2012-01-27
Hi There Dear Ones,
Last week, I shared some of my personal bugaboos [sins] and part of what I had to go through to be “converted” to the Lord Yeshua [Jesus Christ] and prepared for the ministry I have today by the Father. The road wasn’t straight or easy; it took me through four denominations and long years of study to develop the faith and self-discipline [with God’s help] that I have now. Am I perfect? Of course not! Otherwise I would already have been taken up to heaven to be with my Lord Yeshua [glorified]. So, He has plenty more work to do on me. What about you? Have you taken a good look at your life to see if you can find more sin, more imperfections that might be holding back your glorification? Only you can answer that. We must remember 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 find it.” Can we travel this path successfully on our own? Not at all! Christ’s outstretched hand awaits us if we will only grasp it and let Him lead us down this hard path to travel. Doing this takes daily time in the word and an active, dynamic prayer life. It also takes understanding our covenant relationship with the Lord, one that should be our first priority, even before anything else. And no, I’m not saying that our marriages and families don’t matter. Instead, I’m saying that they will be blessed if we make God our first priority in our lives.
Let’s look at some of the reasons why this covenant relationship is so important. We can find them in the commitment that Christ made to the Father to provide the way to eternal life for those who have faith in Him and repent of their sin. 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.” That was the greatest sacrifice the Father could have made. Imagine if we were to give our one and only child up, so that others could be saved. How would we feel and react to that? Do we really understand the profundity of this sacrifice? How would we feel if we had to watch our only child suffering and having a painful death? Maybe some of you already know this, but most of us can’t conceive of how that would be. And then, there is Christ’s own definition of a real friend, which comes in JN 15: 13, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Are we willing to do this? Tough questions? You bet they are, but they get to the heart of what Christ has done for us. We must also remember what He tells us in JN 15: 16-17, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit –fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you want in My name. This is My commandment: Love one another.” The nature of our covenant relationship is that it is active and on-going; it involves growth, trust, study and prayer, active participation, obedience, faithfulness, and above all: love for God and love for other people. Our Covenant Partner becomes the Center of our lives, the Motivator and Paradigm. And by this we bless Him and become a blessing to other humans. We even love the animals and other living things which He places in our care.
Paul explains the theology so, we can better understand this covenant relationship in which we find ourselves, in RO 6: 3-7. “Or don’t you know that all of us were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. If we have been united with Him like this through His death, we will certainly also be united with Him in His resurrection. For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.” How are we freed from sin? By being baptized into His death and His resurrection, by being eternally forgiven as an act of God’s most excellent grace-that is how. What greater expression of how profound is God’s love for us can there be? Being freed from sin, doesn’t mean that while we are still on earth, we can’t sin. It just means that we have an avenue for real forgiveness, assuming we are willing to work to reveal our hidden or deeply habitual sins, and confess them, stopping the attitude or behavior. This is why COL 3: 3-4 makes sense. “For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ and when He appears, then you too will appear with Him and share His glory.” ‘
Now, this brings us to a very sticky subject, the making of committed relationships in the first place. I believe that the ability to make wise commitments is necessary to one’s emotional and spiritual maturity. Without them, we are stopped and just can’t move forward. They are necessary to stability, surrender to God, and real happiness. And having said that, I promise to elaborate on this issue in next week’s devotion.
PRAYER: O Lord, we come before Your mighty throne today with heads bowed in reverence to You. It is by Your grace and the sacrifice of Your only Son, Jesus Christ, that our old selves, our old lives, can be rendered powerless, defeating the evil one. This leaves him frustrated and impatient to find ways to try to establish strongholds in our lives [REV 12: 12], but through Christ, we have been given the power to be victorious in spiritual warfare with the adversary and his cohorts in His name [EPH 1: 18-20]. We will have to work hard, both with our own sinfulness to expunge it and against outside forces of evil, who tempt us. Our lives won’t be easy, but we won’t face all this hard work alone. Our Lord Jesus Christ stretches out His hand to us and makes Himself available to us at any time of the day or night. If we pray for understanding of the issues in today’s devotion, He will give it to us. If we pray for His help in resolution of problems and challenges we have, He will give it to us. If we pray for healing of our ailments or any other godly thing, He will give an answer to our prayers. We can know this through JN 15: 7, “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.” No human can make that promise and keep it, like our Lord Jesus can. The Lord Jesus, Your Son, defeats the fear of death in all of us who believe. HE 2: 14-15, “Since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and freed those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” Today, we pray for greater understanding than we’ve ever had before of the significance of the Lord Jesus’ death on the cross for us. We hope, Dearest Abba, to use that understanding to reveal Him to others who have not yet come to faith in Him, showing them irrefutable reasons why they should also believe in Him. We also hope to continue cooperating with You in the work of our sanctification. In Christ’s holy name we pray, Amen.
NEXT WEEK: Earlier above, I left us with a cliff hanger for next week on discussing our need to make wise commitments in our lives. So, that will be the subject of next week’s devotion, the fourth in this segment on “Examining Our Commitment.” In the meanwhile, we should all be on our knees asking God to give us greater understanding of the covenant relationships we are in with Him and how we can work with Him in advancing our spiritual maturity. Learning to submit to His will, even when it is painful to do this, is essential. Seeking Him out is essential. That is why JER 29: 11-13 is so important to us. “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 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart.” Seeking God, recognizing our need to be dependant on Him, and faithfully obeying His will are all features of the mature believer. Each person who seeks God has the potential for one day being a mature believer. We must remember that human criteria for importance means nothing to this. It is one’s humility before God, willingness to follow the ways of Christ, and courage of faith that matter. We must remember that with God, “the last will be first and the first will be last” [MT 20: 16]. Christ has told us to love one another, as He has loved us [JN 13: 34-35]. We are to love Him and to love each other. Praise and thanks to God for giving us the Model that His Son, Jesus Christ, is for us!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15