In a nutshell: God is love; Jesus is God; Jesus is love incarnate; we are the recipients of His love; we are to share His love with the world.

Yesterday, we covered doing whatever the Lord says to do. Today, we will cover why. God loves us. He always has and always will. He has never stopped loving us. Even sin doesn’t keep Him from loving us. In fact, “He demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). What we often fail to see is that Christ’s Coming was a Rescue Mission. It wasn’t to stop the anger of God from falling on us sinners, but to save us from the consequences of our own actions, which destroy us and always lead to death. Jesus could physically heal everyone who comes to Him, but instead, He heals us spiritually by joining us as new creations. He wants to move us beyond this life of the consequences of sin and death to a new life with Him–beginning right NOW! We actually live two places at once: Here on planet Earth and in His kingdom at His throne with Him,

⁴ But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— ⁶ and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ephesians 2:4-7

Notice why God did what He did through Christ: He is rich in mercy and has great love for us, therefore, He has poured out His grace on us and has raised us up with Him. We are seated with Him in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus!

My favorite verse is John 17:24 from Jesus’ Priestly prayer. In this verse, Jesus states what His ultimate goal is for everyone who will believe in Him, “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.” This verse is RICH with theology!

1. Jesus calls God His Father,
2. He puts forth His desire to the Father, and is assured of its coming to pass because He knows the Father intimately (John 17:25-26).
3. He wants us to be with Him in glory,
4. That glory has belonged to Christ since before the foundation of the world.

The apostle John says it best in 1 John 4;19, “We love each other as a result of His loving us first.” “And as we live in God, our love grows more perfect. So we will not be afraid on the day of judgment, but we can face Him with confidence because we are like Christ here in this world”* (1 John 4:17).

Abba, thank You for loving us. You have expressed that love through Jesus Christ. All we can say is, “Thank You,” and then live in Your love**. You are love incarnate, Lord Jesus. Help us to learn to be like You and share Your love with the world. Amen.

*We will discuss this verse tomorrow.

**Living in God’s love calls for obedience to His Spirit. Only He knows what is truly best for us; He wants to help us navigate this world with the least amount of damage and with His will being accomplished through us with Him.

Jesus takes it personally when we treat our fellow humans right. He also takes it personally when we treat them disrespectfully…

Yesterday, we talked about Jesus’ humility, gentleness, and compassion, and how we can learn to demonstrate those same character traits. Today, we will look at how Jesus demonstrated these traits to those around Him. Our goal is to see how we might incorporate His “how-to’s” in our interaction with others.

If we were to see people with compassion, we would see hurt people, broken people, deceived people, addicted people, and prisoners of sin. We would see hungry people, thirsty people, people in rags, sick people, and dying people. In fact, many of these folks are described in Matthew 25:34-40,

³⁴ “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. ³⁵ For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. ³⁶ I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’
³⁷ “Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸ Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? ³⁹ When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’
⁴⁰ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’

The next few verses tell us what happens when we ignore our fellow humans or treat them disrespectfully. Meeting people’s basic needs is something that Jesus holds in very high regard. His parable was not directly about evangelism, but in acting like Jesus, we display Jesus to those in need. The Holy Spirit takes it from there. We personally cannot meet the needs of everyone on our planet who are struggling, but we can be sensitive to those whom the Spirit prompts us to help with the resources we have.

There are others with whom Jesus dealt. We will look at some of them tomorrow. For today, let’s look around us and ask the Spirit if there is anyone who is in need of the basics so we can display Jesus to them.

Abba, how might we display Jesus to those around us? We are counting on You to reveal these opportunities to us. May we not turn You down on Your invitation to join You where You are already working! Amen.

When we join our spirits with the Spirit of God, we are made one in the bond of love.

We’ve been talking about the New Covenant, but what does the New Covenant do that the Old Covenant couldn’t do? The Old Covenant was designed to show us the way; the New Covenant is designed to make a way for us. Jesus calls Himself, “The Way” (John 14:6). The Old pointed to the New; the New fulfills the Old. We get a great description in Ephesians 2,

¹⁴ For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, ¹⁵ by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, ¹⁶ and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.

• Jesus gives peace through His Spirit inhabiting His followers. Peace is what we feel when we are focused on His presence in our lives. When we don’t feel His peace, it’s because something has taken our eyes and attention off of Him. Refocusing on Christ is the best and only way to regain peace.
• He has made the two groups one. Really? How did He make the Jews and the Gentiles one? By destroying the barrier of hostility. How did He do that? By becoming the Door through which both groups must enter. It’s not that the Jews are no longer Jewish, but that they must accept Jesus as their Messiah–just like the Gentiles. The Door has been opened to the Gentiles, too, thus putting both groups on level ground.
• Jesus put to death the hostility between the two groups through His finished work on the cross. The cross is now the Way to God for everyone,

¹⁸ For through him [Christ] we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

It is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit who makes the two groups one. This action is the fulfillment of many prophecies. It is the one action that will heal the Middle East today. We are already seeing Christian Jews and Christian Arabs eating together, studying the Bible together, praying together, and training to go back to their respective neighborhoods and become pastors (oneforisrael.org). As we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, may we pray for peace in the Middle East through revival!

Abba, we pray for the peace of Jerusalem, and we pray for peace in the Middle East through the sharing and the spreading of the Gospel. We join with our brothers and sisters in Christ as they risk their lives for the sake of the Gospel. May they have contentment in their circumstances along with patient endurance, and may they experience overflowing love, joy, peace, hope, grace, thanksgiving, and life. We look forward to worshipping around Your throne together with them. Amen.

The ABC’s and the DEF&G’s of the Christian life.

Vacation Bible School is a great place to learn about the Lord Jesus, His creation, and His plan for humanity. One of the things we teach in Southern Baptist circles is the ABC’s of salvation, usually through songs with motions. I like the Scriptural integrity of the ABC’s, which are:

A- ADMIT: Admit that you’re a sinner;
B- BELIEVE: Believe that Jesus is God’s Son;
C- CONFESS- Confess Jesus as Lord of your life.

I wonder, though, if we might extend this list to include the Victorious Christian Life. It might look something like this:

D- DO: Do by demonstrating the Christ-life in you;
E- EVERYDAY: Do it everyday from now on;
F- FOREVER: We are forever His;
G- GO: Get out of the gate! Go! Start walking in obedience to Him now and throughout your life.

When we do just the ABC’s, we may give the impression that forgiveness of sins is the goal, which is true, but lacks continued purpose. Our salvation is not just a one-time event, but the start of a relationship that carries through this life into the next. We are saved FROM a life of destructive sin, and we are saved TO a life of joyful obedience to Christ. The “from” and the “to” are inseparable. Now, Jesus’ illustrations of a person “counting the cost” (Luke 14:28-30, building a tower, and 31-32, going to war) make sense. A person needs to be willing to follow Christ from now on before praying the ABC’s. Luke 14:33 says it all,

³³ In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.

May we be willing to give up everything that Christ asks us to give Him today in order to be His disciples today. Tomorrow, we will do it again.

Abba, You have called us from darkness into Your wonderful light. May we live in Your light from now on, and may we be Your light in this dark world. Shine through us, O Lord. Amen.

It all comes down to follow-ship. Will we or won’t we?

When we first made the decision to become a Christian, it meant that we answered Christ’s call to come after Him and follow Him daily, dying to our “selves” and living for Him. If that was not the intent of the decision, then we probably ought to review Christ’s requirement for being a disciple:

²³ And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23

The decision to come after Jesus, to deny our “selves”, take up our cross daily and follow Him is not a one-time decision. There is a first time decision when the Spirit of Christ takes up residence in our lives, but each morning when we get up, the Holy Spirit asks us if we are willing to renew the decision again. Tomorrow, He will ask the same thing. This type of life is called “the cruciform life” because it’s patterned after Christ dying on the cross for us. We, therefore, make our hopes, dreams, wishes and aspirations subservient to His plan for us. I promise His is a whole lot better! With His comes love, joy, peace, hope and grace; with His comes constant companionship and intimate communication; with His comes the Spirit of God who now lives in us and walks with us. We rejoice each day to have that decision to make!

Abba, may we all be ready to answer YES to You each morning when You come to us and ask us to follow You today. Amen.

Loving by serving is what Christ demonstrated to us. Let’s continue what He started by serving each other.

We continue our study of Romans 12 by combining verses 10 and 11,

¹⁰ Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. ¹¹ Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Here’s how it works: We devote ourselves to one another. We honor each other above ourselves. We never lose our commitment to each other, but “spur each other on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24). And we do it in our service to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Romans 12:12 could be a motto for a person to learn and quote every day:

1. Be joyful in hope– Our hope is in what Jesus has in store for us:
   • ⁴ For while we are in this tent, we groan and are burdened, because we do not wish to be unclothed but to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. ⁵ Now the one who has fashioned us for this very purpose is God, who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come. 2 Corinthians 5:4-5
   • “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him— 1 Corinthians 2:9
2. Patient in affliction– To become like Jesus, we must walk where Jesus did, which is through trials and tribulations:
   • ⁷ Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. Hebrews 12:7
   • ² Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, ³ because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. ⁴ Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. James 1:2-4
3.  Faithful in prayer- Our connection with the Father, and through Him to all Christians, is vital. Our talks with God keep us connected to Him, and when we lift others up in prayer to the Lord, we are also connected to them through the Spirit:
   • ²⁶ And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. ²⁷ And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. Romans 8:26-27
   • ²⁰ “I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. ²¹ I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. John 17:20-21

Let’s be joyful in our hope in Christ, patient in trials and hardships, and faithful to keep in constant contact with the Father as we pray for each other, never tiring in desiring the best for each other and being willing to step out and make that “best” come true as we encourage each other and serve our Lord and Savior together.

Abba, so much of our lives revolves around these three verses in Romans 12. May we take them to heart and pour our energies into producing fruit in this manner. It truly is the best way to demonstrate Your love to each other and to the world. Amen.

We are ambassadors for Christ. What makes it doable is that Jesus is always with us!

Jesus IS the Gospel. He came to initiate a relationship with everyone who wants to know God through Him. As we delve into how the Gospel transforms our lives, we continue our look at 2 Corinthians 5:14-21.

¹⁴ For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. ¹⁵ And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
¹⁶ So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. ¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 

Recap:

• Jesus is our Representative. We live through His death and resurrection.
• We see all people as potential brothers and sisters in Christ.
• Those who are in Christ Jesus are no longer what or who they were before. The old self that dominated and enslaved us has had the blood of Jesus Christ applied to it and is gone (think Isaiah 6) because of the Spirit of Christ in us! We are new creations–not only once, but every day.

¹⁸ All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹ that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰ We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹ God made him who had no sin to be sin [the sin sacrifice] for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

• Verse 19 has two points to it:
  • The first point is that God reconciled the world–everyone–to Himself through Christ. This was the plan all along, “Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again” (John 12:27-28). How did God accomplish this feat? By Christ’s substitutionary death on the cross. He did what man could not do for himself. Death was defeated and the grave robbed. We were rescued!
  • The second point is the directive we were given, which is reconciliation. The very thing that happened to us is now the message that we are to share with others. Through evangelism? For some. Through preaching? Through some others. The way for most is through lifestyle and a ready answer for the faith we have.
• Verse 20 says it well: We are ambassadors for Christ. God appeals to others through us. Here again, our lifestyle bears out our faith. When they see our faith and the way we demonstrate the love we have for each other, the Spirit will prompt them saying, “See them? Don’t you want what they have?” It is then that we share with them how to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.
• Verse 21 is a good memory verse because it encapsulates the Gospel in one verse: Jesus, who knew no sin (was not rebellious against the Father) became the sin sacrifice so that we could become the righteousness of God. Jesus bore our sins as a lamb would bear the sins of a family; the lamb itself knew no sin, but the consequence, which was death, came upon that lamb, which was a reminder of the destructiveness of sin. God Himself rescued us from our own self-destruction (see John 3:16).

We see the importance of the cross in history. We also see the importance of the resurrection. We will study that aspect of the Gospel tomorrow.

Abba, we worship You today for Your wondrous grace. Thank You for doing for us what we could not do by dying for us and rising again! Because You live, we now live! We are eternally grateful. Amen.

Jesus offers us living water, water that is eternal. Thirsty?

We’ve been looking at how Jesus fills us with hope, love, joy, peace, and grace. He also fills us with living water and thankfulness. The one is a word picture of Jesus Christ; the other is our response to His love, joy, peace, hope and grace. We will look at living water today.

Jesus said, “³⁷ On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. ³⁸ Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” John 7:37-38

To the woman at the well, Jesus said, “¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:13-14

Jesus is the Living Water. This reference is from Exodus 17,

⁵ The Lord answered Moses, “Go out in front of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ⁶ I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink.” So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. 

We learn from Numbers 20 the rest of the story:

⁷ The Lord said to Moses, ⁸ “Take the staff, and you and your brother Aaron gather the assembly together. Speak to that rock before their eyes and it will pour out its water. You will bring water out of the rock for the community so they and their livestock can drink.”
⁹ So Moses took the staff from the Lord’s presence, just as he commanded him. ¹⁰ He and Aaron gathered the assembly together in front of the rock and Moses said to them, “Listen, you rebels, must we bring you water out of this rock?” ¹¹ Then Moses raised his arm and struck the rock twice with his staff. Water gushed out, and the community and their livestock drank.
¹² But the Lord said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.”

When Jesus called Himself Living Water, He was referencing this account in Exodus and Numbers. The Rock is a picture of the coming Messiah, which was Jesus, and the fact that He would be struck once for the people, but after that, all they had to do is ask Him for living water. His living water is available to all today who will come to Him and drink. Jesus turns no searching soul away. His grace is like a waterfall under which we can stand anytime. I love this verse, “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most” (Hebrews 4:16 NLT).

Let us be leaders of people to His living water.

Abba, You have given us living water. We come to You routinely as our souls thirst for You. May we lead others to You so that they can experience Your life-giving water, too. Amen.

In Revelation 19, John paints a composite picture of Christ and His plan for mankind. Let’s take a look.

The last picture of Christ that John records is in Revelation 19:11-16,

¹¹ I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. ¹² His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³ He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴ The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵ Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶ On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

King of kings and Lord of lords.

We looked at the Resurrected Christ, then Christ as He appeared to John on the Isle of Patmos. What can we learn from this description of Him?

1. John saw heaven standing open; Jesus, who is called Faithful and True (Psalm 33:4), was on a white horse. White horses are mentioned in Zechariah 1, which is an interesting chapter. Zechariah has a vision of the angel of the LORD (Jesus) who sent out angels to go among the nations and report back. They reported that they had found the whole world at rest and in peace. At this point, the LORD announced that He would return Israel to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon, rebuild the temple, and that “the towns will again overflow with prosperity as the LORD will again comfort Zion and choose Jerusalem (Zechariah 1:16-17).” We must remember that in Revelation 5:5-6, John hears the angel say, “See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has triumphed.” But, when John turned to look, he “saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne.” Jesus conquered through bloodshed, not others’ blood, but His own. Although a white horse in the Roman world represented a conquering king, a white horse in the Lord’s world represented peace and restoration.
2. The war against sin, death and destruction has been going on since chapter 3 of Genesis. The “sword” that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 10:34 is the result of someone choosing Christ over this world, which brings the person into conflict with the people of the world, even those from their own household, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵ For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—³⁶ a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household (Micah 7:6).’” Yet, the angels sang of His peace at His birth, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:14). Jesus is also known as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). It is interesting to note that the sword in Revelation 19:15 is in Jesus’ mouth and not His hand. In Hebrews 4:12, we have this description, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, penetrating even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” The Word of God is our sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17).

There’s more, but we need to stop for the day and ponder what we have read about John’s vision. We will continue tomorrow.

Lord, I have always viewed this depiction of You as a warrior coming to smite Your foes. But, that’s not how You presented Yourself to the world at Your incarnation; you died for them rather than smite them. Also, You spoke of the Gospel advancing forcefully, but Your Gospel is the good news of peace with God through You. There are so many seemingly conflicting passages. Help us to understand, O LORD. We trust that You will reveal to us what is important today. “May You fill us with the knowledge of Your will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (Colossians 1:9). Amen.

We have an enemy; his name is Satan, often referred to as the devil. His desire is to turn us away from God the Father. Don’t let him!

⁸ Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8

We continue our discussion about Absolute Truth. Here are some absolute truths that we need to know:

1. God is real and personal. He wants to know us.
2. Jesus is God with skin on. He gets us.
3. There is an enemy. He wants to take us down.
4. We were never designed to do life alone. We need Him.

However it was that Satan came to desire the praises that were being given to God, he now considers any lives that do not praise the Father as a win–a poor substitute for the position he once held. In any case, he works hard to see that God’s creation does not praise Him. He only has three main tricks in his bag, but, oh, what tricks they are!

¹⁵ Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. ¹⁶ For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 1 John 2:15-16

The love referred to here is to pledge allegiance to, or to devote oneself to it. We are to devote ourselves to God alone. Our biggest problem is temptation. We have a huge problem with desire. We obsess over all manner of things: Pleasure, money, power, security, control, etc. None of these things are bad in and of themselves, but we tend to take them too far into indulgence. When that happens, things get twisted and perverted. They begin to destroy us and negatively affect the people around us. We turn away from the Father, ignore the Holy Spirit, and find ourselves in serious trouble. And, those who don’t know the Father and don’t have the Spirit of Christ in them have no defenses, nor do they even have a reason not to indulge–that they can see. We know that Satan’s goal is to steal, kill and destroy us, Christian or not (John 10:10a).

Here is a promise that we can keep close to our hearts:

¹⁸ We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them. 1 John 5:18

James 4:7 tells us to, “submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. What is this way that God provides? It’s this:

¹⁸ Do not get drunk on wine [give in to temptation and indulgence], which leads to debauchery. Instead, [turn to the Lord and] be filled with the Spirit, ¹⁹ speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, ²⁰ always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Ephesians 5:18-20

Fellowship with God circumvents all temptation! Let’s work on having a running conversation with Him all the time.

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; 
for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Abba, teach me to rejoice always, especially when things don’t go as I think they should. Remind me often to keep the lines of communication between us open. And, the most difficult one, help me to give thanks in all circumstances. I am learning that they are either teaching me and making me stronger, or they are keeping me on my face at Your throne, which teacher me and makes me stronger. I want to grow, but do I have to grow today? Well, okay. Your will be done on earth even as it is in heaven. Amen.

Many people say that God cannot be known, yet Jesus came from heaven to earth to reveal the Father to us!

¹⁰ Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. John 14:10

God is knowable through Jesus Christ. Is there a desire in you to know God? Here is something to help you discover Him.

God is plural, three Persons in one. They are not separate, but they do have distinct characteristics. For us, we view Him/Them as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. Take creation, for example. “In the beginning, God (Elohim-plural) created the heavens and the earth” Genesis 1:1. As we read further, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” One of the names of Jesus is “Word of God” (John 1:1, 14). As we look at the creation, we see the Father as the initiator, Jesus as the spoken words, and the Spirit doing the work. They work in complete harmony with no division in their purpose.

Let’s apply the Trinity to us. God the Father loves us (John 3:16); God the Son came down in human form to draw us to Himself (John 12:32); God the Spirit comes to live in us (Colossians 1:27). If we believe that Jesus is God the Son and came from heaven for us, then we experience the love of the Father. When we do, it is the Spirit who rejoices with us and has sweet fellowship with us (Romans 5:5).

We can trust the Father; He loves us.
We can trust the Son; He loves us, too.
We can trust the Spirit; He loves us, as well.

Abba, to think about the Trinity blows my mind! Between the three of You, there is complete unity. What I don’t comprehend is that You are in perfect fellowship and need nothing–yet, You invite us to join You in that fellowship! Gladly, Abba, gladly! Amen.

When Jesus talked about hell, He used the most disgusting word picture available: The city garbage dump.

⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸ where ‘”the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.” Mark 9:47-48

Early Christians believed in hell. Their creed included it. Here is the Apostle’s Creed, the oldest that we have recorded:

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth,
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, dead, and buried.
He descended into hell;
The third day He rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost; The Holy catholic Church, the Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of sins;
The Resurrection of the body, And the Life everlasting. Amen.

There are two things to notice:

1. “He descended into hell;” the Greek word used is Hades, which was considered to be the waiting place of the dead.
2. “From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.” This judgment is about eternal destination: Heaven and Hell.

The Nicene Creed includes this same phrase, “the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead;”

The Baptist Faith and Message reiterates this truth, “the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.”

Because of sin, mankind is perishing. Jesus came to save us from this wretched fate. John told us,

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. ¹⁷ For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John 3:16-18

Jesus came to give us His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21). Those who receive His gift of righteousness do not fear death, but look forward to enjoying God’s presence forever. Those who refuse to receive His gift and persist in unbelief, He will honor their choice to not be in His presence. Thus, hell.

Aren’t we glad that we came to trust in Jesus and received His gift of righteousness? We have so much waiting for us, especially our heavenly Father who loves us!

Abba, thank You for Your great Rescue. You did not abandon us to the grave, but sent Your Son to save us from ourselves and what awaited us. We rejoice in Your great salvation! Amen.

Jesus spoke in word pictures. He used them to describe heaven, hell, God, and our relationship with each other.

³⁴ Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.

When Jesus described hell, He used the word, “Gehenna,” a Greek word that is derived from the Hebrew, “Ge Hinnom,” which is the valley of Hinnom just outside Jerusalem. It was used in Jesus’ day as the garbage dump. There was always a fire burning and there were maggots everywhere. In Jeremiah’s day, this valley was used for child sacrifice (Jeremiah 7:30-32). There was nothing “redeemable” about Gehenna in the Jewish person’s mind. A word picture.

Matthew includes seven times that the Lord referred to hell. Let’s look at them:

5:22 But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

5:29 If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.

5:30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

10:28 Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

18:9 And if your eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.

23:15 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.

23:33 “You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?

What can we conclude from these verses?

1. Hell is a real place.
2. It is a place of judgment.
3. Hell is a place that is “chosen” by our actions.

Jesus used these word pictures to describe what life is like outside of Him. He used them to reveal where people were headed. Jesus came to give life, to proclaim freedom, release for the captives, ointment for the blind and healing for the sick. He came to save us from hell by giving us Himself through the Holy Spirit.

Folks, it doesn’t get any better than that!

Abba, before I met You, it was like walking in the dark. You shined Your light on me and now I see You! I see the world around me, the people in my life, and I praise You for such a wonderful salvation. Amen.

“The very first Christian writings in all of history are Paul’s letters about Jesus.” He is our first eye-witness account.

[Jesus to Saul/Paul] ¹⁶ ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. Acts 26:16

Paul wrote half the New Testament, and Acts is a biography of his ministry. If we can’t trust Paul, then we can’t trust Luke (who wrote Acts), either. Here is a quote from, “A Gran Illusion,” by David Young, page 65:

We must consider Paul’s place in the Scriptures chronologically: Paul is our earliest witness to Jesus. The very first Christian writings in all of history are Paul’s letters about Jesus. Best we can tell, almost all of Paul’s letters were written before a single Gospel was composed. Before there were any “red letters,” there was the near-complete body of Paul’s works. This apostle with the radical conversion is chronologically closer to Jesus than any Gospel writer, and Paul’s experience of Jesus begins within months of the resurrection.

But there’s more, for it was Paul who actually trained Luke. Any “red letter” Luke recorded was, at least in part, taught to Luke by Paul. So if any[one] quotes Luke’s red letters against Paul, one is ignorantly subordinating the teacher to the student: Paul was the teacher, Luke was the student. There is no Jesus versus Paul–the Jesus of Luke was, at least in part, a product of the apostle Paul. And as Jesus says, the servant is not greater than the master. Similarly, the early church argued that the Gospel of Mark was actually compiled from the teachings of Peter. So to pit the red letters of Mark against the letters of Peter is also to subordinate, again in ignorant fashion, the teacher to the student. To pit either Peter or Paul (as represented in their letters) against the Gospel stories of Jesus is to violate the spirit of both.

Consider these verses:

¹¹ I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that the gospel I preached is not of human origin. ¹² I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. Galatians 1:11-12

² I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. ³ And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— ⁴ was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 2 Corinthians 12:2-4

¹⁸ I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— ¹⁹ by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. Romans 15:11-12

¹¹ God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Acts 19:11-12

Paul wasn’t just talk; he walked the walk. Jesus Himself exhorted the religious leaders to believe His works if not His words (John 10:38). We can trust the writings of Paul because of the works of the Holy Spirit in and through him. Peter, too, for that matter. We can also trust James, the half-brother of Jesus, and the apostle John, as well. What about Hebrews? Let’s look at that book tomorrow.

Abba, if we would quit using our bias to make decisions, we would find that there is plenty of evidence for the veracity of Scripture. May we trust You to place it deep in our hearts as we read it, discuss it, pray over it, and live it out in our daily lives. Amen.

Jesus gave His disciples a new command to “love one another.” What does that look like in our lives?

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

If you ever wonder if this command is important and if it was taken seriously by Jesus’ disciples, consider these verses:

Paul to the Romans- ⁸ Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. Romans 13:8

Peter to his flock- ²² Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. 1 Peter 1:22

John to his flock- ¹¹ For this is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 1 John 3:11
²³ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.

⁷ Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 1 John 4:7
¹¹ Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹² No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

⁵ And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. 2 John 5

The answer? Yes, they took it very seriously. Notice how many times John uses the phrase in his letters. So, how do we love? We looked at “Love is patient, love is kind” yesterday. Let’s look at the next three:

Love is not envious- Envy begins with looking around us at where others are and what they have and wanting more. Where covetousness is wanting what someone has and them not having it, envy comes very close to it. It creates discontent with what we have or don’t have. Instead, we are to give glory to God for where we are and what we have or have not, trusting Him for what we need in order to bring Him glory. Note: See Season 3, Episode 2 of The Chosen for a great teaching on this subject.

Love does not boast, it is not proud- We will take both of these together. To hate someone, as in Matthew 5:43, means, “to detest, persecute, love (esteem) less.” We understand “detest” and “persecute,” but to “esteem less” doesn’t really compute to us in America. Let me explain: To “esteem less” is to hold someone in contempt, or to deem not worthy of our love and care, patience and kindness. Anytime we dismiss someone as undeserving or unworthy, we “esteem less.” Boasting requires us to “esteem less” in order to hold our position higher than someone else, and it takes pride to do it. If we truly want to be like Jesus and love like Him, we need to rid ourselves of boasting and pride. OUCH!

As we worship today in our respective churches, ask the Lord to reveal any areas of pride, envy, or “esteeming less.” Repent–turn around and think differently–and make amends even before you offer your gift of praise on the altar (Matthew 5:23-24). You’ll be glad you did.

Abba, may we all be aware of our pride and boasting. To think that I know more than my brother is a type of condescension, in which I hold them in contempt and “esteem them less.” May I be all about “the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” that Paul talks about in Ephesians 4:3. I want to worship You in Spirit and in truth today with clean hands and a pure heart. Amen.

The ironic thing about AGAPE love is that the more you love yourself, the greater your capacity to love others greatly.

¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12 [known as the Golden Rule]

The culture of God is explained in 1 Corinthians 13, but not like we think. It is presented in how we love. Why? Because God is love (1 John 4:8). Let’s continue with verse 7-10,

⁷ It [AGAPE love] always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
⁸ Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 

AGAPE love: Selfless, sacrificial, unearned, and gracious godly love.

• Selfless love always protects. A person who protects, cares; likewise, a person who cares, protects. Placing the other person first is natural for a person who cares. It’s the God-thing to do.
• Sacrificial love always trusts. We take people at their word and trust them to keep their word. In doing so, we encourage them to do the right thing. When they don’t, we may suffer, but we trust in the Lord to take care of us and to give them another chance.
• Unearned love always hopes. As in trusting, we hope that others will heed the Spirit’s voice and obey His commands. We know that eventually, love wins (in our lives and hopefully in theirs), so we just keep loving. Our hope is in Him.
• Gracious love always perseveres. We know people will fail because we are one of those people and we fail. So, we persevere when they do, pray for them, and help them to see the error of their ways. We point them to Christ; He takes it from there.
• God’s love never fails. When we love His way, we never fail to be like Him; He never fails to reveal Himself through us; they never fail to see Him for who He is: Love.
• Prophecies will ultimately be fulfilled. Tongues (languages) will ultimately disappear as we learn to hear with spiritual ears. (Partial) knowledge will ultimately disappear as we see Jesus face to face and know Him fully. We will be complete in Christ.

The culture of God is treating others as we ourselves want to be treated (Matthew 7:12), it means to “love your neighbor as you love yourself” (Matthew 22:39). Both verses end with them fulfilling the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 22:40 says, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commands” (the first one was to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength”). If we love as God loves, we would never–I’m getting ahead of myself. That’s tomorrow’s lesson.

Abba, help us to see with spiritual eyes and hear with spiritual ears. May we eat the bread of service and drink the wine of sacrifice. In doing so, we give up our lives to You in order to receive life from Your Son. Teach us to love as You do, Abba. Amen.

Education isn’t everything–but, it’s a lot! The more we know of something, the better decisions we make.

¹⁵ Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 AMP

We continue in the Baptist Faith & Message with:

XII. Education

Christianity is the faith of enlightenment and intelligence. In Jesus Christ abide all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All sound learning is, therefore, a part of our Christian heritage. The new birth opens all human faculties and creates a thirst for knowledge. Moreover, the cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general benevolence, and should receive along with these the liberal support of the churches. An adequate system of Christian education is necessary to a complete spiritual program for Christ’s people.

In Christian education there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility. Freedom in any orderly relationship of human life is always limited and never absolute. The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school, college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists.

Deuteronomy 4:1,5,9,14; 6:1-10; 31:12-13; Nehemiah 8:1-8; Job 28:28; Psalms 19:7ff.; 119:11; Proverbs 3:13ff.; 4:1-10; 8:1-7,11; 15:14; Ecclesiastes 7:19; Matthew 5:2; 7:24ff.; 28:19-20; Luke 2:40; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; Ephesians 4:11-16; Philippians 4:8; Colossians 2:3,8-9; 1 Timothy 1:3-7; 2 Timothy 2:15; 3:14-17; Hebrews 5:12-6:3; James 1:5; 3:17.

Education is important, but it does not save. Here’s why:

1. Salvation comes through a personal relationship with Jesus; He becomes Lord of our lives.
2. His Spirit fills us and begins to transform us into the spiritual image of Christ.
3. The first thing the Spirit does is to give us a hunger and thirst to know Christ. We want it any way we can get it, such as prayer, Bible study, conversations with older Followers, classes, sermons, and experience. Paul said that he wanted to know Christ more deeply and intimately through His resurrection, but also through fellowshipping with Him in His sufferings (Philippians 3:10).

Without the Spirit, we have neither the desire nor the power to comprehend God, His will, or His ways. It’s not a blind faith in that we just take someone’s word for the truth. We base everything upon the revealed Word of God, the Bible. His Word says that we can know Him and that He wants to walk with us and lead us to Himself.

And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3

If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1:6-7

³ We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. 1 John 2:3

It is these commands that we read in His Word. Jesus has two basic commands,

Love God (Matthew 22:37)
Love your neighbor (Matthew 22:39)

Since Jesus is God in the flesh, we do what Jesus says. His Spirit guides us and reveals truth to us as we go. Although our salvation is not based upon education, our lives as followers of Christ are one big educational process.

¹⁸ And we all, who with unveiled faces [we are turned toward Christ] contemplate the Lord’s glory [we are learning as we go], are being transformed into his image [we become more and more like Jesus] with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 3:18

There is SO MUCH to learn–WE have SO MUCH to learn!

Abba, please teach us. May we be open to Your teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training as You make us righteous in our thoughts and ways (2 Timothy 3:16-17). We are trusting You for the process of sanctification, and, eventually, glorification, when “we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). Amen.

Why don’t animals need a barber? Because God designed them to shed in a specific manner.

7 The righteous lead blameless lives; blessed are their children after them.

From, “A Pocket Guide to the Human Body,” page 69-70.

While many of us make periodic trips to the barber, most nonhuman mammals always appear in perfect trim without a barber. The reason for this is that hair grows in a cyclic manner. A relatively long period of growth (that varies with the type and location of the hair) is followed by a short period of rest after which the hair is released from the follicle, and a new growth cycle begins forming a new hair. Thus the length of the growth cycle determines the length of the hair.

If hair grew longer and longer without being released from the follicle, it would be disastrous for the mammals that don’t visit a barber. Can you imagine, for example, a squirrel dashing through the branches, dragging a couple feet of hair? [it would wind up like Absalom] The Lord thinks of everything!

Hair grows about .3mm per day (about three tenths the thickness of a dime). Within a year, our scalp and beard can produce nearly five inches. By comparison, the longest hairs on our arm have a growth cycle of less than two months. The growth cycle of scalp and beard hairs varies from individual to individual but can be several years. A Vietnamese man was reported to have the longest scalp hair, which measured over 20 ft. long. According to a BBC News report in June 2004, he claimed not to have cut his hair in more than 30 years.

The question is how the hair follicles know what the length of growth is for that part of the body. The answer is simple: God designed our DNA in such a manner that best suits each species. To say that God’s design is the work of evolution is to be ungrateful and unappreciative of His handiwork. Indeed, “We are God’s handiwork (His masterpiece), created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared [in our DNA] in advance for us to do” Ephesians 2:10.

Abba, You have designed us to praise You with our mouths, listen to You with our ears, and serve You with our hands. May we be diligent in fulfilling our life’s purpose. Amen.

PS. The first hair follicles begin to form by the third month in the womb. The follicles produce lanugo hair. These rather long, silky hairs are usually shed in the womb a few weeks prior to birth and are replaced with vellus hairs, which grow out of the same hair follicles. A premature baby may appear surprisingly hairy because of unshed lanugo hair.

Jesus came to reveal God to us. When we see Jesus, we see God. Where do we see Jesus? In the Gospels.

24 A person’s steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand their own way? It’s a matter of choice. When we need to understand in order to make a choice, then we act on our own understanding, but when we trust the LORD and His wisdom, then we gain understanding as we go.

On the 18th, we finished up a study of Romans 12:9-21 in which we saw the heart of God displayed in practical form. We learned:

• Our love must be sincere;
• Hate evil and cling to what is good;
• Love others above ourselves;
• “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer”;
• Practice hospitality and share with our fellow brothers and sisters in need;
• Bless those persecute us;
• “Rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn”;
• Live in harmony with others and associate with all positions;
• Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but do what is right;
• Do not take revenge–on the contrary, feed our enemy and give him drink;
• “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

Each of these commands indicates a loving God who is more concerned with saving lost and wayward children than with doling out punishment. In the NIV, verse 19 says, “leave room for God’s wrath.” I looked up the word, “wrath,” and it had this meaning: “‘orge’ – Indignation, a swelling of settled indignation, passionate feelings against something or someone.” After reviewing the heart of God, I believe that this “wrath” is against sin and against Satan. Jesus said,

³¹ Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out. ³² And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John 12:33-34m

Here is the REAL enemy to mankind: Sin and Satan. Jesus did, indeed, die for our sins in order to have us back. He did not treat us as our sins deserved, but gave us mercy, instead. Jesus forgave us!

If we want to know the heart of our good God, we will feed and give drink to whoever we consider to be our enemy. We will forget about fairness and justice, and leave them in God’s hands. When we do what He prompts us to do, we will overcome evil with good. He is all about restoration, both ours and the world’s.

Abba, thank You for restoring me to a place of sonship in Your family, along with all Your children. I know that You want everyone to receive Your gift of adoption; may we help people to realize such a great gift! Amen.

Jesus gave us one command. It is to be the guide to everything we say and do: Love one another as I have loved you.

^3:3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you;
    bind them around your neck,
    write them on the tablet of your heart.

The night that Jesus initiated the New Covenant, He gave His disciples a new command,

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

The key to the verse is, “as I have loved you.” If WE get to choose how we love, then we can justify pretty much anything. But, if we truly love as Jesus loved, we will always do what is best according to His Spirit. We were talking in SS yesterday and the word, “repent,” came up. “Repent” means “to change the way you are thinking and go a different direction.” Jesus told us to repent in Matthew 4:17. Here, too, if we choose the direction we are to go, we will wind up lost again. Instead, we are to start thinking as Jesus thinks, which requires Him in our heads. Enter the Holy Spirit. Back to John,

²⁶ But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26

²⁶ “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. John 15:26

¹³ But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. John 16:13

Jesus basically retired the Old Covenant and replaced it with a New Covenant, one of love. From then on, we go to Jesus for instructions on how to deal with people in His love–no matter the topic. Do we excuse sin? No, but Jesus redefined our response to sin. From then on, we are to respond as He did:

• without condemnation;
• with compassion;
• in mercy;
• showing grace;
• with much forgiveness–70×7 daily! (another way of saying, “every time”)

He doesn’t need us to be His police and especially the Holy Spirit. We are simply to be His ambassadors of His love. Easy to say, hard to do. Still, it’s imperative to the success of the Gospel that we do.

Abba, If I truly want to be just like You, I need to be just like Jesus who is “the exact representation of Your being” (Hebrews 1:3). To be like Jesus, I must do as He has commanded me, which is to love as He loved. In order to do that, I need Your help! You say that You have given me the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16); please help me to access it. Amen.

The opposite of forgiveness is unforgiveness, which is like Kryptonite to Superman. We must release it before it harms us.

4:23 Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.

The word, “forgive,” has taken on a meaning for which it was never intended. Most of us think of forgiveness as something we bestow upon someone or withhold from someone. Peter approached Jesus about forgiveness:

²¹ Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”
²² Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Matthew 18:21-22

Peter wasn’t thinking about whether or not to bestow forgiveness upon his brothers and sisters. When he asked about forgiving, here is what he had in mind:

aphiémi: to send away, leave alone, permit
Original Word: ἀφίημι
Part of Speech: Verb
Transliteration: aphiémi
Phonetic Spelling: (af-ee’-ay-mee)
Definition: to send away, leave alone, permit
Usage: (a) I send away, (b) I let go, release, permit to depart, (c) I remit, forgive, (d) I permit, suffer.

The definition is “to send away.” Send what away? The first question we must ask is, “Is it the person or the sin (offense, done wrong) that is sent away?” Since the passage is about restoration, peace and harmony among the family, we must assume that it is the offense that is sent away. How does one “send away” an offense? Let’s look at (b) in the usages.

(b) “I let go, release, permit to depart”– Here is where unforgiveness is like Kryptonite to Superman: The offense is a piece of Kryptonite that a person shoves into Superman’s hands. Superman now has a choice to dropkick it into space (like the football) or to clench it tightly to his chest. One rids the world of that piece of Kryptonite altogether; the other one makes Superman weak and sick.

It is the same for us. When we release a wrong, we save ourselves from becoming weak and sick. It is why Jesus said, “seventy-seven times (some interpretations read, “seventy-times-seven”). We must do it every time for our own sakes. It’s not so much about the other person as it is about our own mental and spiritual health. We will suffer each time we think of it unless we release it.

To whom do we release it? For this answer, let’s turn to Jesus:

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

This passage includes the offenses that we carry. We are burdened, and weary from carrying them. Jesus wants us to release anything and everything that is weighing us down and making us sick, which includes unforgiveness. The weight of our burdens is transferred through His yoke onto Jesus’ shoulders (a double yoke). He carries our burden for us and has, indeed, already taken them to the grave!

So, for today, let’s try an experiment. When the word, “forgive,” pops into your head, replace it with “release,” and see how it makes you feel. I have a sneaking suspicion that we will feel our burdens lift right off our shoulders and onto His.

Abba, thank You for such provision! Knowing that You want all my burdens so that my yoke is easy and light, thanks to You, makes me want to follow You all the more. Such happy news! You are wonderful! Amen.

Inheriting God’s kingdom…what does that mean? Let’s walk it through.

21 An inheritance quickly gained at the beginning will not be blessed at the end.

This verse is true for Adam and Eve. They doubted God and His love for them, and took matters into their own hands. Alas, just like Adam and Eve, we get in a hurry and doubt God’s love, His concern for us, and His plan, and take matters into our own hands.

Nevertheless, Christ offers us God’s kingdom! Our sin debt has been canceled and we are invited to join Christ in the development of His kingdom. We are ambassadors to the world inviting all people to join us in this kingdom. What are the prerequisites? Let’s look at 1 Corinthians 6:9-11,

⁹ Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men ¹⁰ nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Why will wrongdoers not inherit the kingdom of God? Because they have made the same mistake as Adam and Eve, which was to not trust God, His love and His plan. Out of this mistrust come all the actions mentioned in the passage. I also believe that Paul was just being nice when he said, “And that is what some of you were.” It’s actually all of us who fall into one or more of the categories that Paul mentions. The deception is strong–but the presence and message of Christ are stronger!

Verse 11 is where we live. We were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have His Spirit in our lives connecting us to God the Father. We are one with the Trinity! If we keep the message of this verse ever-before us, we will inherit all of the Spirit’s traits, we will grow in righteousness and godliness, and we will lead a procession into the kingdom of God. Why? Because our lives will be so attractive to people that they will want to join us!

Abba, thank You for such a great salvation and for restoring us to the place of sonship (see Luke 15:22-24). May we grow in You as we seek to become just like You. May others see the joy and peace in our lives and join us in our march to Zion. Amen.

I Met Messiah is a part of One For Israel Ministries. Talk about exciting testimonies! Click it and see…

7 The righteous man [Jesus] leads a blameless life; blessed are his children [His kids] after him.

I am a firm believer in the redemption of Israel. I believe that they will soon come to acknowledge Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach, as Messiah. One For Israel (oneforisrael.org) is a Messianic organization dedicated to pointing fellow Israelis and Arabs to Jesus through videos, meeting needs, and through making materials available.

Did you know?
From 2013 to 2021, One For Israel’s evangelistic videos in Hebrew were watched over 40 million times in Israel alone! In a country of just under seven million Jews, that’s five views per person. God is stirring up spiritual hunger in Israel in our day!

Their online outreach has 500,000 views per month on average in Israel alone!

To give a perspective on the growth of Christianity (belief in Jesus as Messiah), here is a neat statistic:

There were less than 30 Messianic Jewish believers when Israel was declared a state in 1948,
but the number of believers has roughly tripled each decade since then.
There are 30,000+ known Messianic believers in Israel as of 2021!

The Lord doesn’t have to come back to reach Israel. He’s doing it TODAY!!! Pray for the peace of Jerusalem and Israel as the Prince of Peace makes Himself known to them–and to the Arabs who live in that country!

Abba, I believe You have big plans in store for Israel concerning the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to their neighbors. I’m looking forward to a Great Awakening even as we have seen in America, England, Scotland and Ireland at the turn of the 1800th century–even bigger! I know You work without violating the will of anyone, but I also know You orchestrate circumstances, natural events, the moving of nations, and the hearts of people. May Israel come to know You as Messiah, and may they become great evangelists for You even as they were in the first, second and third centuries. Amen.

The Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, Three-In-One) is basic and central to our faith.

17 Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel.

Bad theology has been around a long time. Besides the Nicolaitans (Revelation 2:6 and 15) in the first century, there was Arianism in the fourth century (and probably earlier). Arianism denied the Trinity and considered Jesus Christ a created being,

Arianism is often considered to be a form of Unitarian theology in that it stresses God’s unity at the expense of the notion of the Trinity, the doctrine that three distinct persons are united in one Godhead. Arius’s basic premise was the uniqueness of God, who is alone self-existent (not dependent for its existence on anything else) and immutable; the Son, who is not self-existent, cannot therefore be the self-existent and immutable God. Because the Godhead is unique, it cannot be shared or communicated. Because the Godhead is immutable, the Son, who is mutable, must, therefore, be deemed a creature who has been called into existence out of nothing and has had a beginning. Moreover, the Son can have no direct knowledge of the Father, since the Son is finite and of a different order of existence.
According to its opponents, especially the bishop St. Athanasius, Arius’s teaching reduced the Son to a demigod, reintroduced polytheism (since worship of the Son was not abandoned), and undermined the Christian concept of redemption, since only he who was truly God could be deemed to have reconciled humanity to the Godhead.

There are a few verses to consider as we look at the unity of the Trinity:

First is Genesis 1:1-3 (read the footnote 1b) where God the Father orchestrates the Creation, the Spirit being the Agent of preparation, and the Son being the creating Agent with His spoken Word.

Second is 2 Corinthians 13:14, “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Third is Colossians 1:15-16 wherein Jesus is named as the Creator of everything, so He must have been there in Genesis 1:1-3.

Fourth is Revelation 22:13 where Jesus proclaims Himself as the Beginning and the End of everything.

The Trinity is essential to God’s overarching plan of creation and redemption of mankind. John writes,

³ We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 1 John 1:3

I think of it like this: In Old Testament times, the Spirit came upon people in a limited capacity. Jesus’ coming and sacrifice paved the way for the Spirit to permanently and completely inhabit us, thus transforming us on a continuous basis. The result is our invitation, acceptance and integration into the Fellowship of the Trinity as the Bride of Christ. It has always been the goal of the Father/Son/Spirit.

The Fellowship of the Trinity
The Father – The Plan
The Son – The Way
The Spirit- The Result
Mankind – The Bride

We reject any form of Arianism, ancient or modern, and completely entrust ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, Maker of heaven and earth, Defeater of death and Holder of the keys to Hades, and King of the Universe. He is our Savior and our God, being one with the Father and the Spirit.

Abba, I praise You for inviting us to be part of the Fellowship of the Trinity. The card table with the four chairs around it this morning was a beautiful picture of the Trinity with the fourth chair reserved for the Bride of Christ, Your Church–us! May we celebrate You and our future: Complete and perfect in Your kingdom at Your side, Jesus. WOW! Holy Spirit, thank You for Your connection. May we take full advantage today in worship. Amen.

John the Baptizer (Baptist) was the “one who came before.” Before whom? Before Christ! Let’s look at his credentials.

1 Wine is an intemperate thing, and strong drink is full of violence; and all who commingle with it will not be wise. LXX Version

Of all the things John the Baptizer that gave him the most credibility, it was him being in the right place at the right time in history. In other words, timing is his best credential. His ministry began just a few months before Jesus came to be baptized. It was enough time for John to establish his ministry so that when he identified Jesus as “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world,” people would take him (and Jesus) seriously. The interesting thing is that his ministry only lasted a few months after Jesus began his own ministry. We are looking at probably less than a year of John the Baptizer being on the scene. Yet, Jesus called him the greatest of all who were born of women (Matthew 11:11).

You might be wondering why I chose that verse of today’s Proverbs chapter. It’s because John the Baptizer was a Nazarite (see Numbers 6:1-5). Nazarites didn’t touch anything that comes from the grapevine, nor did they put a razor to their heads. Samson was a Nazarite from birth, as well. Include his long hair and bushy beard with his prophet’s outfit of camel hair and leather belt (see 2 Kings 1:8 concerning Elijah) and his diet of locusts and wild honey and you have a very compelling figure!

John baptized in a communal mikveh (a ritual bath that was built into the bank of the Jordan River, east of Jerusalem, near Jericho). It was one of many that people used to make themselves ritually pure. There have been as many as 70 mikvehs identified around the temple area alone and more than 700 in all of Israel–so far! Baptizing was not a new thing; being baptized for repentance of sins was definitely new. People were supposed to go to the temple and offer sacrifices for their sins, not be baptized in the muddy Jordan River. What were people thinking?! No wonder the religious leaders came out to see what was going on.

They asked John the Baptizer if he was one of three people:

1. The Christ (Anointed One, Messiah);
2. Elijah (back from wherever it was that he went on the chariot of fire);
3. The Prophet (spoken of by Moses in Deuteronomy 18:15-19).

He was none of the above. Jesus, on the other hand, said that if people were willing to see with spiritual eyes, that John was, indeed, Elijah (in spirit; see Matthew 11:14 who fulfilled Malachi 4:5-6). He fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 40:3-5, which said,

³ A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
    make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
⁴ Every valley shall be lifted up,
    and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
    and the rough places a plain [for the coming of the King];
⁵ And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
    and all flesh shall see it together,
    for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

Tomorrow, we will look at John’s message, and the message Jesus sent back to him for comfort.

Abba, John the Baptizer’s life and ministry were not long, but, oh, how important they were! Thank You for such a sign as the “One who Came Before.” I look forward to meeting him. Amen.

To fear or not to fear: That is the question. When it comes to fearing God, what kind of fear is it?

2 The terror of a king is like the growling of a lion; whoever provokes him to anger forfeits his life.

That’s a pretty dark verse, right? Yet, it was sage advice coming from King Solomon. But, in God’s case, He is all-patience (1 Cor. 13:4) and all-love (1 John 4:8). So, how are we to view God? I was reading in Matthew 10 about when Jesus sent out the 12 disciples ahead of Him to prepare the towns for His coming through. He instructed them in this way:

²⁸ Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. ³⁰ And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹ So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

In this passage, we have what looks like God as the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell, yet is not to be feared. What gives? It seems we have three choices for who the “one” is.

1. Is it God the Father? I have always thought so–until I read verse 31, which tells us to not fear Him.
2. Is it Satan? Possibly, but he does not have the power to destroy our soul. So, no.
3. Is it ourselves? Definitely a possibility because of James 1:14-15, which says that we are our own worst enemy.

I looked up “fear” in the Strong’s Concordance, and it said, “to frighten, to be alarmed; by analogy to be in awe of, that is, revere.” “Reverence.” Taking this context into consideration, it looks like Jesus is telling them to awe and respect God as their God and King, but trust Him as their Heavenly Father. In order to win that trust, He stepped out of heaven and moved into the world as Jesus. We can trust our Heavenly Father even while having a reverential fear of Him. More on this tomorrow.

Abba, thank You for loving us. It’s apparent in how You allow us to choose to love You everyday. You trust us; may we learn to trust You more and more each day. Your perfect love drives out our fear of You, of death, and even of failing You in some way. Please continue to carry on to completion the process of making us just like Jesus. Amen.

Three-in-one is a difficult concept, especially when talking about the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

27 The spirit of mankind is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts [the Lord is familiar with every part of us–why wouldn’t He be? He created us!].

I learned the first five verses of the Gospel of John by listening to “Celebrate Life.” My church youth choir in Athens, Georgia, went to Daytona Beach, Florida, to join other youth choirs for a debut of the musical in an amphitheater in 1972 (I was 13). My mom and dad bought the double-LP album set, and I would set up our Panasonic quadraphonic speaker system around me on the floor and listen to the whole thing (I really don’t recall how many times I did it, but I can still sing most of the songs word-for-word, parts and all!). Here’s what the first five verses say,

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. ⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of men. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

I learned recently that a literal reading of the first verse is, “From the beginning (implying before) was the Word [Logos, indicating the heart and expression of God], and the Word was face-to-face with God, and the Word was God Himself.” When reading Proverbs 8:23-31, I print here for your reading pleasure the footnotes in my Bible:

8:23 The Lord is the Father, and created in this statement means the Father established Wisdom over His works; for the Father made all things through Wisdom (AthanG). “Created” as used here does not mean the Father made Wisdom Himself, for the next clause shows the Father established Wisdom over His works in the beginning before time. Therefore, “created” is used in this verse as a synonym of established, for Wisdom, who is the Word and Son of the Father, is not a creature. He is “begotten from the Father before all time” (Creed; see also v. 25).

The beginning of His ways means two things. It means the Father made all things through Wisdom, and it also refers to the Incarnation, when the Wisdom and Word of the Father became flesh (see also John 1:14). The phrase for His works refers both to the works of creation and to those accomplished by Christ for our salvation, which are outlined in the Creed. “In the beginning before time” is the same as “In the beginning was the Word” in John 1:1. For the Father “established” Wisdom “before time.” Therefore Christ, the Wisdom and Power of God, is not a creature (1 Corinthians 1:24).

There’s more, but it pretty much states that Jesus is with God the Father at the time of creation and is the Agent of creation. We know this to be true because of Paul’s testimony in Colossians 1:16 and the testimony of the writer of Hebrews in 1:2. Hebrews 1:3 says that “He is the radiance of the glory of God [the exact representation],” and “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).

There’s more, but we will have to wait until tomorrow to cover those verses. Suffice it to say that when we talk to one, we are talking to the others.

Abba, as we engage You in conversation, I thank You that You want to have conversation with me! I know that You are not hungry for fellowship because You have perfect fellowship within the Trinity, but You invite me in to Your inner fellowship. May I never take the Holy Trinity for granted. Amen.

What is the Lord’s Modus Operandi? It’s not difficult; He tells us plainly. Keep reading…

22 Do not say, “I’ll pay you back for this wrong!” Wait for the LORD, and he will avenge you.

Did you know that Paul quoted this very verse in Romans 12:19? Yet, he then turns around and has us do the very thing that Jesus said to do in His Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:44-45. Here are the two passages :

¹⁹ Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. Romans 12:19

⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:44-45

What was Paul doing? He was invoking the Lord’s M.O., His “modus operandi,” which is His mode of operation. He quotes the Lord, who gave it to him in 2 Corinthians 12:9, but here’s the surrounding passage:

⁷ …because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. ⁸ Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. ⁹ But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰ That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Let’s unpack these verses.

1. Paul walked with Jesus in heaven (the third heaven, where Jesus lives; the first heaven is the sky and the second heaven is space).
2. To keep him humble, the Lord did not remove a problem Paul was having. What that problem was, no one knows.
3. Jesus gave us His M.O. “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”
   1. The Lord’s grace is whatever Paul needed at any given time: strength, courage, patience, endurance, and most of all, compassion.
   2. Christ’s power was and is designed to save His lost children, and power is made perfect (mature, whole, complete) in Paul’s weakness.
   3. Paul’s weakness was his inability to control his surroundings. By trusting Christ in all circumstances and just doing what He felt led to do by the Holy Spirit, Paul was given His grace and power. In those two things, Christ accomplished much for the kingdom of God through Paul.
   4. Paul goes on to say that he would gladly be weak so that Christ would be strong in and through him.
   5. It’s a ratio thing: the weaker he was, the stronger Christ was in him.

Jesus’ M.O. is the same for us today. We must learn to trust Him in all circumstances to give us wisdom and discernment, because most times, things are not what they seem. They are usually much more complicated than they look on the surface. By realizing and admitting our inability to know the whole truth, we look to Christ for wisdom, guidance, and whatever else is needed for that circumstance.

Returning to Romans 12:19, Paul goes on to say,

²⁰ On the contrary:
“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals [of conviction] on his head.” (Proverbs 25:21-22)

And the clincher:

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Living for Jesus is certainly not easy; aren’t you glad we don’t have to do it without Him? He is with us all the way.

Abba, I don’t need to know Paul’s “thorn in his flesh” to be able to identify with him in this matter. May I learn to trust you faster and more completely as time–and opportunity–goes by. We are most like Jesus when we love; may LOVE be our theme each day. Thank You for loving me! Amen.

A daily advantage of being a Christian is the hope we have in Jesus.

27 The lamp of the LORD searches the Spirit of a person; it searches out his inmost being [He knows what we need and amply supplies it].

Our hope is what we have been promised that we have yet to receive. We KNOW we will have it; it’s either not time or it is not available yet. We are all in a process of transformation. Let the process continue at His rate.

A good example of hope is when the tire store called me and told me that my car was ready. Robin took me down there to get it in the hope that it truly was. Indeed, it was! How did I know? Because they called and told me it was ready. During my trip to the store, I was living in the hope that it was ready. My hope was fulfilled when I got there and my car was ready.

The same goes for us. We are promised eternal life with God. We have hope that it will be so. God even gave us a guarantee, which is the Spirit of God, as proof and assurance that it is so [Romans 5:5, Titus 3:5-6]. In fact, because we have the Spirit, we have already begun our eternity with God!

As we go through this day, I pray this for you:

¹³ May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13

What is so special about this prayer? Let’s look at it:

1. We are overflowing with hope for the future. See Proverbs 4:18.
2. That hope fills us with joy as we look forward to being in the kingdom of heaven!
3. That hope also gives us peace as we wait for our Savior to either take us or come and get us. See John 14:3 and Philippians 3:20-21.
4. The power of the Holy Spirit is what drives us.

Let’s plug into His power and be about the Father’s business as we “await a Savior from there!”

Abba, I pray for my readers today that they would know the hope they have in You, that You will fill them with joy and peace as they trust in You, and that they will follow the leading of Your Spirit as they overflow onto the people around them. May our lights shine ever brighter as we move toward You and our heavenly home. Amen.

Rather than base what we do on how we feel, let’s base how we feel on what we know: We Are REDEEMED!

8 When a king [God] sits on His throne to judge, He winnows out all evil with His eyes.
9 Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?

Jesus did more than just pay the price we owed because of our sin; He bought us back! We have been redeemed.

Jesus Christ, ¹⁴ who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. Titus 2:14

There’s a new song out whose lyrics I love. It’s called, “Redeemed By the Blood of the Lamb.”

I went down to the crimson river
Left my burdens on the shore
I went down a sinner, came up a saint
Died with Christ, now I’m reborn

Yes, He washed me in His mercy
And He cleansed me with His blood
Now I stand complete, I have been set free
I found life there in the flood

Not the same, I am saved
I’m His child, forever, I am
Hallelujah! Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb

Now I have the living water
From the well that won’t run dry
All the pangs of life have been satisfied
By the precious blood of Christ

When it’s time to cross that river
I will shine in glorious light
When He calls me home, I’ll fall at His throne
and forever worship Christ

But, it’s more than that. We have so much more!

• We have a new citizenship in heaven (Philippians 3:20-21)
• We have an inexpressible and glorious joy (1 Peter 1:8)
• We can approach His throne–Him–for mercy and grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16)
• We are completely and lavishly loved as His dear children (1 John 3:1)

The old hymn, Redeemed By the Blood of the Lamb, has great lyrics, too:

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb
Redeemed through His infinite mercy
His child, and forever, I am

Redeemed, redeemed
Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb
Redeemed, redeemed
His child, and forever, I am

Redeemed and so happy in Jesus
No language my rapture can tell
I know that the light of His presence
with me doth continually dwell

I think of my blessed Redeemer
I think of Him all the day long
I sing, for I cannot be silent
His love is the theme of my song

I know I shall see in His beauty
The King in whose law I delight
Who lovingly guardeth my footsteps
and giveth me songs in the night

The one thing we can count on is that Jesus will work in us what is pleasing to Him (Hebrews 13:20-21) and bring it to completion in our lives (Philippians 1:6). That’s worth singing about!

Abba, thank You for the song in my heart about Your redemption. Thank You that younger generations are writing new songs about it. Thank You for teaching me a new song! Keep it up, Lord; I have lots more to learn. Amen.

Judging another of the Master’s servants will get us in trouble. We are all individually responsible to our Master, the Lord Jesus.

6 Many claim to have unfailing love, but a faithful person who can find [who doesn’t criticize his fellow servant]?

We all have our own opinion, and according to our temperaments, we:

1. Expect others to share our own (Red/Choleric),
2. We want to share our opinion with everyone (Yellow/Sanguine),
3. We keep our opinion to ourselves and tell no one (Green/Phlegmatic),
4. or we try to persuade others to see things our way (Blue/Melancholy).

What we need is to be White/Godly, which is all the colors, but above any particular color. We can only be White by the assistance and partnership of the Holy Spirit.

I have been studying Romans, and lately chapter 14. I invite you to join me. It would be good for you read through Romans and then come back to 14 with me, but it’s not necessary.

I believe that this chapter can be applied to the COVID shot and masks.

We begin with verse 1.

14 Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters.

Weak faith refers to those whose concept of service has to do with keeping the law (doing stuff to be pleasing to God). What is pleasing to God becomes a point of contention. These “disputable matters” are anything that is not specifically spelled out by the Lord. Most of them are according to where a person is in his walk with Christ. Our past experiences also play a part.

For instance, I know a person who pays his bills manually every month because he got himself into debt with credit cards, and by paying them manually, he holds himself accountable. I, on the other hand, have no problem with credit card debt and have everything either on credit card or drafted. My problem was debit cards and ATM’s! When they first came out,* I thought, “Wow! Free Money!” It took about three months to cure me (thanks, Robin). Most people have a debit card; we don’t.

Where are we weak in the faith? We should help each other rather than judge each other. Jesus put it like this,

7 “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. ² For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.
³ “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? ⁴ How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye. Matthew 7:1-5

Concerning the law, we are to help people shift their thinking from pleasing God to being pleasing to God (we already are). Doing so requires encouragement, not criticism. May we be encouraging to everyone around us today.

Abba, as we study Your Word in depth, I first thank You for giving the apostle Paul such great insight. I also thank You for having it written down, preserved, and translated for us so that we can study it today. May we never take it for granted. Open our minds and hearts to Your Mind and Heart. Use Your scalpel on us today (Hebrews 4:12). Amen.

*The year was 1984, and Robin and I were fresh out of college.