2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
The Lord prompts me to continue writing about the delicious details of His wonderful plan for us. As I have written before, God has a system of gradual revelation of His plan as mankind is ready for it. DT 29:29, “There are some things that the Lord our God has kept secret; but He has revealed His Law, and we and our descendants are to obey it forever.” Since the time of the ancient Jews, the Lord has made many revelations regarding His plan. Those of us who take the time to study the Scriptures learn more than we ever thought possible to help combat the devil and his followers and gain a closer approach to God’s perspective on our lives and His plans for our future.
We know from GN 12: 1 that Abraham was called out of Mesopotamia to establish the Jewish people, a people set apart from all others by the practice of monotheism-the belief in the One and Only True God of all. DT 6: 4-9 gives us a perfect presentation on God’s will for the Jewish people and some insight into the way of life that the Deity was carving out for them. “Here O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. [The “Shema”-Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Echad-in Hebrew]. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Never forget these commands that I am giving you today. Teach them to your children. Repeat them when you are at home and when you are away, when you are at rest and when you are at work. Tie them on your arms and wear them on your foreheads [the basis for the Orthodox Jewish practice of wearing phylacteries] as a reminder. Write them on the door posts or your houses and on your gates [the basis of hanging up a mezuzah containing parchment printed with DT 6: 4-9 and DT 11: 13-21 on it].” (The words in brackets are my comments to give you background on the significance of this passage). God has other expectations for Jews and now for Gentiles who have been “ingrafted” [RO 11: 16-25] as believers. These are found particularly in EX 19: 5-6 and IS 49:6. “Now if you will obey Me and keep My covenant, you will be My own people. The whole earth is mine, but you will be My chosen people, a people dedicated to Me alone, and you will serve Me as priests…The Lord said to me, ‘I have a greater task for you, My servant. No only will you restore to greatness the people of Israel who have survived, but I will also make you a light to the nations-so that all the world may be saved.’” In other words, God had every intention of making believers His “priests” who will carry the truth of the Gospel to every corner of the earth. His hope is to bring as many as will listen to faith and salvation.
In the ancient times, the Covenant of the Law was what God brought to believing mankind. RO 7: 7 tells us that the Law was designed to let mankind know what was righteous and what was not. However, it did not bring salvation. That was to be brought on the scene in God’s perfect time with the death of His Son on the cross for us, sealing a new covenant to replace the Covenant of the Law. It was to be called the Covenant of Grace, and was instituted and sealed by Christ’ blood on the cross [1 COR 11: 25]. What made Christ’s death able to do this momentous task? It was the fact that He alone was born of a virgin and therefore didn’t inherit the original sin of Adam. More than that, He never once gave into Satan’s temptations during His earthly life, rendering Him spiritually pure enough to be our Passover Lamb without spot or blemish [1 COR 5: 6-8]. Because He was born of incorruptible seed, Satan had no power over Him. Christ was able to take on the sins of the world on the cross and be the perfect, once-for-all sin sacrifice for us, opening the way to salvation for all who would repent and come to faith [RO 3: 24-25; HE 10: 10]. He was the fulfillment of the Law, thus enabling us to die to sin and the Law and be brought into the warm glow of God’s magnificent grace [RO 6:11 and 10: 4]. When we examine the citations in today’s message, we can see the love of our Dear Abba in their foundation. We are truly a blessed people when we endure in our faith having been made new creations in Christ and having shucked off our old lives of domination by Satan to take on our new lives guided by the Holy Spirit into righteousness [2 COR 5: 17]. In other words, Christ’s Atonement has made us God’s friends. This Friend, Who is always righteous, will give us anything we need, protect us through the onslaught of Satan’s arrows, and will eventually lead us to eternal life filled with joy and warm fellowship with Him.
Because of God’s plan and His courage and unselfishness in carrying it out, we have been bought from the market place of slavery to sin. Christ’s death on the cross is sufficient to pay our ransom, making Christ our Kinsman-Redeemer. We can revel in that, accept this extraordinary gift of God’s grace, and choose not to waste any of it by dedicating ourselves to leading holy, pure, and righteous lives. We can show God how much we love Him by obeying His commands, even if they take us into unfamiliar territory emotionally, spiritually, or even physically [JN 14: 21].
PRAYER: O Lord, today You lead us to PS 33, a song of praise to You. “All you that are righteous, shout for joy for what the Lord has done; praise Him, all you that obey Him. Give thanks to the Lord with harps, sing to Him with stringed instruments. Sin a new song to Him, play the harp with skill, and shout for joy. The words of the Lord are true, and all His works are dependable. The Lord loves what is righteous and just; His constant love fills the earth (1-5)…The Lord frustrate the purposes of the nations; He keeps them from carrying out their plans. But His plans endure forever; His purposes last eternally. Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord; happy are the people He has chosen for His own! The Lord looks down from heaven and sees all mankind. From where he rules, He looks down on all who live on earth. He forms all their thoughts and knows everything they do (13-15)…The Lord watches over those who have reverence for Him, those who trust in His constant love. He saves them from death; He keeps them alive in times of famine. We put our hope in the Lord; He is our Protector and our Help. We are glad because of Him; we trust in His holy name” (18-22). These words first written so long ago by David express the content of our hearts, Dearest Lord. We live in joyful anticipation of the glory You have promised to reveal to us which is so much greater and longer lasting than the pain we suffer today at Satan’s hand. Our trust is in You, and after confessing our sins, we humbly offer You our adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, obedience, honor, glory, praise, and thanksgiving. Thank you especially for sacrificing Your Son for us and giving us the gift of Your presence and guidance through our lives by the Holy Spirit. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
There are more details of God’s plan, which will be the subject of tomorrow’s message. In the meanwhile, we can concentrate on what the messages in PS 33 mean to each of us in our individual lives. We truly have a Kinsman-Redeemer Who was willing to give His life for us, so that we could look forward to a much better fate than the lake of fire and sulfur tormented for eternity. Our Lord knows that we must go through the process of sanctification and knows it won’t be easy for us. Yet, He stays the course with us throughout our travail, because of His profound love for us. We owe Him nothing less than obedience, consistent refusal to give in to Satan’s temptation, and willingness to model our lives after the life of Christ, His Son and Our Savior. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn