Heaven’s Relief in the Coming Wrath

 

God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted . . . when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. (2 Thessalonians 1:6–8)

There will come a time when the patience of God is over. When God has seen his people suffer for the allotted time, and the appointed number of martyrs is complete (Revelation 6:11), then a just and holy vengeance will come from heaven.

Notice that God’s vengeance on those who have afflicted his people is experienced by us as “relief.” “God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted.” In other words, the judgment on “those who afflict” us is a form of grace toward us.

Perhaps the most remarkable picture of judgment as grace is the picture of Babylon’s destruction in Revelation 18. At her destruction, a great voice from heaven cries, “Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets, for God has given judgment for you against her!” (Revelation 18:20). Then a great multitude is heard saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants” (Revelation 19:1–2).

When God’s patience has run its long-suffering course, and this age is over, and judgment comes on the enemies of God’s people, the saints will not disapprove of God’s justice.

This means that the final destruction of the unrepentant will not be experienced as a misery for God’s people.

The unwillingness of others to repent will not hold the affections of the saints hostage. Hell will not be able to blackmail heaven into misery. God’s judgment will be approved, and the saints will experience the vindication of truth as a great grace.

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LIFE AS A TRUST!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY JUNE 29, 2022.

SUBJECT: LIFE AS A TRUST! 

Memory verse: "The earth is the Lord's and all its fullness, The world and those who dwell therein." (Psalm 24 vs 1.)

READ: John 3 vs 27; James 1 vs 17; First Corinthians 4 vs 7:

John 3:27: A man can receive nothing unless it has been given to him from heaven.

James 1:17: Every good and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

First Corinthians 4:7: For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?

INTIMATION:

Our time on earth, our energy, intelligence, opportunities, relationships, and resources are gifts from God that He has entrusted to our care and management. We are stewards of whatever God gives us. This concept of stewardship begins with the recognition that God is the Owner of everything and everyone on earth.

We never really own anything during our brief stay on earth. It is for this reason we come into the world bringing nothing with us at birth, and takes nothing away with us at death. God loans the earth to us while we're here. The Owner is God, and has only given us right to use when we come in. And He will give the same right to another when you depart in death. You just get to enjoy it for a while. Because the earth is the Lord's, all of us are stewards, or caretakers. We should be committed to proper management of this world and its resources.

In the beginning, God created the world—the heaven and the earth, and all therein. He created man last, and empowered man to have dominion over all other creations of His. When God created Adam and Eve, He entrusted the care of His creation to them and appointed them trustees of His property. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1 vs 28.) 

The first assignment God handed over to humans was to manage and take care of His property while here on earth. This role has never been rescinded. This stewardship Is the major part of our purpose on earth. Everything is in our care, every gifts are all from God, and should be treated as a trust that God has placed in our hands. 

Unfortunately, the common culture amongst us is to careless about what you don't own. But that is not God's idea. Christians should live by a higher standard: "Because God owns it, I must take the best care of it to the best of my ability." The apostle Paul stated this in First Corinthians 4 vs 2, "Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful."

The faithful servant does the master's bidding, he does what the master tells him to do. We must do what God (our Master) tells us to do in His Owner’s Manual—the Bible, and through our Helper—the Holy Spirit. Each day God presents us with needs and opportunities that challenges us to do what we know is right.

Jesus often referred to life as a trust and told many stories to illustrate this responsibility toward God. In the story of the loaned money (the talents), in Matthew 25 vs 14 - 29, a businessman entrusts his wealth to the care of his servants while he’s away. When he returns, he evaluates each servant's responsibility and rewards them accordingly. Those who did well, in line with his expectations, he says, "Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy your Lord." (Matthew 25 vs 21.)

At the end of your life on earth you will be evaluated and rewarded according to how well you handled what God entrusted to you. That means everything you do, even simple daily chores, has eternal implications. If you treat everything as a trust, God promises three rewards in eternity. First, you will be given God's affirmation: He will say, "Good job! Well done!" Next, you will receive a promotion and be given greater responsibility in eternity: "I will make you ruler over many things." Then you will be honored with a celebration: "Enter into the joy your Lord." 

Prayer: Abba Father, You are faithful and forever remains faithful. Endue me with the spirit of faithfulness to You in all things, that I may be found worthy of Your approval, and be given the crown of glory in eternity, in Jesus’ matchless Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Powerful Root of Practical Love

 

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. (1 John 3:14)

So, love is the evidence that we are born again — that we are Christians, that we are saved.

Sometimes the Bible makes our holiness and our love for people the condition of our final salvation. In other words, if we are not holy and not loving, we will not be saved at the judgment day (e.g., Hebrews 12:14; Galatians 5:21; 1 Corinthians 6:10). This doesn’t mean that acts of love are how we get right with God. No, the Bible is clear again and again as Ephesians 2:8–9 says, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.” No, when the Bible says that we are saved by faith but that we must love people in order to finally be saved, it means that faith in God’s promises must be so real that the love it produces proves the reality of the faith.

So, love for others is a condition of future grace in the sense that it confirms that the primary condition, faith, is genuine. We could call love for others a secondary condition, which confirms the authenticity of the primary and essential condition of faith which alone unites us to Christ, and receives his power.

Faith perceives the glory of God in the promises of future grace and embraces all that the promises reveal of what God is for us in Jesus. That spiritual sight of God’s glory, and our delight in it, is the self-authenticating evidence that God has called us to be a beneficiary of his grace. This evidence frees us to bank on God’s promise as our own. And this banking on the promise empowers us to love. Which in turn confirms that our faith is real.

The world is desperate for a faith that combines two things: awestruck sight of unshakable divine Truth, and utterly practical, round-the-clock power to make a liberating difference in life. That’s what I want too. Which is why I am a Christian.

There is a great God of grace who magnifies his own infinite beauty and self-sufficiency by fulfilling promises to helpless people who trust him. And there is a power that comes from prizing this God that leaves no nook or cranny of life untouched. It empowers us to love in the most practical ways.

OBEDIENCE IS KEY IN OBTAINING HIS PROMISES!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY JUNE 28, 2022.

SUBJECT: OBEDIENCE IS KEY IN OBTAINING HIS PROMISES! 

Memory verse: "So Samuel said: Has the Lord great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams." (First Samuel 15 vs 22.)

READ: Deuteronomy 11 vs 26 - 28:

11:26: Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse:

11:27: the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you today; 

11:28: and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.

INTIMATION:

God's promises are given to His children on the condition of their willingness to listen to His voice and obey His commands. His promises are the heritage of His children in obedience, and they must keep His commands in order to receive His provision in His promises.

Faith is of the heart, invisible to men; obedience is of the conduct and may be observed. When a man obeys God he gives the only possible evidence that in his heart he believes God. Therefore, obedience is an actual and outward result of the inward persuasion that the thing is true, and consequent faith.

When you obey God, you lift Him up, and when you lift Him up, then men will be drawn to Him for their day of salvation. God commands those He intends to bless. Therefore, if you obey Him, you will experience His blessings. If you disobey Him, you will reap the consequences.

God had unlimited blessings planned for Adam and Eve, yet they deliberately disobeyed Him. Their unrepentant conduct caused them to be driven from the garden by angels with flaming swords. This was the fall of man that, in fact, affected every person who would ever live on earth from that day forward. And it was man's fall that made the cross necessary for redemption.

God will command those He intends to bless. Mary obeyed God, and she was chosen to bring the Redeemer of mankind into this world. Moses was commanded to "stretch out his hand over the sea," and the Red Sea parted, guiding the children of Israel across the dry seabed and to safety on the other side. They watched in awe as God Almighty turned Pharaoh into fish food and the chariots of Egypt into a rusty pile of junk. (Exodus 14 vs 15 - 31.)

Elijah and the widow of Zarephath were both commanded of God. Elijah was commanded to go to Zarephath, and God would provide for him there (1 Kings 17 vs 9). The widow was commanded to feed Elijah. The widow "did according to the word...." and she received her supernatural blessings (vs 15). She received exactly what she gave. She gave food and received food that lasted the duration of the draught in Israel. Both Elijah, the widow, and her son were supernaturally fed all through the drought. 

As soon as she gave Elijah the last bin of flour, and oil in the house, the bin of flour began to fill up by an unseen hand and was never used up. Nor did the jar of oil run dry, "according to the word of the LORD which He spoke by Elijah (vs16). Both Elijah and the widow could have missed their promised blessing had they disobeyed God's direction. The woman's obedience also brought revival of life to her dead son. Her son suddenly took ill, and it became severe that there was no breath left  in him. Elijah prayed and God gave back life to the son.

The love of God is embedded in our obedience to His commands. Christ said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word...” In keeping His commands, you will be loved by God and His Son Jesus Christ, and consequently, They will come to you, and make Their home with you. (John 14 vs 23.)  What an awesome promise! If you are the home of God, is there anything you will ever lack or need? Certainly nothing!!!

God has the same promise for all His children. The place of His command (His Word) or purpose, is the place of His promise (His power). God will meet you when you get to the place of His command! And there is where your miracle will happen. Your obedience to the Lord is required of you to obtain His promises!

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of raw obedience to your commands, for by my strength, and without You I can do nothing! Engrace me to follow, and obey You no matter the life’s circumstances, in Jesus’ Name, I prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Enduring When Obeying Hurts

 

Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. (Hebrews 12:2)

What faith performs is sometimes unspeakably hard.

In his book Miracle on the River Kwai, Ernest Gordon tells the true story of a group of POWs working on the Burma Railway during World War II.

At the end of each day the tools were collected from the work party. On one occasion a Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing and demanded to know which man had taken it. He began to rant and rave, working himself up into a paranoid fury and ordered whoever was guilty to step forward. No one moved. “All die! All die!” he shrieked, cocking and aiming his rifle at the prisoners. At that moment one man stepped forward and the guard clubbed him to death with his rifle while he stood silently to attention. When they returned to the camp, the tools were counted again and no shovel was missing.

What can sustain the will to die for others, when you are innocent? Jesus was carried and sustained in his love for us by “the joy that was set before him.” He banked on a glorious future blessing and joy, and that carried and sustained him in love through his suffering.

Woe to us if we think we should or can be motivated and strengthened for radical, costly obedience by some higher motive than the joy that is set before us. When Jesus called for costly obedience that would require sacrifice in this life, he said in Luke 14:14, “You will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.” In other words, be strengthened now in all your losses for Christ’s sake, because of the joy set before you.

Peter said that, when Jesus suffered without retaliating, he was leaving us an example to follow — and that includes Jesus’s confidence in the joy set before him. He handed his cause over to God (1 Peter 2:21) and did not try to settle accounts with retaliation. He banked his hope on the resurrection and all the joys of reunion with his Father and the redemption of his people. So should we.

A Hiding Place for the Helpless

 

How abundant is your goodness, which you have . . . worked for those who take refuge in you. (Psalm 31:19)

The experience of future grace often hangs on whether we will take refuge in God, or whether we doubt his care and run for cover to other shelters.

For those who take refuge in God, the promises of future grace are many and rich.

None of those who take refuge in him will be condemned. (Psalm 34:22)

He is a shield for all those who take refuge in him. (2 Samuel 22:31)

Blessed are all who take refuge in him. (Psalm 2:12)

The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. (Nahum 1:7)

We do not earn or merit anything by taking refuge in God. Hiding, because we are weak and need protection, is not a work to commend our self-sufficiency. All it does is show that we regard ourselves as helpless and the hiding place as a place of rescue.

In all those promises I just quoted, the condition of great blessing from God is that we take refuge in him. That condition is not a meritorious one; it is the condition of desperation and acknowledged weakness and need and trust.

Desperation does not demand or deserve; it pleads for mercy and looks for grace.