2003-01-20
Good Morning Dear Ones,
Yesterday, I wrote about IS 61: 1-4, and it is appropriate to summarize the main points of what Jesus read and commented on in that synagogue in Nazareth that led to the people driving Him away from there. These unfaithful and disobedient Pharisees were in reality rejecting Christ’s Good News of deliverance which was a part of their own sacred writings. This message told them: 1) The Spirit of the Lord is upon them; 2) He was chosen to bring the Good News; 3) He was sent to liberate captives, recover sight to the blind, and to free the oppressed; 4) He announced the coming of redemption (salvation) of His people. All of this makes me think of 1 COR 2: 14, “Whoever does not have the Spirit cannot receive the gifts that come from God’s Spirit. Such a person really does not understand them; they are foolishness to him, because their value can be judged only on a spiritual basis.” Now we might ask why God didn’t just bring the Spirit upon them and lift the veil from their eyes right then? But to do that would have thwarted the Father’s bigger, more important plan. Christ would have to eventually go to the cross, so that believing mankind could be saved. At this point in history, mankind was right at the interface between the old Covenant of the Law and the new Covenant of Grace. Just as the Father kept His sights on the big picture, so must we in our own faith lives. The bond between the MT and LK citations that I’ve been writing about for the last few days and IS 61 is clarified when we realize that they all lead to and eventual separation between the righteous and the unrighteous that is to be accomplished in the Tribulation. That is the final separation between the sheep and goats referred to in MT 25: 32.
At this juncture, it is appropriate for us to take a look at Christ’s own battles with Satan and his followers to see what lessons God has for us in them. Jesus was to heal many people. One of the first was Simon Peter’s mother-in-law who was suffering with a fever [MK 1: 29-31]. Christ took her by the hand, and the fever left her. Word of that got around and many people came to Him for healing. MK 1: 34, “Jesus healed many who were sick with all kinds of diseases and drove out many demons. He would not let the demons say anything, because they knew Who He was.” This last sentence is significant, because it lends support to two concepts. 1) EPH 6:12 is really the truth; we are fighting against “wicked spiritual forces in the heavenly world, the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of this dark age.” 2) It is clear that these evil spirits knew Who Christ was and were permanently rejecting Him. Thus, they and those who allow them to take leadership in their lives are headed for spiritual death. Remember JN 14: 6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me.”
God is clearly in charge as the chronology of events in Christ’s earthly ministry flow. MT 4: 23-25 shows this. “Jesus went all over Galilee, teaching in the synagogues, preaching the Good News about the Kingdom, and healing people who had all kinds of disease and sickness. The news about Him spread through the whole country of Syria so that people brought to Him all those who were sick, suffering from all kinds of diseases and disorders: people with demons, and epileptics, and paralytics-and Jesus healed them all. Large crowds follow Him from Galilee and the Ten Towns, from Jerusalem, Judea, and the land on the other side of the Jordan.” We might ask: So what? We all know that Christ healed people. Why is it so important that crowds followed Him at this point? Once again, we must look at the chronology of events and God’s bigger picture to see why. What would happen next was the Sermon on the Mount, one of Christ’s most important efforts to show people there is another way to think than the way they had always known. The Father wanted as many people as possible at the time to be exposed to this wonderful teaching. We can bet the devil didn’t like this train of events one little bit! The underlying truth in all of this is that God's power so far outstrips that of the adversary that anyone seeing this truth must have trust in Him.
PRAYER: O Lord, You are a righteous and wise Deity, the only true God. Your wisdom leads You to tell us to wait for Your time as a series of events unfold, not to try to control them ourselves. David understood this when he wrote PS 37: 1-7, “Do not be worried on account of the wicked; do not be jealous of those who do wrong. They will soon disappear like grass that dries up; they will die like plants that wither. Trust in the Lord and do good; live in the land and be safe. Seek your happiness in the Lord, and He will give you your heart’s desire. Give yourself to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will help you; he will make your righteousness shine like the noonday sun. Be patient and wait for the Lord to act; do not be worried about those who prosper or those who succeed in their evil plans.” The words of (4) give us the same promise that JN 15: 7 does. You are such a consistent and loving God. You know that we are often impatient in our battles with Satan, particularly when we are suffering. Just as Paul complained three times about His ailment, Your refusal to remove it from Him in revealed another important truth we all need to know [2 COR 12: 7-8]. That truth is found in 2 COR 12: 9, “But His answer was, ‘My grace is sufficient, for My power is strongest when you are weak.’” We pray the words of PS 92: 5-8, “How great are Your actions, Lord! How deep are Your thoughts! This is something a fool cannot know; a stupid man cannot understand: the wicked may grow like weeds, those who do wrong may prosper; yet they will be totally destroyed, because You, Lord, are supreme forever.” Who else has the power to transform us inwardly by the renewal of our minds [RO 12: 2]? Who else can make us new creations by bonding us with Christ [2 COR 5: 17]? Who else will eventually weed out every evildoer and eventually destroy the enemy forever [MT 13: 30; REV 19: 20-21 & 20:10]? Who else could defeat Satan at Calvary [JN 3: 16; RO 3: 24-25]? Who else keeps His eye on the sparrow and deems us more valuable than many sparrows [MT 10:31; LK 12: 7]? Who else could raise Christ from death to life as “the first among many brothers” [PS 110: 1; JN 14: 2; RO 8: 29]? Who else could establish a permanent Kingdom that will replace all human kingdoms and house the righteous [DN 2: 34-35; REV 5: 5]? PS 93: 1-2, “The Lord is King. He is clothed with majesty and strength. The earth is set firmly in place and cannot be moved. Your throne, O Lord, has been firm from the beginning and You existed before time began.” We are Your dedicated servants who come before Your throne in humility to confess our sins, present empty spiritual vessels, and ask the Holy Spirit to fill them. We offer You our heartfelt and eternal worship, adoration, loyalty, diligence, glory, honor, trust, obedience, thanks, and praise. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen.
Tomorrow, I am led to go on sharing Christ’s own experience with battling Satan. This is likely to be a treasure trove of wonderful lessons for us, lessons which the Father is using to bless each of us. There are countless ways that our Father demonstrates His love for each of us. From my own experience, a lot of people feel extra stress and some even feel depressed around the holiday season. My understanding of God’s will is that this should not be so. When we look into the reasons for this, we see greed in the form of materialism, rejection of the purpose for the celebration [Our Lord’s birth remembered], and pagan practices which have crept into our culture. Needless to say, that list isn’t complete, but it suggests the idea of things God loves us enough to want us to change. Sometimes we can’t simply tell friends that are engaging in “keeping up with the Joneses” that they are wrong. But God has made it clear that we can still have a major impact by the example of faithfulness we set. Those who are potential believers will see how much peace, love, and happiness we have and notice the contrast. They will want these things for themselves and thus, make us “ambassadors of Christ” when they ask how we do it. I will always pray that God gives us the right words to say to these inquirers, and I believe He will. His love for each of us is that great! Peter and I send each of you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn