2014-09-05
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, I wrote about what the shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross means to us, who believe in Him. 1 JN 5: 6 explains that Christ came by water and blood. The water represents repentance, and the shedding of His blood grants believers salvation through this holy and sacrificial offering. 1 JN 5: 7-10 tells us anyone who believe in Him has the true testimony in his heart. Unbelief is saying the Holy Spirit is a Liar, because He doesn’t believe the testimony God has given Him. 1 JN 5: 14 allows us to know we can have confidence in approaching God, and that if we ask for anything (in concert with His will), He hears us. This same confidence and freedom is expressed in EPH 3: 12. Anything which shames the Lord is wholly repugnant to a true believer.
This week, I revisit a favorite praise song in part, “Made Me Glad.” It describes God as our Strong Tower, a metaphor, which both indicates He has better perspective than humans have, as well as greater strength. While it is sobering that the making of covenants (two-way promises either with or before God) are promises unto death, our lives would lack direction, blessing, and connectivity with the Lord without them. MT 26: 41 [Christ speaking], “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but he body is weak.” These words describe a basic problem of our inherent weakness. How easy it is with a small victory to let it go to our heads! In our fleshly effort to appear stronger than we are, we let pride get in our way toward eternal life. If a human makes a lot of money, his way of looking at his fellow man and the world around him alters. He wants more and more, in a rush toward materialism and increasing greed. We’ve see this happen so many times. Christ speaks directly to the point, in MT 6: 24, “No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” This truth fits Paul’s words in HE 4: 12 perfectly. “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper then a double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”
For believers the taking of Communion is a most precious, intimate, and very serious matter [1 COR 11: 23-25]. It’s our closest connection to the Lord on earth. Underlying it is the very content of our heart-attitudes and obedience. This means we have submitted to God’s superiority and supremacy. We are urged to work toward uncovering sins still being committed in our lives in the process of sanctification. The latter is an on-going covenant partnership between God and each believing individual with God in leadership. We are cooperating with Him to expose our sin and to expunge it from our lives. His part is described beautifully in COL 3: 10—He is creating us in His image, so that we will get to know Him better. Human guilt is not a part of this process. And how do we know what our part of the process is to be? It’s through frequent prayer in which God speaks first, and it’s learning His will for our lives through daily study of the Scriptures. I’ve often said and will repeat here that the Bible is the only book in the world that has that supernatural trait of enabling us to return over and over again to the same verse/passage in different contexts and learn something new every time. So, we aren’t spinning our wheels if we, as I have, study it for 55 years and counting.
We may understand that from the moment we accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Messiah [Savior], we have been justified (deemed acceptable by the Lord) [RO 4: 3], eternally forgiven [1 JN 1: 9], and are saved [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]. God has both forgiven our past sin and has forgotten it [HE 8: 12]. HE 10: 10, “And by that [God’s will] we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once and for all.” But, we are still capable of sinning, even though we now have the choice of whether or not to sin. (We didn’t have that choice before Christ’s Atonement). It is the sin we do now that must be uncovered and expunged in the process of sanctification.
God is the Watchman, not letting whatever we think, say, or do be ignored. PS 33: 13-14, “From heaven the Lord looks down and sees all mankind; from His dwelling place He watches all who live on earth—He Who forms the hearts of all, Who considers everything they do.” As believers we need to have reverence for God, and not to be afraid of Him. God’s love for us is great enough that it can’t be fully understood. He is our Strong Tower, Who protects us, teaches us the way to eternal life. He guides us forward in the paths He has set for us. Join me in repeating this prayer not only for ourselves, but also for those who are potential believers in Jesus Christ. PS 31: 3-5, “Since You are my Rock, my Fortress, for the sake of Your Name, lead me and guide me. Free me from the trap that is set for me, for You are my Refuge. In Your hands I commit my spirit; redeem me, O Lord, the God of truth.” Our Strong Tower awaits our prayers with the eagerness that only heartfelt love for us supports.
PRAYER: O Lord, we approach You with humility, reverence, and a desire to be both Your friends through our covenant relationship with You and Your obedient servants. Only with You is such a unique relationship possible. Your goal for us is eventual glorification (the act of taking us up to heaven to be at Your side in blissful fellowship forever). This will be accomplished in Your perfect time and way, because You are the Strong Tower, the stronger Partner in this covenant relationship. Strength for You is coupled with always being righteous. We need not fear that any evil will come from our obedience to You, or anything You think or do. Your Son’s very own words demonstrate this. JN 7: 17-18, “If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether My teaching comes from God or whether I speak on My own. He who speaks on his own does so to gain honor for himself, but he who works for the honor of the One [the Father] Who sent Him [Christ], is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him.” Once again, You show us this principle in 2 TIM 2: 13, “If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself.” You are our Strong Tower, Who watches over us with diligence and unparalleled love. PS 91: 1-2, “He Who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my Refuge and my Fortress, my God in Whom I trust.’” How blessed we are to have You as our God, our Redeemer and our Counselor. Indeed You deserve our eternal praise and thanks, our pledge of honor and loyalty, and our willingness to know You better and obey Your commands. We say these things in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: I am led to continue writing this “Our Lives At Stake” segment of these “Our Covenant” messages. Next week’s topic will continue the Strong Tower theme with further descriptions of God’s actual interaction with His people. It may seem like a strange thing for me to say, but as I have gotten older, I can more keenly feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life. Actually, He is with me 24/7, and I don’t feel the least bit ashamed or intruded upon! I write about my own experience, because it would be intrusive, if not improper, for me to write about the Holy Spirit’s interaction in the lives of others who haven’t reported it. There have been times when I set out to do something, and it flat out failed. No doubt, what I tried to do wasn’t the Lord’s will. I don’t resent the power He has over me, because I know He has my best eternal interests at heart. That doesn’t mean I don’t feel frustrated at times, even to the point of saying something I later regret. After all, I’m human and still deal with the conflict between body and Spirit that Paul spoke of in RO 7: 14-25. Not one of us is perfect and without sin, except for Jesus Christ. RO 3: 23-24, “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that came by Jesus Christ.” RO 6: 23 is a familiar verse, which put in the context of this message, has real “Strong Tower”- kind of power. “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ, our Lord.” Let me conclude this devotion with the urgency I personally feel and am attempting to act upon—to look carefully for the frequent opportunities the Lord gives us to reach out to those who haven’t yet come to faith in Jesus Christ. Christ Himself has told us, in JN 4: 34-35, “My food is to do the will of Him Who sent Me and to finish His work Do you not say, ‘For months more and then the harvest?’ I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields. They are ripe and ready for harvest.” Praise be to the Lord, Who guides us, saves us, empowers us, tells us the truth, and gives us the freedom that submission to His will yields for us!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2014. All Rights Reserved.
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