2011-01-14
Good Morning Dear Ones,
In a previous devotion we dealt with the question: Do we give God a chance? Today, we will look more closely at His second personality in asking: Do we give Christ a chance? For someone like my self, raised to reject Christ, such a question takes on an even more profound meaning. Our family has been traditionally Jewish on both sides as far back as I have been able to find. That made my marriage to Peter only the second one outside of traditional Judaism in our family line, second only to an older brother who married into a Mormon family and converted to that faith. Peter had been raised as a Presbyterian but wasn’t a regular church-attendee when I married him. Needless to say, there were some people in my family who objected strenuously to my leaving traditional Judaism behind, but my resolve was strong enough to overcome them. After all, I was in my mid-thirties at the time. I had also been carefully studying Mormon doctrine against Biblical truth with the former coming out on the short end. Nothing was impulsive about the decisions I was making. However, I can’t say I was 100 % aware that the Lord was at the bottom of all these changes and decisions. JN 3: 16-17, “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” At this point, the Holy Spirit was slowly awakening me from over 25 years of being unaware of His presence in my life. I had reached that door marked “Faith in Christ” and now had to decide whether or not to open it and walk through. The rubber was meeting the road.
Something that was propelling me to come to faith was Christ’s attitude toward friendship, found in JN 15: 13-17, “The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give His life for them. And you are My friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. Instead I call you friends, because I have told you everything I heard from My Father. You did not choose Me; I chose you and appointed you to go and bear much fruit, the kind of fruit that endures. And so the Father will give you whatever you ask of Him in My name. This, then, is what I command you: love one another.” As a young, traditional Jew, I was the wrong gender to take any leadership, and I was never entrusted with any feeling of self-worth. As a believer in the Lord Jesus [who later became “my Yeshua”], I was being told that I am loved! I was also being told that it’s okay to love other people, another message new to me. The story of the Holocaust and our own family’s heavy losses in it, was never far from my consciousness. It still isn’t, but I can look at it with a new perspective than I had at that time. It was becoming clear to me that believing in the Lord Yeshua isn’t turning my back on my heritage, but instead adding something very precious and important to it. I was on my way to becoming a “completed Jew” or Messianic Jew. Christ had shed His blood on the cross for my sins as well as those of other people.
Amazingly, God obligates Himself to sinners! COL 3: 9-10, “Do not lie to one another, for you have put off the old self with its habits and have put on the new self. This is the new being which God, it’s Creator, is constantly renewing in His own image, in order to bring you to a full knowledge of Himself.” Be reminded that a covenant is a two-way promise. As believers in Christ, we entered into the Covenant of Grace. Giving His only Son to the cross isn’t the end of what the Father does for us in this covenant relationship. Yes, He is “constantly renewing us in His own image, in order to bring us to a full knowledge of Himself.” This is knowledge we must have in order to be able to live godly lives of righteousness and have the blissful eternal life He wants us to have. This is reconnaissance we need in the war against the evil one. With stubborn people like myself, this “constant renewing” is hard work for God. But His love for us is so strong, He is willing to do it. The word, “constant,” means a continuing action, and isn’t anything that comes easily to the Being doing it. Our sinfulness is a disappointment to God and means He must be on his godly toes keeping ahead of the cunning work the devil works in people. With a world-full of people needing His help all at once, God has His work cut out for Him. Yet, He does it without complaint, without losing patience. Now that’s pretty awesome! Part of that work is imbuing us with talents specially fitted for His purpose for us and the work He needs us to get done. It’s rather interesting to think about what God does to keep us moving forward in the strength of our faith, our willingness to rely on Him, and our spiritual maturity. Perhaps that is one way to bring us to a greater appreciation of the blessing of His presence and intervention in our lives.
We already know we can count on God. He never lets us down. He never abandons us. PS 9: 9-10, “The Lord is a Refuge for the oppressed, a Place of Safety in times of trouble. Those who know You, Lord, will trust You; You do not abandon anyone who comes to You.” Think of how He impacts our lives. I can attest to the truth of PS 40: 1-2, in my own life. “I waited patiently for the Lord’s help; then He listened to me and heard my cry. He pulled me out of a dangerous pit, out of the deadly quicksand. He set me safely on a Rock and made me secure.” More than once He has done this with me. I remember walking around with tears streaming down my cheeks in a public park the day my 15 yr. first marriage came to an end. I was abandoned and alone, and yet, He even found me there. I wasn’t crying because an abusive relationship had come to an end; instead, I was foolishly bemoaning the loneliness I felt and had been feeling, cognizant for the first time that I had been on my own most of my life. I was feeling downright sorry for myself. I was feeling that I hadn’t become valuable to anyone or accomplished anything, except for my schooling, for the first 29 years of my life! God invites Himself to pity parties like this, so that He can rescue us and bring us into His light. And what a light it is!
PRAYER: O Lord, I feel compelled on behalf of anyone who hits rock bottom as I did, to be reminded of PS 40: 4-5, “Happy are those who trust the Lord, who do not turn to idols or join those who worship false gods. You have done many things for us, O Lord our God; there is no on like You! You have made many wonderful plans for us. I could never speak of them all-their number is so great!” You, Dearest Abba, take the least important people, the least likely people, and give them special talents, so they can do tasks for You that others are not fitted to do. The apostle, Paul, born Saul of Tarsus, was such a person. So was a young man of 15 who was taken into captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia to work in his court. That boy was Daniel. People not so famous also do great things for You. People like Gracyn DenBesten (9), who was deathly ill and had to have a heart transplant in FL. She is spending her free time going to hospitals and helping other young patients in the same predicament with her uplifting visits. Her dad, Kris Den Besten, has written a book for churches to use in their caring ministries called Gracyn’s Song. JER 29: 11-13 reveals Your heart so well. “I alone know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you not to bring disaster, plans to give you the future for which you hope. Then you will call to Me. You will come and pray to Me, and I will answer you. You will seek Me, and you will find Me because you will seek Me with all your heart.” Yes, Lord, we do seek You with all our hearts, in Christ’s holy name we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: As a part of our discussion on how God obligates Himself to sinners, we must ask: Why does God allow adversity? That’s what we will examine next week. In the meanwhile, I am encouraged to invite you to join me in looking at how God is acting in our lives. There are so many ways, ways which we tend to take for granted. It’s hard to do that with something so enormous as bringing a person to faith, but there are lots of little ways, subtle ways that God is helping us. For some reason, God made me a person of routines. He also gave me parents who encouraged me to finish jobs that I start. That’s how I became a good student in school, once I matured enough to stop rebelling. Some people never do this, but instead have other achievements that I never have accomplished. Not one of us is more important or more loved than another by God. In God’s economy, one’s material wealth, his educational achievements or lack of them, his earthly socio-economic station, his gender, or anything else about him matters to God. God doesn’t have an “A-list” or a “B-list.” He loves us all, and He wants all of us to listen to the truth of the Gospel, believe in it, and live according to His teaching [JN 6: 39-40; EPH 1: 4-5; 2 TIM 3: 16-17]. Our Lord is an “equal opportunity” God! Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always
Lynn
JS 24: 15