You Cannot Lose in the End

 

“You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.” (Matthew 27:65)

When Jesus was dead and buried, with a big stone rolled against the tomb, the Pharisees came to Pilate and asked for permission to seal the stone and guard the tomb.

They gave it their best shot — in vain.

It was hopeless then, it is hopeless today, and it will always be hopeless. Try as they may, people can’t keep Jesus down. They can’t keep him buried.

It’s not hard to figure out: He can break out because he wasn’t forced in. He let himself be libeled and harassed and blackballed and scorned and shoved around and killed.

I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. (John 10:17–18)

No one can keep him down because no one ever knocked him down. He lay down when he was ready.

When it looks like he is buried for good, Jesus is doing something awesome in the dark. “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how” (Mark 4:26–27).

The world thinks Jesus is done for — out of the way — but Jesus is at work in the dark places. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). He let himself be buried — “no one takes [my life] from me” — and he will come out in power when and where he pleases — “I have authority to take it up again.”

“God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:24). Jesus has his priesthood today “by the power of an indestructible life” (Hebrews 7:16).

For twenty centuries, the world has given it their best shot — in vain. They can’t bury him. They can’t hold him in. They can’t silence him or limit him. Jesus is alive and utterly free to go and come wherever he pleases.

Trust him and go with him, no matter what. You cannot lose in the end.

THANKSGIVING IN WORSHIP!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2023.

SUBJECT: THANKSGIVING IN WORSHIP! 

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

READ: Psalm 69 vs 30; 100 vs 4; Colossians 2 vs 6 - 7; 4 vs 2:

Psalm 69:30: I will praise the name of the LORD with a song, and will magnify Him with thanksgiving.

100:4: Enter into His gate with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His Name.

Colossians 2:6: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 

2:7: rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

4:2: Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.

INTIMATION:

The Christian works in thanksgiving for what God has done through His grace, acknowledging God’s goodness, which expresses your faith and confidence in Him. There is no powerful living apart from a life of thanksgiving which, of course, is the will of God for us. The Christian is zealous in the Lord because of his or her salvation that has come from the Lord through the offering of His Son Jesus Christ as a propitiation for our sins. Prayer and petitions (supplication) are to be made in the spirit of thanking God for all that He has done in our lives. When one truly understands the grace of God, He or she will respond in thanksgiving for all that God has done through Jesus. 

God desires an attitude of thanksgiving, not just an act of it. Thanksgiving is an application for more. Being thankful for all the things He has done and is doing in your life is a pathway to receiving your petitions from Him. Therefore, when you have petitioned God for something, immediately begin to thank Him in trust and confidence that the thing you have asked for is on the way coming. The apostle Paul counsels all believers to give thanks in everything; for this is the Will of God in Christ Jesus for them (First Thessalonians 5 vs 18.)

The apostle Paul lived a life of thanksgiving and preached the same to all believers. In some of the passages we read today, his counsel on thanksgiving, as an integral part of worship, is clearly expressed. In our memory verse (Philippians 4 vs 6), Paul counsels all believers to be thankful for what we ask in prayer, and to continuously be thankful and grateful for what He has already done in the past, what He is doing now, and what He is going to do in the future, including answer to your petition. 

Jesus, our Messiah and perfect example, lived a life of thanksgiving during His earthly ministry. He knows the power of thanksgiving when communing with the Father, and gave thanks to the Father always. For example; He gave thanks to God when He broke the seven loaves and fishes and fed the four thousand (Matthew 15 vs 36). He gave thanks to God when He took the five loaves and two fishes and fed five thousand (John 6 vs 11). He also thanked God for hearing Him at the tomb of the dead Lazarus (John 11 vs 41). And He gave thanks to God when He gave the bread and wine to His disciples at the Last Super (Mark 14 vs 22 - 23).

Thanksgiving magnifies the Name of the LORD (Psalm 69 vs 30), and opens the gate of the court of the LORD (Psalm 100 vs 4). It also, multiplies what we have received (Second Corinthians 9 vs 12). For instance, when Jesus lifted up the bread and fishes and gave thanks it multiplied, thus thousands were fed by the meal of a child. Also, the power of thanksgiving in prayer helps us abound in Christ, drawing our life-giving strength from Christ (Colossians 2 vs 7). The more we draw our strength from Him, the less we are fooled by those who falsely claim to have life’s answers. If Christ is our strength we will be free from human regulations.

This kind of lifestyle of thanksgiving is an evidence of a grateful heart. If a person is grateful for what he already has, it is an indication that the individual is mature enough to receive other blessings. But if a person is always complaining about what he has now, why should the Lord bother to give him anything else to crab and gripe about. When we realize how far God had to send His Son in order to redeem us from condemnation, we respond with a life of thanksgiving. Our good works, therefore, are works of thanksgiving, not works of merit. Christians are motivated because of what they already have in Christ. 

Prayer: Abba Father, there is none like You. Your steadfastness never seizes, and Your mercies never come to an end. Your compassion never fails. I will forever remain thankful to You for all Your great and wondrous works in my life. What You cannot do for me let it remain undone, and what You cannot give me may I never have it, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

TRUE HUMILITY!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY APRIL 12, 2023.

SUBJECT : TRUE HUMILITY!

Memory verse: "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself." (Philippians 2 vs 3.)

READ: Psalm 8 vs 3 - 4; First Corinthians 15 vs 9 - 10: 

Psalm 8:3: When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, 

8:4: what is man that You are mindful of him, and the Son of man that You visit Him?

First Corinthians 15:9: For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 

15:10: But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

INTIMATION:

Humility is modesty and meekness. True humility gives a more accurate perspective of oneself and the world. It is seeing ourselves as we really are from God's perspective, and acting accordingly. When we acknowledge God’s majesty, and compare ourselves to His greatness, we will realize how small we are by comparison, and this is a healthy way to get back to reality. True humility is not convincing yourself that you are worthless or nobody before God, but recognizing God's work in you. It is having God's perspective of who you are, and acknowledging His grace in developing your abilities. We accept God’s gifts and use them to praise and serve Him.

How can we humble ourselves? Some people think that humility means putting oneself down. Truly humble people compare themselves only with Christ, realize their sinfulness, and understand their limitations. On the other hand, they also recognize their gifts and strengths and are willing to use them as Christ directs. Humility is not self-degradation; it is realistic self-assessment and commitment to serve. True humility puts others first and allows us to be content with God's leading in our lives. Such contentment gives us security so that we no longer have to prove ourselves to others. 

In one of the passage we read today, the apostle Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthian church, demonstrated clearly true humility. He considered himself least among the apostles, and thought of himself not worthy to be an apostle because of his past records. Though, his fellow apostles acknowledged him as haven gotten more revelations than them, but yet he considered himself least among them. (See Second Peter 3 vs 15 - 16.) He worked harder than the other apostles to preach the same message he initially was condemning. 

Paul felt unworthy to be called an apostle of Christ because, as a zealous Pharisee, he had been an enemy of the Christian church; even to the point of capturing and persecuting believers (see Acts 9 vs 1 - 3). His conversion stunned his fellow Pharisees. When Christ saw his zealousness in pursuing his erroneous believes, He arrested him to apply that same zealousness in doing the correct work for God. His eyes were opened to the wrong believes when Christ met him on the road to Damascus, and he was blinded to the erroneous believes.

The apostle Paul was deeply humble. He knew that he had worked hard and accomplished, but only because God had poured kindness and grace upon him which he always acknowledged. In First Corinthians 15 vs 8, he remarked himself 'as one born out of necessity' because he was a special case; the other apostles saw Christ and were with Him in the flesh, but he was in the next generation of believers—he believed after Christ appeared to him. 

Today, people practice false humility by talking negatively about themselves so that others will think they are spiritual. They will tell of their wretched past, and comparing it to their present achievements, praising themselves for their accomplishments. Rather than give glory to God and praise Him, they appropriate all their achievements to their ability and doggedness. They turn into the doer, and not God; ‘vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds,’ as the apostle Paul described such persons in Colossians 2 vs 18. False humility is self-centered while true humility is God-centered.

Let us not lose sight of the end result of all our humility and self-sacrifice—a joyous banquet with our Lord! God never asks us to suffer for the sake of suffering. He never asks us to give up something good unless He plans to replace it with something even better. Jesus is not calling us to join Him in a labor camp but in a feast—the marriage supper of the Lamb (Revelation 19 vs 6 - 9), when God and His beloved church will be joined forever.

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with true humility to worship and serve You, and others. Help me to put You first in all things, and to always consider the collective interests of others above mine, in Jesus' Name I prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

The Great King’s Wine

 

We do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15)

I have never heard anyone say, “The really deep lessons of my life have come through times of ease and comfort.” But I have heard strong saints say, “Every significant advance I have ever made in grasping the depths of God’s love and growing deep with him, has come through suffering.”

This is a sobering biblical truth. For example: “For [Christ’s] sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). Paraphrase: No pain, no gain. Or:

Now let it all be sacrificed, if it will get me more of Christ.

Here’s another example: “Although he was a son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8). The same book said he never sinned (Hebrews 4:15).

So learning obedience does not mean switching from disobedience to obedience. It means growing deeper and deeper with God in the experience of obedience. It means experiencing depths of yieldedness to God that would not have been otherwise attained. This is what came through suffering. No pain, no gain.

Samuel Rutherford said that when he was cast into the cellars of affliction, he remembered that the great King always kept his wine there. Charles Spurgeon said, “They who dive in the sea of affliction bring up rare pearls.”

Do you not love your beloved more when you feel some strange pain that makes you think you have cancer? We are strange creatures indeed. If we have health and peace and time to love, it can become a thin and hasty thing. But if we are dying, love becomes a deep, slow river of inexpressible joy, and we can scarcely endure to give it up.

Therefore brothers and sisters, “Count it all joy . . . when you meet trials of various kinds” (James 1:2).

Jesus is alive! Happy resurrection morning

 

What Is Well-Placed Shame?

 

When you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. (Romans 6:20–21)

When a Christian’s eyes are opened to the God-dishonoring evil of his former behavior, the Christian rightly feels ashamed. Paul says to the Roman church, “When you were slaves of sin . . . what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?”

There is a proper place for looking back and feeling the twinge of pain that we once lived in a way that was so belittling to God. To be sure, we are not to be paralyzed by dwelling on this. But a sensitive Christian heart cannot think back on the follies of youth and not feel echoes of shame, even if we have settled it all with the Lord.

Well-placed shame can be very healthy and redemptive. Paul said to the Thessalonians, “If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person, and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed” (2 Thessalonians 3:14). This means that shame is a proper and redemptive step in conversion, and even in a believer’s repentance from a season of spiritual coldness and sin. Shame is not something to be avoided at all costs. There is a place for it in God’s good dealings with his people.

We can conclude that the biblical criterion for misplaced shame and for well-placed shame is radically God-centered.

The biblical criterion for misplaced shame says, Don’t feel shame for something that honors God, no matter how weak or foolish or wrong it makes you look in the eyes of other people. Or another way to apply this God-centered criterion of misplaced shame: don’t feel shame because of a truly shameful situation unless you are in some way participating in the evil.

The biblical criterion for well-placed shame says, Do feel shame for having a hand in anything that dishonors God, no matter how strong or wise or right it makes you look in the eyes of others.

The reason we should feel shame is disapproval for behavior that dishonors God. The reason we should not feel shame is behavior that honors God, even if people try to shame you for it.

OPENING THE DOOR TO YOUR DESTINY!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY APRIL 10, 2023.

SUBJECT : OPENING THE DOOR TO YOUR DESTINY!

Memory verse: "In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” (Ephesians 1 vs 11.) 

READ: Ephesians 1 vs 17 - 19:

1:17: That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,

1:18: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

1:19: and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power. 

INTIMATION:

A person’s life is like a large house, full of stories and experiences. There are various levels and rooms reserved for certain seasons of life, each one unique in style, complex in design and purpose. Within each house are many doors that open and close throughout the course of its existence. Some are easier to open than others. Some require a little prying. Some are best left closed forever. Others, however, require a key. The door to your destiny is one that requires a key—one that can seem very difficult to find. It cannot be created instantly or reproduced in any way. It cannot be bought with money, although it does come at a price. 

Many Christ-followers wander through their houses—their lives—never able to open the door to their destiny because they simply do not know their true identity in Christ. Although people ask themselves what their purpose in this world is, they rarely live out the answer. I truly believe that in this time of history—in a season of worldly chaos and profound self-anonymity—the Lord is calling His Bride to know her true identity and to live out her purpose, effectively advancing the Kingdom of God here on earth as it is in heaven.

To know your identity in Christ requires first and foremost that you know Him personally. As cliché as it sounds, it is the truth! How can one really know himself or herself without first intimately knowing the One who created him or her? Our journey to knowing ourselves begins with knowing God’s nature and character. He is the One who carefully molds the key of identity by revealing Himself in our lives as we pursue Him. As we grow in our knowledge of Him, the following significant things begin to take place:

It causes you to know what He says about you. If you truly desire to know what the Lord says about your identity, dive into His Word! Take this for instance; He calls you His child (John 1 vs 12), He calls you His righteousness (Second Corinthians 5 vs 21), He calls you a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven (Philippians 3 vs 20), He calls you forgiven and set free (Ephesians 1 vs 7, Romans 8 vs 2), He calls you royalty and part of a chosen priesthood. (First Peter 2 vs 9). When we become alive in Christ through salvation, He infuses our spirits with the reality of His DNA and His Kingdom. This is the primary building block of our identity in Him.

Knowing Him reveals your authority in Him. Knowing the people He has divinely called us to be sets the precedent for understanding and operating in His authority. A pastor sometime said, “Unused authority creates a spirit of poverty and limitation.” What a profound statement! How grievous it must be to the Lord when His own people do not understand the authority they possess in Him, and therefore live in apathy and purposelessness! When we operate in the supernatural authority He has implanted in us, we trample on the head of the enemy (see Luke 10 vs 19) and are equipped to preach the Gospel to the nations, witnessing signs, wonders and miracles (see Mark 16 vs 15 - 18).

In my considered opinion, the most powerful aspect of our authority in Christ, however, is that we share in His rule and reign with Him (see Second Timothy 2 vs 11 - 13). This is even more empowering when we realize “as He is, so we are in this world” (First John 4 vs 17). Although we can never be God Himself, the fact that He has called us to be as He is in this world makes certain our identity in Him.

Also, knowing Him gives you eternal perspective, especially when you wholeheartedly understand the fact that you will spend eternity with Him! This simple yet deep revelation allows you to live every aspect of your life with an eternal mindset, giving way to your purpose. 

In responding to the truth, be encouraged to seek Christ more! Allow Him to reveal His character and nature, and form your true identity that will lead to living out the destiny He has prepared for you. Evaluate your own life. Are there lies you have believed about yourself that contradict what the Lord has said about you? Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal areas where you have negated your self-worth. Pray for God to give you the courage to utilize the authority He has given you. Remember that faith requires action! 

Prayer: Abba Father, enlighten the eyes of my understanding; that I may know what is the hope of Your calling, what are the riches of the glory of Your inheritance in me, and be enabled to live as You destined for me, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!