet smelling before the throne of God and before the Lamb?

I am strengthened and encouraged to pray all the more often and all the more vigorously when I think that my prayers are being assembled and stored up in heaven and offered to Christ repeatedly in heavenly acts of worship.

Let’s all bless and honor and adore Christ here below with our prayers, and then doubly rejoice that the worship council of heaven offers them again to Christ as sweet smelling incense before the Lamb who was slain.

LET NO ANXIETY BE FOUND IN YOU!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY MARCH 11, 2022.

SUBJECT : LET NO ANXIETY BE FOUND IN YOU!

Memory verse: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." (Philippians 4  vs 6.)

READ: Philippians 4 vs 4 - 7:

4:4: Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say rejoice!

4:5: Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

4:6: Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

4:7: And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

INTIMATION:

Being anxious is being uneasy with fear or desire regarding something, worrying, or craving, or yearning for something. Anxiety is the offshoot of care or desire for earthly things. Imagine being anxious for nothing. It seems like an impossibility, right? We all have responsibilities, and worries; on the job, in our homes, in our business, at school, our relationships with others, and even with God. 

However, God created the world, and all that is in it, including you. He owns everything, planned everything, and manages everything according to His plans and purposes for creating them. I am always humbled by God's description of Himself in the Scripture: "....For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet known, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do My pleasure,' (Isaiah 46 vs 9 - 10.)

The "Omni" Nature of God occasioned the counsel of Jesus Christ to us, viz; "Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life." This is because everything, including your life, is planned and purposed by the Owner, who determines circumstances, and commands or allows events as is pleasing to Him. If then you don't have any control over your life, why worry about things. Therefore, worrying about anything is time wasted. 

Christians should put their trust in God, for it is He who is working all things together according to His purposes. Christians must not worry, for to worry is to doubt God’s ability to take care of all things and to work all things together for the good of the Christian. In order not to worry about the environment and events that are happening, the Christian should instead, communicate with God in prayer. 

Sincerely, our attitude in all things, according to Scriptural advise, is to carry your worries, stresses, and daily struggles to God, and trust Him with them, rather than carrying them by yourself. Sometimes we think that struggles caused by our own sin and foolishness are not God's concern. But when we turn to God in repentance, He will bear the weight even of those struggles. Letting God have your anxieties calls for action, not passively. Ensure you don't submit to circumstances, but to the Lord who controls circumstances.

Because of the effects of worry, Jesus tells us not to worry about those needs that God promises to supply. Worry may damage your health, cause the object of your worry to consume your thoughts, disrupt your productivity, negatively affect the way you treat others, reduce your ability to trust in God. Worry immobilizes, but genuine concern moves you to action.

Turn your worries into prayers. Whenever you start to worry, you stop to pray, and if you start to pray, you stop to worry. Always give God the first place in your life. Concern yourself first with His kingdom; fill your thoughts with His desires, to take His character for your pattern, and to serve and obey Him in everything. When you have done that, all your cares or worries will be treated by Him, and all other things you need will be added to you (Matthew 6 vs 33). 

The result of one’s prayerful communication with God that is based on faith is an inner tranquility that cannot be expressed in words. It is the peace of God that protects one’s heart and produces consistency in one’s thoughts. When our prayers are offered to God upon the bases of faith, and knowing that God will work in answer to our prayers, then we will gain an inner peace of heart and mind. We must have faith in the fact that God answers prayer. 

Prayer: Abba Father, all things are Yours, and You have promised to meet all my needs according to Your riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Therefore, give me the grace to cast all the cares and worries in my life upon You because You cares for me. My trust is in You who owns all things and controls all things, in Jesus' Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

BE JOYFUL ALWAYS!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY MARCH 10, 2022.

SUBJECT: BE JOYFUL ALWAYS!

Memory verse: "Rejoice always.” (First Thessalonians 5 vs 26.)

READ: Philippians 4 vs 4; First Peter 1 vs 6 - 9:

Philippians 4:4: Rejoice in the Lord always!Again I will say, rejoice.

First Peter 1:6: In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials,

First Peter 1:7: that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ,

First Peter 1:8: whom having not seen, you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

First Peter 1:9: receiving the end of your faith-the salvation of your souls. 

INTIMATION:

The demeanor of Christian life-style is one of being joyful always. If a Christian has a cantankerous demeanor, he must repent. One result of the joyful life is gentleness or forbearance toward others. Every Christian should have a reputation for being a patient and longsuffering person toward the faults and weaknesses of others. If one is forbearing, then his or her joy will not be stolen away by his or her own impatience with others. 

Pessimistic and fatalistic attitudes should not be the characteristics of the followers of Jesus. The transformed mind must change from such negative attitudes of life, even in times of trials. They should endure trials knowing that all things are working together for good for them that love God.

When things are going well, we feel elated. When hardships come, we sink into depression. But true joy transcends the rolling waves of circumstance. Joy comes from a consistent relationship with Jesus Christ. When our lives are intertwined with His, He will help us walk through adversity without sinking into debilitating lows and manage prosperity without moving into deceptive highs. The joy of living with Jesus Christ daily will keep you levelheaded, no matter how high or low your circumstance.

Joy is a common theme in Christ’s teachings—He wants us to be joyful. The key to immeasurable joy is living in intimate contact with Christ, the source of all joy. When we do, we will experience God’s special care and protection and see the victory God brings even when defeat seems certain. Ultimate joy comes from Christ dwelling within us. Christ is near, and at His second coming we will fully realize this ultimate joy. He who lives within us will fulfill His final purpose for us.

True joy is far deeper than happiness; we can feel joy in spite of our deepest troubles. Happiness is temporary because it is based on external circumstances, but joy is lasting because it is based in God’s presence within us. As we contemplate His daily presence, we will find contentment. As we understand the future He has for us, we will experience joy. Don’t base your life on circumstances, but on God who controls circumstances. To find hope and joy, the deepest form of happiness, follow Jesus no matter what the cost. To be blessed by God means the experience of hope and joy, independent of outward circumstances. 

In our anchor Scripture the apostle Paul was encouraging the believers in Philippi to be joyful. It seems strange that a man in prison would be telling a church to rejoice. But Paul’s attitude teaches us an important lesson: Our inner attitudes do not have to reflect our outward circumstances. The apostle Paul was full of joy because he knew that no matter what happened to him, Jesus was with him. 

Several times in his letter the apostle Paul urged the Philippians to be joyful, probably because they needed to hear this, being convinced that in Christ all things work together for the good of the believer. It’s easy to get discouraged about unpleasant circumstances or to take unimportant events seriously. If you haven’t been joyful lately, you may not be looking at life from the right perspective.

Prayer: Abba Father, Your thought for me is of good not of evil. I am persuaded that all things are working together for my good because of my love for, and trust in You. Give me the grace to remain thankful and joyful in You, for all circumstances under Your control, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Let Us Adore the Lamb

 

I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. (Revelation 5:4)

Have you ever thought of your prayers as the aroma of heaven? This is the picture we get when we read Revelation 5. Here is a glimpse of life in heaven.

In Revelation 5, we see God almighty on the throne with a scroll in his hand. The scroll had seven seals. They all had to be pulled off before the scroll could be opened.

I think the opening of the scroll represents the final days of history, and the pulling off of the seven seals represents the kind of history we will pass through as we move toward those days.

At first, John wept that there was no one worthy to open the scroll and look into it (Revelation 5:4). But then one of the elders in heaven says, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals” (Revelation 5:5).

By dying on the cross, Jesus had earned the right to open the remainder of redemptive history and lead his people victoriously through it.

In the next verse, the Lion is pictured as a Lamb, “standing, as though it had been slain” (Revelation 5:6). Isn’t this a beautiful image of Jesus’s victory on the cross? Standing, not lying, though it had been slain!

It is as sure as though a lion had devoured the foe — but the way he achieved the victory was by letting the foe slay him like a lamb!

So, now the Lamb is worthy to take the scroll of redemptive history from God’s hand and open it. This is such a kingly act that the twenty-four elders of heaven (God’s worship council, as it were) fall down before the Lamb in adoration.

And do you know what the golden bowls of incense are? Revelation 5:8 says they are “the prayers of the saints.” Does not this mean that our prayers are the aroma of heaven, sweet smelling before the throne of God and before the Lamb?

I am strengthened and encouraged to pray all the more often and all the more vigorously when I think that my prayers are being assembled and stored up in heaven and offered to Christ repeatedly in heavenly acts of worship.

Let’s all bless and honor and adore Christ here below with our prayers, and then doubly rejoice that the worship council of heaven offers them again to Christ as sweet smelling incense before the Lamb who was slain.

NO FREEDOM OUTSIDE OF CHRIST!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY MARCH 09, 2022.

SUBJECT: NO FREEDOM OUTSIDE OF CHRIST!

Memory verse: "Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.” (John 8:36.)

READ: John 8 vs 31 - 34:

8:31: Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

8:32: And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

8:33: They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

8:34: Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

INTIMATION:

People often think they will be free if they can get away from God. Just as a fish is not free when it leaves the water and a tree is not free when it leaves the soil, we are not be free when we leave the Lord. Jesus Himself is the truth that sets us free. He is the source of truth, the perfect standard of what is right. He frees us from continued slavery to sin, from self-deception, and from deception by Satan. He shows us clearly the way to everlasting life with God. Thus Jesus does not give us freedom to do what we want, but freedom to follow God. As we seek to serve God, Jesus perfect truth frees us to be all that God meant us to be.

Sometimes we have the illusion that freedom is doing anything we want. But God says that true freedom comes from obedience and knowing what not to do. The restrictions He gives us are for our good, helping us avoid evil. Must’ve as we have the freedom to walk in front of a speeding car, but we don’t need to be hit to realize it would be foolish to do so. Don’t listen to Satan’s temptations. You don’t have to do evil to gain more experience and learn more about life.

Sin has a way of enslaving us, controlling us, dominating us, and dictating our actions. Jesus can free you from this slavery that keeps you from becoming the person God created you to be. If sin is restraining, mastering, or enslaving you, Jesus can break its power over your life. God sets His people free and crushes His enemies. Salvation is freedom from sin and death. Those who refuse to turn to God will be crushed by sin and death. They will be trapped by the sin they loved and destroyed by the death they feared. How mush better it will be for those who love God and fear the consequences of sin.

As a sinner, separated from God, you see His law from below, as a ladder to be climbed to get to God. Perhaps you have repeatedly tried climbing it, only to fall to the ground every time you have advanced one or two rungs. Or perhaps the sheer height of the ladder seems so overwhelming that you never even started up. In either case, what relief you should feel to see Jesus offering with open arms to lift you above the ladder of the law, to take you directly to God! Once Jesus lifts you into the presence of God, you are free to obey—out of love, not necessity, and through God’s power, not your own. You know that if you stumble, you will not fall back to the ground. Instead, you will be caught and held in Christ’s loving arms. 

When one comes to God through Jesus, he is free from the necessity of perfect law-keeping in order to be justified. He is truly free, therefore, because he trusts in God for justification, and not his own performance of law and good works. Only when one comes to God through Jesus is he truly free from the curse of law, sin and death. But there is more to this freedom than simply freedom from the necessity of perfect law-keeping. When one comes to Jesus he is free from the religious laws that he would bind on himself in order to be pleasing to God. Whether written laws of God or man-made traditional laws, the freedom is applicable to both. 

If we refuse to follow God, we will follow our own sinful desires and become enslaved by what our bodies want. If we submit our lives to Christ, He will free us from slavery to sin. Christ frees us to serve Him, a freedom that results in our ultimate good. 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank you for the free gift of Your only Son, Jesus Christ, who came to set us free from the slavery of sin and death, and whoever he sets free is free indeed. Endue me with the spirit raw obedience to You that I may be a partaker of the huge inheritance You have given us in Christ, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!