Better Than Everest

 Better Than Everest

We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28)

If you live inside this massive promise, your life is more solid and stable than Mount Everest.

Nothing can blow you over when you are inside the walls of Romans 8:28. Outside Romans 8:28, all is confusion and anxiety and fear and uncertainty. Outside this promise of God’s all-encompassing future grace, there are straw houses of drugs and pornography and dozens of futile diversions. There are slat walls and tin roofs of fragile investment strategies and fleeting insurance coverage and trivial retirement plans. There are cardboard fortifications of deadbolt locks and alarm systems and antiballistic missiles. Outside are a thousand substitutes for Romans 8:28. 

Once you walk through the door of love into the massive, unshakable structure of Romans 8:28, everything changes. There come into your life stability and depth and freedom. You simply can’t be blown over anymore. The confidence that a sovereign God governs for your good all the pain and all the pleasure that you will ever experience is an incomparable refuge and security and hope and power in your life.

When God’s people really live by the future grace of Romans 8:28 — from measles to the mortuary — they are the freest and strongest and most generous people in the world.

Their light shines and people give glory to their Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).

Two of Our Deepest Needs

 Two of Our Deepest Needs

To the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:1)

We as a church are “in” a Father and “in” a Lord. What does that mean?

The word “Father” implies primarily care and sustaining and protection and provision and discipline. So, to be “in” the Father would mean mainly to be in the care and under the protection of God as our heavenly Father.

The other designation is Lord: We are in the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “Lord” implies primarily authority and leadership and ownership. So, to be “in” the Lord means mainly to be in the charge, under the authority, and in the possession of Jesus as our supreme Lord.

So, Paul greets the Thessalonian church in such a way as to remind them that they are a family (in the care of a Father) and that they are servants (in the charge of a Lord). These two descriptions of God as Father and Lord, and thus of the church as family and servants, correspond to two of our deepest needs.

Every single one of us has a need for rescue and help, on the one hand, and the need for purpose and meaning, on the other. 

We need a heavenly Father to pity us and rescue us from sin and misery. We need his help every step of the way, because we are so weak and vulnerable. 

We also need a heavenly Lord to guide us in life and tell us what is wise and give us a great and meaningful charge to fulfill, and reason for existence, some usefulness for the way God made us. We don’t just want to be safe in the care of a Father — as precious and needed as that is. We want a glorious cause to live for. 

We want a merciful Father to be our Protector, and we want an omnipotent Lord to be our Champion and our Commander and our Leader in some great cause. So, when Paul says in verse 1, You are the church “in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” we can take rest and help from the one — God is our Father! And we can take courage and meaning from the other — Jesus is our Lord!

WHO WILL THE LORD SAY YOU ARE?

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

TUESDAY APRIL 01, 2025.

SUBJECT: WHO WILL THE LORD SAY YOU ARE?

Memory verse: "Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?” (Job 1 vs 8.) 

READ: Job 1 vs 6 - 12:

1:6: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.

1:7: And the LORD said to Satan, “From where do you come? So Satan answered the LORD, and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.”

1:8: Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God, and shuns evil?”

1:9: So Satan answered the LORD, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?

1:10: Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.

1:11: But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.”

1:12: And the LORD said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person.” So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.  

INTIMATION:

Have you ever thought of such idea or bothered about who God will say you are? Interestingly, this should be the most important question in everybody’s life, and requires a sincere answer from every one of us. This is because of the day of “Judgement” when everyone will appear before Christ. The Bible says, ”For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what He has done, whether good or bad.” (Second Corinthians 5 vs 10.) And “As it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9 vs 27). 

Christ will judge each and everyone of us, both the living and the dead, and He will reward us for how we have lived. Although judgment is already working in our lives, there will be a future, final judgment when Christ returns (Matthew 25 vs 31 - 46), and everyone’s life will be reviewed and evaluated. For the believers, their eternal destiny is secure, but Jesus will look at how they handled gifts, opportunities, and responsibilities in order to determine their heavenly rewards. God’s gracious gift of salvation does not free us from the requirement of faithful obedience. Everybody, Christians and non-Christians,  must give account of how they lived before Christ.

The question is, “How will Christ see you?” Can He testify of your goodness, obedience, and faithfulness? In our memory verse, God testified about Job; He Inquired from Satan if he had seen His servant Job. God’s servants are faithful to Him in all they do. They serve Him with their whole lives. It was a great honor to Job; it placed him amongst His known servants as Moses and David. God was boastful about His servant Job, and reposed great confidence in him. 

Job was a model of trust and obedience to God, and because of God’s confidence in him, He permitted Satan to attack him in an especially harsh manner. God trusted Job not to cave in to Satan’s wicked ploys to make him doubt whom he believed. Can God say this of you? Can God repose such confidence in you as a believer? This calls for concern to each and every one of us.

Satan attacked Job with the false impression that Job was blameless and had integrity before God, because he had no reason to turn against God that had blessed him exceedingly. Ever since he had started following God, everything had gone well for Job. Satan wanted to prove that Job worshiped God, not out of love, but because God had given him so much. Although, it was an obvious falsehood about Job’s motives, Satan accurately analyzed why many people trust God. 

There are fair-weather believers, following God only when everything is going well or for what they can get. For such people adversity destroys their superficial faith. But adversity strengthens real faith by causing believers to dig their roots deeper into God in order to withstand the storms. How deep does your faith go? Put the roots of your faith down deep into God so that you can withstand any storms you may face.

Although God loves us, believing and obeying Him do not shelter us from life’s calamities. Setbacks, tragedies, and sorrows strike Christians and non-Christians alike. But in our tests and trials, God expects us to express our faith in Him to the world. How do you respond to your troubles? Do you ask God, “Why me?” or do you say, “Use me!”?

The conversation between God and Satan teaches us an important fact about God—He is fully aware of every attempt by Satan to bring suffering and difficultly upon the believers. While God may allow believers to suffer for a reason beyond our understanding, He is never caught by surprise by our troubles and is always compassionate.

We should be concerned about how we live, and lead our lives here on earth; that we should trust, obey, and be faithful in God in words and in deeds. We should also be mindful of what our fellow believers say or think of us, knowing that those who are faithful to the end will reign with Him as He judges the world. (See Revelation 2 vs 26 - 27).

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the spirit of raw obedience to You and Your Word in all things, and at all times, that I may be found worthy in the day of judgment, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!

What Binds the Hands of Love?

 What Binds the Hands of Love?

We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. (Colossians 1:3–5)

The problem with the church today is not that there are too many people who are passionately in love with heaven. The problem is not that professing Christians are retreating from the world, spending half their days reading Scripture and the other half singing about their pleasures in God all the while indifferent to the needs of the world. That’s not happening! The people of God are not so full of love to God that they spend half their days in his word.

The problem is that professing Christians are spending ten minutes reading Scripture and then half their day making money and the other half loving and repairing what they spend it on.

It’s not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love for the lost and hurting of this world. It is worldly-mindedness that hinders love, even when it is disguised by a religious routine on the weekend. 

Where is the person whose heart is so passionately in love with the promised glory of heaven that he feels like an exile and a sojourner on the earth? Where is the person who has so tasted the beauty of the age to come that the diamonds of the world look like marbles from the dollar store, and the entertainment of the world feels empty, and the moral causes of the world are too small because they have no view to eternity? Where is this person?

To be sure, he is not in bondage to the Internet or eating or sleeping or drinking or partying or fishing or sailing or putzing around. He is a free man in a foreign land. And his one question is this: How can I maximize my enjoyment of God for all eternity while I am an exile on this earth? And his answer is always the same: by doing the labors of love. By expanding my joy in God, no matter the cost, if by any means possible I might include others in it.

Only one thing satisfies the heart whose treasure is in heaven: doing the works of heaven. And heaven is a world of love! 

It is not the cords of heaven that bind the hands of love and make them ineffective. It is the love of money and leisure and comfort and praise — these are the cords of selfishness that bind the hands of love. And the power to sever these cords is Christian hope. “We heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven” (Colossians 1:4–5).

I say it again with all the conviction that lies within me: it is not heavenly-mindedness that hinders love on this earth. It is worldly-mindedness. And therefore the great fountain of love is the powerful, freeing confidence of Christian hope.

SOME PROBLEMS WE ENCOUNTER ARE PURPOSE-ORIENTED BY GOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

MONDAY MARCH 31, 2025.

SUBJECT: SOME PROBLEMS WE ENCOUNTER ARE PURPOSE-ORIENTED BY GOD! 

Memory verse: "And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called to His purpose.” (Romans 8 vs 28.)

READ: Genesis 45 vs 4 - 5; 7 - 8; 50 vs 20:

45:4: And Joseph said to his brothers, “Please come near to me.” So they came near. Then he said, “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.

45:5: But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life.

45:6: For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years, in the which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

45:7: And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and save your lives by a great deliverance. 

45:8: So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. 

50:20: But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive

INTIMATION:

God customizes some of our problems so that we can fulfill the purpose for which we are created or He desires for us. They are stepping stones, and ordained platform en-route to our divine destiny. God knows you and your potentials. The cross you carry was tailor-made by the carpenter's Son.

A case-study of Joseph the son of Jacob, makes the concept very clear. He was a favorite son to his father, and envied by his brothers, a favorite servant in Potiphar's house, a favorite prisoner to the warden and other prisoners, a favorite interpreter of dreams, and a favorite lieutenant to King Pharaoh. And after many years, he became the favorite even to his ten brothers who were envious of him.

He was pre-ordained by God to be the savior of his people, God's own chosen people. God was with him in all his travails. So many problems were lined up en-route to his destined purpose; he was betrayed and deserted by his brothers; he was exposed to sexual temptation; suffered false accusation, and punished for doing the right thing; he endured a long imprisonment and was forgotten by those he helped. 

Joseph didn't plan to be in the bottom of a pit after he recounted his God-given dream to his loved ones, but he was. He did not foresee his brothers selling him into slavery, but they did. God had destined him for great things, but people and problems got in the way, apparently fashioned to get him God’s promise and provision. 

Joseph was faithful in the problems. He maintained his character and integrity while enduring the problem. He was patient throughout the duration of the problem. He did not complain while facing ridicule, rejection, envy, and jealousy. He held to his dream in the midst of lies, false accusations, and prison. Through it all, God showed favor to Joseph until the provision came.

In the passages we read today, he told his brothers not to be grieved or angry with themselves because though they sold him to Egypt; but God sent him before them to preserve a posterity for them on earth, and save their lives by a great deliverance. Therefore, it was not them who sent him to Egypt but God. The problems he encountered are purpose-oriented for their lifting; for his brothers, they meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to prepare a savior for the life of his people. Joseph had the vision, and interpreted the purpose of his problem. Even though Joseph spent years in the problem, he never stopped listening to the voice of God. He remained faithful to God, and God remained faithful to him, leading him to the divine purpose for which he was created.

Are you in the middle of a severe problem? Have you gone through your spiritual checklist to make sure that you are not the cause of the problem? Do you find it difficult to find the purpose of the predicament you are in? Look for the promise in God's Word. Hold to that promise. It is given to you by your Father in heaven, who is faithful to fulfill it. All of the provisions God offers in the pantry of heaven are available to the child of God who faithfully stands on His promises.

Prayer: Abba Father, though the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines; though the labor of my hands fail, and there is no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd In the stalls, yet I will rejoice, and joy in You my God. Forever You are my Lord, and nothing shall by any means shift my focus from You, in Jesus’ Name I prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD! 

If He Calls, He Keeps

 If He Calls, He Keeps

[The Lord] will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:8–9)

What are you depending on to ensure that your faith will last until Jesus comes? 

The question is not, Do you believe in eternal security? The question is, How are we kept secure? 

Does the perseverance of our faith rest decisively on the reliability of our own resolve? Or does it rest decisively on the work of God to “keep us trusting”?

It is a great and wonderful truth of Scripture that God is faithful and will keep forever those whom he has called. Our confidence that we are eternally secure is a confidence that God will do whatever is necessary to “keep us trusting!” 

The certainty of eternity is no greater than the certainty God will keep us trusting now. But that certainty is very great for all whom God has called. 

At least three passages put the call of God and the keeping of God together in this way.

“[The Lord] will sustain you (keep you) to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord” (1 Corinthians 1:8–9).

“May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24).

“Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you” (Jude 1–2). (See the same reality in Romans 8:30, Philippians 1:6, 1 Peter 1:5, and Jude 24.)

The “faithfulness” of God guarantees that he will keep safe forever all whom he has called.

OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

SUNDAY MARCH 30, 2025.

SUBJECT : OVERCOME EVIL WITH GOOD! 

Memory verse: "See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all." (First Thessalonians 5 vs 15.)

READ: Matthew 5 vs 43 - 44; First Peter 3 vs 8 - 9:

Matthew 5:43: You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

5:44: But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,

First Peter 3:8: Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous;

3:9: not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.

INTIMATION:

It is often fashionable, in this our fallen world, to tear people down verbally or get back at them, if we feel hurt. God encourages us to pay back wrongs with good by praying for the offenders. In God's kingdom, revenge is an unacceptable behavior, and therefore, is ungodly. Rise above getting back at those who hurt you. Instead of reacting angrily to such people, pray for them. Instead of reacting angrily or speaking guile words to those who offend you, pray for them and do good to them.

In one of the passages we read today, the apostle Peter warns us against returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling (abusing, maligning, belittling, defaming, or deriding). But, on the contrary, we should bless our offenders, knowing that God called us to this, and in so doing, we inherit His blessing. 

Jesus said, "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”(Matthew 5 vs 44.) It is difficult or near impossible, in this fallen world to love your enemies, or bless those who curse you, or do good to those who hate you. When we are wronged or feel wronged, often our first reaction is to get even. Instead, Jesus said we should do good to those who wrong us! Our desire should not be to keep score but to love and forgive. However, this is not natural, but supernatural! 

If you love your enemies and treat them well, you will truly show that Jesus is the Lord of your life, and this is only possible for those who give themselves fully to God, because only Him can deliver people from natural selfishness, and gives strength to love as He does. Instead of planning vengeance pray for those who hurt you. Our praying for our offenders rather than revenge helps us not to take laws into our hands, and eventually we then overcome evil with good.

Jesus, our Messiah, and 'Role Model,' prayed for His enemies, His accusers, His persecutors, who abused, maligned, belittled, defamed, and derided Him, even on the weight of excruciating pains as He hung of the cross; He said on the cross, "....Father forgive them, for they know not what they do...." (Luke 23 vs 24.)

It is often our desire to return evil for evil, tear people down verbally or get back at them, if we feel hurt. God encourages us to pay back wrongs with good; praying for our offenders, seek and pursue peace with them. If we love life and desire to see good days, we should eschew evil and do good. "For the eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their prayers; but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil." (First Peter 3 vs 12.)

Too often we see peace as merely the absence of conflict, and we think of peacemaking as a passive role. But an effective peacemaker actively pursues peace by building good relationships, knowing that peace is a by-product of commitment. The peacemaker anticipates problems and deals with them before they occur. When conflicts arise, they are brought into the open and dealt with before they grow unmanageable. Making peace is hard work, you have to search for it and work to maintain it, and it results into God's blessing.

When our speech is motivated by Satan, it is full of bitter envy, selfish ambition, earthly concerns and desires, unspiritual thoughts and ideas, confusion, and evil. But when our speech is motivated by God and His wisdom, it is full of mercy, love for others, peace, consideration for others, submission, sincerity, impartiality, and righteousness.

Prayer: Abba Father, endue me with the fruit of the Spirit, that I may be strengthened to overcome evil with good, and to love my neighbor as myself," in Jesus' Name I prayed. Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!