GOD'S PASSION FOR US!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY DECEMBER 20, 2022.

SUBJECT : GOD'S PASSION FOR US!

Memory verse: "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3 vs 16.)

READ: Romans 5 vs 6 - 11:

5:6: For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

5:7: For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

5:8: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

5:9: Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

5:10: For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

5:11: And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

INTIMATION:

God is filled with compassion and wants us to realize we are loved and cared for. This is one of God's most outstanding and obvious characteristics. The message of the Gospel comes to a focus in His passion for us as is stated, and demonstrated in our memory verse. Here God sets the pattern of true love or passion for others, setting the pattern for all true love relationships. 

When you love someone dearly, you are ready and willing to give freely to the point of self-sacrifice. For His passion, God paid dearly with the life of His Son, the highest price He could pay, and unheard of in history. Jesus accepted wholeheartedly, His propitiation for our sins, accepted our punishment, paid the price for our sins on the cross (Ezekiel 18 vs 4 & Romans 6 vs 23). He, in exchange, offered us the new life that He had bought for us. Something of inestimable value with something completely worthless.

The apostle Paul, in the passage we read, expounded the passion of God for us. He explained that when we were weak and helpless because we could do nothing on our own to save ourselves, Christ had to come to rescue us. He came at exactly the right time in history in accordance with God's plan and schedule. It is God that controls all history, and He controlled the timing, method, and events surrounding Jesus' death. God sent Jesus to die for us, not because we were good enough, but just because He loved us and is passionate about our well being.

The apostle Paul explained that the love that caused God to create the world for an extension of His kingdom, and caused Christ to die in our place, is the same love that sends the Holy Spirit to live in us and guide us daily. The power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that saved us and is available to us in our daily lives. 

God is a Passionate Father. In Psalms 103 vs 13 the psalmist reminds us: "As a father pities his children, So the Lord pities those who fear Him." Jesus demonstrated this the day the disciples found themselves on the Sea of Galilee, and a storm was brewing, which is typical of the Sea of Galilee even today. The boat containing these disciples started to take in water because of the turbulence. With the boat beginning to sink, these terrified disciples asked the ultimate question, "Lord, don't You care?" Of course He cares!

Many of us have at one time or the other felt like that, "Lord where are You when I really need You?" "God, I'm going under. Don't You care?" But a believer and a child of God will remember the promise found in First Peter 5 vs 7, "Casting all your care upon Him; for He cares for you." Does God care about your health? Yes! Does He care about your finances? Yes! What about that relationship that has never become what you hoped it would? Yes, He does care! He cares about the minutest details of your life that even the very hairs of your head is counted. (Matthew 10 vs 30). Though you may not know He cares, rest assured He does.

Be assured that, haven begun a life with Christ, you have a reserve power and love to call on each day for help to meet every challenge or trial. Too often, in our spiritual life, although we may need to love God more, there is a much higher need to recognize just how much He loves us. When our relationship is such that we feel God's love and His passion for His children, we naturally begin to love Him more. You can pray for His power and love as you need it.

In Psalms 145 vs 18 the psalmist tells us, "The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth." What this means is that He is never too busy for you. When you pray, you will never get busy signal. He hears you and ready to meet your real need. Jesus had a very special term He used to describe the personal and passionate nature of God. He called Him, "Abba." The word Abba is an Aramaic word used to describe the most intimate, personal nature of a father. He is never too busy for you. He is never more concerned about a crisis in one individual than another. 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank you for Your passion for me. You have daily loaded me with Your benefits, always forgiving me my iniquities, healing me all my diseases, redeeming my life from distractions, satisfying my mouth with good things, so that my youth is renewed like the eagle's, and crowning me with loving kindness and tender mercies. May I not miss my path in You, in Jesus' Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD! 

Christmas Solidarity

 

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)

The assembly line of Satan turns out millions of sins every day. He packs them into huge cargo planes and flies them to heaven and spreads them out before God and laughs and laughs and laughs.

Some people work full-time on the assembly line. Others have quit their jobs there and only now and then return.

Every minute of work on the assembly line makes God the laughingstock of Satan. Sin is Satan’s business because he hates the light and beauty and purity and glory of God. Nothing pleases him more than when creatures distrust and disobey their Maker.

Therefore, Christmas is good news for man and good news for God.

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15). That’s good news for us.

“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). That is also good news for God.

Christmas is good news for God because Jesus has come to lead a strike at Satan’s assembly plant. He has walked right into the plant, called for the Solidarity of the faithful, and begun a massive walkout.

Christmas is a call to go on strike at the assembly plant of sin. No negotiations with the management. No bargaining. Just single-minded, unswerving opposition to the product. We won’t be a part of making it anymore.

Christmas Solidarity aims to ground the cargo planes. It will not use force or violence, but with relentless devotion to Truth it will expose the life-destroying conditions of the devil’s industry.

Christmas Solidarity will not give up until a complete shutdown has been achieved.

When sin has been destroyed, God’s name will be wholly exonerated. No one will be laughing anymore.

If you want to give a gift to God this Christmas, walk off the assembly line of sin and don’t go back. Take up your place in the picket line of love. Join Christmas Solidarity until the majestic name of God is cleared, and he stands glorious amid the accolades of the righteous.

Christmas Is for Freedom

 

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (Hebrews 2:14–15)

Jesus became man because what was needed was the death of a man who was more than man. The incarnation was God’s locking himself into death row.

Christ did not risk death. He chose death. He embraced it. That is precisely why he came: “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

No wonder Satan tried to turn Jesus from the cross — in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1–11) and in the mouth of Peter (Matthew 16:21–23)! The cross was Satan’s destruction. How did Jesus destroy him?

Hebrews 2:14 says that Satan has “the power of death.” That means Satan has the ability to make death fearful. “The power of death” is the power that holds men in bondage through fear of death. It is the power to keep men in sin so that death comes as a dreadful thing.

But Jesus stripped Satan of this power. He disarmed him. He molded a breastplate of righteousness for us that makes us immune to the devil’s condemnation. How did he do this?

By his death, Jesus wiped away all our sins. And a person without sin cannot be condemned by Satan. Forgiven, we are finally indestructible. Satan’s plan was to destroy God’s rule by condemning God’s followers in God’s own courtroom. But now, in Christ, there is no condemnation. Satan’s treason is aborted. His cosmic treachery is foiled. “His rage we can endure, for, lo, his doom is sure.” The cross has run him through. And he will gasp his last before long.

Christmas is for freedom. Freedom from the fear of death.

Jesus took our nature in Bethlehem, to die our death in Jerusalem — all that we might be fearless in our city today. Yes, fearless. Because if the biggest threat to my joy is gone, then why should I fret over the little ones? How can you say (really!), “Well, I’m not afraid to die but I’m afraid to lose my job”? No. No. Think!

If death (I said, death! — no pulse, cold, gone!) if death is no longer a fear, we’re free, really free. Free to take any risk under the sun for Christ and for love. No more enslavement to anxiety.

If the Son has set you free, you shall be free, indeed!

BE PATIENT WITH GOD!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY DECEMBER 19, 2022.

SUBJECT : BE PATIENT WITH GOD!

Memory verse: "For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry." (Habakuk 2 vs 3.)

READ: Romans 4 vs 16 - 22:

4:16: Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all,

4:17: (as it is written, “I have made thee a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which be not as though they did; 

4:18: who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.”

4:19: And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb

4:20: He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, 

4:21: and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform.

4:22: And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”

INTIMATION:

It is pertinent to wait to receive from God after you have presented your petition in prayers to Him. Our memory verse is the answer God gave prophet Habakkuk. God's answer to Habakkuk is the same answer He would give us; "Be patient! I will work out My plans in My perfect timing." It isn't easy to be patient, but to trust God fully means to trust Him even when we don't understand why events occur as they do. Everything has its timing before God. Your duty is to wait, for surely, if it is His Will, it must surely come.

The passage we read today is a graphic illustration of what the apostle Paul said about Abraham’s attitude when the promise was delayed. The 18th and 19th verses say, "Who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb."

God made a promise to Abraham to bless him and make him a great nation when he was seventy five years old, and the wife about sixty five years old. The promise of a child from the wife Sarah didn't come until he was a hundred years old, and the wife ninety years old. At that age Abraham was already weak in his body. It is very likely he may not have been having erection again. Again, at ninety years the wife's womb was considered dead. In all these circumstances, Abraham didn't shake in his believe of the promise of God—the Word of God.

Abraham believed in the Lord, and He counted it to him for righteousness. He hoped that God will make good His promises in the future. Hope is always in the future. It takes your faith, which is now, to hope for the future occurrence of the promise. Abraham hoped for a son, faith takes the place of hope. When the promise or answer is delayed, you wait in hope and by faith, knowing that He who promised is faithful and will do it. He is the same God that calls those things which do not exist as though they did, and they become. He is the same God who looked into the empty dark space and said, "Let there be light, and there was light."

Now, looking at verse 19, our senses will consider strongly the state of Abraham and the wife—100 and 90 years old respectively. But the angel had spoken from God, therefore, Abraham, looking to the promise of God, "He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He has promised He was also able to perform (verse 20 - 21).

That should be our attitude of believers in such circumstances. Our faith should be that God would give us anything that He had promised, and our petition would be delivered to us as Abraham's son was born to him. You take God at His Word, and your heart overflows with joy that He has given you His Word. The thing for which you have prayed simply is as He promised. You have called into being a thing that was not because His Word had given you the assurance of it. And you have been assured of receiving because He said, "I watch over My Word to perform it." (Jeremiah 1 vs 12.)

What then do you do while waiting? Let us look at Philippians 4 vs 6, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." You have done the praying. The requests have been made known. Now with thankful quietness you wait. Someone might say, "But your prayer is not answered, the fever is still there, the bill is still unpaid." You drive the vultures (discouragers) away as Abraham did on his sacrifice. You refuse them to alight upon the Word and destroy it. Anxiety is one of the destroyers, so avoid it. It can make you question God, and murmur against Him (Another set of destroyers).

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the Spirit of complete rest and trust in You, that I may not waver at Your promises through unbelief, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Christmas Model for Missions

 

As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.” (John 17:18)

Christmas is a model for missions. Missions is a mirror of Christmas. As I, so you.

For example, danger. Christ came to his own and his own received him not. So you also. They plotted against him. So you. He had no permanent home. So you. They trumped up false charges against him. So you. They whipped and mocked him. So you. He died after three years of ministry. So you.

But there is a worse danger than any of these which Jesus escaped. So you!!

In the mid-16th century the missionary Francis Xavier (1506–1552), wrote to Father Perez of Malacca (today part of Malaysia) about the perils of his mission to China. He said,

The danger of all dangers would be to lose trust and confidence in the mercy of God. . . . To distrust him would be a far more terrible thing than any physical evil which all the enemies of God put together could inflict on us, for without God’s permission neither the devils nor their human ministers could hinder us in the slightest degree.

The greatest danger a missionary faces is not death but to distrust the mercy of God. If that danger is avoided, then all other dangers lose their sting.

In the end God makes every dagger a scepter in our hand. As J.W. Alexander says, “Each instant of present labor is to be graciously repaid with a million ages of glory.”

Christ escaped this danger — the danger of distrusting God. Therefore God has highly exalted him! As he, so you.

Remember this Advent that Christmas is a model for missions. As I, so you. And that mission means danger. And the greatest danger is distrusting God’s mercy. Succumb to this and all is lost. Conquer here and nothing can harm you for a million ages.

THE SUPREME SACRIFICE AND THE GREAT COMMISSION!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY DECEMBER 18, 2022.

SUBJECT: THE SUPREME SACRIFICE AND THE GREAT COMMISSION!

Memory verse:  "And He said to them, “Go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16 vs 15.) 

READ: Second Corinthians 8 vs 9; Philippians 2 vs 6 - 8:

Second Corinthians 8:9: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for our sakes, He became poor that you through His poverty might become rich.

Philippians 2:6: Who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 

2:7: But made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men.

2:8: And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death of the cross.

INTIMATION:

In the beginning God created us in His image and after His likeness. He created us out of love, modeled us to be like Him, and to live the best of life without lack or want. But our first parents were grossly influenced that they doubted God’s integrity, and disobeyed Him. It was for the reason of our haven done things wrong; disobeyed God’s laws, that we were separated from God our Creator. Separation from God is death; but, by ourselves, we can do nothing to become reunited with God.

His sincere, and genuine love, and concern for us occasioned His sending His only begotten Son to the world for our liberation. His Son, Jesus, was God’s unique Son, Who never disobeyed God and never sinned. Consequently, only Jesus can bridge the gap between the sinless God and sinful people. Jesus’ incarnation was the act of the preexistent Son of God voluntarily assuming a human body and human nature. Without ceasing to be God, He became a human being, the man called Jesus. He didn’t give up His deity to become human, but He set aside the right to His glory and power. 

Jesus came as a propitiation for us, freely offered His life for us; He knew no sin, but was made sin for our sakes, taking all our wrongdoing upon Himself, dying a shameful death on the cross in our place, and saving us from the consequences of sin—including God’s judgement and death. He gave His life so that we can have life, not only having life, but having it more abundantly.

Jesus took our past, present, and future sins upon Himself so that we could have new life. Because all our wrongdoing is forgiven, we are reconciled to God. Furthermore, Jesus’ resurrection from the dead is the proof that His substitutionary sacrifice on the cross was acceptable to God, and His resurrection has become the source of new life for those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. All who believe in Him may have this new life and live it in union with Him.

Jesus, as a Deity, was rich in all things; haven all things created by Him and for Him. But He became poor by giving up His rights as God and becoming human. In His incarnation, God voluntarily became man—the person Jesus of Nazareth. As a man, Jesus was subject to place, time, and other human limitations. He did not give up His eternal power when He became human, but He did set aside His glory and His rights. In response to the Father’s Will, He limited His power and knowledge. Christ became poor when He became human because He set aside so much. Yet by doing so, He made us rich because we received salvation and eternal life. What a “SUPREME SACRIFICE!”

After haven done this great and supreme sacrifice, that had never been done, and would never be done by any again, Jesus made a request on His followers—His disciples; to go into all the world, telling everyone “the Good News,” that He had paid the penalty for our sins and those who believe in Him can be forgiven and live eternally with God. 

We, as followers of Jesus, are commissioned to spread the “Good News,” and this is the “Great Commission!” Christians today in all parts of the world are telling this gospel to people who haven’t heard about Jesus. We should do this in response to the supreme sacrifice He made for us out of love, and we should return this love by obeying His command. Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14 vs 15).

The driving power that carries missionaries around the world and sets Christ’s church in motion is the faith that comes from the Resurrection. Do you ever feel as though you don’t have the skill or determination to be a witness for Christ? You must personally realize that Jesus rose from the dead and lives for you today. As you grow in your relationship with Christ, He will give you both the opportunities and the inner strength to tell His message.

Jesus said, “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10 vs 32.) Do you want Jesus to confess you before the Father in heaven? Then engage in the “Great Commission;” witnessing for Christ here and now. 

This is the only request Jesus made on us after He had made the aforesaid sacrifices for us. He sacrificed something of immeasurable value for something completely worthless! What a sacrifice! He has not left us alone in this service, but promised to be with us always, even up to the end of age, and has accomplished this in the Person of the Holy Spirit—Jesus in Spirit form, indwelling us.

Therefore, haven all these done for you, and all these promises made to you, what excuse do you have not to engage in witnessing for Jesus? Not doing this is, in my considered opinion, gross disobedience, denying the Savior before men, and consequently, the Savior’s denying you before His Father in heaven! 

Prayer: Abba Father, there is nothing I can do to adequately compensate for what You did for me in redemption? Virtually nothing! Not obeying You in engaging in the “Great Commission” is not just disobedience to You, but also wickedness, and selfishness on the part of any Christian. May I live to obey You all the days of my life, and confess You before men in this world, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Greatest Salvation Imaginable

 

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah . . . ” (Jeremiah 31:31)

God is just and holy and separated from sinners like us. This is our main problem at Christmas — and every other season. How shall we get right with a just and holy God?

Nevertheless, God is merciful and has promised in Jeremiah 31 (five hundred years before Christ) that someday he would do something new. He would replace shadows with the Reality of the Messiah. And he would powerfully move into our lives and write his will on our hearts so that we are not constrained from outside, but are willing from inside, to love him and trust him and follow him.

That would be the greatest salvation imaginable — if God should offer us the greatest Reality in the universe to enjoy and then move in us to know that Reality in such a way that we could enjoy it with the greatest freedom and the greatest pleasure possible. That would be a Christmas gift worth singing about.

That is, in fact, what he promised in the new covenant. But there was a huge obstacle. Our sin. Our separation from God because of our unrighteousness.

How shall a holy and just God treat us sinners with so much kindness as to give us the greatest Reality in the universe (his Son) to enjoy with the greatest possible joy?

The answer is that God put our sins on his Son, and judged them there, so that he could put them out of his mind, and deal with us mercifully and remain just and holy at the same time. Hebrews 9:28 says Christ was “offered once to bear the sins of many.”

Christ bore our sins in his own body when he died (1 Peter 2:24). He took our judgment (Romans 8:3). He canceled our guilt (Romans 8:1). And that means our sins are gone (Acts 10:43). They do not remain in God’s mind as a basis for condemnation. In that sense, he “forgets” them (Jeremiah 31:34). They are consumed in the death of Christ.

Which means that God is now free, in his justice, to lavish us with all the unspeakably great new covenant promises. He gives us Christ, the greatest Reality in the universe, for our enjoyment. And he writes his own will — his own heart — on our hearts so that we can love Christ and trust Christ and follow Christ from the inside out, with freedom and joy.