What It Means to Love Money

 The love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. (1 Timothy 6:10)

What did Paul mean when he wrote this? He couldn’t have meant that money is always on your mind when you sin. A lot of sin happens when we are not thinking about money.

My suggestion is this: He meant that all the evils in the world come from a certain kind of heart, namely, the kind of heart that loves money.

So what does it mean to love money? It doesn’t mean to admire the green paper or the copper coins or the silver shekels. To know what it means to love money, you have to ask, What is money? I would answer that question like this: Money is simply a symbol that stands for human resources. Money stands for what you can get from man — other human beings — instead of God.

God deals in the currency of grace, not money: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat!” (Isaiah 55:1). Money is the currency of human resources. So, the heart that loves money is a heart that pins its hopes, and pursues its pleasures, and puts its trust in what human resources can offer.

So, the love of money is virtually the same as faith in money — belief (trust, confidence, assurance) that money will meet your needs and make you happy.

Love of money is the alternative to faith in God’s future grace. It is faith in future human resources — the kind of thing you can obtain or secure with money. Therefore the love of money, or trust in money, is the underside of unbelief in the promises of God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters. . . . You cannot serve God and money.”

You can’t trust in God and in money at the same time. Belief in one is unbelief in the other. A heart that loves money — that banks on money for happiness — is not banking on all that God is for us in Jesus as the satisfaction of our souls.

Satan’s Strategy and Your Defense

 

Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith. (1 Peter 5:8–9)

The two great enemies of our souls are sin and Satan. And sin is the worst enemy, because the only way that Satan can destroy us is by getting us to sin, and keeping us from repenting. The only thing that damns us is unforgiven sin. Not Satan.

God may give him leash enough to rough us up, the way he did Job, or even to kill us, the way he did the saints in Smyrna (Revelation 2:10); but Satan cannot condemn us or rob us of eternal life. The only way he can do us ultimate harm is by influencing us to sin, and keep us from repentance. Which is exactly what he aims to do.

So, Satan’s main business is to advocate, promote, assist, titillate, and confirm our bent to sinning. And to keep us from faith and repentance.

We see this in Ephesians 2:1–2: “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked . . . according to the prince of the power of the air” (NASB). Sinning “accords” with Satan’s power in the world. When he brings about moral evil, it is through sin. When we sin, we move in his sphere. We come into accord with him. When we sin, we give place to the devil (Ephesians 4:27).

The only thing that will condemn us at the judgment day is unforgiven sin — not sickness or afflictions or persecutions or intimidations or apparitions or nightmares. Satan knows this. Therefore, his great focus is not primarily on how to scare Christians with weird phenomena (though there’s plenty of that), but on how to corrupt Christians with worthless fads and evil thoughts.

Satan wants to catch us at a time when our faith is not firm, when it is vulnerable. It makes sense that the very thing Satan wants to destroy would also be the means of our resisting his efforts. That’s why Peter says, “Resist him, firm in your faith” (1 Peter 5:9). It is also why Paul says that the “shield of faith” can “extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one” (Ephesians 6:16).

The way to thwart the devil is to strengthen the very thing he is trying most to destroy — your faith.

GOD’S GRACE ELIMINATES WORRY!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY JULY 25, 2022.

SUBJECT: GOD’S GRACE ELIMINATES WORRY!

Memory verse: "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8 vs 32.)

READ: Matthew 6 vs 31 - 33: 

6:31: Therefore do not worry saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 

6:32: For all these things the Gentiles seek. For your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 

6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

INTIMATION:

Understanding the concept of God’s grace eliminates worry in the life of every believer. It helps us comprehend God’s love nature—His willingness to give us everything we need to live for Him. God created the world—you and I and everything therein—for His predetermined purposes. His love nature makes Him give grace (unmerited favor, blessing) to the humble; those who adhere to, trust in, and rely on Him, not on their own ability, schemes and devises, or even on their own great wisdom, knowledge and faith to achieve His purposes. 

It is by God’s grace that we live, and even become believers (Ephesians 2 vs 8). He owns the universe, and created it for His purposes. His plan and counsel stand forever (Isaiah 46 vs 10). He graciously gives us the things we have (John 3 vs 27), we can only receive what He pleases according to His purposes for us in this world. And He will not withhold anything that we need to live for Him—according to His predetermined purposes for each and everyone of us. 

All inconsistencies we experience in this life is due to our being outside the plan of God. He is in control of all things and every circumstances in this world. Such knowledge of Him eliminates worry, knowing that we can do nothing outside of Him to achieve His predetermined purposes for our lives.

It is noteworthy that all our needs are already known to God (Matthew 6 vs 32), hence His counsel to us not to worry. The same God who created life in you can be trusted with the details of your life, and that He will graciously and delightfully give you all things you need to live for Him according to His predetermined purpose for you. And you can have all you need when you delight in Him. 

It’s only in trusting and delighting in the Lord that the desires of your heart is granted to you (Psalm 37 vs 4). The Scripture notes, “For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory, no good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly” (Psalm 84 vs 11). 

To delight yourself in the Lord starts with humbling yourself under His mighty hands. When you humble yourself before God, you will never worry about anything, but rather ask the Lord for what you need and then wait humbly on Him to provide it as He sees fit, knowing that His timing is always perfect. 

It also, means to be still and know that He is God, and that He knows what is best for you in every situation of life. It means to stop trying to make things happen yourself and allow the Lord to show you what you need to do to co-operate with His plan and purpose for you. It means casting all your worries upon Him because He cares for you (First Peter 5 vs 7).

Carrying your worries, stresses, and daily struggles by yourself shows that you have not trusted God fully with your life, and this is being prideful. It takes humility, however, to recognize that God cares, to admit your need and lay them at the feet of our Messiah. 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 passivity. We display lack of knowledge of God when we think of everything we did wrong and figure that it automatically disqualifies us for any of God's blessings. If God could bless only perfect people, then He could never bless anyone, because we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3 vs 23.) Consequently, none of us supposedly deserves any good thing from the Lord. 

But while we are yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5 vs 8), And since the fact that we are sinners did not keep us from receiving His glorious salvation, why then should it keep us from receiving His manifold blessings?; ‘If He didn't spare or withhold even His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, will He not also with Him freely and graciously give us all other things?’ (Romans 8 vs 32).

The person who really understands the grace of God will not worry. Why? Because worry is a work of the flesh. It is trying to figure out what to do relying on oneself, rather than trusting in God in all circumstances. The individual who is living in constant worry is not receiving the fullness of God's grace, because just as perfect love casts out fear (First John 4 vs 18), so God's grace expels all traces of worry and anxiety. Walk in the grace of the Lord and you will not fulfill the works of the flesh.

Prayer: Abba Father, grant me my utmost heart desire is to walk in Your grace all the days of my life, that I may eliminate any form of worry in my life, and trust completely in You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD! 

WE CONQUER SIN BY GOD’S GRACE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY JULY 24, 2022.

SUBJECT : WE CONQUER SIN BY GOD’S GRACE!

Memory verse: "But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (First Corinthians 15 vs 57.)

READ: Romans 7 vs 15 - 25:

7:15: For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

7:16: If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

7:17: Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

7:18: For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

7:19: For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

7:20: Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

7:21: I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

7:22: For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

7:23: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

7:24: O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

7:25: I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

INTIMATION:

Revelation and understanding of the grace of God starts with the understanding of the Word of God—the Law of God (For better understanding always replace the “Word of . God” with the “Law of God”). The Word of God could be frustrating when we try to work the Word rather than the Word work in us. The most frustrating aspect of the Word of God is that it keeps convicting most believers. Incidentally this is what the law should do to us. But how do we take and handle the conviction?

Created as free-moral humans, we would not have known that sin existed in our lives unless the law stated that our behavior is against the law. Therefore, the law “was added because of transgressions” (Galatians 3 vs 19). When there is no law, one will not be aware of the intensity of the sin of his life. Without the presence of the written law, one is deceived into thinking that his life is right with God. 

Once one begins applying the law to his life, he immediately realizes that he cannot keep law perfectly in order to live righteously before God. He sins. And the sin brings spiritual death. Therefore, the law was never given to man as a means of salvation. It’s obvious that can never be given that will produce justification in the sight of God. The law is holy, just, and good because it drives us to recognize our sinfulness, and thus, we are driven to the grace of God.

As the “law” (the Word) would convict us of our wrong doings, we turn completely to our Lord for the grace to change. The devil would take that thing (conviction) that was intended for our good, and would begin to beat us over the head with it as condemnation. We would look in the Word and see our need to change, but we didn't know anything about the grace of God to bring about that change in us. We don't know how to allow the Spirit of the Lord come into our lives and cause the things to happen that needed to happen as we believed Him and exercised our faith. We thought we have to do it all by our own power.

The problem here is that most believers don't understand the difference between conviction and condemnation. When the “Word” convicts you in one thing or the other (which it ought to do), turn to God completely to accomplish the change you desire through His grace. Do not get frustrated when the devil will come to minister condemnation (which it ought to) because the devil's mission is "to steal, and to kill, and to destroy" (John 10 vs 10). We cannot suffer condemnation because Jesus Christ has already justified us as believers (Romans 8 vs 1).

When you try to change yourself, trying to make yourself be everything the “Word” (The Law) said you are supposed to be, you get frustrated because you cannot do it by your will power, but only by the grace of God. You have to submit yourself to the Lord and wait patiently on Him to accomplish all He planned for you. Trying to do something about something you can't do anything about is frustrating. 

It takes the grace of God to change to what the “Word” wants you to be. It is not automatic but gradual, being changed from glory to glory (Second Corinthians 3 vs 18). You conquer your enemies little by little (Deuteronomy 7 vs 22). When convicted by the Word, allow God (trust and surrender yourself to Him) to walk His perfect Will in your life.

In the passage we read today, the apostle Paul says that though we seek to do that which is good, the nature of our being as free-moral individuals in a world of choice does not have the ability to live flawlessly. Though the conscience of the Christian is made sensitive by the “law of God” as revealed through the Holy Spirit, the Spirit does not directly control the behavior of the Christian in reference to the law in order to guard him or her from sin. 

The morally-minded person has a knowledge of the law. He knows what is right. However, since all men sin, one’s knowledge of the law does not guarantee that he will not sin. Knowledge and behavior do not always work in agreement with one another. All have sinned by either violating the precepts of law (First John 3 vs 4), or by failing to do biblical principles of good (James 4 vs 17). 

Though we desire to do what is right, our performance does not measure up to our desire. We often end up doing that which we know is wrong according to either law or conscience. Though we seek to do that which is good, the nature of our being free-moral individuals in a world of choice does not have the ability to live flawlessly. Therefore, we cannot live without committing sin. 

Therefore, because we know we sin, we are driven to the grace of God. Our arrogance is crushed by realizing that without God’s grace we have no hope of deliverance from this life of sin. In recognition of our inabilities to perform behaviorally in order to stand just before God, we are driven to thank God for the revelation of His grace through Jesus Christ (Titus 2 vs 11). However, once one recognizes the grace of God, he is driven to serve God. 

God’s deliverance from sin and death through the cross of Jesus moves one to obedient appreciation of the grace of God. Though the nature of free-moral behavior lends itself to sin, the Christian can find comfort in the fact of what apostle John wrote, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light…the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (First John 1 vs 7). 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for Your grace made available to us through Jesus Christ. May the availability of Your grace be alive in my thoughts, that I surrender myself entirely to You and the leading of the Holy Spirit in all things, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Jesus Keeps His Sheep

 

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” (Luke 22:31–32)

Though Peter, in fact, failed miserably, by denying Jesus three times, the prayer of Jesus preserved him from utter ruin. He was brought to bitter weeping and restored to the joy and boldness that showed itself in Peter’s message at Pentecost. Jesus is interceding for us today in the same way that our faith might not fail. Paul says this in Romans 8:34.

Jesus promised that his sheep would be preserved and never perish. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:27–28).

The reason for this is that God works to preserve the faith of the sheep. “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6).

We are not left to ourselves to fight the fight of faith. “It is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

You have the assurance of God’s word that, if you are his child, he will “equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ” (Hebrews 13:21).

Our endurance in faith and joy is finally and decisively in the hands of God. Yes, we must fight. But this very fight is what God works in us. And he most certainly will do it, for, as it says in Romans 8:30, “Those whom he justified he also glorified.” The glorification of God’s justified children is as good as done.

He will lose none of those he has brought to faith and justified.

How to Defy Sinful Desire

 

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward. (Hebrews 11:24–26)

Or, boil it down to the essentials: “By faith Moses . . . [left] the fleeting pleasures of sin . . . for he was looking to the reward” (Hebrews 11:24–26).

Faith is not content with “fleeting pleasures.” It is ravenous for joy. Joy that lasts. Forever. And the word of God says, “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11). So, faith will not be sidetracked into the deceitful pleasures of sin. It will not give up so easily in its quest for maximum joy.

The role of God’s word is to feed faith’s appetite for God. And, in doing this, it weans my heart off of the deceptive taste of lust.

At first, lust begins to trick me into feeling that I would really miss out on some great satisfaction if I followed the path of purity. But then I take up the sword of the Spirit and begin to fight.

I read that it is better to gouge out my eye than to lust (Matthew 5:29). I read that if I think about things that are pure and lovely and excellent, the peace of God will be with me (Philippians 4:8–9). I read that setting the mind on the flesh brings death, but setting the mind on the Spirit brings life and peace (Romans 8:6). I read that lust wages war against my soul (1 Peter 2:11), and that the pleasures of this life choke out the life of the Spirit (Luke 8:14). But best of all, I read that God withholds no good thing from those who walk uprightly (Psalm 84:11), and that the pure in heart will see God (Matthew 5:8).

As I pray for my faith to be satisfied with God’s life and peace, the sword of the Spirit carves the sugarcoating off the poison of lust. I see it for what it is. And by the grace of God, its alluring power is broken.

COSTLY GRACE

 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16）

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: ‘Ye were bought at a price’, and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God. – Dietrich Bonhoffer

There is another gospel: the gospel of cheap grace. So, what is the gospel of cheap grace? It is any gospel that says that your salvation is so easy that you could do something to contribute towards it.

I believe in costly grace. Cheap grace is not enough. The only one that can save me is the grace that cost God everything and is free to me.