Life and Death at Christmas

 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

As I was about to begin this devotional, I received word that Marion Newstrum had just died. Marion and her husband Elmer had been part of our church longer than most of our members had been alive at the time. She was 87. They had been married 64 years.

When I spoke to Elmer and told him I wanted him to be strong in the Lord and not give up on life, he said, “He has been a true friend.” I pray that all Christians will be able to say at the end of life, “Christ has been a true friend.”

Each Advent I mark the anniversary of my mother’s death. She was cut off in her 56th year in a bus accident in Israel. It was December 16, 1974. Those events are incredibly real to me even today. If I allow myself, I can easily come to tears — for example, thinking that my sons never knew her. We buried her the day after Christmas. What a precious Christmas it was!

Many of you will feel your loss this Christmas more pointedly than before. Don’t block it out. Let it come. Feel it. What is love for, if not to intensify our affections — both in life and death? But oh, do not be bitter. It is tragically self-destructive to be bitter.

Jesus came at Christmas that we might have eternal life. “I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). Elmer and Marion had discussed where they would spend their final years. Elmer said, “Marion and I agreed that our final home would be with the Lord.”

Do you feel restless for home? I have family coming home for the holidays. It feels good. I think the bottom-line reason for why it feels good is that they and I are destined in the depths of our being for an ultimate Homecoming. All other homecomings are foretastes. And foretastes are good.

Unless they become substitutes. Oh, don’t let all the sweet things of this season become substitutes of the final, great, all-satisfying Sweetness. Let every loss and every delight send your hearts a-homing after heaven.

Christmas. What is it but this: I came that they may have life? Marion Newstrum, Ruth Piper, and you and I — that we might have Life, now and forever.

Make your Now the richer and deeper this Christmas by drinking at the fountain of Forever. It is so near.

CRAVE FOR GROWTH IN CHRISTIANITY!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY DECEMBER 15, 2022.

SUBJECT: CRAVE FOR GROWTH IN CHRISTIANITY!

Memory verse:  "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.” (Hebrews 5 vs 12.) 

READ: Hebrews 5 vs 12 -14:

5:12: For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. 

5:13: For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. 

5:14: But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

INTIMATION:

Growth in Christianity is growing in the wisdom and knowledge of the high-priestly role of Christ in the life of all believers. The growth is difficult unless you moved out of your comfort zone, and got really committed to Christ. Your commitment and thirst commits God to arouse your intellect and discerning spirit to know Him personally; your eyes of understanding being enlightened, that is, being focused and clear, so that you can see exactly what it is he has called you to do. 

In real life, we try to know someone better by reading biographical information or historical data about him. That will help you know a lot about that person, but it won’t enable you to actually know Him. To know someone better, you need to spend time with that person; there is no shortcut. The same holds true with God. Reading the Bible, great works of theology, and devotional material is wonderful, but there is no substitute for knowing Him personally by spending quality time with Him; communing with Him in prayers, Bible studies, and meditation 

Do you really know God, or do you just know about Him? The difference is in spending quality time with Him, and in that hinges your growth as a Christian. Consequently, you grasp the immensity of the glorious way of life He has for His followers, and the utter extravagance of His work in those who trust Him; His endless energy, and boundless strength.

Christians who are yet to experience growth are Babes in Christ. Instead of growing in the wisdom and knowledge of their inheritance in Christ, such Christians are still be needing someone to teach them the very rudiments of the truths of God; the elementary principles of Christ.  The apostle Paul said that such believers are still in the infant stage, needing milk for feeding. He says that, “for everyone who partakes only in of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.” (Hebrews 5 vs 13.)

Considering how long they have been Christians, some believers ought to be teachers, leaders, helpers of men, praying for the sick, instead of still needing prayer contractors who would do the praying for them. Stunted growth in a Christian’s life is as a result of the bad habit of not learning, listening, meditating appropriately, and practicing the Word of God, and they become believers who are unskilled in the word of righteousness—inexperienced in God’s ways. 

For some, instead of growing, they are pulled back to the world by the devil—backslides. The perils of not growing up in Christ, but rather backsliding are enormous. Once you have seen the light, gotten a taste of heaven and been part of the work of the Holy Spirit, once you have personally experienced the sheer goodness of God’s Word and the powers breaking in on you, turning your back on it, washing your hands of the whole thing, is costly. Why? Because when you turn your back on Christ, you become a toy in the hands of the devil. 

To return to Christ you must begin afresh. You can’t start over again as if nothing happened. That’s impossible. Your action of turning your back to Christ is repudiating Him in the public. By deliberately turning away from Christ, you become an unbeliever, cutting yourself off from God’s forgiveness. And, in the event of your returning to Him, the apostle Paul likened it to your re-crucifying Jesus:

“For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame. (Hebrews 6 vs 4 - 6.)

The apostle Paul likened such persons to a parched ground that soaks up rain and then produces an abundance of grains for its gardener, and get God’s approval. But if it produces weeds and thistles, it’s more likely to get cussed out. Such fields are not harvested, but rather, they are cleared of the weeds and thistles and are burned.

It is time to grow to adulthood and claim your real place in Christ. Start today and the Holy Spirit will guide you to all truth.

Prayer: Abba Father, grant me your glorious inner strength through the Holy Spirit indwelling me, to grow richly in Christ through the Word of God, and that Christ may dwell in my heart through faith, and I will experience the extravagant dimensions of Christ love, and In the saints, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

THANK YOU LORD BY MARY MARY FEATURING KIRK FRANKLIN

 

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.