2014-02-07
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, we delved into the many ways that Paul was afflicted with challenges. His example far outweighs my own in the emotional, physical, and spiritual of scars he bore, as is seen in 2 COR 11: 23-33 and 2 COR 12: 7-9. We all have trials which are unique and carefully allowed in a controlled manner by God to maximize the lessons He wants us to have and our growth in spiritual maturity. I know Paul would stand by his words in 1 COR 10: 13, “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, He will provide you with a way out so that you can stand up under it.” I believe if the time for one’s physical death has come, it is because the Lord feels this is the right time. My own experience is that if we humans think we are going to die and the Lord doesn’t agree, He will allow us to continue our earthly lives until such time as He deems it’s the right time. He just isn’t finished with us yet!
If we bear scars from our trials, we must remember that the One Who counts sees them. We may go through hard trials, be hard-pressed, but we won’t be destroyed in the eternal sense of the word as long as we keep our faith in Him intact. Remember that nothing can separate us from the love of the Lord [RO 8: 38-39]. When we live spiritually in the Lord’s house, we have this assurance, found in PS 52: 8, “But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.” When we are amidst spiritual warfare, we are given astounding assurance and reconnaissance from the Lord in EPH 6: 10-18 [about who are enemies are and about God’s full armor]. When a young David stepped out to meet the Philistine giant, Goliath, with only a slingshot and stone, He was not alone! God was with him, and he was a soldier in God’s army [1 SAM 17: 45-51].
We all know from the many movies and discussion on the subject of our own country’s shameful history of enslaving African-Americans in it’s past. Enslavement to other humans is wrongful. It is not only wrongful to a country that prides itself on being a free country, but it is wrongful in the sight of God. 1 COR 7: 22-23, “For he who was a slave when he was called by the Lord is the Lord’s freedman; similarly, he who was a free man when he was called is Christ’s slave. You were bought for a price; do not become the slaves of men.” What is meant by becoming “the Lord’s freedman” is best explained in JN 8: 32, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” This is not to be taken either lightly or with the approach that the antinomians of Paul’s time took it (to mean grace without license). What is meant by “Christ’s slave” was aptly used as a description of himself by Paul in RO 1: 1, “Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God.” Paul has had the freedom to choose to serve his Master. He belongs to Christ because of his allegiance, covenant relationship to Christ. As for being “bought for a price,” this refers to Christ’s sacrifice of His physical life on the cross, so that believing mankind can be saved [1 COR 6: 20; 1 PET 1: 18-21]. In view of the assurances above, it is possible and desirable to obey 2 TIM 2: 3, “Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”
We can get a real picture of God’s love for us in 1 COR 3: 16-17, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple, and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple.” Remember we and God are covenant partners, and thus, have the same enemies. Add this to 1 COR 6: 19-20 to get a more complete picture. “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit Who lives in you, Whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought for a price. Therefore honor God with your body.” We learn, in 2 COR 4: 10-11, “We are constantly delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” We are given an example of this in Paul’s hardships and persecutions, which he experiences for the sake of the Gospel and through which he shares Christ’s suffering. We, too, have the potential to make our challenges and trials a sharing of Christ’s suffering. Human weakness provides an occasion for the triumph of divine power. Further illumination of this point is found in 2 COR 1: 9, “Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we mighty not rely on ourselves but on God, Who raises the dead.” Praise be to God that we are given by our faith in Christ hope for the resurrection! Christ claims the right to be our Master and our Savior. Have we chosen Him?
PRAYER: O Lord, how can we love You, let us count the ways. I’ve begun this prayer with this take off on Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s great question from Sonnets to the Portugese, because it is one of the facets to answering a bigger question: what will our personal legacy be after our physical death? One of the ways we might approach answering these questions is found in PHIL 3: 10-12, 20 and HE 12: 1-2. “I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me…But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ…Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so eagerly entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes upon Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Dearest Abba, You give us the right information and power, through our faith in Christ, to make the choices that please you and will lead to us gaining eternal life. We often say we don’t want to waste a drop of the blood He shed on the cross for our redemption by faith in Him. We say it again today, and appreciate Your patience with our weaknesses and imperfections. We have pledged to be Your covenant partners, and thus, share the same enemies that You have. We also respond with gratitude, reverence, and awe to the remarkable blessing of Your presence and intervention in our lives. You have promised not to abandon us, and we respond with our pledge to be as obediently faithful to You as we can. When we err, we ask for Your help to correct us; when we sin, we ask for Your forgiveness and will do our best to stop sinning. You are our Covenant Partner, and we offer You our utmost thanks and praise for Who You are and what You do. In Christ’s holy/mighty name, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: In the course of prayerful consideration, the Holy Spirit directs me to begin a new segment of this “Our Covenant” series called “Faith and Feelings.” We will explore our emotions during our trials and how our Covenant Partner responds to them. In the meanwhile, we must realize that part of gaining spiritual maturity is learning to delay gratification, to take responsibility for our own actions, and to wisely place our service to and worship of in the right hands. While growing up, I certainly learned the old adage that those things for which we had to work hard and long are the things that were if greater value to us. I believe that courageously faithful people, like the apostle Paul, are being honored in heaven for eternity. Each of us would like to also be honored there after earthly lives of faithful obedience to God. By getting to share my faith in Christ with each of you, my own faith is being strengthened. I would like to think that this is a case fitting EZRA 7: 28, “I was strengthened, as the hand of the Lord was upon me.” My respect is enormous for those in my life who reflect Christ and who share in Christ’s sufferings. It has come to me long ago that He has placed me among people, who by their faithful example, have been teaching me to be a better, more obedient believer. How can we not realize how blessed we are to share our faith together, to learn from each other, and mostly-- to be blessed at the feet of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ? We have been given the hope of the resurrection. IS 61: 10, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness…” 2 COR 4: 14, “…We know that the One Who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in His presence.” Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2013. All Rights Reserved.
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