2002-11-26
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
One of the most precious gifts God gives us is His perspective on our problems. When coupled with what we learn about Him through the Scriptures, we can begin to appreciate that we don’t face the challenges to our faith and our ability to endure in it alone. God is right there with us, cheering us on to victory, empowering us, encouraging us, and equipping us. It is only after we become practiced at daily study of His word, frequent prayer, obedience to His commands, and strict adherence to accuracy in the interpretation and application of His word that we become consciously aware of His constant love and presence. I believe this is a goal He wants each of us to reach. Moreover, people who establish an organization dedicated to being successful couldn’t find a better example than the one that God has set up to see His Kingdom established and to keep the Body of Christ (the church) functioning and healthy. When there is a breakdown in a congregation or denomination, then it is likely caused by not allowing Jesus Christ to have been in leadership or holding accurate to the word. Remember 2 TIM 1: 13-14, Paul’s wise advice to his protégé, Timothy? “Hold firmly to the true words that I taught you, as the example for you to follow, and remain in the faith and love that are ours in union with Christ Jesus. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Who loves in us, guard the treasure entrusted to you.” That “treasure” is the Gospel, and it is truly worth guarding with one’s life.
To get back to the model for organization that God set up, look at EPH 1: 21-23. “Christ rules there [in the heavenly world] above all heavenly rulers, authorities, powers, and lords; He has a title superior to all titles of authority in this world and in the next. God put all things under Christ’s feet and gave Him to the church as Supreme Lord over all things. The church is Christ’s Body, the completion of Him Who Himself completes all things everywhere.” This is no isolated comment arising out of Paul; it was God-breathed. God inspired Daniel, who lived long before Paul, and thus never met him, to reveal the same idea in DN 7: 13-14. Daniel’s revelation came in a vision and is fully supported by Paul’s. “During this vision in the night, I saw what looked like a human being. He was approaching me, surrounded by clouds, and He went to the One Who had been living forever [the Ancient of Days] and was presented to Him. He was given authority, honor, and royal power, so that the people of all nations, races, and languages would serve Him. His authority would last forever, and His Kingdom would never end.” That wasn’t the first place that Christ’s authority was revealed to Daniel by God. DN 2: 34-35 shows it too. This is part of the giant statue dream that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia had which Daniel later interpreted for him. “While you were looking at it, a great Stone broke loose from a cliff without anyone touching it, struck the iron and clay feet of the statue, and shattered them. At once the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold crumbled and became like the dust on a threshing place in summer. The wind carried it all away, leaving not a trace. But the Stone grew to be a mountain that covered the whole earth.” There is a reason I capitalized the word, Stone, and by now, I’m sure you know what it is. Since the other metals and clay represented human kingdoms, we can see that God’s Kingdom will eventually replace all of them from this prophetic dream. The Psalmist also confirms the notion of God establishing His Kingdom and giving full authority over it to His Son. PS 110:1, “The Lord said to my Lord, the King, ‘Sit here at My right side until I put Your enemies under Your feet.’”
When we put all of this together with RO 8: 17, we are given a picture that should serve as high motivation to take the blessings of our salvation seriously and to be conscientiously obedient warriors against God’s enemies, i.e. consider His invitation to join Him in His work as a main agenda in our lives. “Since we are His children, we will possess the blessing He keeps for His people, and we will also possess with Christ [as joint-heirs] what God has kept for Him; for if we share in Christ’s suffering, we will also share His glory.” Many of God’s leading warriors had situations even more difficult than our present ones. We need only look at the opposition people like Moses, Gideon, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, John the Baptist, Paul, and especially the Son Himself faced. Each of them understood God’s organization and was obedient to it. Each made enormous contributions to God’s work of bringing people to faith, so that they could eventually be perfected and resurrected returning to the Father’s presence for eternity. And that brings us to a question upon which each of us should meditate today. What is our own place in the Body of Christ? One further question we must ask: Should we allow the pain, anguish, disappointment, and loss that we feel at Satan’s hand deter us from keeping God’s plan in mind and being courageously obedient to Him? He challenges us to examine our lives as individuals, members of a congregation, citizens of a city and nation, and as people involved in a supernaturally established “koininea” relationship with Him and other believers. He asks us: How willing are we to live lives of holiness and to convey the Good News of salvation to those who have not yet come to faith?
PRAYER: O Lord, when we come to You in prayer, we need to be consciously alert to the blessings You bestowed on us as a result of our salvation. You gave Your Son on the cross to make our salvation possible. Even though You knew we would have to feel pain, loss, disappointment, and sorrow as a result of Satan’s fiery arrows lobbed at us, You revealed Your remarkable plan to us, equipped us to fight evil to victory in Your Son’s name, and You offered us direction, communication, and encouragement. When we came to believe what Paul said in RO 8: 17 [above], You inspired Peter to support that by letting us see what Your will for our attitudes should be in 1 PET 4: 13. “Rather be glad that you are sharing Christ’s sufferings, so that you may be full of joy when His glory is revealed.” What a different perspective You give us than the world’s complaints and negativity in the face of pain and sorrow! We never have to take the role of the victim. The moment Christ gave His life on the cross, the victory was written in Stone. That is why Christ is known is the Living Stone in IS 28:16, which is cited in 1 PET 2: 6, “I chose a valuable Stone, which I am placing as the Cornerstone in Zion; and whoever believes in Him will never be disappointed.” When Christ gave up His physical life, the heavenly Holy of Holies was opened to us all [HE 9:12], symbolized by the rending of the inner veil of the temple in Jerusalem from top to bottom [MK 15: 38]. You have called us to allow ourselves “to be used in building the spiritual temple, where you will serve as holy priests to offer spiritual and acceptable sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ” in 1 PET 2: 5. There is nothing inconsistent about this or anything else You call us to do. As far back as EX 19: 6, You called those of Your children who were in a covenant relationship with You to be “a nation of priests.” We are honored to come before You today as Your covenant partners and “priests in training” to offer You our lives as “living sacrifices of service” to You [R0 12: 1], to humbly confess our sins, to joyfully accept the responsibilities of fighting spiritual warfare in Christ’s name, and to offer You our eternal adoration, worship, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, trust, obedience, thanksgiving, and praise. In His Holy Name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, I am led to look at Paul’s challenge to carry out his mission and strategies for when Satan sends his fiery darts to our minds. We can’t pass over examining the circumstances of the lives of people from the Scriptures or our own lives to see what lessons God has from them. When I commented above about being constantly aware of God’s presence in our lives, this extends to being able to find the lessons our loving Abba has for us through our own circumstances. If we are willing to look, God is truly omnipresent in the life of each believer. His presence is meant to steer us into paths of righteousness, not controlling for controlling sake, but for leading us to eternal life. Our loving and always-holy Deity has only our best long-term interests in mind. He is the loving Parent Who wants each of His children to make it all the way through the narrow gate and along the hard path [MT 7: 13-14] back to His side for eternity. His desire for us is joy, fellowship, success, prosperity, wellness, and fulfillment forever with Him. Now, that, Dear Ones, is real, unconditional love-love without any evil agendas! Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn