FAITH ATTRACTS GRACE!

 

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 17, 2022.

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SUBJECT : FAITH ATTRACTS GRACE! 

Memory verse: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourself; it is the gift of God." (Ephesians 2 vs 8.) 

READ: Ephesians 2 vs 4 - 10:

2:4: But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us,

2:5: even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have saved),

2:6: and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

2:7: that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

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

2:9: not of works, lest anyone should boast.

2:10: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

INTIMATION:

Faith attracts the grace of God. Where there is faith in God His grace abounds. It’s for this reason we are saved. We are saved by God’s grace through faith in Him. Please note these two words 'by' and 'through' because the vital difference between these two words will help keep in proper perspective the different roles and functions of grace and faith.

Grace is the unmerited favor and benevolence of God. This enables us to draw from God’s power through the Holy Spirit to meet our needs. While faith is the substance; the confidence, conviction, confirmation of things we have hope for, and the evidence or proof of things we have not yet seen but convinced of their reality. Faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.

The key words that describe faith are confidence, conviction, confirmation and certainty. These qualities need a secure beginning and ending point. The beginning point of faith is believing in God's character—He is who He says He is. The end point is believing in God's promises—He will do what He says He will do. Therefore, when we believe that God will fulfill His promises even though we don't see those promises materializing yet, we demonstrate true faith. It is the 'believe'—the confidence and conviction—in God, and assurance—confirmation and certainty—of His promises, that is faith. And it is through faith in Him that His grace (the power of the Holy Spirit) we receive God's blessings.

The major problem believers have is that once we are saved by ‘grace through faith,’ we immediately make the mistake of turning from living by grace to living by works. We begin to match God's blessings by our works. Or put in another form, we want to buy God's blessings by our works. What do I mean by this? We begin to think we have prayed enough or not enough to get God's blessings—answer to our prayers, or we have been operating enough or not enough in the fruit of the Spirit to get or not to get His blessings, or that we weren't nice when we got caught in some situations, consequently, we cannot be blessed by Him. 

We think of everything we did right or wrong and figure that it automatically qualifies or disqualifies us, as it were, for any of God's blessings. All these are works, though in themselves are good and should be done, but are not the channel or reason for receiving from God. Remember what the Scripture says in Romans 5 vs 8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” This is amazing! God sent Jesus Christ to die for us, not because we were good enough, but just because He loved us. It is not by works of ours. 

God didn’t stop at that. He comes alongside us and be within us to help us do the right things expected of us. He gives us the desire and the power to do what pleases Him. But we have to do our own part; submit to God’s control and let Him work. It is even "God who works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2 vs 13), and He does this by His grace (the power of the Holy Spirit) indwelling us. Disconnect from Him, and you can do nothing. (John 15 vs 5).

For those who have faith in God, that is, those who have believed—adhered to, trusted in, and relied on God—do enter His rest because His grace is sufficient (the power of the Holy Spirit) to meet their needs (see Hebrews 4 vs 3). You will enter His rest when you receive His grace and you will lead your life as the apostle Paul advised Philippians 4 vs 4 - 6; "Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men....Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." That is life of who has entered His rest.

Prayer: Abba Father, my trust and complete confidence is in You. Give me the grace to lead a life pleasing to You, that I may enter Your rest, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

What It Means to Bless the Lord

 

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! (Psalm 103:1)

The psalm begins and ends with the psalmist preaching to his soul to bless the Lord — “Bless the Lord, O my soul” — and preaching to the angels and the hosts of heaven and the works of God’s hands that they should do the same.

Bless the Lord, O you his angels,
you mighty ones who do his word,
obeying the voice of his word!
Bless the Lord, all his hosts,
his ministers, who do his will!
Bless the Lord, all his works,
in all places of his dominion.
Bless the Lord, O my soul!
(Psalm 103:20–22)

The psalm is overwhelmingly focused on blessing the Lord. What does it mean to bless the Lord?

It means to speak well of his greatness and goodness — and really mean it from the depths of your soul.

What David is doing in the first and last verses of this psalm, when he says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” is saying that authentic speaking about God’s goodness and greatness must come from the soul.

Blessing God with the mouth without the soul would be hypocrisy. Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). David knows that danger, and he is preaching to himself. He is telling his soul not to let this happen.

“Come, soul, look at the greatness and goodness of God. Join my mouth, and let us bless the Lord with our whole being. Soul, we are not going to be a hypocrite!”

THE MIRACLE OF GRACE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY AUGUST 16, 2022.

SUBJECT : THE MIRACLE OF GRACE!

Memory verse: “They refused to obey, and they were mindful of Your wonders that You did among them. But they hardened their necks, and in their rebellion they appointed a leader to return to their bondage: But You are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, and did not forsake them.” (Nehemiah 9 vs 17.)

READ: Nehemiah 9 vs 26 - 31:

9:26: Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast Your law behind their backs, and killed Your prophets who testified against them to turn them to Yourself, and they wrought great provocations.

9:27: Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their enemies, who oppressed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried to You, You heard from heaven; and according to Your abundant mercies You gave them deliverers who saved them from the hand of their enemies.

9:28: But after they had rest, they again did evil before You. Therefore You left them in the hand of their enemies, so that they had the dominion over them: yet when they returned and cried out to You, You heard them from heaven; and many times You delivered them according to Your mercies.

9:29: And testified against them, that You might bring them back to Your law. Yet they acted proudly, and did not heed to Your commandments, but sinned against Your judgments, ‘which if a man do, he shall live in them,’ And they shrugged their shoulders, and stiffened their neck, and would not hear.

9:30: Yet For many years You had patience with them, and testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets. Yet they would not listen; therefore You gave  them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

9:31: Nevertheless in Your great mercies You did not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for You are God, gracious and merciful.

 

INTIMATION:

The “miracle of grace” is the marvelous and profound nature of God’s unmerited favour and mercy to humanity. God is ever-Merciful, ever-Faithful, Loving, and outstandingly Kind. This nature of God is inherent in His attitude of clemency. God extends grace far beyond the usual time by waiting or enduring without complaint or reprisal. The Scripture says, "The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance." (First Peter 3 vs 9,)

The Scripture, in emphasizing God’s nature, says, "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty" (Exodus 43 vs 6 - 7) “By no means clearing the guilty” simply means that God will not ordinarily write off or forgive any sin, you remain guilty until you have repented and come to Him for forgiveness, and He will forgive you. In His kindness God holds back His judgement, giving people time to repent. It is easy to mistake God's patience for approval of wrong way we are living. 

God pardons completely and gives up punishment for all sins and never bring up the offenses again. He withholds punishment deserved by us and gives us His kindness in excess. God's mercy is everlasting and total. The Scripture says, "Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindness, For they are from of old. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, To such as keep His covenant and His testimonies" (Psalms 25 vs 6 & 10.)

In the passage we read today, after exiled Israelites returned and rebuilt the wall of Jerusalem led by Nehemiah, the Israelites assembled with fasting to confess their sins. They gave a long summary of Israel’s history summarizing God’s work in their lives. Israel was devastated by times of intense rebellion and sin. Yet often the people repented and returned to God, He delivered them. The miracle of the grace of God, allowed them to come severally for forgiveness and God forgave them. 

Seeing how God continued to be with His people shows that His patience is amazing! In spite of our repeated failing, pride, and stubbornness, He is always ready to forgive, and His Spirit is always ready to instruct. God puts no limit on the number of times we can come to Him to obtain mercy, but we must come in order to obtain it; recognizing our need and asking Him to help. This miracle of grace should inspire us to say, “O Lord, You are God, ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abundant in kindness, ever loving Father”! 

Always take advantage of the “miracle of grace”; if there is a recurring problem or difficulty in your life, continue to ask God for help, and be willing and ready to make changes in your attitude and behavior that will correct that situation. God is ever willing to receive us as we come—our Loving Father!

Realizing the extent of God’s forgiveness helps us forgive those who fail us, even ‘seventy times seven’ if necessary: “Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I did not say up to seven times, but seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18 vs 21 - 22)

The Jewish religious teachers then taught that people should forgive those who offend them—but only three times. Peter trying to be especially generous, asked Jesus if seven (the “perfect” number) was enough times to forgive someone. But Jesus answered, “Seventy times seven,” meaning that we shouldn’t even keep track of how many times we forgive someone. We should always forgive those who are truly repentant, no matter how many times they ask.“ This miracle of grace” is God’s nature, and is yardstick for us. 

Jesus said, “Take heed yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him, and if he repents , forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” (Luke 17 vs 3 - 4.) The implication of Jesus’ teaching here shows that it doesn’t matter how many times someone offends you, if the person comes repeatedly, as many times as you are offended, and asks for forgiveness, you must forgive. That is being godly; showcasing the nature of God—His profound nature of abounding in mercy.

To rebuke does not mean to point out every sin we see; it means to bring sin to a person’s attention with the purpose of restoring him or her to God and to fellow humans. When you feel you must rebuke another Christian for sin, check your attitudes before you speak. Do you love that person? Are you willing to forgive? Unless rebuke is tied to forgiveness, it will not help the sinning person.

Prayer: Abba Father, You are gracious and merciful, ready to pardon, slow to anger, abounding in kindness, and ever loving! I desire the impartation of Your wonderful and marvelous nature in my life. Endue me with the spirit to live like You, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Why You Give In to Sexual Sin

 

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. . . . Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:8, 12)

Why isn’t David crying out for sexual restraint? Why isn’t he praying for men to hold him accountable? Why isn’t he praying for protected eyes and sex-free thoughts? In this psalm of confession and repentance after essentially raping Bathsheba, you would expect David to ask for something like that.

The reason is that he knows that sexual sin is a symptom, not the disease.

People give way to sexual sin because they don’t have fullness of joy and gladness in Christ. Their spirits are not steadfast and firm and established. They waver. They are enticed, and they give way because God does not have the supreme place in their feelings and thoughts that he should.

David knew this about himself. It’s true about us too. David is showing us, by the way he prays, what the real need is for those who sin sexually: God! Joy in God.

This is profound wisdom for us.

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!