What We Were Made For

 

Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. (1 Peter 3:18)

The greatest good of the good news — the gospel — is the enjoyment of fellowship with God himself. This is made explicit here in 1 Peter 3:18 in the phrase “that he might bring us to God.” That’s why Jesus died.

All the other gifts of the gospel exist to make this one possible.

We are forgiven so that our guilt does not keep us away from God. We are justified so that our condemnation does not keep us away from God. God is propitiated so that his wrath doesn’t stand between us and God as our Father.We are given eternal life now, with new bodies in the resurrection, so that we have the capacities for being with God forever and enjoying God to the fullest.

Test your heart. Why do you want forgiveness? Why do you want to be justified? Why do you want the wrath of God to be propitiated? Why do you want eternal life? Is the decisive answer, “Because I want to enjoy God now and forever”?

The gospel-love that God gives is ultimately the gift of himself. This is what we were made for. This is what we lost because of our sin. This is what Christ came to restore.

“In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

LIFE WITHOUT GOD’S GRACE IS FULL OF STRIVE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY AUGUST 15, 2022.

SUBJECT: LIFE WITHOUT GOD’S GRACE IS FULL OF STRIVE!

Memory verse: "Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?” (James 4 vs 1.)

READ: Psalm 127 vs 1 - 2: 

127:1: Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.

127:2: It is vain for you to rise early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows; For so He gives His beloved sleep.

INTIMATION:

A life without the grace of God is a disgrace. I hear people say things like; "I am confused, I really don't know what is happening to me, Nothing seems to be working in my life, I don't know what I have done that God has turned His back on me; on and on." All these are strife, discord, conflicts and wars going on within their own selves.

How does these disturbances get started within us? They are started when we make the mistake of leaving God out of our lives. When we do, all our accomplishments will be futile. We know that the aforementioned conditions are not God's will for us because His thoughts for us is for good and not of evil (Jeremiah 29 vs 11). The Lord does not want His children to live in the midst of a constant interior war, but rather in His kingdom. Though, the nature of this world in which we live is full of toiling, striving, and turmoil, but it is not the nature of the kingdom of God that within us (Luke 17 vs 21); “for the kingdom of God righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14 vs 17).

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Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within us, not like an earthly kingdom with geographical boundaries. Instead, it begins with the work of God's Spirit in our lives and relationships. The Spirit, with His work, produces the fruit of the Spirit: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5 vs 22 - 23.) 

It’s the grace of God (the power of God) expressed in us through the work of the Holy Spirit that produces the fruit of the Spirit which are the character traits of Jesus Christ. They are the by-product of Christ’s control, and we can’t obtain them by trying to get them without the grace of God.

One reason you and I came to Christ in the first place is because we want to escape all that kind of endless strife and conflict. That is why we became citizens of the Kingdom of God. As followers of Jesus Christ that is our heritage. Why is it, then, that so many of us who truly love God, who are going to heaven, who are called according to His divine purpose, still spend our earthly existence in the midst of what we are trying so desperately to escape from? What is the source of this strife? Where does it originate?

But notice the second part of the verse. James tells us that all these negative things arise from the sensual desires that are ever warring in our members. Do you know that you and I can get into conflict by wanting something that is clearly God's will for us, if we try to get it by our own effort? If we go about trying to get it in the wrong way, we will only produce strife and war and conflict within us.

For instance, God wants our spouse and our children to be saved. We know that is His will for us because He has said in His Word that He desires that all people be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (First Timothy 2 vs 4). Yet you and I can get frustrated and cause all kinds of misery for ourselves and others if we go about trying to get them saved by our own human efforts, forgetting that no one can come to Christ except It has been granted to him by God the Father (John 6 vs 65), or he is drawn to Christ by the Father (John 6 vs 44).

It is certainly God's will for us to live holy lives, but I can't tell you how much conflict I caused in my life trying to be holy. I wanted to do all things right, but I went about getting them done the wrong ways. That is what James is warning us about in James 4 vs 1 - 3:  “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” 

He is saying that strife and conflict arise within us because our desires, even our righteous desires, are warring in our bodily members because we want to achieve them by our own efforts outside the grace of God, and that is impossible. 

The apostle Paul, the greatest of all the apostles, found himself in this feud of wanting to achieve by his own power, and failing woefully. He then confessed; "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7 vs 24 - 25). It’s only in the grace of God (power of God) can he achieve the life he desires. Cut off from Christ you can do nothing!

Prayer: Abba Father, by my strength I cannot achieve my heart desires, especially in serving and obeying You appropriately. Engrace me, therefore, to make my boast in Christ who strengthens me to achieve, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

HOW TO RECEIVE AND APPLY THE GRACE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY AUGUST 14, 2022.

SUBJECT:  HOW TO RECEIVE AND APPLY THE GRACE!

Memory verse:  "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7 vs 7.) 

READ:  Luke 11 vs 1 - 4:

11:1: Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

11:2: So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come , Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

11:3: Give us day by day our daily bread.

11:4: And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

INTIMATION:

In examining how grace or power of God can be received, and be applied to meet specific situations in life, the first thing is to look at our communion with Him in prayers. 

In the passage we read today, Jesus thought His disciples how to pray. Our Lord's Prayer clearly shows three things; (1) God our giver, (2) our leader, (3) our deliverer. Our duty then is to ask so that we can receive, as indicated in our memory verse. We are to do the asking and God brings His grace—His power to do the work. 

We need to pray to do the asking. Remember, "we have not because we ask not." (James 4 vs 2). Our job is to do the asking in faith, and in trust. That opens the channel for God to do our bidding. It is God who does the work, not us. How does He do it? According to the power (grace of God) that works in us.

Only God could bring about changes that you desire in your life. But our duty is to ask in faith. Get your face before the Lord on a regular basis and say, "Father, I can't help myself. I am coming to You like a little child. I am totally helpless. I lay this whole situation before You, asking for Your grace. I don't deserve Your help, Father, but You are my only hope. Please do for me what I can't do for myself."

The Lord constantly requires us to turn to Him. Why? Because when we do anything apart from Him, we take the credit and glory that rightfully belonged to Him. For this reason He will frustrate any of our own efforts to do things outside of Him. And anything done outside the grace of God will have no real lasting effect. Jesus said, "...For without Me, you can do nothing." (John 15 vs 5).

 

However, our effort has a place in the Christian life. It does have a part to play. What then is our effort? Consider what Jesus said to the people seeking Him: “Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent.”  (John 6 vs 28 - 29.)

The people desired to know what is required of them to do to habitually carry out what God requires. Jesus told them that the work that God asks of them is to believe in the One whom He has sent, and in doing so they work the works of God. You can now see that the only work (singular) we do is to believe in Him, and that by that singular work of believing in Him, we have done the works (plural) of God. Therefore, the works are done by God while the only thing we do is 'believe'. 

We apply the grace by speaking out our faith and believe. You can't believe and keep quiet, but you must say it out. Jesus said in Mark 11 vs 22 - 24, "...Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea! and does not doubt in his heart but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." 

Why must we have that believe and assurance? It is because the believe is "...unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." (Ephesians 3 vs 20.)

Prayer: Abba Father, my trust and believe is in You. I am confident that You, who began the good work in me will complete and perfect it by Your grace that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all my expectations, in Jesus’ Name I prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

God Forgives and Is Still Just

 

Nathan the prophet comes to David after his adultery and murder and says, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die.” (2 Samuel 12:13–14)

This is outrageous. Uriah is dead. Bathsheba is raped. The baby will die. And Nathan says, “The Lord has put away your sin.”

Just like that? David committed adultery. He ordered murder. He lied. He “despised the word of the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:9). He scorned God. And the Lord simply “put away [his] sin”?!

What kind of a righteous Judge is God? You don’t just pass over rape and murder and lying. Righteous judges don’t do that.

This was one of Paul’s greatest theological problems — very different from the ones people struggle with today: how can God forgive sin and still be righteous? Here is what Paul said in Romans 3:25–26:

God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

In other words, the outrage that we feel when God seems to simply pass over David’s sin would be good outrage if God were simply sweeping David’s sin under the rug. He is not.

God sees, from the time of David, down the centuries to the death of his Son, Jesus Christ, who would die in David’s place, so that David’s faith in God’s mercy and God’s future redeeming work unites David with Christ. And in God’s all-knowing mind, David’s sins are counted as Christ’s sins and Christ’s righteousness is counted as his righteousness, and God justly passes over David’s sin for Christ’s sake.

The death of the Son of God is outrageous enough, and the glory of God that it upholds is great enough, that God is vindicated in passing over David’s adultery and murder and lying. And ours.

And so God maintains his perfect righteousness and justice while at the same time showing mercy to those who have faith in Jesus, no matter how many or how monstrous their sins. This is unspeakably good news.

SATURDAY MID NIGHT BLESSINGS BY APOSTLE JOSHUA SELMAN

 

GRACE IS NOT LICENSE TO SIN!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SATURDAY AUGUST 13, 2022.

SUBJECT:  GRACE IS NOT LICENSE TO SIN!

Memory verse:  "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more,” (Romans 5 vs 20.) 

READ:  Romans 6 vs 15 - 16:

6:15: What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law, but under grace? Certainly not! 

6:16: Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

INTIMATION:

When we talk about grace, we must be careful not to think of it as a blanket that covers us and gives us a license to sin. When the apostle Paul started teaching the people of His day about the law and grace and how the law produces sin, but where sin abounds, grace abounds even more, the early believers got a bit confused. They reasoned, "Well, then, if the more we sin, the more grace abounds, and God takes such delight in giving us His grace, then we ought to sin as much as we can so we can get more grace!"

Then the apostle Paul had to write to straighten them out, saying, "Certainly not!" (God forbid!) Don't you know that when you sin you become a servant to sin? How can you go on living in sin when you have been declared dead to sin?" That we are no longer under the law but under grace, has not given us freedom to sin and disregard the Ten Commandments. 

Like the believers in the apostle Paul's days, our problem is not just a misunderstanding of sin and its power, it is also a misunderstanding of grace. When the Holy Spirit shows us what to do to keep from sinning and walk in holiness, we immediately try to do it our own without His help. We struggle and strive and strain, eventually ending up miserable and frustrated and confused because we don't understand why we keep failing.

The ultimate goal to be accomplished in us by grace is to empower us to live a holy life. But while we are not to worry about holiness, we are also not to have a light attitude toward sin. Grace is not a license to sin. As I said before, believers we are not to be anxious about holiness or the process of sanctification ('be anxious for nothing' (Philippians 4 vs 6)), but we are to be serious about it. We are to recognize that it is God's Will for us. We are to desire and thirst for it with all our hearts, and sincerely ask God for it in our fellowship with Him. We are to make every effort to cooperate with the Holy Spirit Who is working to bring it to pass in us day by day.

Yet again, grace is not an excuse to stay the way we are, claiming that we don't have to do anything about ourselves and our lives because we are not under the law but under grace. That is a mistake the early believers were making. And that is why Paul had to rebuke them and correct their thinking.

It is obvious that God's grace will keep us from condemnation even though we sin. Yes, God's grace does keep our names written in the Lamb's Book of Life even though we aren't perfect. God's grace does save us, declare us righteous in His sight, assure us His blessings and a home in Heaven, carry us through this life and give us peace of mind and heart and many, many other wonderful things. But God's grace does more than all of that, it also teaches us to live as God intends for us to live—to be holy.

I am convinced that most Christians are not looking for an excuse to sin, but for the power to live holy lives. They are very eager to receive the power to meet their needs and solve their problems, as well as live for God. They want to receive the power needed to overcome temptations. If they can be shown how to do that, then they will cooperate wholeheartedly.

And without the knowledge of God's grace by believers, they will never be able to receive the power they need to rise above their sins and overcome their problems. And when they lack requisite knowledge, they will be destroyed. (Hosea 4 vs 6). God's grace is given to us to do more than give us the power to live, it is also given to us to lift us out of sin.

Prayer: Abba Father, great is Your faithfulness. Your grace is sufficient for me: for Your strength is made perfect in my weakness. Most gracious Father, I pray that the power of Christ may rest upon me in all intents and purposes to live for You, in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Three Examples of How Faith Fulfills Good Resolves

 

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power. (2 Thessalonians 1:11)

When Paul says that God fulfills our good resolves by his power through faith (he calls our acts “works of faith”), he means that we defeat sin and we do righteousness by faith, that is, by being satisfied with all that God promises to be for us in Christ in the next five minutes, five months, five decades, and into eternity.

Here are three examples of how this might look in your life:

If you set your heart to give sacrificially and generously, the power of God to fulfill this resolve will come to you as you trust his future grace in the promise, “My God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). And the promise, “Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (2 Corinthians 9:6). And the promise, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8).

If you set your heart to renounce pornography, the power of God to fulfill this resolve will come to you as you trust his future grace in the promise, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8). “It is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell” (Matthew 5:29). Much better. Wonderfully better. All-satisfyingly better.

And if you set your heart to speak out for Christ when the opportunity comes, the power of God to fulfill this resolve will come to you as you trust his future grace in the promise, “Do not be anxious how you are to speak or what you are to say, for what you are to say will be given to you in that hour” (Matthew 10:19).

May God increase our daily faith in the precious promises of God — promises of his inexhaustible, blood-bought, Christ-exalting future grace.