Small Gift, Big Effect

 

“One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to Him, ‘There was a little boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are these for so many people?’” John 6:8-9 [AMP] 

Jesus, before John 6, had been in Jerusalem. He healed a lame man on the Sabbath, and the Jewish leaders harassed Him about it. Jesus taught them about His authority to heal and do it on a Sabbath. He told them He is the Son of God.

After the Sabbath, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee. “A huge crowd of people” followed looking for Him (John 6:5). John said in John 6 that the crowds followed Jesus because they saw His miraculous signs. The people observed the big miracles Jesus did, and their curiosity continued about Him and His miracles.

            Notice, the crowds expected big miracles like healing people or raising people from the dead. Many of the ones who followed Jesus turned away from following Him when the Chief Priests’ solders arrested Him before His crucifixion (John 6:66). These people reacted as we often do. We sometimes turn our backs on Jesus when things do not work out the way we want.

How are we often like these early followers of Jesus? They followed Jesus and listened to God’s plan as long as they saw the big things He would do. Jesus amazed these people as they watched Him do the unexplainable. As we read John 6:8-9, we realize Andrew did not discard something small as being unworthy for use by Jesus. Philip realized the enormous task and saw nothing big by which to feed 5000 hungry men. Andrew understood God can use small and large. He recognized God gives small and large blessings and could use them for His purposes, though he did not understand how.

            Consider this in your life. Do you not recognize God even gave you the small things in your life? Do you consider He gave the small things just for you and not for use for something bigger than you? Philip did not recognize God gave the five loaves and two small fish to feed the 5000+ men. Andrew saw, considered, and wondered if Jesus could use them to feed the people. He led the young boy to Jesus and announced he found food but wondered “what good it would be with the huge crowd?” Andrew offered the young boy’s lunch as an answer in how they might feed the people. When he did that, the young boy inwardly conceded his right to keep the food for himself. Jesus showed God’s care for the people and His power over each aspect of life including sustenance, multiplication, sufficiency, and longevity.

            Today, ask God, “What have I not returned to You for Your purposes?” All God gives you is a blessing from Him. Sometimes the blessing is for you to keep and use for yourself. At other times, God’s blessing for you comes as you use the gifts as God guides to help, teach, guide, and/or forgive someone else. Not all gifts are tangible. Nor are they always expensive. Yet, each gift comes from God. Our perception often hides the intangible and inexpensive from our definition as gifts.

God gave one particular gift for each person. Its cost was great. That gift is salvation from sins and death. Christians do not die for the salvation of other people. Jesus did that with His perfect sacrifice. We should willingly die to self and our desires so other people will hear about Jesus, trust in Him, and receive salvation through Him by faith.

What do you now realize God gave you that you need to give back for His purposes?

God, I am a sinner. I’ve sinned against You and people by storing things up for myself because I considered I earned them or because I was totally selfish about what You gave me. Lord, please forgive me for not recognizing You gave me all I have, even salvation. Lord, take this heart of mine and mold it to desire what You desire. Make me desire You more than anything or anyone. Lord, nudge me from my plans to see the people You put around me whom You love. Show me how You want to use me to help them. Help me always to say, “Yes!” to You. Today, Lord, I give all I am and have, no matter how small I consider it, back to You. Thank you for never giving up on me and being patient with me. Amen.

The Advent of Salvation

 

“And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God…” Hebrews 10:11-13 [ESV]

In Hebrews 10:11-12, the writer contrasted and compared the priests with Jesus. He said the priests stood daily to offer sacrifices. Jesus offered one sacrifice and then sat. He did not have to stand daily to offer again. The priests rise daily, but Jesus said, "It is finished." Compare this with when God finished creating the world, then rested on His throne.

People must rise daily to do things. These things are mundane compared to salvation, but we must do these tasks for survival or for a man-made reason. Some of us rise daily to compete to be better than other people. Others rise daily to do good works hoping to get to heaven, but never find assurance of that or rest. Each day we strive for something. Jesus strove for one thing, our salvation. His goal in life was His end game. The “end game” was to provide the only needed salvation for our sins so that any person who believes He is the Son of God, the Savior, will receive salvation and eternal life.

The questions this should make us ask ourselves is, “For what do we strive? What spurs us on and who drives us? Fame, fortune, and self or the Spirit of Christ within us pushing us to live out our faith so other people can know about Jesus.” Neither ways of living and doing earn us salvation. Nothing we can do will earn us salvation from our sins. Living life with the Spirit in us shows people we are Christians, we are saved. People can experience the real, living, and sacrificial Jesus because of our actions of letting the Spirit live in the world through us.

Jesus does not have to rise each day to offer sacrifices for the sins we did since the last sacrifice. His sacrifice was enough to cleanse each person who trusts in Him from all their sins and their consciousness of their sins. He's been sitting on the right side of the Father’s throne since He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. The priests stand, they rise, each day to offer sacrifices because they are given by mortal, sinful men and are from the blood of impure and imperfect sources. Jesus, the pure Son of God, died sinless for all sinners then rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven. 

The priests rise each day. Jesus sits.

 It is finished.

Truth

 

“For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed I came from God.” John 16:27 [Berean Study Bible]

Because of the truths of God, Christians can possess peace. John 16 records Jesus said this. Jesus returned to heaven as the conqueror of sin and death because He is God’s Son, the One with power to do these things. The Spirit of truth, whom Jesus sends, lives within people who believe in Him, according to Jesus in John 16:12-15. Jesus said in verse thirteen, “He [the Spirit] will guide you into all truth.” The Spirit is and has truth. He is part of the Triune Godhead. Jesus said, “He [Holy Spirit] will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me by taking from what is mine and disclosing it to you. Everything that belongs to the Father is mine.” (John 16:13c-15) Understand this well; the Spirit of truth is truth and reveals truth. This truth is part of God. Solely, it comes from God and is one of His characteristics; it comes from who He is. God’s being defines truth. The Spirit will reveal to the disciples of Jesus (past, present, and future) the truths of God and about God, Father, Son, and Spirit.

Deliberately, Jesus prepared His disciples for the trials and tribulations they would face by teaching about the Spirit. The soldiers of the temple, commanded by the Chief priest, were soon to confront Jesus and arrest Him. Just as Jesus foretold about them, His disciples fled. Secretly, one followed Him as the soldiers led Him away. This disciple, Peter, denied Him thrice before the rooster crowed, as Jesus foretold. (Luke 22:54-62) Jesus spoke to prepare His disciples for the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual upheaval that would soon come upon them because of His arrest and crucifixion. Jesus explained their grief would turn to joy. (John 15:22)

Lovingly, Jesus prepared His disciples for the trials and tribulations they would face in their near future, and for the trials they would experience the rest of their lives as His disciples. He did not end his teaching with defeatism. Jesus said they would receive joy. These disciples may have wondered with great confusion how joy arose from trials. Jesus told them in cloaked language and metaphors. He gave them a promise to hold on to, a hope for them to realize they would not face the trials and tribulations alone. Just as Jesus walked with and taught them while He lived on earth, He would be with them opening the doorway for them to pray and petition the Father. He explained if they asked for anything in His name, the Father would give it to them. Because of the faith the disciples had in Jesus and because of the love the Father and Son gave them, Jesus told them when they prayed in His name, asking as He desired, the Father would give them what they requested. Though Jesus no longer walked on earth with the disciples, through the Spirit and prayer to the Father, He remained with them. Jesus taught them in John 16:23-24, and 27 to receive complete joy knowing the Father loves them and will give them everything needed. Jesus intended His promises to give them joy in all situations and hope because He is with them through the Spirit.

This joy is not fleeting or based on circumstances. Jesus said this joy, the joy of knowing Him, receiving God’s love, and knowing truth through the Spirit, is complete. Anything from God is complete. Wholly, giving no half measures, He gives from His being. Joy comes from God; it is complete. Joy’s definition comes from God’s character. The disciples of Jesus can gain complete joy because He died, rose to life, and ascended to sit on His throne. His disciples can possess joy because God never leaves His people. They can have joy because they have hope of eternal life no struggle can replace. Completely, the disciples gain joy through God.

The disciples believed Him. They expected the Spirit of truth and joy. They expected tribulation and trials. The disciples knew God loved them. Faithfully, they knew Jesus is the Son of God. They could get and keep peace with this understanding and through His Spirit. (John 16:31-33) Because the disciples had this hope and accepted the truths of the Spirit and acted upon them, they could experience the complete joy and peace the Spirit gives.

Jesus told His disciples He would return to the Father. He explained they would face trials and tribulations. Disciples of Christ can know and act upon the gifts the Spirit gives them. They can accept and live with joy and peace, knowing nothing can separate them from God. God gives the strength and courage to get through hard times. He gives them determination to walk with Him. God gives His Spirit to remind them of these truths. He loves His people more than anything they will encounter. God will never leave nor forsake His children. This hope comes as a reminder from the Spirit of truth and brings them joy and peace.

Take joy! Have peace! Jesus has overcome the world! 

Jesus, I forget your words often, especially when I feel panicked in a tough situation. Help me remember Your love for me. Help me recall You offer complete joy and peace in every situation. No difficulty in life can ever defeat You and me with You. Lord, please don’t consider my fear as doubt of Who You are. You are my Savior, God’s Son. Forgive my fear before I remember You are my strength and hope. Remind me You are with me when I face tough times. Give me Your strength and courage. Thank You for loving me. Thank You for never leaving or forsaking me. You are God and I will not fear. Amen.

Pledge of Hope

 “Now He who prepared us for this very purpose is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge.” 2 Corinthians 5:5 [NASB]

As I read 2 Corinthians 5 today, God made me aware of a few things I had heard in sermons over the years but had not put together into one train of thought. In this chapter, Paul wrote about living as a Christian, a believer in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. He told the Christians in Corinth about the mental tug-of-war believers live with continually from the day Jesus cleanses them from their sins and makes them a child of God. All believers experience this tug-of-war. They live in a sinful world and long to be with Christ in heaven, long to be clothed fully with the righteousness of Christ and live in a righteous world, His kingdom. Paul stated that he and other Christians’ desires to be righteous and in God’s presence forever is so deep that it causes them to groan and feel the burden of wanting the life Jesus offers to swallow up and take over their mortal life (2 Corinthians 5:4).

Have you ever felt this desire, this burden? If you’ve ever known a senior-aged adult Christian or a Christian who had a terminal illness, you will recall their spoken desire to be in heaven with God and their loved ones and not on earth. Their desire and burden are so great that it seems they speak of this every time you visit them and even mention it several times during a visit. If you’ve not spent time with someone who had this deep desire, then consider of a time when you wanted something very much. Maybe you’ve not been able to become pregnant and have children. Possibly you’ve wanted to go to university to study for a degree, but the funds were not available. Perhaps you have a family member who has cutoff communication with you, and you have prayed for them to have a change of heart so you can talk with them. Each of these are great desires. They are mortal desires. The desire to be in God’s kingdom and in His presence is an eternal desire. It originates with the Holy Spirit living within a person’s being. The Christian recognizes this world is not his/her own and wants to go to the place of peace, joy, and rest in the presence of God.

Paul experienced this desire. He said he preferred to be away from the body (his mortal life that fights against sin and decays) and at home with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:7-8). Yet, Paul knew only God knows the time of a person’s death. Because of his love for Jesus, he sought to please Him even while he lived in his mortal body on earth, and not just because he would stand before God’s judgment seat one day (vs 9-10). Paul said while he lived in his mortal body, he desired to please the Lord and that means loving Him. “Christ’s love compelled him and his co-laborers” to tell other people about Jesus and the salvation He gives to anyone who believes in Him (vs 11, 14-15). Because of their love for God and their desire to obey Him, they regarded other people the way Jesus does. Jesus desires each person be saved (2 Corinthians 5:15, John 3:16, 1 John 2:2, John 11:25, Romans 6:10). Prejudice should no longer have place in a believer’s heart. Instead, the love of Jesus for each person must be paramount.

Paul said each person who is a believer once regarded Jesus Christ with prejudice. We, mentally, said, “He could not be that powerful.” Or, we’ve said, “He cannot take away my sins. I am too stained and dirty from the evil I have done.” We might have said, “There is no God and so there is no Jesus. This life on earth is all I have, so why bother a God who was never there for me.” Each of these is a prejudice against Jesus and the Trinity. We judge Him as not powerful, not telling the truth, not caring and loving, not merciful and forgiving, and/or non-existent. Yet, the words in the Bible are testimonies from several millennia. The testimonies of believers, since Bible writers penned what God told them to tell people, proclaim God is real, alive, almighty, omniscient, loving, merciful, and Life-giving. Paul taught about God and the sufficient sacrifice provided for the sins of the world through the sinless life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. This is what Paul proclaimed. He said, “Though we once regarded Christ in this way (with prejudice), we do so no longer” (2 Cor, 5:16). Because Paul and his colleagues had no prejudice against Christ, they proclaimed Him through their lives and their testimony of what He did for them, who He is, what He called them to do, and to whom and how they were to proclaim Him. He proclaimed in verses seventeen and eighteen,

“Therefore, from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh [that is, with prejudice]; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Paul said in these verses, he and the other men with him had no prejudice. Why? Because when they believed in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, their Savior, He put into them His Spirit and made them a new creation. This new creation occurred at their belief in Him. When they trusted in Jesus, His Spirit came upon them and began changing them from their old, mortal, prejudiced self into His own image. Because Jesus was unprejudiced and came to earth to save each person, each believer is supposed to live a similar non-prejudicial way by the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Spirit changes a believer from the old nature (“clothing.” as Paul said) to the new nature. Christians understand and desire what Jesus desires, that each person would hear the Gospel and believe in Jesus as the Son of God for his or her salvation. Because of this, Paul said, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us” (vs 20). God’s desire for all people to receive salvation becomes the believer’s desire. This desire is part of the same groanings and longings Paul expressed in verse four. This desire comes because the Spirit makes Christians more and more into the image of Christ; Christ’s desires become their desires. Jesus’ desire is not just to be with His Father in heaven, but that each person receives salvation and change into His image (nature), change from their old, mortal, sinful nature.

Christians desire and long to be clothed by Jesus’ Spirit with the new nature He gives and to be with Jesus in His kingdom. While they live on earth in their mortal bodies, the Holy Spirit lives in them and changes them continually into the image of Christ. His indwelling is the guarantee, the pledge from God, of their future eternal change into the image of Christ (2 Cor. 5:5). The Spirit of Christ in a person is like earnest money put down for a house or car. It is a guarantee of the future fulfillment of the contract or understanding. Knowing the Spirit is within the believer, that person has hope that one day, the Spirit will one day completely cloth him or her in the new nature. When difficulties in life occur–temptation, trials, and persecutions–the assurance, guidance, and protection by the Holy Spirit remind the Christian of God’s assurance, His guarantee, that he or she will be in God’s kingdom and will experience peace and joy eternally with Him.

This chapter of 2 Corinthians tells us about some purposes of the indwelling Holy Spirit of Jesus. He lives in each Christian to assure the believer of his or her salvation. The Spirit in the Christian’s life reminds him or her of God’s eternal purpose for him or her with Him in His kingdom. The Spirit is the guarantee of being totally made in Jesus’ image. He gives the believer the deep longings to be with God and the desire to be on earth. This desire to be alive on earth comes with it the desire to love Christ by being obedient to His commands to tell each person on earth about Him. The Spirit puts into each Christian’s heart the love of Christ for each person so he or she wants to tell others about Him. Christians realize they are ambassadors for Christ. The Spirit living in a believer encourages, teachers, guides, protects, and remakes each person into a closer resemblance of Jesus Christ, changing them to have His love and non-prejudicial attitude, desires, and righteousness.

Today, we should each stop and consider what keeps us from believing in Jesus. Is it because it seems God is not real or does not care since you assume He is not listening to your prayers? Next, we should examine ourselves to determine where prejudice lives in our heart and ask Jesus to forgive us and make us like Himself. Then we need to ask Him to show us where we refused for Him to continue making us into His image and confess the sins He shows to us. We should examine ourselves to determine when and why we stopped believing in God and ask Him to remind you of the guarantee by His Spirit of your eternity with Him in His kingdom. Ask for forgiveness for judging Him and His purposes and ask that He put His desires in you, the desire to love Christ and love each person you meet because He loves them. Ask God to help you keep your eyes always on Him. Pray to Him for the will to love and obey Him, even when it makes little sense. Thank God for loving you and saving you. Praise Him for who He is, the eternal, almighty, omniscient, and omnipresent God. Praise Him for what He has done in your life and throughout the expanse of time from creation. Thank God for choosing you to be in a righteous relationship with Him.

The Holy Spirit in a believer’s life now is the earnest money of God’s love and plan for you, a plan not to harm you but to give you a hope and a future (Jeremy 29:11). His living in a Christian grows the person to be loving and unprejudiced like Jesus.

The Holy Spirit living in you now on earth is a taste of what you will be fully when you live with God in His kingdom for eternity. 

Each Christian can decide to let the Spirit to change him or her. That permission changes a person from being prejudiced into becoming like Jesus.  As a result, the Spirit, God’s pledge to Christians, reminds them of their future full transformation and transition to living in God’s kingdom. God will make each believer like Jesus and He will give them their inheritance, eternal life in His kingdom.

Will you live as one who received God’s pledge, or will you stay prejudiced?

Supernatural

 

“I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.” Philippians 3:13 [NASB]

Many verses speak about the change, the re-creation, of a person who believes in Jesus Christ as the Son of God for salvation. Paul encouraged and wrote to the Philippians about putting on the mind of Christ (Philippians 2:1-5). He wrote about being made new in the attitudes of your minds and putting on the new self, created to be like God in righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-23). With Galatians 2:20, Paul stated he no longer lives, but Christ lives in him. The life he lived was by faith in the Son of God. John wrote in John 14:6 Jesus said he who believes in Him receives new life. Later, in John 14:23, Jesus said for the believer, the one who loves Him, He and the Father will love him or her and will make their home in him or her. Many other verses in the New Testament speak of the fact Jesus lives within each Christian through His Holy Spirit.

Let’s consider briefly what this means for us today. Before Jesus saved us, we realized we did not have the strength, power, or will to avoid temptation. We fell into sin by our weak old nature, our self-centered and rebellious approach to life. When we become believers in Jesus Christ as the Son of God and as our Savior, His Spirit lives in us. This indwelling by the Spirit makes available to each believer God’s power to overcome temptation and be sinless, to gain victory over temptation and sin. Let me state it another way. We can do nothing of our own will, strength, and power to ensure we will not sin. Because of our fallen nature, we are susceptible to temptation and sin. This means discipleship, true growth of our closeness to God and being made in Jesus’ image, can occur only by the grace, strength, and power of God. Oswald Chambers said this similarly. He said, “Discipleship is built entirely on the supernatural grace of God” (My Utmost for His Highest). Just as we can do nothing to earn or merit salvation and eternal life, we can do nothing in our own strength to gain power over temptation and sin. Humans are frail and weak.

Consider this. Though we are frail, weak, and rebellious, God had mercy on us. He gave us His grace, a gift we did not earn. God did not give us what we deserve. We possessed nothing within ourselves to gain a righteous relationship with Him. Paul said it this way in Ephesians 2:4-9,

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loves us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” [NASB]

The only way a person can have victory over temptation, sin, and death is by God’s supernatural (divine) power. Having God’s power only occurs when His Spirit lives in a believer and he or she seeks Him and His will, and lives believing and acting upon His power. Zechariah, in a time before Christ came to live on earth to die and rise again for our salvation, recorded God’s angel’s words about this. He said in Zechariah 4:6, “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.” Only by living as Christians with God’s might and power dwelling within us through His Spirit can we withstand temptation and not sin.

Discipleship truly is built entirely on God’s grace and power. Nothing we can do can earn us salvation, and nothing we can do will make us strong enough to withstand temptation. Only by God’s grace, power, and might can we receive salvation from sin and death. Only by God’s grace, power, and might can we live victoriously over temptation. The latter is discipleship, growing in Christlikeness, knowing God more intimately, and standing victoriously over temptation and sin.

Lord, I am weak and a sinner. You have saved me and given me Your power and strength if I will call upon You and walk in Your way. Keep me strong. Grow me to be more like Jesus. Guide me in Your paths. Draw me closer to You. You alone are to be honored, glorified, and praised for You are almighty, victorious, loving, and merciful. Amen.

Times of Our Lives

 

“Now it came about in the course of those many days…” (Exodus 2:23a [NASB])

Throughout the Bible, we read about men who encountered God, then sought for a secluded place. We read that God sent people to a place to prepare them for the next task, too. Often these times of preparation lasted forty days or forty years. The number forty denotes the separation of one epoch from another in Hebrew numerology. Sometimes the forty days/years was a time of rest and renewal and other times it was a time of testing. In each time, God intended it to be a time of growth in their faith in and relationship with Him. Let’s consider several passages that tell of God’s people and forty days/years.

Consider Moses. After he killed the Egyptian for severely beating a Hebrew (Exodus 2:11-14), he ran to Midian, helped water the sheep of the priest Reuel/Jethro (Exodus 2:15-22), and lived there for forty years before God commissioned him to lead the Hebrews out of Egypt (Exodus 3:1-9). The years he spent shepherding sheep prepared Moses for the next epoch in God’s plans, to lead His people through the wilderness to His Promised Land. God used that time to attune Moses’ spiritual awareness to Him and grew him to learn how to lead, protect, provide, and intercede to Him. This epoch of 40 years changed Moses from being an Egyptian-taught Hebrew to be a man seeking God in all things.

If we continue considering other instances of forty days or years, we remember the Israelites spent forty years wandering in the wilderness. The Israelite adults, who feared the people of Canaan when their spies returned from scouting the Promised Land, would not see the land God promised to them. The forty years of their wandering separated two periods of time-the people who trusted God enough to leave all they knew in Egypt, but then lost faith in God and the time of God leading the new adults of Israel into the land He promised. The epoch of the forty years wandering in the wilderness changed the Israelites from fear and rebelliousness to newly maturing adults of faith. God grew the faith of the adults of the post-wilderness-wandering as they saw His hand in providing for and protecting them during the wilderness years. They became the people of God again and trusted Him completely during that epoch.  

Moses spent forty days on Mt Sinai. He often ventured up the mountain to be alone with God so He could speak to him, tell him how to lead the people, instruct him in how to handle and decide issues among the people, and grow him closer to Himself. During the time in which Moses spent forty days on Mt. Sinai, he received the Ten Commandments from God for the Israelites (Exodus 20). This forty-day’s-time signaled a new epoch for the Israelites. The new epoch occurred of Moses’ time on the mountain heralded in a time in which God’s laws would govern the people. The Ten Commandments provided a way for the Israelites to follow God. This epoch signified that God chose these people as His own. Before Moses’ forty days on Mt. Sinai, God called the Hebrews His people. Moses declared it to Pharaoh when he said, “Let my people go.” After his forty days on the mountain, the Israelites understood without doubt, as they bent their knees and committed with their mouths, minds, and heart, God chose them, and they chose Him to be their God. Their commitment to the Ten Commandments avowed this. For Moses, these forty days gave time for him to recharge and renew himself with God. He listened to God and committed himself anew to be His servant and lead His people. This epoch of time for Moses was renewal, recommitment, and continued guidance on how God wanted him to lead the Israelites. For the Israelites, this time was of rebellion and a time of recommitment to the God of their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses came down the mountain the first time to see them worshipping a golden calf. He returned from the mountain with a second set of tablets holding God’s Ten Commandments to find the people submitting to God.

As we continue forward in time, we recall Elijah battling for the Lord to combat the pagan priests of Jezebel. After he slew hundreds of them, Jezebel declared her wrath on him. She wanted Elijah dead. Elijah, in fear, traveled with his servant into the desert. He walked for forty days to Mt. Horeb (Mt. Sinai). While at Mt. Horeb, Elijah stayed in a cave until God told him to stand before Him on the mountain. He experienced a strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire while on the mountain. When this prophet heard a gentle voice after these three powerful acts of God, Elijah realized it was God’s voice. God knew about Elijah’s obedient deeds for Him. He told him to return to Damascus and anoint a new king and his own successor (1 Kings 19). These forty days for Elijah were an epoch of rest, reassurance, and revelation. Elijah went from a time of defeating priests of false gods and fleeing for his life to another time of God showing His love, favor, and provision with the anointing of a new king and prophet. Elijah would not walk alone. He believed God cared about him and understood his time was ending. A new prophet of God would speak to the people for Him. Elijah remembered anew God cared for him.

Before we leave the Old Testament, remember Noah and his family experienced forty days and night on the ark while it rained (Genesis 7). God took the world from one epoch to another. He cleansed it from the sinful people of the world. God used Jonah, too. He sent him to Nineveh to tell the people there that God’s judgment would fall on them in forty days. The Ninevites repented and returned to God during those forty days, and God withheld His judgment. The people confessed and repented of their sins (Jonah 3). God used that epoch of time to make them aware of their sin against Him and other people and to forgive and restore them into His good grace. The Ninevites had renewed life with God.

In the New Testament, after the dove of God descended from heaven on the day John the Baptist baptized Jesus and proclaimed God’s giving of the Messiah through Jesus (Matthew 3:13-17), Jesus walked in the wilderness for forty days (Matthew 4:1-11). During those forty days, He fasted, endured hunger, and resisted Satan’s three temptations. These forty days, this epoch in the wilderness, heralded a new time of the Messiah’s ministry on earth and His call to each person to believe He is the Son of God (John 1:29 & 36).  This instance shows the difference between the times in the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament shows movements of time as they relate to a person’s spiritual life on physical life on earth-a growing in faith, in doing God’s purposes, or rest and renewal. The New Testament shows the transitioning between Jesus’ life before baptism and after baptism and how that relates to a person’s spiritual life and eternity. Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness was an epoch that showed He is the Son of God and stronger than Satan. It served as the door-opener to Jesus’ ministry and thus, the door-opener for people to have more than just a law in how to see, seek, see, and follow God. Jesus is the door for each person to receive cleansing from their sins and be in God’s presence for eternity. With Jesus’ forty-day epoch, people grew from knowing about God to being able to be in a righteous and eternal relationship with Him. The epoch of forty days did not change Jesus. Before the wilderness He was the Son of God who came to take away the sins of the world. After this epoch, He was the Son of God who came to take away the sins of the world. God never changes, and no one thwarts His purposes. He is always faithful.

A last instance of epochal change occurs after Jesus’ resurrection and before His ascension (Acts 1:1-26). During the forty days of that time, Jesus gave the people many proofs He is the Son of God, the Messiah, by coming back to life after being dead (Luke 24:1-9), by walking with two of the disciples to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35), by “explaining the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27), by breaking bread with them (Luke 24:30), by showing His nail-scarred hands and feet (Luke 24:39-41), by eating with the disciples (Luke 24:42), and by opening their minds to the Scriptures (Luke 24:45-49). He spoke about the kingdom of God. Jesus heralded His Spirit coming upon His disciples and all believers (Luke 24:49 and Acts 1:4-5). Then, while His disciples watched, He rose into heaven (Acts 1:1-11). This epoch of forty days rang in the time of salvation and victory over death for all people who believe in Him. From this point, with the power of Christ, believers could defeat temptation and were victors over death. Before this epoch-Christ’s resurrection and ascension-death had victory over people. No hope existed for resurrection from death or power to defeat Satan. With Jesus’ resurrection, believers can know Jesus will resurrect them. They can defeat Satan’s temptations with the Holy Spirit Jesus gives them. People no longer must be the lambs led to slaughter by Satan. Jesus has the victory and gives it to each person who believes in Him. Before Jesus’ death, resurrection, and ascension, people had their own limited strength to fight Satan and had no promise or hope of eternal life with God. After His ascension, with His Spirit living in each believer, they could have His power to defeat Satan and would have His hope of victor over death and eternal life with Him in His kingdom.

Notice, many of the people in these Bible passages experienced difficulties before their forty-day epoch that brought with it a newness with God. They faced hard times, then spent time alone with God. In other instances, some people went into a period of seclusion with God before a hard time. Jesus is the only one who experienced difficulties before, during, and after his forty-days’ seclusion with the Father. He is the model for how to go through difficulties and how to be with God, being nurtured and grown for His purposes.

We need to notice God had a purpose for the forty days/years each person or the group of people experienced. That purpose was to prepare them for God’s next task, to give him/her a chance to recover, and to renew and recommit themselves to God. We can recognize evidence of God’s hand in the lives of the people during the forty days/years of seclusion. God grew their faith in Him. He provided their sustenance and restored them. God taught them leadership skills. He tested each person’s resolve.  God used the forty years to discipline His people. He used the forty days to protect, provide for, and prepare His people.

Some people experienced spiritual highs during the forty days, but none of them stayed on the mountain or in the wilderness. Each of them walked from their epoch with God to His next goal, whether anointing the next leader, leading a people to God, or providing a sufficient salvation and eternal life. The epochs each person faced changed them; it improved them and their relationship with God. The epoch did not change Jesus. It told Satan he had limited time remaining to deceive and tempt people. Jesus’ epoch heralded His ministry on earth where He proclaimed Himself as the Messiah God prepared as their salvation from the beginning of time.   

What does this mean for us today? Does God still give people epochs with Him? Do we need these epochs? Without doubt, people still need epochs, times, with God. Just as the people of the Bible needed these times with God for recuperation, renewal, recommitment, and for God to grow them for His purposes, we need them. As we live in this world filled with sin, persecutions, trials, doubts, and needs, we need time with God for His infilling of us. Whether this time is a day, weekend, month, or long sabbatical, time with God is a necessity for each person. We need time to meet with and be with Him. Epochs with God are especially important for Christians.

Being a Christian, a follower of Christ, means living like Jesus lived and wants us to live. He experienced difficulties before, during, and after his forty days in the wilderness. Those time periods in Jesus’ life on earth were epochs for humanity. Christians cannot expect anything different. Jesus experienced daily, continual communion with the Father before, during, and after that epoch, too. God wants Christians to have that relationship with Him, daily and continual relationship. Whether we are doing the most menial things (like mopping, cleaning a house, or taking care of a sick person) or things that gain us attention (like leading an organization or country, teaching at a prestigious school, or finding a cure for a dreaded disease), God wants to be with us through the days. The epochs for Christians are each time we spend communing with God. He grows us through obedience to Him. Times of communion should occur day. They can be times we set aside seeking God’s will in certain situations or seeking recuperation, too. Most noted for all Christians is the day each person believes in Jesus as his or her Savior and confesses and repent of his or her sins.

Each person is on a journey in life. For Christians, the journey is to be with God and bring Him glory. In each journey, epochs of time will arise where we seek and be with God. These epochs often are at times in our lives when things are in flux or need to change. A transition is about to occur. Jesus’ life and His own epoch in the wilderness remind us we can face persecution before, during, or after our time with God. No believer is immune to those times. Yet, the epochs of time that God gives each believer rejuvenate, renew, and equip us for what we have faced and will face. Epochs can cause strain, but strain/stress can grow us to be the person we need to be for God’s purposes. These times of epochs grow us to be closer to God, be on a higher plateau in our relationship with Him. They will make us more obedient to Him, too. One thing we each must remember is what occurred after each person’s epoch. They did not stay on the mountain or in the wilderness. They each obeyed God and served Him to lead people to Him so they could come to know Him as their Savior and to help them grow in their faith with God so they could be more like Jesus. We should not seek to stay on the mountain or in the wilderness, but should always desire to do God’s will and bring Him glory.

Where are you today? Have you heard God calling you to Himself to accept His sacrifice for your sins and believe in Jesus as your Savior? Have you heard Him calling you to draw near to Him for rest, renewal, growth, and a new task? Have you responded to God’s call to meet with Him, but refuse to leave the mountain or the wilderness in which you met Him? Each of these questions brings you to a time of decision. God loves each of us. He wants us to grow to know Him better and become more like Christ. He has a purpose for each of us, a purpose about love, life, and victory. Choosing to say, “No,” to God and not believing in Jesus, not going to Him for rest, renewal, and growth, and not leaving the place He called you for an epoch is rebellion against God, others, and yourself. This rebellion is sin.

We each have a decision to make now. Will you deny yourself and submit to God’s will of blessing, purpose, forgiveness, and eternal life?

“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But, seek first His [God’s] kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” (Matthew 6:31-33 [NASB])

Desire of My Heart

 

“Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17 [NASB])

Jesus spoke to the rich man (the rich, young ruler) who sought to be closer to God. This wealthy man asked Him what he must do to inherit eternal life. Notice a couple things in this passage. The man recognized who Jesus is. Jesus recognized the desire in the man’s heart and what kept him from absolute surrender to God.

Jesus asked why he called Him good; only God is good. He noticed this man recognized God in Him. People who do good things or teach well are not inherently good. Goodness comes as a gift from God to those who are in a relationship with Him. For the rich man to call Jesus good meant He saw God in Him. This man saw Jesus’ relationship with the Father. A person can only have a relationship with holy God when he or she is holy. No person is holy innately. Each person sins and falls short of God’s glory, His holiness (Romans 3:23). God will not be around unrighteousness. Like darkness and light cannot exist in the same place, holiness and sin cannot exist in the same place. This rich man recognized Jesus’ holiness, His absolute goodness, which comes from being part of the triune Godhead. He called Him good.

Another thing we should notice is Jesus looked at the rich man, his external dress, which proclaimed his wealth, and his heart, which had kept God’s Ten Commandments. The man did everything he knew God wanted but still recognized he did not have the relationship with God his heart desired and was not innately good. Jesus understood these things about the rich man and recognized the one thing he had not given or acknowledged as coming from God, the gift God had given him, his wealth. Many people who have a gift from God forget they did not earn the benefits of that gift by themselves. God gave them the ability. For this rich man of Mark 10, God gave him the mind to create and steward wealth. This means God gave him the wealth since He gave him the ability to become wealthy and steward it wisely.  Jesus met the rich man at this point in his relationship with God. This rich young man had kept the Commandments. He sought God. The rich man strove to be closer to God. Yet, when Jesus explained the thing that kept him from his desired closeness to Him, the man hung his head in sorrow. He refused to give up his wealth to be closer to God. This rich man had not come to the place in his spiritual growth to recognize or be willing to recognize God gave and would continue to provide for him after he gave back to God what He had given him. God gave the rich man the gift of prosperity. The rich man held onto it as if he owned it since he thought he created it. He was unwilling to recognize his wealth came from God and, therefore, if God asked for its return, he should give it. The rich man was just the steward of God’s wealth for a time.

Jesus acknowledged the rich man saw Him correctly. He has a close relationship with the Father. This rich man recognized Jesus’ holiness and sought the answer to his heart’s desire - how he could have a closer relationship with God. Jesus commended the man. Then, He looked at the man and saw his heart. This rich man had followed the Ten Commandments given by God through Moses. Yet, he truly was not ready to have a relationship with God because He was unwilling to acknowledge from Whom his gifts came and to Whom they ultimately belonged.

Each of us at points in our lives seeks to be closer to God. The nature He put within us when He created us craves closeness with Him. As we seek this closeness, God helps us realize what may stand in our way of having this closeness with Him. Like Jesus, He shows and tells us what we need to give up to have a closer relationship with Him. For some people, God may ask they be willing to work among the homeless. For others, He may ask they give up some of their personal resources. Still others, God may them to join a Bible study or to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. For every person, God asks we give back to Him the gifts He gives to us. These gifts could be the ability to make wealth, be athletic, be a scholar, be organized and a good planner, be a good woodworker, plumber, roofer, gardener, or do whatever is your gifting. Each of these are gifts from God. These gifts are a person’s wealth. Gifts often interfere in our having a close relationship with God. We want to keep them to ourselves because people identify us by these wonderful things we do and are. We like people to acknowledge we are good at something and give us praise and admiration. People’s applause for us is important to our psyche and ego. Until we can give everything to God that He gave us, wealth or any kind of acuity, we will not have a close relationship with Him. These gifts become an idol or god in our minds. The rich man did not want to give to God his personal wealth. He did not recognize it was already God’s, and he was just the steward. This man’s wealth kept him from the closer relationship with God that he wanted God does not give gifts for us to hoard for ourselves, but to serve a purpose in His plans, to bring Him glory, and to draw us and other people closer to Him.

What gift do you have that you refuse to part with so you can be closer to God? What are you hoarding instead of acknowledging as God’s and being His steward? Will you give back to Him for His purposes what He gave to you - wealth, skills, mental acuity, efficiency, organization skills, patience, joy, musical ability, athleticism, and the glory that comes from people because of these? Or, will you keep them for yourself and not refuse the close relationship with God that your heart, mind, and spirit desires? I need to give back to Him the gifts He gave me to use for His purposes (organization, efficiency, and planning skills) instead of allowing them to determine my day and what gets done. What about you?

“Delight yourself in the LORD; and He will give you the desires of your heart.” (Psalm 37:4 [NASB])

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21 [NASB])

The Purpose and Journey

 

“Then He [Jesus] took the twelve aside and said to them, ‘Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and all things which are written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished.’” (Luke 18:31 [NASB])

“¹Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children; ²and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma. ¹⁵Therefore, be careful how you walk. ²¹Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” (Ephesians 5:1-2, 15, & 21 [NASB])

A young adult professed Jesus Christ as the Son of God. She believed in Him for salvation and confessed and repented of her sins. Later, the pastor baptized her. Before the ripples in the baptismal waters stilled, she read Ephesians 5:1-2. She wondered what it meant that she had to imitate Christ and love as He loved. The loving part would be easy, she thought, but would she have to die, experience slander and persecution, and have nothing to call her own? Fear gripped her mind and threatened to halt her daily walk with God. The next Sunday, she heard more through the sermon. The preacher spoke about the Beatitudes-blessed are the persecuted and reviled. After the turmoil rolling in her mind, she received peace. Why are the persecuted and reviled Christians blessed? They will see and be with God. They have a purpose and journey with God.

Luke wrote in Luke 18:28-34, the account of Jesus’ words to His disciples before he made His final journey to Jerusalem. Jesus told them what the prophets wrote, which soon would happen. Before He said this, though, Peter told Him he and the other disciples had left their homes and followed Him. Jesus replied to Peter’s statement by saying no one has left all behind for the sake of the kingdom who would not receive many times more now and in eternity. His statement in verses twenty-nine and thirty prepared the disciples for verses thirty-one through thirty-four. Jesus, too, left the safety of His home in heaven and would face betrayal by His earthly people, the Israelites. He left His Father’s home in heaven and the home of His birth father on earth for the sake of the kingdom of God. The key, the reason Jesus left His homes, is in verses twenty-nine and thirty-one. He did it for God’s purposes.

Consider now what Paul wrote in Ephesians 5. He taught the Christians of Ephesus (modern Turkey) to imitate God as those who looked to their Father for their example. In verse two, he added, they were to love as Christ loved. How did Christ love? He gave His life as a sacrifice for the sins of each person, as the sacrifice for people, and an offering to the Father to give righteousness to sinners. From Ephesians 5:3-21, Paul told these Christians how their lives were to be an offering and sacrifice because of love for God and people. He stated several things. The most important were from verse 18a and 21. Paul told them to “be filled with the Spirit” and “be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” By doing these, Christians could be imitators of Christ.

If you consider Ephesians 5:1 and Luke 18:31, Jesus and Paul taught, in word and by example, each Christian is to imitate Christ. Jesus would not have explained what would occur to Him soon, nor would He have told them, in reply to Peter’s statement, that His followers would receive more when following God, if He did not expect His disciples would imitate Him and incur the same treatment of hate, persecution, ostracism, and death by other people’s hands. He, to the disciples, was first their Rabbi, their Teacher. When they called Him Teacher and Lord in John 13, Jesus told them they were correct in calling Him that. So, He spoke to them as Teacher in Luke 18 and as the Savior. Jesus’ life, in the days soon after that lesson, would teach them by example what following Him required. This explains why Jesus reminded them if they gave up everything, including their homes and families, for the sake of the kingdom of God, then God would give them even more than they sacrificed for His purposes. Jesus’ example of sacrifice and submission to the Father’s purposes, to provide the sacrifice for the sin judgment of each person, would replay in their minds and spirits the rest of their lives. It would show them how, why, and of whom they would imitate (Ephesians 5). They would follow Jesus’ example because of their love for God and for people. The disciples received redemption like any other person who trusts in Jesus. They gave their hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits to God in submission because of love for Him and His purposes and because of love for people, so they could hear about the redemption from sin Jesus provided and grow to know and become more like Him daily.

With Ephesians 5:21, Paul emphasized the new meaning of submission. He said it was part of being imitators or Christ. Just as Jesus submitted to God’s plan to live and die as the sinless sacrifice and payment of the judgment of humanity’s sins, so Christians can submit to God, too. Jesus knows people cannot submit their willful and rebellious nature to God or people in their own power. His Spirit, which He gives to live in each Christian, enables the person to be as He is. Like Jesus submitted Himself to God for His purposes, though it would cause Him immeasurable physical pain and departure from His heavenly home, Christians can submit to God’s purposes of love for Him and others through His indwelling Spirit. They can do it because of reverence of Him as the One having authority over them as Teacher, Savior, and Son of God.

Jesus told the disciples what the prophets had spoken in the Old Testament about the Son of Man dying for the sins of all people, then rising to reign in heaven. Christians’ following Christ’s example by being imitators of Him in word, thought, and action would occur because of who Jesus made them to be upon their belief in Him. He would enable them to do these things for the sake of God’s kingdom by His filling them with His Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Christians will desire to imitate Christ because of their love for God and for all people.

Blessed are the children of God. They will experience persecution, slander, and sometimes death, yet, see God. Yes, thought that young lady. No matter what I will face as I imitate Christ, I will see God. My greatest blessing is God Himself.

 “Be imitators of God as beloved children, and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:1-2 [NASB])

It's not too Small a Thing

 

Jesus answered and said to him [Peter], “What I do you do not realize now, but you will understand hereafter.” Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” (John 13:7-8 [NASB])

            When we read John 13:1-17, we realize Jesus, God’s Son, did not consider himself too exalted to do the lowest of tasks-washing dirty feet. He took off his outer tunic and wore just what a servant would and wrapped a towel around his waist as a servant would. Next, he knelt beside Peter to put his foot in the basin and wash and dry it. Peter and the other disciples recognized this action for what it was, a servant’s duty. To him, Jesus was Teacher and Lord (vs 13). Jesus wanted His disciples to see He was more than what they thought they knew about Him. Yes, He is God’s Son and is divine. Jesus also humbled Himself to come down to earth from His throne in heaven, to be incarnate. Paul spoke of this humility of Jesus in Philippians 2:6-7. Jesus made sure the disciples realized His work comprised more than just being recognized as a Teacher and the Lord, the Son of God. His life was to be a humble servant to the Father and humanity so each person would come to know Him as his or her Savior.

            Isaiah in Isaiah 49:1-13 recognized the different facets of the Messiah. Through Isaiah, the Messiah prophesied of His coming humility by birth as a human (vs. 1). He would come to speak the words of God with protection from the shadow of His hand (vs. 2). Jesus would come to toil as if in vain to bring Israel back to God (vs. 4-5). God deemed His Son’s work too important for just the Israelites. The Messiah said He would be a light to all nations. He would come to speak for God and toil for His purposes so all may see the Light of God and come to know Him as their Redeemer (vs 6-7a). Though the Messiah said He people would despise and abhor Him, He would serve people. Kings would rise to their feet and princes would bow to Him because the LORD God chose Him (vs. 7). He said He would release the captive, bring light to those in darkness, feed the hungry, and give drink for the thirsty (vs. 9-10). Jesus the Messiah would make the roads straight and people would come from near and far to be with Him (vs. 11-12).

            Jesus prophesied through Isaiah that He would come to earth for the Israelites to restore them to God. He said He would come for people everywhere, too. Jesus’ ministry on earth was almost exclusively to Israelites. Yet, we know He came for each person who lived during and after His life on earth. Jesus gave the Great Commission to His disciples saying, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19 [NASB]). In Acts 1:8, Luke wrote what Jesus told them in the upper room. He said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

John, in John 13:1-17, told of Jesus preparing His disciples for ministry beyond what they understood. He prepared them to be like Him. Isaiah 49:1-13 foretold the Messiah’s work on earth-speaking to and toiling as a servant for the people of Israel and other nations to receive salvation. Jesus came to serve the Father. That required being a servant for people, too. Jesus showed this to His disciples while He walked with them. He healed, taught, fed, proclaimed, and raised the dead. For the disciples, He did the miraculous. How else could a poor carpenter’s son have taught with authority, though uneducated? How could he have done miracles of healing, feeding, and raising people from the dead? With John 13, Jesus showed His disciples a deeper understanding of His miraculousness. He came to serve, to cleanse people-from dirt and from sins. Jesus served in whatever way was necessary so each person would come to know Him, believe in Him, and receive salvation from sin and death. Jesus modeled this to His disciples. He instilled righteous leadership with righteous servanthood. Jesus instilled servanthood with righteousness so they could be His leaders, too. Only through the righteousness of Christ imparted in each believer through the Holy Spirit can a person fulfill God’s purposes as God foretold in Isaiah 49, Luke shared in Acts 1, and Jesus lived as relayed by Paul in Philippians 2. A servant cannot be greater than the Master and the one who is sent cannot be greater than the One who sent him. Yet, a servant and a leader can live the life of a Christian by Jesus’ Spirit living within them upon faith in Him for salvation.

            It took Jesus, incarnated and fully divine, to transform the actions of people to always be actions of righteous service. Without His indwelling a person, righteous serving cannot happen. It took divine Jesus to redeem serving and leading so they would be useful for God’s purposes. It was too small a thing for Jesus to come just to save Israel (Isaiah 49:6). Just as it was too small a thing for Him to come to redeem only one aspect of life. Jesus came to redeem each person wholly, including each action. He came to redeem every action, bringing it back into alignment with God’s purpose. God’s purpose is that we glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. His purpose is that we live in an eternal, loving, and righteous relationship with Him. It is not too small a thing for us to live righteously and tell other people about Jesus. It has everlasting consequences.

“Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:5-11 [NASB])

Is there something you think is beneath you?

If you think that, then you have not had your feet washed by Jesus.

Feet of Faith

“We hope that your faith will grow so that the boundaries of our work among you will be extended. Then we will be able to go and preach the Good News in other places far beyond you, where no one else is working.” (2 Corinthians 10:15b-16a [NLT])

In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul taught about false teachers who sought followers. One way these teachers gave for people to consider them worthy to heed was by declaring how many followers they had. Paul countered this by saying in verse eighteen, “When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them.”

In this chapter, Paul told the Corinthians his hope was for their faith to grow so he could go out farther in the mission field to tell other people the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This statement leads us to consider a few things. Paul cared enough for the Corinthians that he wanted to make sure they had a firmly established faith before he left them. He did not want to leave too early and then these new Christians succumb to the deceptions of Satan through false teachers. Paul wanted to make sure the Corinthians understood their salvation by faith in Jesus Christ through God’s grace is enough. He cared that they stood strong in the faith even when other teachers tried to convince them of their own greatness and “prove” their legitimacy. Paul wanted to make sure the Corinthians could stand firm in their faith.

With verses fifteen and sixteen, Paul showed he desired for other people along with the Corinthians to know about Jesus so they, too, might believe in Him and receive salvation from sin and death. He did not sit back, pat himself on the back, and decide he had completed his task from God. Paul did not consider rest his goal but taking the Gospel to each unbelieving person. His goal was to be a bondservant to Christ, experience His mighty power, suffer with Him, share in His death, and experience the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11 [NLT]). Paul’s job as a servant and redeemed child of God was to tell everyone the Gospel, not just the Corinthians. He desired to go as far as Rome and then onward. Paul said further in Philippians 3:12, his goal was to “press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.” He only stopped preaching and teaching when he died. The only commendation Paul sought was from the Lord. God’s commendation of him was the important thing (2 Corinthians 10:18).

How does this relate to us? Why are these verses important for us today? We need to consider if we have grown in our faith or if we have stagnated. Have we listened to the Gospel, believed in Jesus Christ, heard God tell us His task for us, and obediently begun doing as He told us? Being obedient to God requires our continued growth in knowledge of and relationship with Him. It requires daily communing with and obeying Him. This growth was so important that Paul did not want to leave the Corinthians and go further abroad without ensuring they could withstand the fiery darts and arrows of the evil one (Ephesians 6:16). How is your faith? Is it growing? Stagnating? Non-existent?

The other thing important for us to understand in these verses is, like Paul, obeying God in one task does not mean we completed His commission of us. Paul heard Jesus tell him He sent him to the Gentiles. Gentiles, plural. Gentiles are all non-Jews. Every city, village, or town outside Israel that was Gentile. Paul’s task was to keep on proclaiming the Gospel to the Gentiles and anyone who would listen. Like Paul, when God tells us to tell other people the Gospel, we have not completed the task the moment we speak the last word of our Gospel testimony to one person or group of people. We do not get to erase that task from our mental whiteboard. Jesus sent His disciples to the world to share the Gospel, make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey everything He commanded them (Matthew 28:16-20). Only upon the death of a disciple is his or her job on earth done. Are you eagerly training the newest converts and growing them to share the Gospel so you can go out further and share the Gospel with more people, too?

In this brief passage, we see Paul’s heart. He cared for the new believers enough not to leave them inadequately prepared to stand against false teachers. Paul taught them until they had a firm foundation in Christ. He desired to continue carrying out Jesus’ commission to him, too. Paul eagerly desired to tell more people about the salvation Jesus Christ gives to anyone who would believe in Him and who would confess and repent of his or her sins. He loved God with his whole being. Paul loved people because of the love Jesus put into his heart. He did not want anyone to die without knowing Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.

Paul got it right; he loved God and loved his neighbor, even if that neighbor lived a two-week boat journey away. He acted upon the love Jesus put in his heart. Paul obeyed the commission Jesus gave him. His obedience to Him showed his love for Him and the people Jesus loved. What does your life show? Does it show your love for God? Are you obeying the commission God has for you? Do you love other people enough to care about their eternal salvation? Have you considered what others would say of your faith when you die? Would they say, “He/she must have hated those people a lot because he/she did not tell them about Jesus, and they were his/her neighbors?”  

Now is the time to look earnestly at your heart, spirit, and mind to decide how deeply you love God.  Are you mature enough to stand on your feet of faith so your own teacher can tell other people about Jesus? Are you mature enough in your faith so you can begin fulfilling the great commission of Jesus with your life because of your love for Him? Do you love your neighbors enough to tell them the Gospel?

“When people commend themselves, it doesn’t count for much. The important thing is for the Lord to commend them.” (2 Corinthians 10:18 [NLT])

Desire and Salvation

“Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured; for all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow?” (2 Samuel 23:5 [NASB])

“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” (Colossians 2:6 [NASB])

After reading these two passages, you might wonder what God teaches from both that is a commonality weaving them together. Remember, every book and passage in the Bible has one commonality.  The thing in common is God - who He is, and what He has done, is doing, and will do.

Consider 2 Samuel 23, David’s last words before his death. He began by declaring an oracle, like a prophet, that these are his last words, then emphatically made his point with four descriptors of himself in relationship to God that could not have been if he had not made God his LORD. David said he is the son of Jesse. His Hebrew ancestry traces back to Abraham through Judah, and to Ruth, the Moabitess God considered righteous because she followed the God of Naomi, her Hebrew mother-in-law, into Canaan. He had covenant ancestry, meaning he is part of the tribe God has chosen, and he made God His LORD by His choice. David continued by saying he was “raised on high” and was “the anointed of the God of Jacob.” Literally, God raised David from the status of being a common man, a shepherd, and made him the king of His people, Israel. As king of Israel, God anointed David to be the one who would lead His people to act righteous, as God is righteous, representing Him on earth. David concluded by saying he was the psalmist of Israel, the one who would lead His chosen people to testify about God and praise Him in word and action by testifying and praising Him himself. David recognized his covenant connection with Yahweh through his ancestry. He confirmed his God-chosen connection with Yahweh through His anointing of him and raising him to the throne over His covenant people. Finally, David reminisced of his intimate relationship with God through his psalms. His relationship with God spoke of how each believer can relate to God.

David continued by proclaiming his “last words,” this oracle, came from God in 2 Samuel 23:2. He said, by His Spirit, Yahweh’s words were on his tongue. Next, David emphasized who Yahweh is, the God of Israel (the Covenant-maker) and the One who is the Rock of Israel (faithful, steady, and strong). This Covenant-maker, faithful, and strong God is the One who chose the Hebrews, anointed for them a king, and provided for them a psalmist to lead them to remember, revere, and worship Him alone.

God’s oracle through David told about the people who God chose; they are faithful to Him and revere Him. They are like David. The chosen of God are righteous and fear God with awe and reverence (vs. 3b). They show God’s righteousness by living righteous lives empowered by God. These children of God are like the light of morning when the sun rises with no clouds in the sky after a rain and the grass rises from the ground (vs. 4). They radiate their faith and trust in God. The people of God radiate Him with their lives like the God-chosen and God-anointed psalmist and righteous king of Israel. They shine God’s radiant glory through their spirit and lives. Visible in the Israelites lives is King David’s relationship with God.

David explained how God worked in his life as His righteous man and king. God made an unending covenant with him. He promised David’s kingdom would never end. Jesus the eternal King, the descendent of David and the Son of God who reigns forever, shows God faithfulness to His covenant with David. David confirmed his faith in God’s fulfilling His covenant with him when he said, “He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured” (2 Samuel 23:5 [NASB]) God set forth and made a legally binding covenant with David, unlike the old covenant with Moses, and kept and secured it (vs. 5). He is always faithful to His promises. God kept this covenant with him through His coming Messiah, Jesus. At the end, this righteous psalmist and anointed king of Yahweh declared God would provide for his salvation and his desires (vs. 5b). God would do it because of His faithfulness and would make it grow. He, through David, emphasized this by asking a rhetorical question with his last words in verse five. God would make David complete and perfect with the full salvation He can offer. He provided for David’s soul to be with Him eternally, just as He provided for his natural body during his life. David trusted God completely and explicitly. His final words prophesied of the Messiah to come and he trusted in God to keep this covenant promise. David’s life presaged the life of the Messiah, who fulfilled the old covenant and brought in the new covenant with God, who God raised on high and anointed to be the righteous King for eternity, and who led the people of God to testify in action and praise about who God is. David looked forward to the Messiah and King. David had been the admired king of the Israelites. God’s people would look to the King from David’s line, Jesus Christ, fulfilled prophecy from God as the epitome of how to be in relationship with God.

Contrasted to this righteous, faithful, trusting, radiant servant and child of God are those who are not such in verses six and seven. God, through David, said unrighteous, unfaithful, untrusting, self-serving people are “worthless.” He instructed His people to “thrust them away like thorns, because they cannot be taken in hand” (vs. 6-7). God’s people must keep these wicked people from influencing their lives on earth. God will keep them from His kingdom because of their lack of faith in the Messiah and the surety of His covenant to David. He, through David, compared them to thorns which only draw blood but have no fruit. These, God said, will burn as rubbish because their wickedness proves they are not God’s people and because they bear no good fruit. When living among and working with wicked people, God’s people must not touch them, but keep them the distance of a rake or spear shaft’s length away so they will not prick and trick them to heed and follow them. Paul said in Colossians 2:8, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” Wicked people try to trick people into following them instead of God. They declare human deceitful philosophies and false teachings. Thorns are not part of God’s plan of salvation and have no place in God’s kingdom.

This oracle from God through him was David’s personal testimony of his life with God. For David, God’s presence and activity in and around his life led to testifying about Him. Testimony serves two primary purposes – to tell people about God, His works, and His promises (covenant) and to praise Him. Testimony can lead people to know Him personally. Like David’s psalms, this oracle from God serves to testify to people about who God is, what He has done, and what He promises, and to lead them to want to know Him personally. This, David’s last testimony, is a prophecy of the Messiah God will send. It foretells, just as the prophets did, of God’s fulfilling His covenant to and through David to the Israelites and to all people as their God. David was a shepherd and psalmist whom God raised to lead people to Him with his life and testimony. God’s people today, Christians, are ones whom God raised to lead people to Him with their lives and testimonies. David’s testimony about God was that He is faithful to His covenants and His promises. He testified God is his strength, protector, and provider. David believed He would provide for his daily needs, his desires, and, through the revelation of the Messiah, his eternal need, salvation (2 Samuel 23:5). He tuned his heart to God’s. David’s ultimate desires were that God give him salvation and his life give glory to Him. Though David’s flesh led him into sin (thorns), he desired God more than anything. David repented of his sins and sought the God of His heart, mind, and soul. He chose God over the thorns and turned to Him repeatedly. David’s life and last words declared God and his eternal trust and faith in Him.

Like David, Christians can live testifying about God and praising Him. God’s covenant promises are for each person. He wants and provides for him or her to become part of His chosen people. God does not want anyone to die eternally separated from Him. Anyone can be righteous because God sent Jesus the Messiah to make him or her clean, holy, and right with Him when they believe in Jesus as the Son of God. As a follower of Jesus, a believer can live a life in reverence and awe of God. He or she can be like the morning sun rising upon cloudless skies. The Light (Jesus) in a person can lead the new grass to spring up toward Him. Each Christian can lead people to know Him through His light in him or her so people can arise and praise Him, too. God kept His promise to David. David believed in God. God counted it to him as righteousness.

Each person who knows Jesus as Savior can identify with David’s ways of relating to God. Believers can know God as David knew Him. He or she has a covenant ancestry with Yahweh through Jesus by choosing to believe in Jesus as God’s Son, the Savior. God changes and raises on high each person from his or her fleshly self to a child of God, a child of the King, part of His people. He lifts each believer up out of the morass of his or her sins and away from Satan to lead him or her to Him and strengthen him or her with His truths. Like God anointed David from Jacob’s line to lead His people righteously, He anoints each of His children, by salvation through Jesus Christ, to act righteously on earth, representing Him. God calls each Christian to be the psalmist for his or her people. The psalmist testifies in word, action, and song about Jesus Christ and of his or her intimate relationship with the God through Christ. He or she tells of who God is, what He has done, and that God wants to be in a loving relationship with the person and how He has provided a way for that relationship. Like King David of the Old Testament, God’s people have at least four roles and as they live these out, an intimacy grows between that Christian and God. No one is like Christ, but we can be like David, in a righteous and intimate relationship with God. The words of Paul in Colossians 2:6-7 aptly describe this relationship and its growth, from being firmly rooted in Christ to overflowing with gratitude.

“Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude.” (Colossians 2:6-7 [NASB])

            Each person must decide if he or she will let God be his or her Lord, if he or she will become part of the lineage of faith like David. God will anoint believers to proclaim Him with righteousness, reverence, and awe. This makes it possible for them to arise and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus to others. The Light of Jesus (the sun of a cloudless sky) that flows through believers from His Spirit living in them attracts people to Him like the “tender grass springs out of the earth” (2 Samuel 23:4).  Christians should “walk in Him,” as Paul said in Colossians 2:6-7, since they have been firmly rooted in Christ and are being built up in Him. They must be establishing their faith and overflowing with gratitude so other people will know about Jesus Christ and seek to be in a personal and saving relationship with Him. David’s life with God sets an example for a Christian relationship with Him (2 Samuel 23:1). Paul challenges each Christian to “walk with Him” because Jesus laid the foundation for their faith. Have a relationship with God like David did, one of covenant-faith, anointed and chosen, and proclaiming the Lord.

As David realized and “declared” (testified) with his last words, we must decide if we will testify about Jesus, who provides salvation and our heart’s desires. As David matured, God’s desires became his desires. He realized God provided all he truly desired – a relationship with Him. This right relationship with God is salvation, freely given by His grace through His Son, Jesus. Notice, in 2 Samuel 23:13-17, the life of David’s men and his own sacrifice to God was more important than drinking water from Bethlehem’s well. Bethlehem was the place where he began life in covenant relationship with God. David’s birth city was where he was shepherd and psalmist, and from where God raised and anointed him as His king chosen for His people, Israel. David’s deepest desire was to serve God and to show this testimony of his absolute dependence and devotion to Him. He did this by pouring out the desired earthly water from Bethlehem’s well as a sacrifice of his desires to God’s desires. By this, David’s desires were God’s desires, oneness in heart, mind, and spirit.

God calls to each person to receive His saving grace. He chooses us to receive it but are not part of God’s family until we accept His grace and forgiveness and believe in Jesus Christ.

Are you walking in Him as one who has received Christ Jesus?

Walk in Him.

Love with a Pure Heart

“Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart.” (1 Peter 1:22 [NASB])

Peter, when he wrote his letter to the Christians of Asia Minor, which is Turkey today, did not, with the beginning clause, say they could love fervently in their own strength. He understood the sin nature of each person. Peter knew no person was holy, but all are sinners. This means each person could love no other person with the fervency and purity of God without being changed by faith in Jesus Christ. A person loves oneself more than other people. Still, Peter did not say it was impossible to love with a pure heart. Instead, Peter reminded these Christians how they could understand they could love fervently from their hearts.

Peter, in this chapter, appears to give many commands on how to be a Christian and assurances to realize one is a Christian. Yet, if we carefully read the complex sentences of this chapter, we will understand how we can know we have a pure heart with which to love other believers. Going backwards up the verses in the chapter, Peter said believers have their hope, conduct, and faith in God.

How can people realize their hope is in God? From verses twenty to twenty-one, Peter listed ways a person can recognize this in themselves. He said if a person believes in Jesus Christ as the Savior sent from God as planned from the foundation of the world, and that God raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, then you can know your faith and hope are in God. Because this believing person is in a faith relationship with God because of Jesus, the person is being made more into the likeness of Jesus and has the love of God living in him or her.

Notice, within verses seventeen through nineteen, Peter wrote about a second attribute of Christians. Peter said believers conduct themselves in reverent fear of God while on earth because Jesus purified them with something more precious than gold or silver. Christians act and think right because of the reverent fear/awe they have for God, because He is righteous and judges fairly. Jesus purified them with His own blood by dying for their sins. His great love gave the greatest sacrifice. Christian lives should copy Jesus’ love. They can show His love through the power of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. A Christian conducts his or her life in a way that reflects Jesus, His love and sacrifice for God and other believers.

Peter said people can be holy because Jesus, their Savior, is holy (vs. 16). Verses thirteen through sixteen remind the Christians in Asia Minor of the holiness, purification, Jesus gives each person who believes in Him. Believers can, with the Spirit’s help, prepare their minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix their hope completely on the grace Jesus gave to them at His revelation, and conform themselves into the image of Christ. By Jesus, they will be holy in their behavior. Holy behavior is living as Christ lived, in love and service to people. People who live like Jesus, act upon the faith God gave them to believe in Jesus Christ for their salvation and have His Spirit in them to transform them into His image and exuding His attributes. Holy living expresses itself in pure and fervent love.

Peter explained this hope, reverent conduct, and holiness given by belief in Jesus Christ enable believers to love each other. These attitudes and actions come from Jesus’ attributes. Since these Christians to whom Peter wrote obeyed the truth and had their souls purified by faith in Jesus, they had available within them the capacity to love brethren sincerely. Pure (holy) and fervent love from their heart occurred because they were born again through Jesus. John reiterated this in 1 John 4:7-14 when he wrote Jesus enables believers to love each other because love comes from God.

John, in 1 John 4:9-10, leads us to understand more about God’s love. He said because of God’s love, He sent His Son into the world “that we might live through Him.” God loves people before they love Him. He showed it by sending His love to all people through Christ. Jesus’ love is not just for believers. His love is for all people. Jesus died for all people. John stated this in John 3:16 when he said, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.” [NASB] Jesus loves all people. As His disciples, Christians have this same attribute of love from Jesus. Believers are to love all people. Just as Jesus’ love is pure and fervent, the love each Christian has from God to love other people is pure and fervent.

As children of God, Christians are to love fervently, passionately, and purely. They can do this because their faith in Jesus purified them, made them holy (1 Peter 1:13-16). Just as He is holy, He makes believers holy. Christians live in reverent awe of God, the one who redeemed them with His Son’s own blood as the sacrifice for their sins. Because of this great love of Jesus, they can love others with the love that flows from Him to them through His indwelling Holy Spirit. Christians can love all people because of their hope in God. Because they know God loves them, which they will see when Jesus returns to take them to His kingdom, they can show this unending love they received from Christ to all people. Peter explained each of these three points in 1 Peter 1:22-23.

“Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is through the living and enduring word of God.” (1 Peter 1:22-23 [NASB])

Jesus came to the world to save all who would believe in Him. John 3:16 explains that. Jesus’ standard of love is the standard for each person who lives. This love is sincere and fervent and based on holiness, faith, and hope. It comes from the source of love, God. Love is one of God’s attributes. What should the extent of our love be? Jesus’ life and death modeled the answer to that question. He taught His disciples about it. Jesus said in John 15:12-13, “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” [NASB] Should anyone read John 15:13 to mean Jesus said to love Christians only, Matthew 22:37-39 records Jesus’ deeper understanding of love. He said in these verses, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Jesus loved and still loves fervently. Nothing can separate people from His love. Jesus loves purely. He is holy and no evil taints His love. Jesus loves completely, to the giving of His life so others can live. He gives each Christian, through His Spirit who dwells in him or her, His superabundant love so they can live out His love by loving each person they meet. Jesus does not restrict His love to certain people because of their skin color, politics, accent, physical attributes, income, health, education, or any human-defining category. God makes each person in His image. Jesus came to love and redeem all of us.

Jesus’ love is fervent, holy, and unending.

Our love for all people should be the same.

Jesus makes it possible for people to love as He loves by their becoming His disciples. Will you accept the redemption for your sins He offers to you? Today is your time to think about how you live life. Do you love all people equally without prejudice and stereotypes? Jesus does. He died for every person who has lived to give unending love and salvation to them. Jesus loves you and died for you. What will you say to Him today?