2023-07-28
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Let me begin with EZK 36: 26-27, which is God’s promise revealed to Ezekiel, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you one of flesh. And I will put My Spirit in you and move you to follow My decrees and be careful to keep My laws.” This promise has been made and kept with every believer in our Lord Jesus. While this may be a review for some of you, the Holy Spirit leads me to briefly discuss the nature of the Trinity. The Trinity is a description of God’s three personalities. If you ask, how do I know that there is one God with three personalities, I must go back to DT 6: 4-5, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and with all your might.” Now, just for a minute think of a Board meeting in the highest realm of heaven. The CEO is the Father, Who makes all the decisions on everything from Creation forward. The 1st VP in charge of redemption and visible to mankind is the Son, Jesus Christ. The 2nd VP in charge of advising us to the Father’s will and helping us with our decisions and challenges is the Holy Spirit. Since we’re talking about one God, each of the members of the Trinity are of equal importance to the life of a believer. Some scripture back-ups for this are found in COL 1: 15; JN 3: 16; RO 4: 3; 1 JN 1: 9; GA 5: 22-23. Further Scriptural support for Who the Lord Jesus really is comes from EX 3: 14 where Moses is told by God in reply to the former’s question about what name he should tell the Israelites. He said, “I AM WHO I AM.” It’s no accident that when the Jewish leaders led by Judas Iscariot came to arrest Jesus (who had been standing at the place they had met before with His disciples) they demanded to know, “Which one of you is Jesus of Nazareth?” Christ’s answer was, “I AM, He; let these others go” [JN 18: 4-8]. At this, the others drew back and fell to the ground. And this happened so the words He had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those You have given Me,” Jesus uttered to the Father.
So, Who is this magnificent and gracious Being we call God? He is El Elyon, the Most High and Supreme Sovereign, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Our impetuous Peter over-reacted as was his habit and cut off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the Jewish high priest Caiaphas. Jesus rebuked Peter and healed Malchus before their eyes. Upon doing this Christ uttered, “Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given Me?” JN 18: 1-11 recalls the arrest of Jesus, which I hope you will read. Also, please look at JN 15: 12-17, which discusses what Christ’s definition of a friend verses only a servant, His commitment as our Friend, and His loving choice of us first. Think about this: our loving God humbled Himself in coming down to earth as a materially impoverished traveling rabbi, in order to make the most significant atoning sacrifice of His physical life, so that we can be saved, justified (deemed acceptable by the Father), and eternally forgiven for our sins [JN 3: 16; RO 4: 3; 1 JN 1: 9]. And consider what grace He gives us, as outlined in EPH 2: 8-10. “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is a gift from God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do God works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
That is where I will leave off for this week. Hopefully, the details of this story will show the extraordinary love and obedience to the Father that our Lord Jesus demonstrated for our sakes.
PRAYER: O Dearest Father, we kneel before You in prayer in hope that we can follow the model of obedience to Your teaching that Your Son did---even to the point of giving our physical lives, if necessary. Whether or not we must do so, we value our spiritual lives and Your teaching. We love You and the marvelous direction that You have given us in the Scriptures, direction that opens Your wisdom to us, that motivates us to be obediently faithful, and to appreciate the sacrificial atonement that our Lord Jesus made for us. It is our desire to repay the grace You have given us by serving You while we love and serve the needs of our fellow man. You give us the courage to stand up to evil and the skills to be Your instruments on earth. Moreover, You use our challenges to mature us spiritually and give us Your perspective on our trials [1 COR 10: 13]. We thank and praise You for all the blessings You give us. We are grateful for Your presence and intervention in our lives. We pray in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: As you will remember, this series of devotions is based on GA 5: 22-23, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The word “peace,” or shalom, in Hebrew has different meanings. Next week, I have been commanded by the Holy Spirit to discuss Christ’s perspective from MT 10: 32-36 in not bringing peace as a part of God’s plan of salvation. This is a perspective jumpstarted by Peter’s sword to Malchus’ ear and Christ’s recognition that His first earthly incarnation was reaching an end soon. Until explained, the concept of not bringing peace to the earth is sometimes hard to understand. The matter of man’s time verses God’s is another concept hard to understand and for us as humans hard to accept [see 2 PET 3: 8-9]. In the meanwhile, what God is not telling us is designed to cause us to think in eternal terms and to grow our faith with prayer, study, sharing friendships in the faith, and service--- vertically for God and horizontally with our fellow man. Remember: combine DT 6: 4-5 and JN 13: 34-35---even consider memorizing these two crucial passages! We thank and bless our righteous and loving God!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn, JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2023 All Rights Reserved
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