2014-07-18
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week the Holy Spirit directed me to begin writing about this “Richer Than Imagined” segment from the NT perspective-- in view of the fact that we had been spending so much time with the OT. God had promised Moses to go with him, as Moses led the Jews through the desert. Later, He had repeatedly uttered, “They will be His people and I will be their God” [JER 31: 33-34 et al]. As time went on, Jesus, Who is God’s second personality and was observable by the people of his time on earth, let them know God was still with the people—meaning all who believe. JN 14: 23, “Jesus replied, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will obey My teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make Our home with him.’” To have this amazing presence in one’s life, he needs to believe in Jesus and repent of his sins. Jesus also asks of us the same things that the Father has right from the beginning. JN 13: 34-35, “A new commandment I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” This is very much the same as God’s assertion that we should “Love our neighbors as ourselves” [LV 19: 18; RO 13: 9; GA 5: 14].
As I wrote last week, the main task the Father assigned to the Son is redemption. We see this in Christ’s mission statement in JN 6: 39-40 and it’s mentioned in 1 PET 1: 20-21. Don Richardson wrote Peace Child, a story of the important place that redemption plays in many societies. This is one analogy of Christ’s redemption: One culture has a feast that is a form of establishing and commemoration of a covenant relationship in which gifts are exchanged. It occurs when one tribe is making a peace pact with another, and it is much like the sharing of blessings at a Passover seder. At this occasion, names are changed. Peace is established between formally warring tribes with the taking on of the name of the tribe in which the participants are making peace. This recalls REV 2: 17,”He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.” H. Clay Trumbull in his The Blood Covenant gives us the example of a ceremony of passage into manhood from New South Wales in which a “mundie” (a white quartz stone) is given as a token of a new name given to each novitiate. The older men test the moral stamina of the younger ones by all sorts of persuasion to induce them to surrender the stone. Those who don’t are over-comers, just as we who are faithfully obedient believers are.
True believers in Christ are indeed over-comers. Our faith can be tested at any time, but we must also remember, especially in the height of our suffering, that God never gives us a test that is so great as to break our resolve to be faithful to Him [1 COR 10: 13]. My own faith is tested tremendously, because the adversary knows that the best way to get to a mother is through her child. As much as I would wish it otherwise, my relationship with my child is troubled. The reason for this doesn’t matter, because it is what God uses to test my faith. Abraham’s obedience in offering his son to God was rewarded with a substitute sacrifice provided and the salvation of Isaac [GN 22]. Job had no choice but to go through the illnesses, pain and losses he endured, but our God never left him through it all. In the end, his Refiner’s fire turned out to be blessed with forgiveness from God for his friends and extraordinary provision for Job. Throughout this testing, this I am reminded that the Refiner’s fire here is nothing more than what all people must go through.
Consider the message of 1 COR 3: 12-14, “If any man builds this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” We see the congruence of the Refiner’s fire and our hope of the resurrection in MAL 3: 2-3, “But who can endure the day of His coming? Who can stand when He appears? For He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a Refiner and Purifier of silver; He will purify the Levites and refine them like gold and silver.” And, the knowledge of what our Lord wants from us and His heart attitude is revealed in 1 JN 3: 24-25, “And this is His command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love on another as He commanded us. Those who obey His commands live in Him, and He in them. And this is how we know that He lives in us: We know it by the Spirit He gave us.” How can we miss the connection between the Father and Son [JN 14: 9 and 11] and now this connection between faithfully obedient believers and the Son given here? Having written all about this richness of God’s blessings in our lives and the testing revealing believers as over-comers, I must repeat COL 3: 3-4. “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 in His glory!”
PRAYER: O Lord, as we approach You yet again, we do so in reverence and awe. Our questions for You are: Is our time on earth given to establish and build our faith? Must this faith be tested from time to time? From the limited human perspective of hindsight, it appears so. First You have created the earth and everything in it, then, you created us, building us to have faith. Through You, we are given that faith, but it must be tested. This test comes along with the promise that it will be limited to not exceed that which would destroy our resolve to be faithful to You, our Covenant Partner. And, Dearest Abba, we must not forget the promise of the resurrection that we are given in RO 8: 29, “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.” Your words in 2 COR 4: 13-14 make this hope even clearer. “It is written: ‘I have believe therefore I have spoken,’ with that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, because we know the One Who raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to Himself.” You have given us renewal in our faith and our ability to perceive the blessings You give us. We, as Your covenant partners, know the wisdom, compassion, and patience You show us as we work through our challenges, losses, disappointments, and other trials. These are times of personal growth for us when we cooperate with You as You sanctify us. We acknowledge Your love and do our best to mimic it in our covenant relationships with You and with other humans. We trust You and seek to reach out to potential believers with Your Gospel message of salvation and peace. Most of all, we lift up our hands to You in praise and thanks for Who You are and what You do for us. We thank You for creating us to endure Your Refiner’s fire. In the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I am led by the Holy Spirit to begin a new segment of this “Our Covenant” series called “Covenant Meal.” If you are feeling as blessed as can be, then I’m doing the task before me. We should never miss how amazingly rich this covenant relationship we have with our Lord really is. We are never alone, never without help, never without guidance in decision-making, never without cleansing forgiveness, and never without the Lord’s never-wholly-tapped wisdom. His compassion in granting us time is richer than imagined. 2 PET 3: 9, “The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance.” Our God reveals His heart once again, in 1 COR 13: 4-8a, 13, in His teaching about love. “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, laws trust, always hopes, always preserves…And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.” If someone ever asks what the real road to happiness is, we should tell him it’s faith in Jesus Christ! Yes, our faith is tested, and we must go though our trials, because God allows them for the purpose of our spiritual maturation. But all of this suffering is worth what lies ahead in God’s perfect time: blissful and blessed fellowship with Him and those who have gone on before us in heaven for eternity. What greater God can their be? We raise our hands in thanks and praise to Him forever!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2014. All Rights Reserved.
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