The Contest and Crown

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. Everyone who competes in the games trains with strict discipline. They do it for a crown that is perishable, but we do it for a crown that is imperishable. Therefore, I do not run aimlessly; I do not fight like I am beating the air. No, I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, BSB)

Paul wrote to the Corinthian church to encourage them to continue in their faith and remember God called them to Himself. He urged Christians to understand that being a Christian is not trivial, but a lifelong commitment. Paul taught them being a Christian requires discipline and encouraged them by reminding them of their eternal hope.

Paul used the metaphor of an athlete competing in a big race, like the games held every two years near Corinth. He reminded the church they cannot take their faith casually and not prepare for the contests. Like an athlete must exercise self-control of his body, mind, and heart, Paul said Christians must be self-controlled and disciplined to fight the battles that will besiege them. By training his body through strict habits and competitions, an athlete subjects his body to his will. Paul taught Christians must prepare themselves with spiritual disciplines that become habits to prepare for battles against temptations, trials, and forces of darkness. He meant each follower of Jesus will face contests to his faith, which can affect his body, heart, mind, and spirit. Therefore, each believer must prepare himself with spiritual disciplines/training, such as reading the Bible daily, memorizing and meditating on it, praying, fellowshipping, and worshipping with other believers, and standing up for his faith. Besides preparing for battle, each trial and/or temptation can grow the Christian and strengthen him. Those battles will make him ready for the next contest.

Living life as a Christian means the person does more than believe. He does not “beat at the air” without affect but strives, with training, to grow closer to God and emulate Jesus. Growing closer to God and becoming more like Jesus happens by following the spiritual disciplines mentioned in the above paragraph. When Christian growth through training happens, the believer gains a greater trust in God—a deeper faith. He fights battles with God’s strength and stands firm in his faith. The runner trains for the contest by subjecting his body to his will.

Discipline yourself. Subject it to your will, which you subject to God, and run the race strongly. By doing this, you will not fall short of the goal. You will not fail morally. Your testimony about God and the salvation He gives will prevail. Your faith in Jesus will inspire others to seek and to know Him as their Savior.

Remember, instead of getting a perishable crown, you receive the crown of life. Though thorny, like Jesus’ crown, your crown identifies you as being one with Christ. The thorns are the persecutions and temptations you endure and conquer, just as Jesus endured persecuted and tempted to conquer sin and death. By this, all who believe in Jesus become saved from sin and death. You, because of battling temptations and trials for your faith, will be identified with Christ. You will receive the imperishable crown as your reward from God, like Jesus’ imperishable crown, just as Paul wrote.

The contests—trails and persecutions of life—will occur throughout a person’s life. The ability to be victorious against them comes from going through them with God while receiving God’s power, wisdom, knowledge, and might. Having these with which to battle requires that the Christian discipline himself so he grows closer to God. By disciplining himself with prayer, meditating on and memorizing God’s word, studying the Bible, and attending worship services, the Christian draws close to God and immediately calls out to Him to be with and equip him for each battle he faces. The Christian, as a believer, has the imperishable wreath. He is God’s forgiven, saved child. With God, the struggles of life are conquerable. Christians have God with and for them, which makes the difference in their life journey.

If given the opportunity, many individuals would avoid engaging in contests of will, mind, heart, body, and spirit. Yet, we Christians have God’s mandate to tell everyone about Jesus so all believers can receive salvation. We have God’s promise that He will never leave or forsake us. Being able to live with and obey God daily with the joy and peace He gives makes the battles we face worth the cost. Our testimonies about God matter, regardless of the cost. Did anyone believe in Jesus because of your actions or words? If someone believes in Jesus and is saved from their sins, then the contests are worth the cost. Paul spoke of this in Acts 20:24. He wrote,

“But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of God’s grace.”

How we face contests/challenges to our faith is important. Will our lives testify about God and His gospel? Or will our lives push people farther away from God? Facing hardships as a Christian is worthwhile to testify about God. The thorny, imperishable crown is worth the effort in life. Jesus considered it to be true and became the preeminent example. He died to save each person who believes in Him and confesses and repents of his sins. You will face contests as a Christian. The challenges are worth the cost of obeying God to spread the gospel. The crown is worth the contest and cost you will face.

Believe and receive the imperishable crown.

Be victorious in contests and live as a champion of the faith.

 

Receive Power

 

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

This power Christians receive, about which Jesus spoke and Luke wrote, is nothing they can manufacture for themselves. Notice the verb “will receive.” The power comes from the Holy Spirit (God). God gives it freely to Christians. This power is part of God’s power and provides believers with the ability to do what God tells them. God gives the ability to do what He commands. This power is part of God’s ability; He can do anything and everything.

With the power of God in them given by God Himself, what was Jesus’ command to His followers? Jesus said Christians are to be witnesses. Witnesses see and hear what God does and says. Witnesses can attest to God's actions and words. Their statements—testimonies—give credence and more power (more punch) so people are more inclined towards believing about God and believing in Jesus.

In Acts 1:8, Luke recorded when Jesus said the Holy Spirit will give Christians the power and ability to serve Jesus by testifying about Him. God expects and empowers believers to hear, see, obey, and then tell other people about Jesus. He compels them by the Holy Spirit, who lives within them, to tell other people. As Christians grow closer to God, it becomes harder to disobey God—His conviction through the Holy Spirit and power within them—and their love for Jesus. Love for God (Father, Son, and Spirit) compels Christians to obey, act, and say what Gods commands, compels, and empowers them to do with His ability.

Understanding that the command, compulsion, and power to obey comes from God makes it easier for the believer to tell whom and go to wherever He leads easier. Love for God makes it easier each day to go further from our safe space, from family, and from friends. That love for God and from Him makes it possible to go far to be a witness about God and the gospel. It helps believers realize no matter where they are, God is already there and always with them. Going far away is easier when your love for God is greater than your love for yourself, your dreams and plans, your parents, siblings, grandparents, and your friends. When God is your everything, He becomes closer to you than these people and things; He becomes mother, father, brother, sister, and friend in your heart. A Christian does not leave these behind but finds that love for God fulfills the love you need.

This means going to your city (Jerusalem), your state (Judea), your country (elsewhere in your country, like Samaria), and the world are easier because of your love for God and His for you. Going and telling is easier because God empowers you with His ability. Witnessing about God is easier because no doubt exists in your mind that God compels and sends you. Obeying is easier because God’s love in you causes you to love the people you have not yet met. God’s love in you gives you immeasurable concern for their spiritual eternity and their lostness—lack of salvation and lack of relationship with God.

Christians’ love for God and people is immense due to their relationship with God and belief in Jesus, making sharing the gospel a necessity. You will stretch yourself so that all people listen to testimony about Jesus. Your relationship with God fulfills you completely, so you lack nothing - family, friends, home, power, purpose, hope, and future. God fulfills each of these needs; He becomes your everything.

What excuse do you allow to keep you from a greater relationship with God, a relationship that comes from obeying Him by being filled with His power and ability?

What excuse do you give for not witnessing about Jesus to people?

God wants to be everything you need. Do not let a human excuse keep you from the abundance of God and from God. Believe and bear witness about Jesus.

Proclaim Fellowship

 

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

— 1 John 1:3

 

John said he and the other disciples proclaimed, they declared openly to everyone. He testified. 

 

Unless a person has experienced something with at least one of his/her senses, it is not a testimony. It would be hearsay, which is when no personal senses are involved. John declared he had a personal testimony proving Jesus is who He said He was. 

 

Which of John’s senses witnessed Christ? John wrote of what he personally had seen with his own eyes and heard with his own ears. He probably could have testified based on touch, too. As the “beloved” disciple of Jesus, John probably hugged Jesus before His death and after His resurrection. 

 

John said he and the other disciples openly declared their testimony to whomever would listen about what they saw and heard from Jesus, the Son of God. Did the disciples proclaim to gather a following of disciples for themselves? Did they proclaim so they would receive offerings that would provide them with an income? Did these disciples of Jesus declare their testimony to become famous? No. John said they spent their lives proclaiming their testimony about what they’d seen Jesus do and how He lived and what they heard Jesus teach and preach. They proclaimed so that other people could have fellowship with them. 

 

What did John mean by having fellowship with them? “Fellowship” comes from the Greek word “koinonia”. Koinonia is the absolute bond of love and care among believers in Jesus that unites them with and for each other no matter the cost. This bond unites believers in fellowship with God and Jesus. Koinonia is absolute love for the benefit of the community corporately and individually, whether in joy or crisis or in excess or need.  Koinonia was very visibly seen in Acts 2:44-45 after Pentecost when many people believed in Jesus. Luke wrote it as follows:

 

“And all the believers were together and had all things in common; and they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all, to the extent that anyone had need.”

 

That is koinonia. Giving whatever you had to help others in need, doing whatever it takes to help. John and the other 11 disciples knew this sacrifice personally because of their fellowship with God and Christ and their witnessing of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension. These men did not only give up the right to income or a place to call home. In their decision to follow, believe in, and fellowship with Jesus, they absolutely gave up their right to their own selves. The disciples were persecuted. Many of them died in horrendous ways. John lived to an old age, but exiled from his people. Yet, he still had fellowship with God and Jesus.

 

Where do we stand in this? Do we openly declare our faith in Jesus? Do we give God the glory for the blessings we have received? Do our lives show a fellowship with God and Jesus by doing and giving whatever they request, even their blessings, for other people’s aid? Do we have an absolute bond of Christian love and care for our brothers and sisters in Christ so that what we have would be sold to help them in their need? This shows our absolute fellowship with God and Jesus. It is our living testimony of our faith in Christ and His work in us. This shows our fellowship with Him.

 

Do you have a testimony about your relationship with Jesus?

Do you openly tell it?

Do you have a koinonia fellowship with God and Jesus that causes a koinonia fellowship with and for other Christians?

 

Even to his old age in exile, John’s koinonia with Jesus led him to koinonia (fellowship) with other believers by testifying and teaching through something as simple as a letter. Do you have a heart like John, who had a heart for and like Jesus? That’s koinonia.

More Than A Drop

 

¹I will praise You, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all the marvelous things You have done. ²I will be filled with joy because of You. I will sing praises to Your name, O Most High. Psalm 9:1-2 (NLT)

      Myriads of raindrops make a river or ocean, but they are all the same. They are H₂O. Humanity is like these drops of water; it is an ocean of human beings. Like each water drop is H₂O, each person is the same. God makes each person in His image. Each person has another thing in common; God offers each person salvation. We, each, can choose Jesus or not. The person who chooses to believe in Jesus for salvation becomes different and has a lifeboat, of sorts. The one who told him or her about Jesus sits in that boat with millions of other people who have believed in Jesus for salvation. Being a Christian should involve more than just being saved from sin and death, being more than a saved water drop. It should involve telling and bringing people to the lifeboat so they can be more than one water drop among myriads. In Psalm 9:1-2, David explains this.

      In Psalm 9, David began his song with a testimony about God in verses one and two. The original Hebrew text states David said, “I confess You, LORD.” People confess (testify) to what they saw and heard, what/who they know, and of what they have been a part. David received joy by living with Yahweh as His God and by confessing Him. In this psalm, David’s confession about God came from the joy he received because of being God’s child. The joy from God, the inward attitude, expresses itself outwardly. For David, his joy expressed itself in worshiping who God is (praise) and what He has done (thanks). H expressed his inward attitude outwardly with worship and praise.

      God acts from His character, just as people act from their character. Sometimes He casts judgment and enforces truth. Other times, God provides food or protection. Upon occasion, He disciplines. God is active in our world. He did not create humanity and all creation, then sit back and watch us figure out life. God acts upon that which comes from within Himself. He loves, shows kindness, offers mercy and forgiveness, judges, disciplines, helps, protects, etc. Each of these actions comes from His character. He said in verse one, “I will tell of all the marvelous things You have done.” David was more than a drop of water. He was more than a passenger in the lifeboat. David loved God and wanted other people to learn about and love Him, too. He wanted all people to know God personally then confess praise and thanks to Him so other people would learn about Him. David said in verse two, “I will be filled with joy because of You. I will sing praises to Your name, O Most High.”

      David “confessed” about God in Psalm 9. Joy is the outward expression of confessing God. David praised God for who He is, was, and will be as his expression of the joy he received. He expressed joy to the Lord because of what He had done for him. David took joy in the Lord because he understood God’s blessings would be upon His children. He took joy because he realized God’s love, mercy, kindness, goodness, etc. forever touched the lives of His children. David received joy from the Lord because of His character. His joy sprang forth in praise and thanks to the “Most High”. David’s trust in who the Lord is sprang from his being. It caused his praise and thanks to bubble forth joyously to God and about Him so all people would learn about the LORD.

      Where are you today? Are you experiencing hard times and wonder where God is? He is right there with you. Trust in His love and goodness for you. Praise Him for who He is, what He has done in the past, and what you recognize He can do now. Testify of the hope you receive from Him because of Jesus' death and resurrection. Receive the joy that hope gives you. Expect to experience His hand in your situation. Are you experiencing wonderful times in your life? Did you praise God for His love, goodness, and provision, and thank Him with your whole being? Have you testified about His love? Have you proclaimed God is in control, He is good, and He is faithful, so other people will learn about Him? Have you received good things, claimed them for yourself, and not offered them back to God for His purposes? You may not be the person for whom He gave the gift. You may be the conduit whom God uses to help another person recognize Him and His love and goodness. This may lead that person to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior, too. Receive God’s blessings with joy and joyously share them with other people. The biggest blessing God offers to each person is salvation from his or her sins and death. Have you joyously shared about the depth of God’s love? Have you told of His deep love that willingly allowed His Son, Jesus, to die to give salvation to each person who believes?

      No matter what your situation is now, confess about God. Because of whom He is, you receive joy, then praise Him. You receive joy and show it by thanking Him for what He has done, is doing, and will do. Receive joy from God like David did. God’s not done with you. He is not finished with this world. Many still will hear from Him and receive His help. Will you be the one who confesses Him to them and shares His goodness with them? You may wonder what you can do. Realize you are more than one drop among a multitude in the ocean. Be like David. His psalm ensured people knew about God and his own relationship with Him. David was more than a drop of water. He confessed about God and His actions to each person who would listen. David did not idly and quietly sit in the lifeboat.  

Be more than one water drop in the ocean.

Be in the lifeboat confessing hope and help. 

Sing praises to the LORD who reigns in Jerusalem. Tell the world about his unforgettable deeds. Psalm 9:11 (NLT)

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?

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.

Gateway to Strength in Suffering

⁴ He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.   ⁵The more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with His comfort through Christ. ⁶ Even when we are weighted down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you.

⁹ But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. ¹⁰ And He did rescue us from mortal danger, and He will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in Him, and He will continue to rescue us. (2 Corinthians 1:4-6, 9b-10 [NLT])

Two gates are available through which you can walk freely.  One gate is partially open, and you can see green grass and flowers, but the sign says no one who has gone through this gate has survived. The second gate is closed. It has a sign on it that says all who go through this gate will live. Your choices cause you to stop and question which gate and road you should use to leave the past. Think on these gates as we study 2 Corinthians 1:1-11 and Romans 10:9-10.

Each of us knows what it feels like to live in troubling times. Some people have experienced religious persecution. Others have lived with insufficient food or a place to live. Still others experienced family and friends mocking them because of believing in a God from the past who seems irrelevant to the current day. Each of these situations are trials. God allowed trials to occur and sometimes ordains them. How we perceive them determines if we grow from them and become stronger believers in God, if we blame God, stop growing in our relationship with Him, or give up on our faith in God altogether. To get through these times, we should recall our time of coming to faith in Jesus Christ as well as recall the life of Paul and other faithful Christians throughout history who remained faithful to God despite trials. Suffering for Christ is what Paul speaks of in 2 Corinthians 1:3-11. His second letter to the Corinthians will help us grow in our faith like it did for the Corinthian church during the first century.

Paul wrote this sometimes-puzzling statement to the Corinthians in his second letter to them. The Corinthian believers had struggled through divisions and quarrels among themselves and were more unified by the time Paul wrote this letter. This second letter to the Corinthians tells us more of Paul’s life and of God’s plan for His people to help others. Paul explained his calling by Jesus to apostleship because some people considered his meekness as weakness. He wrote to help them understand he was just as important a disciple of Christ as the other disciples. Paul emphasized this point in the second letter so they would not disregard what he taught them about Jesus and living as Christians. In Paul’s clarifying his calling to the Corinthians, he told of his suffering for the cause of Christ so all people would know about the salvation Jesus gives to those who believe in and profess Him as Lord and Savior. As Paul wrote in this letter, he suffered often to share the gospel. Paul stated all who believe in Jesus and seek to live out their faith in word and deed would share in Christ’s sufferings. He taught we experience suffering for our faith for several reasons: 1. To grow our faith in and trust of God, 2. To show others our faith in God so they would believe, and 3. To teach us more about God through suffering so we can offer strength and consolation to others who also suffer for Christ. Let’s understand what Paul meant and how it relates to our salvation.

In Romans 10:9-13, Paul said

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. It is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in Him will never disgraced. Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on Him. For everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” (NLT)

To receive salvation, we must believe in our heart that Jesus is Lord and declare our faith with our lips. The action of being saved, spoken of here, comes from the Greek word sozo, which also means to be healed, preserved, and rescued. Paul specifically meant in Romans 10 to be saved from eternal death and separation from God because of our sins. In earlier parts of this passage, Paul stated Moses wrote about a righteousness that comes from the law if the Israelites had lived according to God’s laws. Yet, the laws only served to prove humanity’s unrighteousness because they are sinful. People cannot make themselves righteous. Only God’s power and mercy can make people righteous. (Romans 9). So, God made a way for people to be made just or right with Him. He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for the penalty of each person’s sins, so they would be made right with Him. People only must believe in their hearts and confess with their mouths Jesus is Lord to be saved.

To take this to 2 Corinthians 1 then, how does this correlate? Consider what Paul said in verse 9-10. He said, “We expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And He did rescue us from mortal danger and will rescue us again.” (NLT) Paul used the word “rescue” in 2 Corinthians 1 like he used the word “save” in Romans 10. God is the only One who can rescue us from sin, trials, temptations, and persecutions. As we are to testify of God’s rescuing us from sin and death by belief in Jesus with our words and actions, so we are to testify of God’s rescuing us from trials, temptations, and persecutions. Paul’s testimony in 2 Corinthians 1 stated he stopped relying on himself because he had no power to end his suffering. When he realized he was powerless, he said he relied on God who raises the dead. Just as Jesus rose from the dead, Paul stated God could rescue him from danger. Paul gave a verbal testimony to God’s saving him while on earth.

Consider Romans 10 and 2 Corinthians 1 further. Paul told the Romans to do more than trust in a God. He told them to believe in God’s Son for their salvation. This heart action of belief leads to physical action. Believers in Jesus are to profess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord-your Master and the One who rules your life. A Lord tells you where to go, what to do, and what to say. Christians are people who believe Jesus is the Son of God who died for our sins and the One whom God resurrected from the dead. They are to confess with their mouths out loud, so all people hear He is the Lord. With 2 Corinthians 1, Paul taught followers of Jesus are to live their lives obeying Him. Being a child of God requires heart and head belief that leads to professing that belief and living out one’s faith. His reliance on God to rescue him from trials and persecution gave him a physical, lived-out testimony of his faith in God to save him.

What are some reasons we are to act out our belief in Jesus Christ? Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 1? He said in verses six through seven,

 When we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us. (NLT)

We act out our belief in Jesus so others will praise God with us. (vs. 11) We act our belief, too, so other people will grow because they saw how God intervened in our lives and how we grew through it.  By acting out our belief in Jesus, people will receive comfort at God’s intervention when they face trials; they will remember God’s faithfulness and stand firm in their own faith. Besides these reasons, living out our faith will give a testimony to unbelievers about Jesus so they might give their lives to Him, too. In essence, God allows trials to grow and comfort us, and, as a domino effect, comfort and strengthen others when they go through them. Additionally, trials could lead people to Christ. Proclaiming God’s provision, saving, comforting, guiding, etc. must occur. One cannot experience these things, recognize God did them, and not proclaim about God. It’s like the Jewish understanding of “to hear”. Once you hear something, it requires an action-to act or not to act. Once God works in our lives, we are impelled to tell what He did.

One other point we must remember; God gives promises to us by which we can stand firm in our faith. We can gain strength as we remember God’s promises to His children and remember how He has helped His children in the past. The hope given because of these verses helps us to stand strong when we face trials. The verses below are a brief list of some of God’s promises.

Exodus 14:14 “The Lord Himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.”

Deuteronomy 31:6 & Hebrews 13:5 “So be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid and do not panic before them. For the LORD your God will personally go ahead of you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

Isaiah 40:29 “He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.”

Isaiah 40:31 “But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles.”

Isaiah 41:10 “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you. Don’t be discouraged, for I am your God.”

Isaiah 41:13 “For I hold you by your right hand-I, the LORD your God. And, I say to you, don’t be afraid. I am here to help you.”

Isaiah 43:2 “When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppressions, you will not be burned up; the flames will not consume you.”

Isaiah 54:17 “But in that coming day, no weapon turned again you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the LORD; their vindication will come from me. I, the LORD, have spoken!”

Matthew 11:28-30 “Then Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.’”

John 16:33 “I (Jesus) have told you all this so that you may have peace in Me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

Romans 8:17 “And since we are His children, we are heirs. In fact, together with Christ, we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering.

Romans 8:35 & 37 “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean He no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death?” ^{37 “}No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.”

1 Corinthians 10:13 “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptations to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, He will show you a way out so that you can endure.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 “All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.”

Philippians 4:19 “And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”

1 Peter 5:10 “In His kindness, God called you to share in His eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So, after you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation.”

So, what’s the point here? Obviously, the point is we will go through trials to grow us. More still, we will go through trials so other people can hear about and understand how we went through them with God’s leading, comforting, and providing a way and, thereby, grow and receive comfort themselves. Added to this, our trials serve to lead other people to Christ. As we go through these trials, we can know we are not alone, but God is with us. He promises He is with us and will give us the strength needed to get through that time.

At the start of this article, we read about two gates. Now you’ve had time to consider, which gate will you choose to open and enter? Will you open the gate that appears to promise green fields and beautiful flowers, but without assurance of life? Or, will you choose the second gate not knowing exactly where it will lead, but knowing you will live? You now realize God leads the person who enters the second gate and He will protect, provide, and guide that person. Which gate will you choose-assurance of life or seeming beauty in life?

Some people wonder why Christians would choose to follow Jesus because He seems to take the fun away from life by not allowing you to drink, do drugs, gamble, or live your life any way you want. Other people see Christians who professed faith in Jesus, but the activities of their lives haven’t changed. They wonder why they would want to become a Christian if they see no difference between that “Christians” life and their own life. Besides these, people look at obedient Jesus-following Christians who willingly change careers, move to other countries, and/or refuse to keep living their old way. They question why these Christians willingly give up good jobs, family, and fun lives just to follow a person they cannot see. These people, all people, need to see and hear our professions of faith put into action. They need to hear not just our conversion testimony, but our testimonies of how God led us through hard times, comforted us, and grew us. These watchers need to see and understand why you chose Jesus, continue to follow Him, and the results of that. Some people will never trust in Jesus. Yet, other people will after having seen the comfort, guidance, and protection God gives His children. At this point, these people will give their lives to Jesus. They will join others over generations who “give thanks because God has graciously answered so many prayers for our safety,” provision, guidance, encouragement, and growth. (2 Corinthians 1:11 [NLT]) Then these people will come to know God and grow in Him because of our faith in, professing about and obedience to God.

With God, we are assured of life.

Without God, what we see won’t be what we get.

Everybody gets to decide whether they will believe in Jesus, profess He is the Son of God, and obey Him. God loves us and gives us free will. Today, if you are not a professing Christian, you get to choose which gate you will open, the one with green fields and beautiful flowers, but no guidance or assurance, or the one with assurances Almighty God will lead, protect, provide, and comfort. If you have professed faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, but that was the last thing you did in your Christian walk, today God asks you to walk with Him, obey Him, and grow with Him. You will be rewarded in yourself and other people will receive comfort, praise God, and/or come to know Jesus as their Savior, too.

Jesus has overcome the world, so you don’t need to be afraid to live out your testimony. (John 16:33 [NLT])

No matter what we go through on earth, God will glorify His children by faith with Jesus in heaven because we are co-heirs with Him. (Romans 8:17)

In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:9 [NLT])

As for me, I choose to rely God who raises the dead.

Who will you choose to walk with through life’s easy and hard times?

Lord, you know me. I get caught up in whatever I am doing, fighting the fight and struggling, then I forget You are there for me. I struggle hard and only when I come to the last of my strength do I remember You are waiting for me to let you fight the battle with me. You are my strength. You are might rock. You said to share the yoke with You, and I forgot. Please forgive me for trying to live in my own strength. Forgive me for forgetting I don’t have to fight my battles alone. Forgive me for forgetting You. You are almighty, gracious, faithful, and loving. Nothing can defeat You. Please help me remember when I get caught up in my life You are always there for me. Thank you for loving me when I forget You or sin against You. Thank you for having a plan for me. In whom will I fear? No one, God. You are greatest of all. Amen.

Purpose, not Fear

God did this (see verses 24-26) so we would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far away from any one of us. ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ (Acts 17:27-28 [NIV])

Imagine you and a navigator use a rowboat to travel over the waters. You begin the journey with hearty conversation and begin dreaming about the future. Periodically, the navigator tells you when to veer eastward or westward. You trust him because he knows more than you, and you and he have the same agenda. After days of being in the boat with the navigator, you’ve talked all you want, and the air goes silent except for the splash of your oars as they break the surface of the water. You can’t hear the navigator, but you keep paddling. Eventually, you realize you’ve not seen anyone on the water for a long time. Then you realize you’ve not asked the navigator for directions in a long time. At that point, you understand you stopped listening to and left him and you don’t have any way to know where you are. You lose your way and become stranded on your own, then you don’t know what to do as panic rises within you.

Jesus is like the navigator of the boat. We often see Him as unnecessary for our journey, then go on our merry way. Still, as we continue, we realize we had a sure purpose and direction in life when we listened as the navigator gave directions. We realize we learned about life as we talked with Him throughout the journey. As children of God, we have a purpose in life. 

Jesus’ purpose and calling on earth was to live as the Son of God as the Son of Man to fulfill prophecies about the Messiah and become the Savior of the world by dying on the cross. Each Christian has a God-ordained purpose, too. Our purpose is to let the Son of God live and move and have His being in us (Acts 17:28) so that other people will seek Him, see Him, and come to know Him as their Savior. Our purpose as Christians is to bring glory to God by testifying about Him.

When Jesus entered the Garden of Gethsemane for the last time, He entered it already a victor because He is the Son of God. He prayed intently not to fail in His purpose of dying as the Son of Man. Jesus came to earth to die on the cross for each person to remove their sins, which caused their separation from God, and their resultant judgment. God had defeated Satan long before when He cast Satan out of heaven. As the Son of God living on earth, Jesus defeated Satan, too, during His forty days in the wilderness when he tempted Jesus, but Jesus did not yield to sin. The challenge that faced Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane was going through His crucifixion as a man, the Son of Man. Going through the agony as the Son of Man revealed He accepted the purpose God had given Him as the Son of God. His agony provided humanity the simplest way to be saved from their sins. Jesus’ greatest action, dying on the cross, provided humankind the greatest victory, victory over sin and death. Salvation through Jesus makes us co-heirs with Him in the kingdom of heaven. As such, we do need not fear what may happen to us, but instead follow in Jesus’ footsteps with His strength. The writer of the book of Romans said, “The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. And if we are children, then we are heirs: heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ-if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be glorified with Him.” (Romans 8:16-17 [BSB]) We are co-heirs with Jesus through His death and resurrection. God’s children do need not fear, but just follow Him. He has a purpose for our lives that is for our good. God will always be with us, for us, and in us.

We each face similar challenges in fulfilling the purpose of God in our lives. The greatest challenge is saying, “Yes, I will give my will, my life, my all so that the will of God can live, move, and have its being through me and in that way other people can come to know Jesus and the salvation He offers.” The challenge is do I want my will or God’s will to rule my life. This challenge comes throughout our lives as life-choice questions. Should I take the job offered to me with higher pay so I can provide more for my family, even knowing it will mean we must move and the ministry in which God has placed me will suffer? Should I seek safety and comfort closer to family offered by my employer during a perilous or pandemic time, even though the ministry in which God put me will suffer and people would turn their backs on God? Should I seek a degree in a field that offers surety of employment and good money, even if God has gifted me in the arts and has told me to get a degree in the arts? These and other life choices arise, and we must decide if we will live as a person the Son of God lives in, moves through, and in whom He has His being so other people would seek Him, see Him, and know Him as their Savior.

More is at stake than our own lives and fears when we live as the son or daughter of God. As heirs of salvation, for that is what Jesus said we, His disciples, are in Matthew 25:34 and of what Paul reminds us in Romans 8:16-17, we are the body of Christ on earth to testify about Him and God’s great love. God calls each of us to tell people about Him so those people may be saved. Jesus’ salvation was not for a few select people, but for all people. Jew, Greek, male, female, slave or free, He loves and cherishes every person. God has a purpose for where He places us and for what He tells us to do. That purpose may sometimes put us in uncomfortable situations. Thoughts may come to mind that we can find another job somewhere else. Or, our families need us to provide more money so they can do X or Y or Z. Or, surely God doesn’t want us to die far from my family?

If we seek ease, money, or health over God’s will, we hinder God’s means to reach the people to whom He wanted us to be a living testimony of Him, so they would come to know Jesus Christ as the Son of God, their Savior. This does not mean the people He wants to know about Him won’t hear about Him; it means He won’t use us to do it. Besides this, if we choose to go our own way and not God’s way, we don’t know if what we sought instead of God’s plans will occur. Perhaps a job for which we moved will not be a good “fit” for us, and our families experience more problems in that city. Or, possibly, going our own way instead of God’s will lead to an avoidable health crisis that we wouldn’t have experienced if we followed His plan. Considering factors besides ourselves, the people God meant for us to meet would not hear a testimony of Christ from us or they would think we don’t believe God can protect us. Finally, if we seek a degree that “guarantees” a good income, the people we would have met in the art world might not hear about Jesus, and the income might be too little on which to live. Making decisions based on self because of fear or personal desire will often lead us away from God’s plan and possibly into hardships against which we cannot stand by ourselves.

The purpose of Jesus’ life, the Son of God and the Son of Man, was to be our Savior through His crucifixion, the most agonizing of deaths. Similarly, the purpose of our lives, as co-heirs with Christ, is to be a living testimony to Jesus. Our lives  are meant to show His living, moving, and being through our actions, words, and thoughts. Considering laying aside our agendas and our ideas of what is best and where is safest for us is agonizing. Still we must remember, Jesus’ agony on the cross was the greatest suffering ever experienced by humanity. Jesus, as Son of Man, probably dreaded the pain of crucifixion just as we dread what might happen to us if we don’t take our lives into our own hands. Even in the face of crucifixion, Jesus told His Father, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from Me. Yet, not as I will, but as You will.” (Matthew 26:39 [NIV]) The Son of Man gave His will entirely to the will of the Father though it would require a crucifixion death because of humanity’s sins and a separation from the Father until it was “finished”.

Where is God telling you to be today? What is He telling you to do today? To whom is God telling you to go? Nothing you can figure out for your own life is greater than living, being, and moving for Him because nothing is more important than obeying Him and leading people to know Jesus as their Savior. Your life choices are not more important than eternal salvation from hell. Your health, safety, and wealth are not more important that God’s plan to save each person.

When you choose to do what you want and ignore what God asks you to do, you choose your desires over someone’s eternal life.

You could be condemning someone to eternal separation from God.

Who are you to decide someone should go to Hell?

God was the navigator of your rowboat as you began your Christian journey with Him. You enjoyed daily conversation with Him and learning from Him. You realized you never had to worry about how to get food and fresh water to drink. God taught you many things and took you to meet people you wouldn’t have met if He hadn’t been your navigator. He wanted you to talk with other people on your journey to glean from their journey with Him or to tell them about your relationship with Him. One day, after having exhausted conversation topics with your journey companion, you realize God is not in your boat anymore. He has not navigated your journey for a long time. Now you paddle in circles without meeting many people and without eternal purpose. You don’t know where you are or how to get to any place. Think back to when your journey began. How did you know what to do then? You spoke with God daily. You sought Him. God promised that when you seek for Him, you will find Him. (Proverbs 8:17; Jeremiah 29:13; Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:9; Acts 17:24-28)

But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29 [NIV])

Today, you can choose to renew your relationship with God. Pray to Him. Read your Bible. God waits for you to turn back to Him. He loves you, has a purpose for your life, and wants to be your Navigator again.

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10 [NIV])

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4 [ESV])

Choose today who you will serve – God or yourself.

Lord, forgive me for being blinded by my ego and fear, and considering You less important than me. Forgive me for my self-centered view of life. I had never considered my choices could affect someone’s eternal situation – permanent separation from You or permanent life with You. Lord, I am sorry. I got into the boat with You to live life with You, but then I put You ashore and set out on my own agenda. Lord, You are most important in life and eternity. Your gift of salvation is more important than anything I could ever do for myself or anyone else. Lord, You are almighty, faithful, and loving, and I am not any of those things. Today, Lord, I give the oar to my boat, my life, back to You. Lead me where You want me to go. I will trust Your plans and live Your purpose for my life to bring You glory as I obey You by telling people about You and the salvation You offer. I must decrease and You must increase. I understand this better now. Thank you for Your patience with me. I love You, Lord. Amen.

Earthen Vessels...But

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Christ, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So, death works in us, but life in you.  2 Corinthians 4:7-12 [NASB]

Each of us, when we encounter a speed bump or cliff in life, wonder why we must go through it. “Why is this happening to me?” we may ask. “How can I ever get through this trouble?” is another question that often arises. If we are believers, the answer is most obvious when we are sailing on calm seas. We get through it with God’s strength and direction. As we battle through the difficulty, we often forget God is with us and makes His wisdom, knowledge, power, and strength available to us. Yet, when we get through the trial, we realize God was there all the time. Still, we may wonder, “Why did that horrible time happen?”

Have you considered God will orchestrate difficult times? He will do it to help us grow and to bring Himself glory. How we get through the trials determine if we grow and if God gets the glory. Paul spoke in 2 Corinthians 4 about trials. He said, “We are afflicted, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.” This attitude did not just happen. It came from going through trials and finding God to be faithful when Paul called upon Him. Paul spent this part of his letter to the Corinthians teaching them from his own experiences. He spoke as one who had been through the fires.

When we encounter our own fires, we wonder why we must go through that trial. “What did I do to deserve this?” we may ask. Paul explained two reasons for trials in 2 Corinthians 4:7 & 11. He said we go through difficulties “so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.” (2 Cor. 4:7b) People go through trials to show God’s great power as they go through them. In verse 11b, Paul added, we go through these things “so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal (believer) flesh.” Our lives can be a testimony of Jesus’ life in us enabled by His Holy Spirit. This latter cannot happen without growth and growth cannot happen without the believer calling on God for help during difficult times. Difficult times grow a person’s faith in God and make the person more identified with the sufferings of Jesus.

Let me give an example. We have a prodigal child in our family. Many people have prodigals in their families. Our family prays daily for this adult child, for God to keep speaking to the heart of the person, to break down the walls Satan has erected in the person’s heart, to bring the person to the point of repentance, and bring the person back to living in communion with God and His children, our family included. The last five years have been painful as we watched this child live without God and walk in ways contrary to God’s moral laws. On Mother’s Day Sunday, without my foreknowledge, the pastor called me up to the front of the church. I had no idea what was about to happen. As the pastor talked about the people in our church who may have prodigals in their family, whether child, sibling, or parent, I got nervous. I had been at the point of tears in my pew and knew I could not talk or pray without crying. I called out to God silently in my heart and mind asking Him to make me strong enough to speak without crying. Eventually, the pastor asked me to pray for each person standing who has a prodigal in their family. I prayed without crying as God has led me to pray these last 5 years for my adult child.

Why did I tell you this story? I told you this story because if I had not called upon God for His strength to get through that time of prayer, I would have cried. My prayer would have been babbling. People would not have had prayers lifted for their prodigals and learned how to pray for them. And God would not have been glorified. My prayer that morning was a testimony to God’s greatness, goodness, love, and faithfulness. Nothing in me could have done it without God’s intervention. Other people would not have gained strength and grown in their walk with God about their prodigal.

Paul added two other benefits of going through trials at the end of chapter four. He said,

Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. (1 Corinthians 4:16-17 [NASB])

As we go through trials, God receives glory, Jesus’ life in us manifests itself and receives testimony, God renews our inner person daily, and, our affliction produces an eternal weight of glory.

For today and the next tomorrows, when you go through trials, I encourage you to consider not asking, “Why must I go through this?” or “What did I do to deserve this?” Instead, ask God to give you His strength, wisdom, and power to go through the difficulty so He will receive glory, and your life and voice will bring testimony to the life of Jesus in you. For this, you will grow in your Christlikeness and in relationship with God, and you will get a greater reward in heaven.

Lord, God, I admit, I hate to go through hard times. I hate to struggle and slog through the stormy seas that batter me. Forgive me for attempting to stand on my own and not looking to You, My Lord, for wisdom, strength, and power. Forgive me for walking away from You during those difficult times. Lord, help me remember You are always with me and I only need to call to You for help. Lord be my strength, wisdom, and Protector. Be my guide. Help me grow closer to You even if it means I must go through trials. Help me stand strong with You so You receive glory and my life testifies to the life of Your Son in me. Amen.