THE SOURCE OF GOD’S GRACE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY JULY 27, 2022.

SUBJECT: THE SOURCE OF GOD’S GRACE!

Memory verse: "Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” (Romans 5 vs 2.) 

READ: Ephesians 2 vs 8 - 9:

2:8: For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 

2:9: not of works, lest any man should boast.

INTIMATION:

We gain entry into the realm of God’s grace through Jesus in whom we must have faith. Grace is the unmerited favor of God toward man that was made possible by the sacrificial offering of Jesus on the cross. God demands our obedient response to Him by faith. Therefore, the application of grace in one’s life must be based on the condition of obedient faith, which is our response to the grace of God. And without faith it is impossible to please God. It is in exercising of our faith in our obedient fellowship with Christ that plugs us into the source of God’s power—His grace. 

If there is anything the devil tries to do, is to keep people out of fellowship with the Lord. Satan knows that once you are connected to the source of divine power, it is finished for him. Fellowship with the Lord is what ensures a victorious and peaceful Christian life. But without fellowship with Him, one will struggle the entire time he or she is here on earth as a Christian, even though you will be saved because your name is in the Book of life. 

Though the free gift of our salvation is not based on our fellowship, rather on the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for our sins. But without fellowship in obedient faith one will not partake of the riches of the glory, and the exceeding greatness of His power—His grace.

Do you know what happens when you are in fellowship with God—spending quality time with Him? You become a custodian of His grace—the power of God to help you meet your needs and solve your problems. As soldiers of the cross, you and I are not supposed to be afraid of our enemy—the devil. Instead, we are to ‘be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might—His grace,’ knowing that we are plugged into the ultimate power source, the power that can make and destroy. 

When the spirit of fear comes along, rather than shaking like a leaf, we are to be bold as a lion, and remind the devil that ‘God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power, love and a sound mind’ (Second Timothy 1 vs 7). 

The devil comes against those who are doing damage to his kingdom, those who are doing something for God as His ambassadors. How then do we withstand the devil? By girding on the full armor of God; taking the shield of faith, and by wielding the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, by which we can quench his fiery darts (Ephesians 6 vs 13 - 17). 

Being strong in the Lord, in my considered opinion, is being strong in fellowship with God. And it’s only after being strengthened in fellowship with obedient faith that you can properly access the whole armor of God. Therefore, you should come apart with the Lord (fellowship with the Lord) privately before you come apart publicly. Spend time with God so you can remain stable as you deal with the daily affairs of life.

Being in fellowship with the Lord does not mean that you will be in a room with God all the time. If you will give twenty or thirty minutes of sleep in the morning in order to get up early and seek His face, God will honor that sacrifice. It you are willing to turn off the television for thirty minutes in the evening and spend some time in fellowship with the Lord, you will be richly rewarded. 

However, God is a Loving Father, He will not require more of you than what you are able to give Him. He is not an ogre who is out to make you miserable. He just knows what you need in order to have that abundant, enjoyable, victorious life. When you fellowship with the Lord, you learn to quickly follow the promptings of the Holy Spirit. 

Prayer: Abba Father, You are my all. I thirst to be in Your presence at all times. Endue me with the spirit of faithful obedience to You in all things that I may have fellowship with You at all times, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

If You Don’t Fight Lust

 Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. (1 Peter 2:11)

When I confronted a man about the adultery he was living in, I tried to understand his situation, and I pled with him to return to his wife. Then I said, “You know, Jesus says that if you don’t fight this sin with the kind of seriousness that is willing to gouge out your own eye, you will go to hell and suffer there forever.”

As a professing Christian, he looked at me in utter disbelief, as though he had never heard anything like this in his life, and said, “You mean you think a person can lose his salvation?”

So, I have learned again and again from firsthand experience that there are many professing Christians who have a view of salvation that disconnects it from real life, and that nullifies the threats of the Bible, and that puts the sinning person who claims to be a Christian beyond the reach of biblical warnings. I believe this view of the Christian life is comforting thousands who are on the broad way that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13).

Jesus said, if you don’t fight lust, you won’t go to heaven. “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29). The point is not that true Christians always succeed in every battle. The issue is that we resolve to fight, not that we succeed flawlessly. We don’t make peace with sin. We make war.

The stakes are much higher than whether the world is blown up by a thousand long-range missiles, or terrorists bomb your city, or global warming melts the ice caps, or AIDS sweeps the nations. All these calamities can kill only the body. But if we don’t fight lust, we lose our souls. Forever.

Peter says the passions of the flesh wage war against our souls (1 Peter 2:11). The stakes in this war are infinitely higher than in any threat of world war or terrorism. The apostle Paul listed “immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness,” then said it is “on account of these the wrath of God is coming” (Colossians 3:5–6). And the wrath of God is immeasurably more fearful than the wrath of all the nations of the world put together.

May God give us grace to take our souls and others’ souls seriously and keep up the fight.

THE RICHES OF GOD’S GRACE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY JULY 26, 2022.

SUBJECT: THE RICHES OF GOD’S GRACE!

Memory verse: "That in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2 vs 7.) 

READ: Ephesians 1 verse 3 - 8:

1:3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,

1:4: just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

1:5: having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will,

1:6: to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

1:7: In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace,

1:8: which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence.

INTIMATION:

The common definition of grace known to us is "God’s free and unmerited or undeserved favor for sinful humanity." God showered His kindness (His grace) on us. This is the voluntary and loving favor given to those He saves through faith in the substitutionary work of Christ. God voluntarily became man—the person of Jesus of Nazareth. The man Jesus was subject to human limitations by setting aside His glory and His rights, in response to His Father’s Will to limit His power and knowledge. Christ became “poor” when He became human because He set aside so much. Yet by doing so, He made us “rich” because by His “grace,” we are redeemed—we received salvation and eternal life. 

Therefore, the grace of God can be defined as His voluntarily setting aside His Deity—His glory, rights, power, and knowledge, for the love of sinful humanity, and bestowing on us unmerited or undeserved favor by redeeming us from sin and Satan, and handing us the gift of salvation and eternal life. 

In Christ we have all the benefits of knowing God—being chosen for salvation, being adopted as His children, forgiveness, insight, the gifts of the Spirit, power to do God’s will, the hope of living forever with Christ. Because we have an intimate relationship with Christ, we can enjoy these blessings now, and thereafter in the heavenly places because these blessings are eternal, not temporal. 

The mystery of salvation originated in the timeless mind of God long before we existed. It is hard to understand how God could accept us. But because of Christ, we are holy and blameless in His sight. God chose us, and when we belong to Him through Christ, He looks at us as if we had never sinned. All we can do is express our thanks for the wonderful love. Salvation is God’s work and not our own doing. In His infinite love, God has adopted us as His own children. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, He has brought us into His family and made us heirs along with Jesus (Romans 8 vs 17). 

Now, we can appreciate how rich is the grace of God toward us that believe: Salvation brought the whole of God—Triune God—at work; Based upon the redemption work of His Son, the Father forgives us and sends the Holy Spirit to wash away our sins and continually renew us. When Christ became human, He set aside His Deity—His glory and His rights, His power and knowledge—and became subject to human limitations just for the atonement for our sins. Though Jesus was on an equality with God, He sacrificed Himself in order to offer Himself for the salvation of the whole of mankind. 

In redemption, Christ brought us out of that from which we could not deliver ourselves by a price. We have thus been purchased by the blood of Jesus out of the slavery of sin from which we could not deliver ourselves by works of law or meritorious deeds. While we are still neck deep in sin He loved us, He planned and executed our redemption without any contributions from us. Consequently, He bestowed on us that believe in His work for us on the cross, all the benefits of knowing God—being chosen for salvation, being adopted as His children, forgiveness, insight, the gifts of the Spirit, power to do God’s will, the hope of living forever with Christ. How great, rich, awesome is God’s grace toward us! 

Therefore, our response to the exceeding greatness of His love and grace toward us is to love Him back out of gratitude for all He has done for us, by our raw obedience to His will for us. And if we love Him we should keep His commandments (John 14 vs 15 & 23).

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for Your grace lavished on me out of Your love for me. Endue me with the spirit of complete trust, and obedience to You, and live according to Your will, that I may fully harness the benefits of Your grace upon me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

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!