2022-09-30
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Last week, I raised questions for us to ask ourselves about the attitude of our hearts and status of our faith, a discussion for this devotion. To begin, we are living in an increasingly broken world. God knows this and gives us tools we need to live in this world successfully. GA 5: 22-23 should be our jumping off point. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance [patience], goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” This is the passage upon which all these messages are based. Let me repeat another passage from last week that helps us to understand the Lord’s will for us. HE 10: 23-25, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He Who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” The word “Day” is capitalized because it refers to that day when the Lord Jesus returns, not as He was before [a Propitiation of our sins] but as Supreme King. No one knows the exact day and hour this will happen, except the Father [MT 24: 36].
It's essential, that this time and date isn’t known, so that we will understand and be motivated to study His word, live by it, convey the Gospel, pray, and help in God’s task of faith-building. The evil one hates all this activity because faith in the true Messiah spreads by it. That is why the evil one tries to work both from within and without churches to spread his evildoing. He provides a counterpoint to true faith, one that is often crafty, begun in secret, and slow to notice as it builds toward real evildoing. In my long years of serving God, I have seen two congregations split, an event that turns ones social and spiritual life into chaos. In one church, one committee of their leadership council secretly arranged for the firing (in rapid succession) of the founding minister, his associate minister, and the director of Christian education. All this was done without the knowledge of the rest of the congregation. When it finally came to light, I was requested with two others to investigate and try to find out what happened. I can assure you that this was personally very painful to me because the associate minister played the organ and led the choir, of which my husband and I were members.
In the course of the previous nine years, our choir had gone from being a few people except us, who sang without knowing to read music to thriving in numbers and being invited to sing the Mozart Requiem at Carnegie Hall in NY. The truth of what had been going on was only revealed by our investigation. Sadly, the church split with 80 families leaving it.
There is evil from without the church as well. Consider how people in today’s world are split along political lines, with some willing to do violence as happened on Jan.6th with the actual insurrection at the capitol building in Washington, DC. The proliferation of assault rifles and hand- guns, all the evil one’s work, and the many shooting incidents leading to the murder of many people have fractured our society socially and spiritually. Passing effective legislation to put a stop to this activity has been blocked by large, powerful lobby groups representing only their own interests. All of this negatively impacts God’s intention to put us in organized churches and synagogues to build faith.
Given this situation, I am commanded by the Holy Spirit to ask some tough questions for each of us, myself included. Do you belong to a church or synagogue? If you have moved around North America as I have, have you made it your goal to find the right congregation for you in each place and join it? Are you a cheerful giver [2 COR 9: 7]? Are you allowing the Lord to lead in your life? Do you turn to Him in prayer frequently? Do you serve others in need? Are you a party to faith-building and meaningful friendships? As a Christian, do you openly profess the Lordship of Jesus Christ? Do you approach people asking about Him (seekers) prepared to convey the word of God to them? Are your ethics in line with the Lord’s in all you think and act upon? These and other tough questions are ones we must ask ourselves to assess our heart-attitude. Our Lord wants us to seek out how we feel and believe.
PRAYER: O Lord, Your Spirit tells me to share reminders You have given us, that will help us in these difficult times in our lives, one believer or potential believer at a time. 1 COR 12: 4-6, “There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working but the same God works all of them in all people.” 1 COR 13: 13, “And these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love…” Are we looking at our lives through a dull or damaged mirror, or do we see fully what we know of them while earthbound? IS 64: 4, “Since the beginning of time, no ear has heard, no eye has seen a God like You, Who works for those who wait on Him.” We can’t have everything for which we pray, even if it’s something of which You approve. For You, and You alone, would grant such a request in Your own perfect time and way. We ask You to tell us, through the Holy Spirit, if our lives are Christlike and when they are not, to help us make the corrections necessary to reach that goal. Once we do make them, we know You will give us the joy that we will deserve. We make these statements and ask ourselves these questions, in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The Holy Spirit gives me more questions for all of us to ponder next week. It’s necessary for us to have the tools we need to examine our heart-attitudes and to know the status of our faith. I’m put on the spot just as you are. We will never know how we will react if our lives were being challenged by the devil’s cohorts until or unless this happens. At a high school, where active shooters who were clearly mentally ill had invaded, a young girl crouched beneath a table in the library, was asked, “Do you believe in Christ?” Her last word before he shot her was “yes!” Our loving God witnesses this and every martyrdom and will not let them go unnoticed [REV 6: 9-11; RO 8: 38-39]. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn, JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2022. All Rights Reserved.
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