The Sweet Designs of God

 

He set me apart before I was born, and called me by his grace. (Galatians 1:15)

Ponder the conversion of Paul, the sovereignty of Christ, and what Paul’s sins have to do with your salvation.

Paul said that God “set me apart before I was born,” and then, years later, on the Damascus road, “called me by his grace” (Galatians 1:15). This means that between Paul’s birth and his call on the Damascus road he was an already-chosen, but not-yet-called, instrument of God (Acts 9:15; 22:14).

This means that Paul was beating and imprisoning and murdering Christians as a God-chosen, soon-to-be-made-Christian missionary.

As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 22:6–7)

There was no denying or escaping it. God had chosen him for this before he was born. And now he would take him. The word of Christ was sovereign. There was no negotiating.

Rise, and go into Damascus, and there you will be told all that is appointed for you to do. (Acts 22:10)

Damascus was not Paul’s final, free will yielding to Christ after decades of futile divine effort to save him. No. God had a time for choosing him (before he was born) and a time for calling him (on the Damascus road). God called, and the call produced the yielding.

Therefore, the sins that God permitted between Paul’s birth and his calling were part of the plan, since God could have called him sooner.

Do we have any idea what the plan for those sins might have been? Yes, we do. They were permitted for you and me — for all who fear that they might have sinned themselves out of grace. Here’s the way Paul relates his sins to your hope:

Formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. . . . But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:13, 16)

Oh, how sweet are the designs of God in the sovereign salvation of hardened, hopeless sinners!

When Obedience Feels Impossible

 

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. (Hebrews 11:17)

For many of you right now — and for others of you the time is coming — obedience feels like the end of a dream. You feel that if you do what the word of God or the Spirit of God is calling you to do, it will make you miserable and that there is no way that God could turn it all for good.

Perhaps the command or call of God you hear just now is to stay married or stay single, to stay in that job or leave that job, to get baptized, to speak up at work about Christ, to refuse to compromise your standards of honesty, to confront a person in sin, to venture a new vocation, to be a missionary. And as you see it in your limited mind, the prospect of doing this is terrible — it’s like the loss of Isaac, the only son who can be an heir.

You have considered every human angle, and it is impossible that it could turn out well.

Now you know what it was like for Abraham. This story is in the Bible for you.

Do you desire God and his way and his promises more than anything, and do you believe that he can and will honor your faith and obedience by being unashamed to call himself your God, and to use all his wisdom and power and love to turn the path of obedience into the path of life and joy?

That is the crisis you face now: Do you desire him? Will you trust him? The word of God to you is: God is worthy and God is able.

NEVER BE SELF-CENTRED BUT GOD-CENTRED!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 16, 2023.

SUBJECT: NEVER BE SELF-CENTRED BUT GOD-CENTRED!

Memory verse: "But He turned, and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offence to Me: for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men." 

(Matthew 16 vs 23.)

READ: Matthew 16 vs 21 - 27:

16:21: From that time Jesus began to show to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised the third day.

16:22: Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him, saying, “Far be it from You, Lord; this shall not happen to You!

16:23: But He turned, and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offence to Me: for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”

16:24: Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.

16:25: For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.

16:26: For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

16:27: For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels; and then He will reward each according to his works.

INTIMATION:

Being “self-centered” is thinking mainly of oneself, caring only about oneself and own needs, being egocentric. A self-centered person leaves God out of the center of his or her life as Satan desires. But being “God-centered” is making God the center of your life. All you desire is to do God’s will; always evaluating things from God’s perspective than from human or self perspective. Many people try to use God for their own self-actualization, but that is a reversal of nature and is doomed to failure. We are all made by God and for Him and His use, not vice versa. Life is all about letting God use His creation for the purpose He created it; it Is all about letting God use you for His purposes, not your using Him for your own purpose.

The obsession of self-centeredness is a dead end. The Bible in Romans 8 vs 6 states, "For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." Those who are self-centered live for themselves, and not for God, and consequently lose the spiritual dimension to their lives. Keep your commitment to Christ at full strength. Then you’ll be ready when He returns.

We must be committed to living for Christ that we should “hate” our lives by comparison. This does not mean that we long to die or that we are careless or destructive with the life God has given, but that we are willing to die if doing so will glorify Christ. We must disown the tyrannical rule of our own self-centeredness. By laying aside our striving for advantage, security, and pleasure, we can serve God lovingly and freely. Releasing control of our lives and transferring control to Christ bring eternal life and genuine joy.

In the passage we read today, Jesus said to Peter, ‘It is satanic to think of self rather than God’; “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offence to Me: for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” He further said to His disciples, ‘Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. They should follow Him and He will show them their life's purpose. Jesus advised them that self-help is no help at all, but self-sacrifice is the way, God's way to finding yourself, your true self. What kind of deal is it to get everything you want but lose yourself? What could you ever trade your soul for? Achieving your life's purpose ordained by your Creator is more valuable than gaining the whole world—your selfish desires.

God made you for a reason, and your life has profound meaning! We discover that meaning and purpose only when we make God the reference point of our lives. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what He does for us. We are equivalent to an invention in God’s hands. The easiest way to discover the purpose of an invention is to ask the inventor of it directly, or refer to the owner's manual. The same is true for discovering your life's purpose; Ask God—your Maker, or refer to the Owner's Manual —the Bible. The discovery is by revelations inherent in the Word of God. 

God has not left us in the dark to wonder and guess. He has clearly revealed His purposes for our lives in the Bible. It tells us why we are alive, how life works, how the owner of life governs it, what to do, what to avoid, and what to expect now, and in the future. And it is only in Him, and His Manual you can find these answers. If that is the case, it makes no sense to center your life on yourself, but rather on the Owner of that life, and the determinant of how best to lead that life of yours.

In First Corinthians 2 vs 7. The Bible says, "But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory." The wisdom of God is mysterious and goes deep into the interior of His purposes which is only determined by Him, and revealed to us, if we quest for it. You don't find it lying around on the surface. God, in His wisdom, determined the way to bring out His best in us, long before we ever arrived on the scene. It is beyond the wisdom of men, or of this world. "For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God" (First Corinthians 3 vs 19).

God is not just the starting point of our lives; He is the source of it. To discover your purpose in life you must turn to God's Word, not the world's wisdom—never lean on your own understanding. You must build your life on eternal truths, not self-driven ambitions. God, in His infinite wisdom, purposefully created you, and you are to serve His purpose to live a purposeful life.

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of complete obedience to You in all things, and that You will take the first place in my life in all things, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen. 

PRAISE THE LORD!

DO NOT REASON GOD’S WORD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 15, 2023.

SUBJECT: DO NOT REASON GOD’S WORD!

Memory verse: “Casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ;” (Second Corinthians 10 vs 5.)

READ: First Corinthians 1 vs 18 - 25:

1:18: For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

1:19: For it is written: “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.”

1:20: Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

1:21: For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.

1:22: For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom;

1:23: but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness;

1:24: But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

1:25: Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

INTIMATION:

To reap the inherent benefits in the word of God, you must discourage any form of reasoning or arguing on God’s word as it appears to human reasoning or conception. God said, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55 vs 8 - 9.) God’s knowledge and wisdom are far greater than any human’s. We are foolish to interpret or argue God’s word using our sensual or human knowledge.

In accordance with our memory verse and the passage we read today, we must cast down reasonings (arguments or imaginations), for men have deified reasonings. The great reasoners of the world and the great philosophers of the world have gained the ascendancy over the human mind. Philosophy has never given anything of any value to the body of Christ—the Church. What we call our Christian philosophers are often men who denied the miraculous and the supernatural, always wanting to explain it away through sense knowledge activities and reasonings.

We are to cast down imaginations or reasonings, everything that sense knowledge has exalted against the word of God, and we are to bring into captivity our thinking so we will think God's thoughts instead of man's thoughts. So we will be inspired by the word of God rather than by the word of men. And it is in doing so that we reap immensely from the inherent power in the word of God. When we submit to the Lord with total devotion, we are empowered by the Holy Spirit to capture every thought and yield it to Christ. 

When exposed to ideas or opportunities that might lead to wrong desires, you have a choice. You can recognize the danger and turn away, or you allow unhealthy thoughts to take you captive. You capture your fantasies and desires when you honestly admit them to the Lord and ask Him to redirect your thinking. Ask God to give you the spirit of discernment to keep your thoughts focused on His truth.

God said in the Scripture, “Therefore, behold, I will do a marvelous work among the people, a marvelous work and a wonder; for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hidden.” (Isaiah 29 vs 14.) 

Now, consider the Scripture in Romans 4 vs 19 - 21, "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. 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 had promised He was also able to perform."

Abraham looked at his body and saw it exactly as it was, impotent, a worn out thing. He looked at Sarah, another broken vessel. Yet looking unto the promise of God, he waxed strong. He counted that God could make good what He had promised.  Abraham moved into God's class. He counted the things that were not as though they were, and they became. He counted his body to be as good as it was at the age of thirty five years. He considered Sarah to be as young, and capable of bearing children. He counted the thing that was not as though it was, and it became.

Reason would have conquered him had he yielded to it. Reason said "Tradition shows that no man has ever had youth renewed, that no woman past ninety years of age has ever had a child.” Yet this man believed against all the evidence of human reasoning or sense knowledge, and counted that God was able to make good what He had promised.

The Good News of Jesus Christ still sounds foolish to many. He will save us from eternal death and give us everlasting life if we trust Him as Savior and Lord. This sounds so simple that many people won’t accept it. They try other ways to obtain eternal life (being good, being wise, etc.). Jesus offers His kingdom to those who have faith, not to those who do all kinds of good deeds in trying to earn salvation. This looks foolish to the world, but Christ is the mighty power of God, the only way we can be saved. Knowing Christ personally is the greatest wisdom anyone can have. The “foolish” people who simply accept Christ’s offer are actually the wisest of all, because they alone will live eternally with God.

Prayer: Abba Father, forever Your Word is settled in heaven. Endue me with the spirit of complete devotion to You and Your Word that there will not be room for any reasoning in it, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

Every Calvary Step Was Love

 

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us. (1 John 3:16)

The love of Christ for us in his dying was as conscious as his suffering was intentional. If he was intentional in laying down his life, it was for us. It was love.

“When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1).

Every step on the Calvary road meant, “I love you.”

Therefore, to feel the love of Christ in the laying down of his life, it helps to see how utterly intentional it was.

Look at what Jesus said just after that violent moment when Peter tried to cleave the skull of the servant, but only cut off his ear.

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26:52–54)

It is one thing to say that the details of Jesus’s death were predicted in the Old Testament. But it is much more to say that Jesus himself was making his choices precisely to see to it that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.

That is what Jesus said he was doing in Matthew 26:54. “I could escape this misery, but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

In other words, I am not choosing to take the way out that I could take, because I know the Scriptures. I know what must take place for my people to be saved. It is my choice to fulfill all that is predicted of me in the word of God. It is my choice — every step of the way — to love my people to the uttermost. And I want them to feel this. And be utterly secure and free and radically different from the world.

Christ as Means and End

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Why did God create the universe? And why is he governing it the way he is? What is God achieving? Is Jesus Christ a means to this achievement or the end of the achievement?

Jesus Christ is the supreme revelation of God. He is God in human form. As such, he is the end, not a means.

The manifestation of the glory of God is the meaning of the universe. This is what God is achieving. The heavens, and the history of the world, are “telling the glory of God.”

But Jesus Christ was sent to accomplish something that needed doing. He came to remedy the fall. He came to rescue sinners from inevitable destruction because of their sin. These rescued ones will see and savor and display the glory of God with everlasting joy.

Others will continue to heap scorn on the glory of God. So, Jesus Christ is the means to what God meant to achieve in the manifestation of his glory for the enjoyment of his people. No one would see and savor and celebrate the glory of God apart from the saving work of Christ. The aim of the universe would abort. So, Christ is a means.

But in that accomplishment on the cross, as he died for sinners, Christ revealed the love and righteousness of the Father supremely. This was the apex of the revelation of the glory of God — the glory of his grace.

Therefore, in the very moment of his perfect act as the means of God’s purpose, Jesus became the end of that purpose. He became, in his dying in the place of sinners and his resurrection for their life, the central and supreme revelation of the glory of God.

Christ crucified is therefore both the means and the end of God’s purpose in the universe.

Without his work, that end — to reveal the fullness of the glory of God for the enjoyment of God’s people — would not have happened.

And in that very means-work he became the end — the one who forever and ever will be the focus of our worship as we spend eternity seeing and savoring more and more of what he revealed of God when he became a curse for us.

Jesus is the end for which the universe was made, and the means that makes that end possible to enjoy by justified sinners.

THE THOUGHT OF DEATH!

EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 14, 2023.

SUBJECT: THE THOUGHT OF DEATH!

Memory verse: “In the way of righteousness is life, and in its pathway there is no death." (Proverbs 12 vs 28.)

READ: Psalm 49 vs 10 - 14:

49:10: For he sees wise men die; likewise the fool and the senseless person perish, and leave their wealth to others.

49:11: Their inner thought is that their houses will last forever, their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.

49:12: Nevertheless man, though in honor does not remain; he is like the beasts that perish.

49:13: This is the way of those who are foolish, and of their posterity who approve their sayings.

49:14: Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall be consumed in the grave, far from their dwelling.

INTIMATION:

Death is used in the Scripture to denote (a) the separation of the soul (the spiritual part on man) from the body (the material body), the latter ceasing to function and turning to dust. It also means the separation of man from God. Adam died on the day he disobeyed God (Genesis 2 vs 17), and hence all mankind are born in the same spiritual condition (Romans 5 vs 12), from which, however, those who believe in Christ are delivered (John 5 vs 24; First John 3 vs 14). Death, in whichever of the above mentioned senses used in Scripture, is always viewed as the penal consequence of sin, and since sinners alone are subject to death. 

God, in His infinite mercy, love, and kindness, made a way for us in Jesus Christ—His only Son—whom He sent as a propitiation for our sins. Those who believed in atonement of sin by Jesus Christ for the world, and have so confessed Him as their Savior and Lord over their lives are known as “Believers.” Those who do not believe are called “Unbelievers.” To those who don’t believe in God, life on earth is all there is, and will strive to live to the fullest. Therefore, it is natural for them to strive for the world’s values: money, popularity, power, pleasure, and prestige. 

While unbelievers fear death, and are victims of life, swept along by its current and wondering if there is meaning to it, believers can use life well because they understand its true purpose. For believers, however, death holds no terrors because Christ has conquered all fears (see First John 4 vs 18). Death is only the beginning of eternal life with God. Every person must die, but death is not the end; instead, It is the doorway to a new life—eternal life with Christ or eternal condemnation with Satan and his cohorts. 

For many death is a darkened door at the end of their lives, a passageway to an unknown and feared destiny. But for God’s people, death is a bright doorway to a new and better life, it is just another step in the continuing eternal life we began when we started to follow Him. 

Many people avoid thinking about death, refuse to face it, and are reluctant to even attend funerals. Though it is not encouraging to think morbidly, but it is helpful to think clearly about death. It reminds us that we still have time to change, time to confess our sins and find forgiveness from God. Because everyone will eventually die, it makes sense to plan ahead to experience God’s mercy rather than His justice.

Because life is uncertain, we should follow Jesus who offers us eternal comfort. As believers, we can be secured that God will not forget us when we die. He will bring us to life again to live with Him forever. This provides real security. The psalmist says, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” (Psalm 116 vs 15.) God stays close to us even in death. Believers are precious to God, and He carefully chooses the time when they will be called into His presence. Let this truth provide comfort when death knocks on the door. God sees, and each life is valuable to Him. (See Jesus’ statement in Matthew 10 vs 29.) 

However, for believers, like the apostle Paul—our role model—to live means to develop eternal values and to tell others about Christ, who alone could help them see life from an eternal perspective. Paul’s whole purpose in life was to speak out boldly for Christ and become more like Him. He said, “According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1 vs 20- 21.)

Therefore, Paul could confidently say that dying would be even better than living, because in death he would be removed from the worldly troubles, and he would see Christ face to face (First John 3 vs 2 - 3). If you’re not ready to die, then you’re not ready to live. Make certain of your eternal destiny; then you will be free to serve—devoting your life to what really counts, without fear of death.

All of us have one similarity. When we die, we leave all we own here on earth. At the moment of death (and all of us will face that moment), we are naked and empty-handed before God. The only things we have at that time are those we have already invested in our eternal heritage. At the time of death, each of us will wish we had invested less on earth, where we must leave it, and more in heaven, where we will retain it forever. To have treasure in heaven, we must place our faith in God, pledge ourselves to obey Him, and utilize our resources for the good of His kingdom. The choice is yours!

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the wisdom and knowledge of my inheritance in Christ as a believer, being conscious of the fact that my life on earth determines my life in eternity with Him, and give me grace to live here on earth with eternity consciousness, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!