Month: August 2023

Paul illustrates this in both II Corinthians 5:14 and Romans 6:2 to show that Jesus died to secure redemption & eternal life for all of His sheep…Thus as once a condemned sinner, it’s by His blood and work on the Cross that we have died to sin…united with Him in both His death & resurrection. And as we look a little further in Colossians Chapter 3, Paul explicitly calls us to a rigorous & radial departure from our “old self” (Colossians 3:5) and the “putting on of the new self. (Colossians 3:12-14) … that being the very character of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. For we’re either dead in sin or dead to sin…it’s as simple as that.

We see this willingness of God to support and comfort His people in Exodus 33:14, when He replied to a hesitant & very reluctant Moses, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” But the key to the Words of Jesus in this Passage in Matthew are His first Words, “Come to Me.” Jesus invites those who are loaded down with cares, worn out, and exhausted both mind, body, and soul to come to Him to find rest & refreshment. Sure, the nature of our oppression may not end, but in Jesus we will find calm, peace, and quietness for our soul.

The Lord surprises me with little blessings everyday. Small things, that only I know about, that cause me to smile. They’re like a wink, or a touch on the cheek, or a squeeze of my hand, from someone that loves me very much and just wants me to know how truly special I am to them. These little blessings come from out of nowhere, only last a second or two, but leave me with the overwhelming feeling of being loved by the Most High God. For the Lord knows me very well…well enough to know exactly what type of tiny gift would mean everything to me at that moment. And so when they happen, I know immediately it’s from the Lord…and I smile.

In this letter to the Thessalonians, Paul prayed for their faith to be expressed in holy living. That the Lord would take their Agape love, their unconditional love, and cause it to grow as their holiness abound for each other. This journey of holiness for the Christian Believer being called Sanctification. And as we travel this road of Sanctification & holiness unto the Lord, we can look forward to that glorious day when our Sanctification will be complete at the Second Coming of Christ.

It’s only because of the good grace & benevolence of God that we are made right before Him. It’s only His tender regard for our misery & the consequences of sin that God made a way possible to alleviate our plight and enable us to receive new birth. This new birth shining forth … exhibited in the person of Christ, Who is the very embodiment of God’s lovingkindness towards us and the foundation of our salvation. (Ephesians 2:7) And the Good News is, this unmerited favor & compassion of God’s has appeared to all men. (Titus 2:11) But this gracious gift must be understood as a gift & has nothing to do with our own works…for we are totally dependent on it, and not the other way around.

Why is it so easy to misrepresent the facts about ourselves? A lot of it I think has to do with pride, vanity, and our egos getting in the way of the truth. In Revelation 3:17 John chastised the Church in Laodicea for their distortion, “You say, ‘I’m rich; I have acquired wealth and don’t need a thing.’ But you don’t realize that you’re wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” Anytime we pretend to be something we’re not, we can get caught up the the tangled web of deceit & lies, no matter how small they seem. For there’s really no need to pretend…and come on, it’s silly… God already knows the truth!

When I read this quote from Charles Spurgeon this morning , I had to laugh out loud! He wrote, “If any man thinks ill of you, do not be angry with him; for you are worse than he thinks you to be.” That is so true! Just as the answer to the rhetorical question posed by this Proverb is a resounding, “No one is pure & clean!” (Isaiah 64:6) We were sinful the moment we took our first breath, for we’re all born with a inherent sin nature… without a trace of innocence. But back to Spurgeon’s quote…When someone thinks badly of you, let them. For there’s one thing they can’t do and that’s read your mind…for if they could, they’d really think badly of you, and with just cause.

Some people we are immediately drawn to and like…some others just seem to rub us in the wrong way. But we must never allow those likes & dislikes to rule our Christian walk. For true Christian character isn’t found in doing good, but in God-likeness…with Christ’s sacrificial love for us as our ideal to follow. Matthew 22:38-40 spells it out…the Law of God is the Law of love, and we are to love one another as Jesus first loved us. (I John 4:19) So it goes to reason that love fulfills the Law, because it sums up God’s commands & motivates us to obey them…by loving one another.

Surrender to God isn’t simply relinquishing our life to Him, but of surrendering our will to His. And one of the biggest battles of crisis we’ll ever face is this submitting of our will to the Divine Will of God. Yet our gracious God never forces, begs, or cajoles…He just waits patiently for the time to occur when we have come to the end of ourselves…and everything we’ve tried has failed… and so we finally yield willingly to Him. So why can’t we catch on that in this “Battle of the Wills” God will always win in the end? It’s because this “giving up of our will” means accepting the absolute authority of God, and “God is God, and I am not” kind of submission. For in the end, if you think about it, we’re all under His authority whether we bow willingly now, or do it later. (Isaiah 45:23)

The voice of the Holy Spirit is gentle, so soft that unless you’re living in complete fellowship & oneness with God, you’ll never hear it. That’s because the Holy Spirit’s Presence is perceived in near silence, and if your heart’s “ears” aren’t sensitive enough to detect His voice, you’ll ignore it. Sadly, the “still small voice” (I Kings 19:12) of the Holy Spirit can easily be drowned out by the clamor & chaos of today’s world around us… and unless we’re listening intently for His warning & restraint, we can grieve the Holy Spirit. (Ephesians 4:30) Also, the Apostle Paul’s writings about the Holy Spirit being a person, not some impersonal force, was not new but something he had quoted from Isaiah 63:10-11, where God’s people rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit… only to be punished & impaired spiritually.