Making It Real for His People

 

Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. (Hebrews 8:6)

Christ is the Mediator of a new covenant, according to Hebrews 8:6. What does that mean? It means that his blood — the blood of the covenant (Luke 22:20; Hebrews 13:20) — finally and decisively purchased and secured the fulfillment of God’s promises for us.

It means that God, according to the new covenant promises, brings about our inner transformation by the Spirit of Christ.

And it means that God works this transformation in us through faith — faith in all that God is for us in Christ.

The new covenant is purchased by the blood of Christ, effected by the Spirit of Christ, and appropriated by faith in Christ.

The best place to see Christ working as the Mediator of the new covenant is in Hebrews 13:20–21:

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

The words “working in us that which is pleasing in his sight” describe what happens when God writes the law on our hearts in accord with the new covenant. And the words “through Jesus Christ” describe Jesus as the Mediator of this glorious work of sovereign grace.

So, the meaning of Christmas is not only that God replaces shadows with Reality, but also that he takes the Reality and makes it real to his people. He writes it on our hearts. He does not lay his Christmas gift of salvation and transformation under the tree, so to speak, for you to pick up in your own strength. He picks it up and puts it in your heart and in your mind and gives you the seal of assurance that you are a child of God.

RENEW YOUR MIND TO WALK IN THE NEWNESS OF LIFE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14, 2022. 

SUBJECT: RENEW YOUR MIND TO WALK IN THE NEWNESS OF LIFE! 

Memory verse:  "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect Will of God." (Romans 12 vs 2.) 

READ: Second Corinthians 5 vs 16 -18:

5:16: Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

5:18: Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation,

INTIMATION:

God designed the human being as a tri-part being: a spirit, who has a soul, and lives in a body. The real man is a spirit. That is why at the new birth, it is the human spirit that gets recreated. When a person gets saved, that Spirit that is Christ takes the place of the former human spirit, and begin to operate in him. The human becomes a new creature, with the spirit of man replaced with the Spirit of God. 

The new spirit has the nature of God. However, it operates with body and soul that is conformed to the world, that is, ruled by sense knowledge; the things it sees, touches, smells, hears, and tastes. The sense-ruled mind is the companion of a recreated spirit, but the mind has never been renewed, so there is no real fellowship between the recreated spirit and the mind that is in contact with the world and largely ruled by it.

Therefore, for the human being to walk in the newness of life, the mind, housed in the soul, and expressing itself in the flesh, has to be transformed from its conformity with the world; its rulership by sense knowledge. This transformation is by renewing of the mind.

The only way of renewing the mind, that is, replacing the error of the world’s way of thinking, is to replace it with God’s truth, and the only infallible source of God’s truth is His revealed Word—the Bible. Transformation through renewed minds comes as believers expose themselves to God’s Word through the faithful exposition of it each week in church, personal Bible study, and group Bible study. A solid church that believes in preaching the Word, reading the Word, and singing the Word is invaluable in helping us renew our minds.

The "Sense Ruled Mind" is the unrenewed mind. It is always waging war against Christian’s belief system, ever praying for faith but never arriving; always talking unbelief yet struggling to get faith; ever confessing failure, but at the same time confessing faith in the Word and denying it in actions; trying to belief, yet never acting on the Word. That is spiritual infancy.

God knows the problem of man. And in His infinite wisdom, and great grace, He came down into the realm of the senses in the person of Christ. Then Christ arose from the dead and appeared among the disciples to let them see Him, hear Him, and feel Him. The Bible, in John 20 vs 24 - 26 gives us a pictorial account of the sense-ruled mind:

"Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." (John 20 vs 24 - 26.)

Thomas was a sense knowledge believer. He had to see in order to believe. His senses had to be satisfied. He could not take the Word of God independent of his senses. We are confronted continually with that type of believer as majority of Christians are in that category.

Jesus appeared to His disciples in company of Thomas. Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." (John 20 vs 27.) The apostle John, in First John 1 vs 1 - 3, further emphasized the same issue of an unrenewed mind—the sense ruled mind: 

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life - the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us - that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also will have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son Jesus Christ."

You notice that, "that which we have seen and heard we are telling you," is sense knowledge evidence. That was all right in the early church. During the first fifteen years, the early church lived very largely in the realm of sense knowledge faith. We have many today that cannot believe beyond what their senses register. 

Walking in the newness of life is having your mind renewed, believing God and His Word completely, and knowing that "all things are possible to him who believes." (Mark 9 vs 23.) Therefore, brothers and sisters, do not be unbelieving, but believing. If God has said it, believe it, and be blessed because it will surely manifest in your life as said.  

Prayer: Abba Father, You are the same yesterday, today, and forever. Your Word is a commandment for a perfect life. Give me the grace to obey completely Your Word and forgive my unbelief. Help me, O Merciful God, and make Your strength perfect in my weakness, and endue me with Your excellent Spirit that I may live for You all the days of my life, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

THE DOUBLE-MINDED BELIEVER!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY DECEMBER 13, 2022.

SUBJECT: THE DOUBLE-MINDED BELIEVER!

Memory verse:  "Therefore I say to you, whatever thing you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them." (Mark 11 vs 24.) 

READ: James 1 vs 5 - 8:

1:5: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.

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:

A double-mind is a mind that wavers; it’s not completely convinced about the referenced subject. For instance, in relation to God, a double-minded person is not completely persuaded that God’s way is the best. It treats God’s Word like any human advice and retains the option to disobey. It vacillates between allegiance to subjective feelings (the world’s ideas), and God’s commands. 

In the passage we read today, the apostle James likens such wavering mind to the waves of the sea. If you have observed the waves of the sea, you would notice how restless they are; subject to the forces of the wind, gravity, and tide. Double-mind or doubt leaves a person as unsettled as the restless waves. The double-minded has no complete and absolute trust in God. And God is not pleased with such mind because it  doubts His integrity. Consequently, such mind hardly receive from God since it’s in doubt and hardly would ask in faith. 

To "ask in faith, with no doubting" means not only believing in the existence of God, but also believing in His loving care. It includes relying on God and expecting that He will hear and answer to your prayers, when you pray in line with His Will. We must have the confidence that God will align our desires with His purposes, that is, being in harmony with the principles of God's kingdom.

In First Kings 18 vs 21, the Bible gives an illustration of the double-minded person; "And Elijah came to all people, and said, "How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people answered him not a word."

Elijah was confronted with the problem of dealing with double-minded men, who would not take a stand, and were vacillating between two opinions about the true God. In the modern church, and indeed the world, we have the same problem. Many people, including believers, are very unstable in their ways. They hardly can take a stand in their lives. In fact, it is grievous when they cannot take a stand in their relationship with God, and are just drifting along with whatever is pleasant and easy to them. They are inadvertently, worshipping false gods, this time, themselves!

The unbelieving, double or doubting mind, is an indication of spiritual infancy, resulting in lack of divine wisdom. The apostle James advices that those who lack such wisdom should ask from God, and that, in His loving kindness, He will liberally and without reproach give to them. 

For the adult or mature believer in Christ Jesus, divine wisdom is yours because Jesus is made to us wisdom (First Corinthians 1 vs 30). But the babe in Christ, the undeveloped believer, has not yet learned the secret of trusting the Word. 

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. All these are already delivered to you in Christ Jesus: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." (Ephesians 1 vs 3.)

Here the believer is blessed with every spiritual blessing—wisdom, divine ability, strength, love, and every other thing that is necessary to make the believer's life beautiful, helpful, and victorious. 

Prayer: Abba Father, You are my faithful Companion, and ever loving Father. You have given me everything that pertains to life and godliness in Christ. My sufficiency is in You. May I fully live in fullness of all that Christ received for me in redemption, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Final Reality Is Here

 

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. . . . They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” (Hebrews 8:1–2, 5)

We’ve seen it before. But there’s more. Christmas is the replacement of shadows with the real thing.

Hebrews 8:1–2, 5 is a kind of summary statement. The point is that the one priest who goes between us and God, and makes us right with God, and prays for us to God is not an ordinary, weak, sinful, dying priest as in the Old Testament days. He is the Son of God — strong, sinless, with an indestructible life.

Not only that, he is not ministering in an earthly tabernacle with all its limitations of place and size while getting worn out and being moth-eaten and being soaked and burned and torn and stolen. No, Hebrews 8:2 says that Christ is ministering for us in a “true tent that the Lord set up, not man.” This is not the shadow. It’s the real thing in heaven. This is the reality that cast a shadow on Mount Sinai for Moses to copy.

According to Hebrews 8:1, another great thing about the reality which is greater than the shadow is that our High Priest is seated at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. No Old Testament priest could ever say that.

Jesus deals directly with God the Father. He has a place of honor beside God. He is loved and respected infinitely by God. He is constantly with God. This is not shadow-reality like curtains and bowls and tables and candles and robes and tassels and sheep and goats and pigeons. This is final, ultimate reality: God and his Son interacting in love and holiness for our eternal salvation.

Ultimate reality is the persons of the Godhead in relationship, dealing with each other concerning how their majesty and holiness and love and justice and goodness and truth shall be manifest in a redeemed people.

SHACKLES BY MARY MARY

 

Replacing the Shadows

 

Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man. (Hebrews 8:1–2)

The point of the book of Hebrews is that Jesus Christ, God’s Son, has not just come to fit into the earthly system of priestly ministry as the best and final human priest, but he has come to fulfill and put an end to that system, and to orient all our attention on himself, ministering for us first on Calvary as our final Sacrifice and then in heaven as our final Priest.

The Old Testament tabernacle and priests and sacrifices were shadows. Now the reality has come, and the shadows pass away.

Here’s an Advent illustration for kids — and those of us who used to be kids and remember what it was like. Suppose you and your mom get separated in the grocery store, and you start to get scared and panic and don’t know which way to go, and you run to the end of an aisle, and just before you start to cry, you see a shadow on the floor at the end of the aisle that looks just like your mom. It makes you really hopeful. But which is better? The hopefulness of seeing the shadow, or having your mom step around the corner and it’s really her?

That’s the way it is when Jesus comes to be our High Priest. That’s what Christmas is. Christmas is the replacement of shadows with the real thing: Mom stepping around the corner of the aisle, and all the relief and joy that gives to a little child.

THE BEST WAY TO LIVE IS TO SURRENDER TO GOD!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY DECEMBER 12, 2022. 

SUBJECT: THE BEST WAY TO LIVE IS TO SURRENDER TO GOD!

Memory verse: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service." (Romans 12 vs 1.)

READ: Luke 9 vs 23 - 24:

9:23: Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

9:24: For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life My sake will save it.

INTIMATION:

God wants us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices and be totally devoted to Him. He desires that we daily lay aside our own desires to follow Him, putting all our energy and resources at His disposal and trusting Him to guide us, embracing what He does for us as the best thing that can  happen to us. This is because He has good, pleasing,  perfect, and best plans for us. Devoting ourselves to Him is reasonable, and the most proper thing to do knowing that He created us for His own purposes. Also, for Him to have given His only Son to make our new life possible, we should joyfully give ourselves as living sacrifices for His service.

Surrendering your life is not a foolish emotional impulse but a rational, intelligent act, and the most responsible and sensible thing you can do with your life. In our memory verse the apostle Paul calls surrender a "your reasonable service." Another version translates it "the most sensible way to serve God." Who can best know a thing than the producer and owner of that thing? Nobody can know your life and manage it better than the Creator and Owner of your life. Therefore, surrendering to the Owner and best Manager is the most reasonable thing to do. 

The apostle Paul, being conscious of this fact, says, "..We must make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him." (Second Corinthians 5 vs 9.) Your wisest moments will be those when you say yes to God. 

The Owner of your life designed it for worship to Him, and if you fail to worship Him, you will eventually create things (idols) that are gods to you, and you give your worship or life to them. God also allowed us the freedom of choice. You are free to choose what to surrender to, but you are not free from the consequences of that choice. There is freedom before worship, but no freedom from the consequences after worship. 

Everybody eventually surrenders to something or someone. If not God, you will surrender to the opinions or expressions of others, to money, to resentment, to fear, to your own pride, lusts, ego, self-defeat, or pity, and so on.

If you don't surrender to Christ, you surrender to crisis. Why? Because without Him you can do nothing! (See John 15 vs 5.) Inability to do anything is real crisis! Since outside of Christ is crisis, the only way to live life devoid of crisis is surrender to the Owner. Nothing else works. All other approaches lead to frustration, disappointment, and self-destruction. 

Sometimes it takes years to discover this most sensible way to live. When this happens you eventually discover that the greatest hindrance to God's blessing in your life is not others, it is yourself; your self-will, stubborn pride, and personal ambition. You can't fulfill God's purposes for your life while focusing on your own plans. The time of the discovery in your life is immaterial, the important thing is that you have turned to your Owner. You need to discover yourself, if God is going to do His deepest work in you, and it starts from this discovery.

Give all of you to God: your past regrets, your present problems, your future ambitions, your fears, dreams, weaknesses, habits, hurts, and hang-ups. Put Jesus Christ in the driver's seat of your life and take your hands off the steering wheel. Never you be frightened; nothing under His control can ever be out of control. You may not understand the circumstances you are in with Him, but it is the best for you, because all the things He does, work together for your eventual good, and in line with His purpose of your life. (See Romans 8 vs 28 - 30.)

When you are mastered by Christ, you can handle anything. You will be like the apostle Paul who said, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." (Philippians 4 vs 13.)  

Our place, time, and how we surrender differs. The apostle Paul's moment occurred on the road Damascus after he was knocked down by a blinding light. For others, God gets our attention with less drastic methods. Regardless of how, surrendering is never just a one-time event. Paul said, "I die daily." (First Corinthians 15 vs 31.) There is a moment of surrender, and there is the practice of surrender which is moment-by-moment and lifelong. 

Remember, when you surrender, you become a living sacrifice, and the problem of a living sacrifice is that it can crawl off the altar, so you may have to re-surrender your life several times a day. You must make it a daily habit. Don’t be tired or ashamed. He understands you, and sympathizes with your weaknesses (Hebrews 4 vs 13). In the passage we read today, Jesus said, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me." 

Let me remind you: When you decide to live a totally surrendered life, that decision will be tested. Sometimes it will mean doing inconvenient, unpopular, costly, or seemingly impossible tasks. It will often mean doing the opposite of what you feel like doing. 

Have you surrendered to Christ? Or are you still arguing and struggling with God over His right to do with your life as He pleases? If you have not, now is your time to surrender to God's grace, love, and wisdom; and receiving His Nature!

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You for my adoption as Your son, planned even before the foundation of the earth. I now live, and move, and have my being in You. Give me the grace to live in total surrender, obedience and trust in You, turning my life totally to You for Your desired use, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!