2012-01-13
Good Morning Dear Ones,
We finished the segment on “Death to Human Independence” with looking at GA 2: 19b-20, “I have been put to death with Christ on His cross, so that it is no longer I who live but Christ Who lives in me. This life I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave His life for me.” In more graphic terms, the human soul was opened, the Holy Spirit poured in, gradually forcing the evil of Satan out the other end. Christ comes alive in us, takes over our thoughts, and converts them from sinful ones led by human desires to Spirit-led ones, which propel us forward on the path to eternal life. This sanctification profess is not complete until Christ actually glorifies us, takes us up to Him at His perfect time first to Paradise and later to heaven [LK 23: 42-43; REV 2: 7; REV 6: 9-11]. [Paradise is the waiting place for people judged righteous at the time of their physical deaths, waiting until it’s time for the second coming of the Lord Jesus. MT 24: 36 lets us know that only the Father, not even the Lord Jesus or angels or any being, knows the exact time that will happen.
Our faith cannot be just a matter of what we say only. It must be a compilation of what we think, what we say, and what we do over a period of time. Now, that puts the rubber to the road! There’s no half-baked commitment to our covenant relationship with God and with other believers around us that will result in real salvation. If we are not truly committed to God, how can we enter into a covenant relationship with Him? Let’s look at His commitment to us first. LK 22: 41-42 is uttered by Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His arrest. “He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them [His disciples], knelt down and prayed. ‘Father , if You are willing , take the cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.’” We all know the Father had instructed Him prior to His coming to earth to serve His ministry and make the sacrifice that would make Him His people’s Redeemer. The rubber was hitting the road for Christ. He went through being scourged, mocked, mistreated, and crucified, giving His life on the cross, so that we could be saved [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. He went into this with His eyes wide open, knowing it would mean taking the sins of mankind with Him to the cross. 1 PET 1: 20-21, “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through Him you believe in God, Who raised Him from the dead and glorified Him, and so your faith and hope are in God.” The nature of His commitment to a covenant relationship with us and the Father can be seen in 1 PET 2: 20-21, “But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if You suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps.”
That’s some wonderful example left for us to follow! You’ll remember that Christ said, in JN 15: 13, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” One would have to admit that this is the ultimate sacrifice. Look at what our Friend [the Lord Jesus] does for us. MT 7: 13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few can find it.” Yes, He gives us that road and takes us by the hand to guide us along it. In keeping with the wonderful story of the footsteps in the sand, we also have seen Him pick us up and carry us when the going got so tough that we couldn’t walk that path on our own. As if that isn’t enough, He shows us that the fear of physical death is no longer necessary [HE 2: 14-15]. From my own experience, I was slow to accept Christ and didn’t until age 25. I was slow to recognize the need to answer His call for a full commitment to my relationship with Him, having been a late-starter in having a prayer life. God laughs now, but to get me on board, He had to make me the leader of a huge prayer chain! My Lord Yeshua needed to force me to recognize my responsibilities as a Messianic Jew, so He called me into the ministry at age 39. No only that, but He led me, often kicking and screaming [figuratively], through four major Judeo-Christian denominations in my life, so that He could prepare me for the ministry I have now. Talk about late bloomers! J All the while, He protected me from the work of the devil around me, work which expressed itself in the cruelty of my ex-husband and other family members, illness, financial peril, and other challenges. And He is with me 24/7 leading me, correcting me when a bad attitude comes on me, encouraging me, surrounding me with fine and loving believers as friends, and always instructing me through prayer and His word. He sticks with me, has gifted me with self-discipline in studying and an inquiring mind, and puts up with my occasional bouts of moodiness. Do I deserve any of this? The answer is in EPH 2: 8-10, which I hope you will memorize. “For it is by God’s grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God’s gift, so that no one can boast about it. God has made us what we are, and in our union with Christ Jesus He has created us for a life of good deeds which He has already prepared for us to do.”
PRAYER: O Lord, You call all believers to make a sanctuary for the Holy Spirit, to actually be a sanctuary for the Spirit. For people led by the fleshly human desires, tempted every day by sinfulness around us, and distracted by a host of challenges put before us by the evil one, this isn’t easy. It means gaining self-discipline, deepening our faith in the ways open to us, and learning to take the harder of the choices before us. PS 42: 1-2, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for You, O God. I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and stand before Him?” We are surrounded by noise, bustling activity, so-called time savers, which tempt us to take on more secular work that fills our time. We are left weary in body and spirit. And yet, our Lord Jesus, in MT 11: 28-30 tells us, “Come to Me, all you who are heavy-laden; and you will find rest. Take My yoke and put it on you; learn from Me because I am humble and gentle in Spirit; and I will give you rest. For the yoke I give you is easy, and the burden is light.” You have taught us to pray by instructing Him to give us the Lord’s Prayer [MT 6: 9-13] and telling us, in PS 23: 1-6, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside the still waters, He restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for His name’s sake. 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. Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” When we meditate upon these words, there is no way we can’t feel Your loving presence in our everyday lives. You never abandon Your people, nor do You break Your promises to us [PS 9: 9-10; PS 17: 8; EX 2: 23-25; PS 111: 4-5]. We offer You our eternal thanks and praise, praying in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: Examining our commitment to our covenant relationship with God means looking at our personal lives. We need to see that when we talk about “being crucified with Christ,” we are not only abrogating our human independence, but we are actually aware of and following God’s will. By using my own life [the only one I’m an expert on J], I’ll try to address myself to what this entails. Notice the use of the present active and on-going grammar here. It’s used because this is a work in progress. I know this because God protected me from physical death back in ’06, because He felt I wasn’t ready yet to be glorified. There was more work for me to do to serve Him, but also to be sanctified in my own personal life. That was a shocking revelation for me, when I came out of the anesthesia and was eventually told I didn’t have ovarian cancer. I had been under the knife for 5 ½ hrs. and had gone into this surgery prepared to not come out of it. God has a way of shocking late bloomers like me, because we assume we know so much when we really know so little. Does He do this with you? Are there lessons He gives us that we didn’t think we needed? I believe there are. Our awesome God, who loves us so very much, really wants us to make it to the end of that hard path through the narrow gate successfully, so that we can worship and serve Him in heaven for eternity. And that’s a measure of the love He has for us. I will end with PS 33: 22, “Yes, Lord, let Your constant love surround us, for our hopes are in you alone.” Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15