The Master Servant

 

so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:7)

To me, the Bible’s most astonishing image of Christ’s second coming is in Luke 12:35–37, which pictures the return of a master from a marriage feast like this:

“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them.”

To be sure, we are called servants — and that no doubt means we are to do exactly as we are told. But the wonder of this picture is that the “master” insists on serving. We may have expected this during Jesus’s ministry on earth, since he said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). But Luke 12:35–37 is a picture of the second coming, when the Son of Man comes in the blinding glory of his Father “with his mighty angels in flaming fire” as 2 Thessalonians 1:7–8 says. Why would Jesus be portrayed as a table waiter at the second coming?

Because the very heart of his glory is the fullness of grace that overflows in kindness to needy people. This is why Ephesians 2:7 says he aims “in the coming ages [to] show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.”

What is the greatness of our God? What is his uniqueness in the world? Isaiah answers: “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides thee, who works for those who wait for him” (Isaiah 64:4 RSV). There is no other god like this. He never relinquishes the role of inexhaustible benefactor of his ever-dependent, happy people.

DON’T FRET BUT TURN YOUR WORRY TO PRAYER!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 12, 2022.

SUBJECT : DON’T FRET BUT TURN YOUR WORRY TO PRAYER!

Memory verse: "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God" (Philippians 4 vs 6).

READ: Matthew 6 vs 25 - 33:

6:25: Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

6:26: Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

6:27: Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?

6:28: So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;

6:29: And yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

6:30: Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

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 needs 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:

Do not worry or anxious for anything, rather turn your worry to prayer. Anxiety is being uneasy with fear, worry, crave or desire regarding something, In our memory verse, the Scripture tells us not to fret or worry about anything. Instead pray concerning anything that makes you fret. Imagine not worrying or being anxious for anything! It seems like an impossibility; we all have worries on the job, in our homes, in our business, at school, etc. Worry or anxiety in itself can change nothing. Take the required action of committing all things in prayers to the Owner of the whole world. The reason we worry or burn with anxiety is because we have not trusted God and His promises enough. 

Commit everything in the hands of God in prayer. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. There is nothing impossible with, nor difficult for God. Therefore, steep your life in God’s reality, put Him first in your life; let Him fill your thoughts with His desires, take His character for your pattern, and serve and obey Him in everything.

In turning your worries into prayers, locate in the Scriptures the promise of God relevant to your situation, and put Him into remembrance of His promises (Isaiah 43 vs 26), He hastens to perform His Word (Jeremiah 1 vs 12.) Then rest assured you will receive your petition because you have prayed according to His will. The Scripture says, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask any thing according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked Him.” (First John 5 vs 14 - 15.)

In the passage we read today, Jesus tells us to stop worrying about those needs that God promises to supply. God knows you have those needs (Matthew 6 vs 32), and He is well able to supply your needs. Worry has its negative effects on us; it may damage your health, cause the object of your worry to consume your thoughts, disrupt your productivity, negatively affect the way you treat others, and reduce your ability to trust in God. Worry immobilizes, but genuine concern moves you to action.

Worry is distinct from planning. Planning for tomorrow is time well spent, worrying about tomorrow is time wasted. Sometimes it is difficult to tell the difference. Careful planning is thinking ahead about goals, steps, and schedules, and trusting in God's guidance. When done well, planning can help alleviate worry. Worriers, by contrast, are consumed by fear and find it difficult to trust God. They let their plans interfere with their relationship with God. Don't let worries about tomorrow affect your relationship with God today.

Carrying your worries, stresses, and daily struggles by yourself shows that you have not trusted God fully with your life. It takes humility, however, to recognize that God cares. Many a time we run away from God because of our sin, thinking 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 passively. Don't submit to circumstances, but to the Lord who controls circumstances.

Prayers: Abba Father, my trust is in You for I know You will never leave me nor forsake me. Daily You have loaded me with Your benefits. My soul blesses, and rejoices in You. I put my cares upon You, knowing You care for me. Give me the grace commit all things concerning me to You in prayers, and not to fret about anything, in Jesus' Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Beware of Serving God

 

The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.” (Acts 17:24–25)

We do not glorify God by providing his needs, but by praying that he would provide ours — and trusting him to answer, and living in the joy of that all-providing care as we lay down our lives in love for other people.

Here we are at the heart of the good news of Christian Hedonism. God’s insistence that we ask him to give us help so that he gets glory. “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (Psalm 50:15). This forces on us the startling fact that we must beware of thinking he needs us. We must beware of serving God, and we must take special care to let him serve us, lest we rob him of his glory. “God is not served by human hands, as though he needed anything” (Acts 17:25).

This sounds very strange. Most of us think serving God is a totally positive thing. We have not considered that serving God may be an insult to him. But meditation on the very meaning of prayer makes this plain.

In the novel, Robinson Crusoe, the hero, took Psalm 50:12–15 as his favorite text to hope in as he’s stranded on the island: God says, “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. . . . Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.”

Which means: there is a way to serve God that would belittle him as needy of our service. Oh, how careful we must be not to preempt the mighty grace of God in Christ. Jesus said, “The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He aims to be the servant. He aims to get the glory as the Giver.

HOLD TIGHT TO YOUR CONFESSION IN PRAYER!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY OCTOBER 11, 2022.

SUBJECT : HOLD TIGHT TO YOUR CONFESSION IN PRAYER!

Memory verse: "Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, Let us hold fast our confession." (Hebrews 4 vs 14.) 

READ: File James 1 vs 6 - 8: 

1:6: But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

1:7: For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord, 

1:8: He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

INTIMATION:

As a Christian, what is your confession of the Word of God in prayer, and after prayer? Are you holding tight to your confession during prayer as well as after prayer? Or do you confess doubt and unbelief after prayer? Any confession you make is a seed sowed in like manner, and you will reap according to what you sowed. The condition for reward is faithfulness to that which we heard and obeyed. 

Faith is the foundation upon which all prayer must be made. It is the foundation upon which our prayers are answered. Our faith, or unbelief, is determined by our confession of the Word of God we have heard. Few of us realize the effect of our spoken word on our own hearts, or on our Adversary. He hears us make our confession of trust, confidence, or failure, of sickness, of lack, and apparently he doesn't forget. Remember he is our accuser; accusing us of our weak or negative confession, and we unconsciously go down to the level of our confession. No one ever rises above his or her confession.

Everybody who walks by faith will have testings. They do not necessarily come from the Father; they usually come from the Adversary. God may allow the testings of the Adversary to test your faith and trust in Him. 

But as long as the Adversary can confuse the issue, and keep you in a state of flux, you are at a disadvantage. A state of flux is a state of continual changing, of insatiably, of double mindedness. In the passage we read today, the apostle James describes a double minded man as unstable in all his ways, and let not that man think he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

In our memory verse, the Scripture advises us, as Christians, to "hold fast our confession." That is, when your confession is in tune with the Word of God in the Scripture, hold tight to it heartily knowing that the Scripture cannot be broken (John 10 vs 35); that what the Father says is true, and sure, already settled in heaven. 

When we doubt His Word, it is because we believe something else that is contrary to the Word. Our confidence may be in the arm of flesh; it may be in medicine; it may be in institutions; but whatever our confidence is in, if it contradicts the Word it destroys our faith life, and without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11 vs 6). Consequently, It destroys our prayers, and brings us again into bondage.

There isn't any power in all the universe that can void any statement of fact in His Word. No Word from God is void of power. He said, "So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55 vs 11.)

Your confidence is in that unbroken, living Word, and you hold fast to your confession in the face of every assaults of the enemy. Never in any way be terrified by your adversaries. Sometimes, it may appear as though the prayer is not answered, hold on to it, though it tarries, wait for it; because it will surely come (Habakkuk 2 vs 3). It is your quiet assurance in His Word that gives you the supremacy over your adversary.

God’s ways are forever the best, and therefore, He answers in our best interests. Though it might not be the way we wanted, but He aligns our desires with His purposes. He knows the best for us in any circumstances. 

Prayer: Abba Father, my trust is in You and Your Word. Forever Your Word is settled in heaven. Your Word is as sweet as honey in my mouth. Give me the grace to confess Your Word heartily with absolute trust in You and Your Word, knowing that You hasten to perform Your Word. My absolute confidence is in You, and nothing can take this away from me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

We Can Do Nothing

 

I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

Suppose you are totally paralyzed and can do nothing for yourself but talk. And suppose a strong and reliable friend promised to live with you and do whatever you needed done. How could you glorify this friend if a stranger came to see you?

Would you glorify his generosity and strength by trying to get out of bed and carry him? No! You would say, “Friend, please come lift me up, and would you put a pillow behind me so I can look at my guest? And would you please put my glasses on for me?”

And so your visitor would learn from your requests that you are helpless and that your friend is strong and kind. You glorify your friend by needing him, and by asking him for help, and counting on him.

In John 15:5, Jesus says, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” So we really are paralyzed. Without Christ, we are capable of no Christ-exalting good. As Paul says in Romans 7:18, “Nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.”

But John 15:5 also says that God does intend for us to do much Christ-exalting good, namely bear fruit: “Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.” So as our strong and reliable friend — “I have called you friends” (John 15:15) — he promises to do for us, and through us, what we can’t do for ourselves.

How then do we glorify him? Jesus gives the answer in John 15:7: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” We pray! We ask God to do for us through Christ what we can’t do for ourselves — bear fruit.

John 15:8 gives the result: “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit.”

So how is God glorified by prayer? Prayer is the open admission that without Christ we can do nothing. And prayer is the turning away from ourselves to God in the confidence that he will provide the help we need.

PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY OCTOBER 10, 2022.

SUBJECT : PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT!

Memory verse: "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.” (Jude 20.)

READ: Romans 8 vs 26 - 27:

8:26: Likewise the Spirit also helps our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

8:27: And He who searches the hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

INTIMATION:

Praying in the Spirit is engaging the help of the Holy Spirit to communicate our petition to God the Father, and the Son, Jesus Christ, in the ecstatic or heavenly language that is unknown to anybody. The apostle Paul referred to it as “tongues of angels”(First Corinthians 13 vs 1). The Bible also refers to this as speaking in tongues (unknown language). Speaking in tongues is a legitimate gift of the Holy Spirit and is beneficial to the speaker. 

This is distinct from “other tongues,” the supernatural gift of speaking in another language without its haven been learnt as was the case at the Pentecost (Acts 2 vs 4 - 8), where the circumstances were recorded from the view-point of the hearers. To those in whose language the utterances were made it appeared as a supernatural phenomenon. But to some others, the  disciples were stammerers and drunkards (Acts 2 vs 13). However, what was uttered was not addressed primarily to the audience but consisted in recounting “the mighty works of God.” 

Jesus promised to send an “Helper” to all believers in the Person of the Holy Spirit. He helps us in our weaknesses, including our inadequacies in prayer: He makes intercession for us in prayers, communicating our petition to God when we do not know what we ought to pray. God is aware of our inadequacies and weaknesses hence He proactively arranged an Helper for us. 

Therefore, as a believer, you are not left to your own resources to cope with problems. Even when you don’t know the right words to pray, the Holy Spirit prays with and for you, and God answers. With God helping you pray, you don’t need to be afraid to come before Him. Ask the Holy Spirit to intercede for you “according to the will of God.” Then, when you bring your requests to God, trust that He will always do what is best.

The Scripture says, “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, except the spirit of man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” (First Corinthians 2 vs 10 - 12.)

The Holy Spirit is the third Person in the Godhead, and knows everything about God, including His Will. When we pray in the spirit, it is obvious that the Holy Spirit helping us, communicates our petitions to God in accordance with His Will. Because He knows God’s Will, and the deep things of God, He searches all things to ensure the appropriate presentation of our petition. And when we pray according to His Will we are sure receiving our petition, as the Scripture notes; “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask any thing according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we asked of Him. (First John 5 vs 14 - 15.)

Praying in the spirit is surrendering ourselves to the Spirit for His help. Because He knows what is in our heart where He dwells with the spirit of man, He will communicate our intentions to God in the best way that is in consonance with God’s Will, assuring us of answers to our petition. The answer may not come as we may intend to have them, but they come in our best interest known to God—God of all knowledge who knows the end from the beginning. 

Therefore, the best form of prayer is praying in the spirit where you are assured of no misrepresentations of facts, and praying in the Will of God which is supreme. Speaking in tongues is a legitimate gift of the Spirit given only to whomever God chooses. If a person has not experienced the gift of tongues, he or she ought not seek it but seek what gifts God has given. Those who do not speak in tongues ought not seek the gift as a sign of salvation or of special closeness with God, for it is neither of them. It is a desirable gift even though it isn’t a requirement of faith. It’s beneficial to the speaker. 

The Scripture says, “For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God: for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries." (First Corinthians 14 vs 2.) When you speak in the heavenly language, the Holy Spirit our “Helper” and “Intercessor” takes over as our “Advocate” interpreting the mysteries we speak and communicate same to God, albeit He knows what is already in our heart where He dwells and communes with the spirit of man. Isn’t that great? 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for the gift of tongues, and of the Holy Spirit my Helper. Give me the grace to commune with You always in the Spirit with the assurance of receiving my petitions, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen. 

PRAISE THE LORD!

Best Passage Ever

 

God put [Jesus] 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. (Romans 3:25–26)

Romans 3:25–26 may be the most important verses in the Bible.

God is wholly just! And he justifies the ungodly! Really? A just judge acquitting the guilty!

Not either/or! Both! He acquits the guilty, but is not guilty in doing so. This is the greatest news in the world!

“[God] made [Jesus] to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He takes our sin. We take his righteousness.

“By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). Whose flesh? Christ’s. Whose sin condemned in that flesh? Ours. For us then? No condemnation!

“[Christ] bore our sins in his body on the tree.” (1 Peter 2:24)

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

“If we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6:5)

If the most terrifying news in the world is that we have fallen under the condemnation of our Creator and that he is bound by his own righteous character to preserve the worth of his glory by pouring out his wrath on our sin . . .

. . . Then the best news in all the world (the gospel!) is that God has decreed and enacted a way of salvation that also upholds the worth of his glory, the honor of his Son, and the eternal salvation of his elect. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.