Joy despite Trials

 

Consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. (James 1: 2-3)

Consider it absolutely God’s favor and grace given to you, showing that He loves you enough to grow and strengthen you in your faith by allowing trials to come against you. God loves you and wants you to grow to be more like Jesus, who is righteous/pure. So, let God purify you in the fires of trials, like gold is purified through fire.

The growth of your faith from trials will build perseverance. This perseverance is God making you able to endure under challenges He allows in your life. It can be a cheerful endurance because you know God is FOR you. He does not give you more than you can endure, for He is faithful to you. And when you experience trials and temptations, God will show you a way through it so you can patiently bear and endure (1Corinthians 10:13).

You will grow stronger with God. Perseverance is a gift from God because He loves you. So, consider trials as joy because God is with you and is growing you.

You will be victorious with God’s guidance, power, and strength as you confront temptations and evil.

You can persevere with God.

Consider it joy that God loves you and grows you to be like Jesus and to be a victor over evil, temptations, and trials in life.

Consider it Joy that God is FOR you, not against you.

Consider it JOY that you are

Chosen

Saved

Loved

Reflection and Reaction

 

“You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.”

— John 15:3

 

Why would Jesus change metaphors here? First, He speaks about pruning then cleaning then returns to the vine image. 

 

In this passage, pruning the vine means removing the portions that aren’t producing fruit either because it’s dying because it’s not connected to its original source or because that portion of the vine (the branch) is producing bitter fruit not sweet. 

 

Jesus, when He said, “You are already clean,” means two things and they are both the same. The first obvious sense of the metaphor is that He meant, “Because of your faith in Me, you are cleansed from your sins.” That is the easy, obvious understanding. Each Gospel writer uses this analogy. And here, Jesus still means that, but why mix the metaphors?

 

So why did Jesus seem to mix His metaphors in this passage. The vine is pruned to remove that which isn’t producing or growing like the vine. When Jesus used the “clean” analogy, He referred to the same process of salvation. Just as removing the dead, non-producing, or bitter producing branches removes any negative admixture to the produce, cleansing a person through salvation removes any admixture in a person of his/her old way of life. That old way of living would taint the spiritual fruit of his/her life from his/her past bitter, sinful way of living. It would cause the fruit of the person’s new saved life not to reflect the sweetness of Jesus. 

 

The pruning and cleansing metaphors both were very understandable to the people of Jesus’ time. The people could relate, reflect, and then react to Jesus’ message because it made sense to their first century Middle eastern lives. Pruning and cleansing are about removing from the believer any admixture from their old life that would taint, make bitter, or dirty his/her new life, which should show only the fruits that come from living a Christlike life indwelled by the Holy Spirit.

 

Does your life reflect only Jesus? Are there shoots or fruit in your life that are bitter, tainted, or dead that don’t produce sweet and pure fruit that reflect the new life Jesus gave you? Of what do you need to confess to God and repent? Each of us have shoots and fruit that need pruning because we each sin. You are not alone.

Have Hope

 

 

“And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.”

— Romans 8:11

 

Notice the dependent clause at the beginning of this sentence, “If the Spirit lives in you.” This statement doesn’t say, “if the Spirit can raise Jesus from death.” That happened; it’s a certainty. It says if you have believed in Jesus as your Savior, only then can you know without doubt the Spirit lives in you. 

 

With this understanding, let’s read that clause again, “And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus lives in you.” The Spirit of God raised Jesus and, since you believe in Jesus, you have been saved by Him. So, His Spirit lives in you. 

 

That dependent clause sets the stage for the truth Paul taught to the Christians of Rome in verse 11. He wrote, ““He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.” Just as the Spirit brought back to life Jesus’ mortal body—and thereafter Jesus lives His divine provenance of eternal life since He is Deity—He will give that same life, eternal life, to you. 

 

Remember, the gift of eternal life is not given to everyone. It is given by the Spirit who resides in everyone who has believed in Jesus and has been saved from the judgment his/her sins deserved—eternal separation from God, eternal death. 

 

So, in reading this verse again, “For you who believe in Jesus for salvation, the Spirit, who lives in you, raised Jesus back to life and will also give you eternal life with God.” Don’t doubt this. Your belief in Jesus with your heart, mind, soul, and strength has given you, through Jesus’ Spirit living in you, that promise and hope to hold onto; you will most definitely live with God forever. 

 

That starting dependent clause is your clause. You are dependent on Jesus. Your life is dependent. Remain depending on Him. Keep believing in Jesus. 

 

So take heart; your situation isn’t so bad. It and future hard times can never take you from God’s hands. Your hope is secured in Jesus. The Spirit who raised Jesus lives in you and will raise you to live into eternity with Him. Have hope. Keep strong in your faith. Jesus is coming back for you.

More Than Your Past

 

The king (Josiah) also desecrated the high places (the pagan shrines) that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption-the ones Solomon, king of Israel, had built for Ashtoreth, the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh, the vile god of Moab, and for Molech, the detestable god of the people of Ammon. 2 Kings 23:13 (NIV)

Have you felt you will never overcome what you did or what someone did to you? Have you thought you will never be good enough? Everyone has considered themselves like this at least once, most people more than once. Whatever has caused you to see yourself as insignificant, tainted, and sinful, God can change and remove. Consider what happened on the Mount of Olives during Josiah’s time.

In 2 Kings 23, the writer tells us, after king Josiah read aloud the Book of the Covenant of God with the Israelites, he went to the Mount of Corruption to tear down and destroy the shrines to false gods and idols. During the reigns of his father and grandfather (Amon and Manasseh), they and the Israelites erected shrines throughout the land of Judah. They chose to believe in and offer sacrifices to the gods of other nations, just in case their God, I Am, was not the only true god. Josiah knew from his studies, belief, and relationship with the LORD God that He is the only God; no other exists.

The Mount of Corruption is the Mount of Olives. This mount is about 1 mile from the temple in Jerusalem. Josiah did not have to look far from his palace or the temple to see the corruption by shrines to idols and false gods. He removed and destroyed the shrines and poles from the temple, then walked to the Mount of Olives and did the same.

God created the Mount of Olives. He called it good. People are the ones who corrupted it, but God could make it holy again. Often God makes places holy with the help of people, like Josiah. Other times, He does it by Himself because He is the only one who can.

Just as God created the Mount of Olives, He made each person. When He created people, He said humanity was good. Over time, because of humanity’s sin nature, each person corrupts him or herself and/or considers him or herself corrupted by what other people did to him or her. God made a way for each person to be made new-to be remade and cleansed. Nothing can keep us permanently away from God, not sin, pain, abuse, rape, neglect, or anything. He has power over all these. God loves us when we consider ourselves unlovable. He desires to be in a relationship with us. Because of God’s love, He made a way for our sin and the sins others put upon us to be washed away so we can be clean and made new by Him. Jesus made this possible for each person who believes in Him as the Son of God and confesses and repents of his or her sins. We can never do enough or be good enough to earn this salvation. This salvation God offers to each person redeems us from how we consider ourselves and our sinfulness to His beloved and holy child. Jesus’ redemption He offers freely to people who believe in Him is His paying the price for our sins. He bought our freedom from sin and death.

Consider the Mount of Corruption. Josiah desecrated the shrines, poles, and land on which they stood. He redeemed the Mount for God’s purposes with His righteous indignation of destroying these shrines and idols. We see Jesus sitting on this Mount of Olives centuries after Josiah destroyed the idols. Josiah dedicated it for God’s use, not idol worship. Often Jesus taught His disciples on the Mount of Olives, called the Mount of Corruption in Josiah’s time. What God redeems; no person can blemish eternally.

Just as God created the Mount of Olives and sent His servant Josiah to give it anew to Him by desecrating the shrines, idols, and land on which they stood, so He can redeem you from your past and sins. If you have believed in Jesus Christ for salvation and the forgiveness of your sins, He redeemed you. Jesus saved you. No lies Satan or any person says about you and your past can change that. God made you and redeemed you. Paul said it this way in Romans 8:31b-39.

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all-how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died-more than that, who was raised to life-is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loves us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. [NIV]

If you have not accepted God’s love and trusted in Jesus Christ for redemption, you can today. Just pray to God saying you believe Jesus is His Son who died for your sins so you can receive salvation and forgiveness and live with Him forever. Confess your sins to Him and repent of them asking for His help not to do them again. You need only do that. Once you profess faith in Jesus and confess and repent with your whole being, God redeems you. He saves you from your past and your sins. Nothing will ever be able to separate you from God again, not your past or your future. You are more than a conqueror, more than a survivor of whatever you lived through in the past. God redeemed you, made you His own child, and consecrated you for Himself. He made you holy. He remade you and declared His recreation good.

We are more than what people have done to and with us and more than what we have done to ourselves. We can be who God sees us-cleansed, forgiven, and loved eternally. We do not have to stay a mount of corruption. We can be as God intended, like the Mount of Olives, a place He uses to show and share His love and the Gospel. God will renew-remake-us and call us good as He intended when He first created humanity. On our own, we are never enough. God makes us whole and new by the sin judgment His Son, Jesus Christ, paid for our salvation. He redeems of us from our past and sins.

Will you accept His love and redemption He freely offers to you?

Saved and Sanctified

1 Thessalonians 5 (NASB)

9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 

 23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

            In verse 9, not only does Paul say that we believers in Jesus are saved, but we are saved from wrath, God’s judgment. Paul is showing the opposite of God’s salvation, His wrath on humanity for their sin, their turning away from Him. We see God destined and planned for us not to experience His anger at our sin. Sin makes us unholy and separates us from Him and the relationship He created us to be in with Him. We see from verse 9 what God’s plan was from the beginning of the world, to give us deliverance from the sin into which our free will placed us. This deliverance comes by the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. Salvation is not something we can get for ourselves, salvation is something God has in mind for us from the beginning of the world; our life with Him was destined, but our sin stole it away. Salvation is deliverance to safety of our souls. The gift of Jesus is from God. The gift of salvation is from God. The gift of relationship is from God. There is nothing we can do to make any of this happen; salvation is from God.   

The 23^rd verse compels us to offer our whole self to God, not just a part. Often when we come to Christ, we accept with joy the gift of forgiveness of sin and eternal life, but we hold back pieces of our life. Sometimes we do this by separating our life into parts, for example school, work, church, and friends. God did not send His Son to be this sacrifice for salvation just to save part of us. Jesus did not partly die; He died completely in His human form. This is what Paul is telling the Thessalonians in this letter when he says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely.” God wants you to give Him all your life, your soul and body, your work and play, your religious times and your profane times. God wants to sanctify you completely.   

Sanctify means to be holy or set apart from profane things. How can God make us entirely holy if we do not give Him all our life? You cannot be somewhat holy. Remember what Jesus said about the cup? If the inside of the cup is clean, the wine is clean. What is on the outside does not determine cleanliness, but what is on the inside, in your spirit. God wants you to give Him every part of you, your thoughts, actions and relationships. What does this mean then? We must offer ourselves as a sacrifice, as Paul told Timothy at the end of 2 Timothy, as an offering to God. Paul said he offered himself as a drink offering to God. You have to understand, God does not ask every one of us to serve Him to the point we are arrested and killed. What He is asking us to do is give ourselves completely to God so we are willing to do just that, should the need arise, so we are willing to die for our belief in Him if the need arose. To offer ourselves completely, we must pray through each facet of our lives, give each part to God one at a time, and keep giving ourselves to Him each day and each minute.   

In these two verses, we see a progression from the moment of salvation from our sins to the journey of giving our whole selves daily to God for His purpose, being set apart for His service, being sanctified for Him. Salvation is a journey; being a Christian is a journey. Jesus did not tell His disciples just to go and make disciples. He told them to go and keep on going. Jesus told them to disciple and keep on discipling. We are to keep learning, keep, going, keep teaching, and keep growing in Christ likeness. Paul is saying offer and keep on offering, sacrifice and keep on sacrificing yourself to God so He can sanctify you entirely, your soul and body. We must each day sacrifice our desires for the purposes of God, to work wholly committed and dedicated to Him. God wants us to dedicate ourselves to Him so He can consecrate us wholly to His work and for eternity in His kingdom. This is sanctification, the giving to God all of ourselves, soul and body, so He can make us Holy, purify and consecrate us fully, for eternity. God wants us to be preserved complete, to be offered up to Him completely.   

The questions remain, have you asked God for forgiveness of your sins, all those times when you chose what you wanted and disregarded what God wanted? Have you accepted His gift of salvation from your sins? Do you offer to God daily a sacrifice of your whole self, body and soul, work, church, school, and play? Finally, if you do, accept His sanctifying power to dedicate you exclusively to Himself and His service and to preserve you to live in His kingdom and to be in His presence forever. Be set aside and consecrated, be devoted and dedicated, solely for God and for your God-given fulfillment.

Definitions: 

Salvation – a preservation of self; a deliverance from our sinful self; that which concludes to the soul’s safety or salvation; complete deliverance of the spirit, soul and body.

Sanctify - to render or acknowledge, or to be venerable or hallow, to separate from profane things and dedicate to God; consecrate things to God; dedicate people to God; to purify; to cleanse externally; to purify by expiation: free from the guilt of sin; to purify internally by renewing of the soul.

Entirely – perfectly and completely.

Preserved - to attend to carefully, take care of; to guard; metaphor  to keep, one in the state in which he is; to observe; to reserve: to undergo something.