Spiritual

WE NEED HOPE – – (Conclusion)


Colossians 1:25-29 – “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ.”  NASB

The question must be asked, “Why do so many, in the Church, live with the world’s Hope rather than the Bible’s Hope?”  One of the reasons is we cling to our experience in the beginning and never move deeper into a relationship.  It is in our history but not our present.  We take about what happened back then.  Why?  Because that’s all we have. Over time we grow bored with the sameness of what we are saying and lose the genuineness of Hope!

I heard about a man who wrote down what had happened to him. He called it “My Blessed Experience.”  He kept it in a box in the attic.  Anytime a visitor would come he would bring it down and read it to them.  He would say, “This is what happened to me!”  One day a visitor came, and he sent his daughter to retrieve his “Blessed Experience” so he could read it to them.  She came down dejected and gave him the bad news, the rats had eaten his Blessed Experience.

Tragically there are countless professing Christians who go to church every Sunday and experience the ritual but not life.  I would suggest that you could leave many churches for a few years and come back and it would be exactly the same.  There would be the same songs, same testimonies, and the same sermons.  They are always trying to recapture their Blessed Experience.  They are trying to remember what happened. That’s all they have, a memory.

In that state of mind, a person looks at the Blessed Hope and it is a wish or a longing but not a current experience in the heart. The Blessed Hope is the consummation of the whole Kingdom of God, not the Great Escape.  Years ago, I stopped singing some of the age-old songs of the church.  Why?  There are many reasons but two are, some of them were defeatist in their message and because I wanted to live with the current reality of Christ in Me. I did not want to live in a memory of what used or a dream of what it will be sometimes in the future when we have the Grand Finale. I wanted a current reality of Christ in me NOW!

When Jesus returns that will be the Grand Finale of what we are supposed to be enjoying as Christians now!  We are in Christ right now!  The eternal kingdom of God is bursting forth in us and out of us, right now!  We have a past, and we have a future and sadly too many view the present as a vacuum or a parenthesis.  It is Christ in Us, the Hope of Glory NOW!

The Hope of Glory is NOW, in this present world!  It is not in the sweet by and by it is in the now and now.  It is today, this is the Day the Lord has made.  The Pardon that God gave us and the interaction with Him through the Holy Spirit is NOW! 

If you remember the parable of the prodigal son, it brings this into reality powerfully.  As he journeyed home, while he was still a great way off, he rehearsed his speech.  He planned to say, “Father, I have sinned against you.  Make me as one of your hired servants.” 

That is fascinating because a hired servant was not a slave or a servant.  The servants live ‘on’ the property all the time, but the hired servants only came at harvest time.  He was basically an odd-job worker, a temp, hired by the day.  He was a Day Laborer!  He was saying to his father, “Dad, I ask you to forgive me.  I’ll go live in the village, and at harvest time, I ask that you give me a job.”  That is all he expected!

But his father ran to him, fell on his neck, kissed him, and forgave him completely.  The prodigal took out his prepared speech and began but suddenly everything changed.  His father would not let him finish.  Instead, he reinstated him as a full son.  This is my son who was lost, dead but now alive.  A whole new life unfolded before him. 

That is what I’m talking about in Hope!  When I came to Jesus, I would have been satisfied with just being pardoned.  But suddenly I discover there was more to this than meets the eye.  Everything that God has promised is mine!  But when I came to Him, I did not know what He had Promised other than Pardon.  He gives, and gives, and gives, and gives!

Believers we must learn to move beyond from talking about the past, the Blessed Experience, and live every day in excited!  We must learn to live in the fullness of God’s Blessings and Promises.  We dare not pitch our tents around Forgiveness.  That is wonderful but not the whole story.  We cannot be satisfied to settle for what God did, we must move our eyes forward to THE HOPE, that everything that God has said is ours!

God’s desire for us is that we enjoy All of His Promises and live as though He were telling the truth, because He is! If God says that He wants to give it, then our Hope and Expectation is that He will!  That is where we are to live as Christians in Hope!  We are the people of HOPE!  We have the positive, unshakeable confidence that what God said He will do!  We are to live in the Excited Expectancy and Eager Desire for “Thy Kingdom Come and Thy Will be Done on Earth as it is in Heaven.” 

WE HAVE HOPE!   God bless you as you embark on a new fuller journey in Jesus!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

WE NEED HOPE – – (Part 3)


Colossians 1:25-29 – “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ.”  NASB

In considering the Hope of the Bible we are drawn to Abraham.  God promised him that one would come through his seed that would Bless all the families of the earth.  Then, we consider David and see the Promises in the Davidic Covenant.  We examine the prophets and hear them all declare that there was coming one who would bear our sins.  There would be one who was Lord of Lords and King of Kings.  There was one in whose kingdom there would be peace and joy beyond description.  They NEVER had that, but they Hoped!

Generation after generation lived reading the Seed Catalog and rehearsing the Promises.  Hebrews 11 tells us that they all died in faith.  They keep looking ahead.  It was the Hope of Israel.  They uniformly said, “We KNOW He is coming!  We are absolutely certain of that truth.”  Then as they died, they reached out to their children and said, “Don’t Forget, He is Coming!”  It has been passed on from generation to generation.  That is Hope!

In the Book of Acts, we hear the declaration – He Has Come!  The Hope of Israel was finally realized.  He Came!  Paul said, “That’s what I’m doing.  I am standing in judgment because I am declaring that Jesus is the Hope of Israel.  The Messiah has come!”

Please never lose sight of the reality that Jesus’ coming is not to be viewed as only some moment in history.  No, No, No!  He actually came to live inside of us.  He is coming again but now, because He came, we have HOPE!  Israel had a Hope, but they had to wait for generations before it was fulfilled.  But Hope has come!  He lives in us!  Now, because He lives inside of us, We Live in Hope!  Hallelujah, I live in the Hope that everything that I’ve ever hoped for will be realized before I die or before Jesus returns.  I hope you see this because this is Hope! 

You and I, as believers, are among the persons where The Hope has happened.  He is here!  What we have Hoped for is Here!  The Seed of the Woman, Jesus, is here.  The descendant of Abraham, Jesus is here.  The one that Isaiah said would Die for our sins, Jesus, is here!  He is Here and He Is In Us!    That is HOPE! 

Jesus is our Hope that everything that God has promised will come to pass in our lives.  He is our Hope!  He is the guarantee, the certainty, the absolute assurance, and He has come!  Therefore, everything that God has Promised WILL come to Pass.  That is Hope!

Unfortunately, too many Christians live without Hope.  Too many live in a state that could be identified as despair.  Why?  I believe it is because we sometimes live in a vacuum.  What do I mean by that? 

Let me offer this illustration and hopefully, it will resonate and liberate. The way that many Christians look this is, “We are pardoned.”  Most believe that we have been forgiven.  Some have moved a step beyond that position and entered into a living relationship with Jesus through the Holy Spirit.  But, what then?  Too often, we ‘freeze that experience’ and say, “That’s it, I’ve got it!”  We live more in the hope of the world than the hope of the Bible.

I must deal with this yet one more time, but until then we will say, go with God and He will go with you. Have a great day in Him today!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

WE NEED HOPE – – (Part 2)


Colossians 1:25-29 – “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ.”  NASB

In considering the Hope of the Bible I realize that the Christian is or should be a person of Hope!  We are the persons who can say, “I am looking forward, with great excitement and anticipation, that I will receive what God has promised and I am hoping for.”  Each day we can and should experience a little more of God’s Promises and Blessings.  We are those who can and should refuse to feed depression and despair.

The Person of Hope looks into all their tomorrows, all their unlived future and have the calm assurance that “this is the day the Lord has made.”  That person knows in their heart of hearts that, in God’s perfect timing, He is going to bring to us all His Promises!  That is Bible Hope!  That would make Bible Hope, Faith in a roundabout way.  It is Faith that is shielding its eyes against the sunlight of adversity and shouts, “I can see it!  I can see it!”

Let me illustrate it using farmers or gardeners.  They have to live and operate in Hope.  Not the hope that is of the world but the hope that is of the Bible.  Each August or September the gardener will take down their gardening Bible, their seed catalog.  It has in it some of the most amazing pictures of what the promise is.  But when you order it and it arrives it is a blub not the beautiful plant.  Then, that gardener will, with sure and certain HOPE, put that blub in the ground.  Why?  Because they believe the promise of the book.  What do they have as evidence?  The Picture or in our case the Promise. 

That gardener will Hope through the winter months.  They know that under the surface of the soil there is life where they planted that ugly blub.  That is the Hope that we have in Christ.  When I look at my life when I first came to Jesus for salvation.  I can say, “You mean that I am destined to be conformed to the Image of God’s Son?”  I take my seed catalog, the Bible, and read what God has prepared for me.  I do not look at what I see in me, but what the Bible says about the Christ that lives in me and I HOPE!

That Life in me is the Hope of Glory!  When I do that, I discover what Christianity is really all about.  It is Hope!  We live in a continual and perpetual state of excited anticipation.  No matter what adversity comes, that Life in us cannot be destroyed by external circumstances.  It is Christ in us, the Hope of Glory!  Everything He has said “IS” going to burst forth and we will be what He said we are.  That’s Hope!

I contend that Hope is seen from the first pages of the Bible.  In the Book of Acts, Paul was arrested because he said that Jesus was the Messiah.  He contended that the Promises of God in the Old Testament were fulfilled in Jesus.  He stood before the tribunals of man and three separate times, he referred to why he was there.  In Acts 24:15, he referred to the Hope that he had from God.  In acts 26:6, he referred to the Hope of the Promises made by God to the fathers.  Then, he said, that he was there for the Hope of Israel. 

What is he talking about?  If you go back to Genesis 3:15 you find that God made the Promise that one day, there would be the seed of the woman.  That seed would crush the head of the serpent, the devil.  That looked incredibly remote and far-fetched at that time.  Adam and Eve had just come out of the Garden of Eden, having rebelled against God.  They were sensing the pressure of sin, the darkness of separation, and the rottenness of their condition.  The reign of the devil was hovering over them.  God says, in that situation, “One day, the seed of the woman…” 

That is all they had to hold on to.  It was their gospel.  It was their Bible.  That had that one single promise and they passed it on from generation to generation.  In their horrible condition imposed upon them because of sin, they had a Ray of Hope! 

We cannot stop here but must for this devotional and pick up again next time.  May the LORD bless and keep you and be with you as you enjoy this wonderful day in Him!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

WE NEED HOPE…


Colossians 1:25-29 – “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations; but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ.”  NASB

Hope is a commodity vitally essential in seeing the Big Picture of what God has for us and for navigating the difficult waters of life.  In considering the subject of Hope we must ultimately arrive at what the Bible calls “The Hope of Glory.”  A much better way to say that would be, “Christ in us, the Hope of Glory.”

In our text passage, the apostle Paul identifies the essence of his ministry.  He was saying, “This is what I do.”  Paul was traveling around the world teaching people about Jesus.  His goal, aim, and vision was to prepare every person to reach a state of completeness, perfection, and wholeness.  The essence and content of what he was teaching was the mystery of “Christ in you, the Hope of Glory.” 

What does, “Christ in you, the Hope of Glory” mean?  To discover that we must define “Hope.”  In today’s world, “hope” has a bad reputation.  In some circles, if you say, “hope,” you are deemed to be expressing a lack of faith.  But the word fills the New Testament.  That leads me to believe that we have frequently misused the word.  The world’s use of the word has absolutely nothing to do with the Bible word – Hope!

What is Hope?  One little boy defined saying, “Hope is believing that you are going to get that, which anyone in their right mind knows you are not going to get.”  That, for many people, is Hope.  That is how the world views the word.  When many say that they are hoping they are saying they believe it highly unlikely that they will ever realize what they are hoping for.  For many, it borders on impossible and to the far too many it means they are clinging to a thin thread when all rational expectancy is gone.

I’ve gone into hospital rooms and heard people say, “We can only Hope.”  What they meant was they did not believe there was any rational expectancy left.  That means that Hope has in it a sense of desperation and disappointment. 

Let me illustrate it by asking you to go back to your high school days.  How many of the dizzy dreams and visions you developed have already been shattered and shelved?  How many are completely gone?  What about marriage?  Many enter marriage with the little bluebirds of love and happiness circling in their minds.  Then just a few years down the road they scrap the whole thing and their perfect marriage ends in divorce. What they hoped for is gone.

Hope, as understood by the world and much of the church has a built-in disappointment, because people do not believe it is going to happen.  They are like the little boy and are “believing that they’ll get something that anyone in their right mind knows they’ll never get.”  That’s human hope and it is terrible.

However, that is not what the Bible means by Hope.  The Bible Hope is not only not hopeless it is completely other than that view.  Hope in the Bible means – “That positive unshakable confidence that a specific blessing from God will come to pass.”  That is totally other than the world’s view of Hope.  The Bible view says, “I know with unshakable confidence and certainty that the specific thing that God has said will come to pass.”  Therefore, Hope in the Bible view has a built-in Certainty Factor in it.  The world’s hope has inherent in it, disappointment, and the Bible’s view of hope has a built-in certainty.

Philippians 1:20 in the Amplified says, “My own eager desire, persistent expectation, and hope.”  That’s it!  It is the Eager Desire!  It is declaring, “What God says, I want it!  I expect it, no matter the bleakness of the situation!  I Expect and am determined to Persist!  I know it is going to Happen because God says it and I HOPE!”

I want to continue this but will pause here and say – HOPE is not a lack of Faith but in the Bible, it is a brother of Faith. 

God bless you as you enjoy this wonderful day in Jesus!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

BATTLE TESTED CHRISTIANS…


Psalms 144:1 – “Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;” NASB

I have contended for a long time that Christians in America are not ‘battle-tested’ and prepared for persecution or the impending troubled waters we are and will be faced with in these Last Days.  It is tragic that we seemingly have become dependent on medicine, science, government, employers, ability, etc. to help us get through life.  We have lived a life of relative ease compared to some others in this world and have not endured the religious persecution known in the Bible.  That is good and it is bad. 

It is good in the sense that in our time of peace and safety we have had the opportunity to provide for ourselves and our families as well as enjoy an unimpeded ability to spread the Gospel.  It is bad in the sense that we have lost some of our ‘war faith’ and have not been ‘battle-tested.’  One of the things the Bible says about how God led Israel through the wilderness was that he took certain paths to prevent them from seeing war lest they become disheartened.  They were not ‘battle-tested’ and he had to prepare their hearts to face the upcoming wars they would fight.

Our God is the same God as the God of Abraham, Joseph, Isaac, Jeremiah, Daniel, David, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Peter, Paul, and John.  He has not changed as is confirmed in Hebrews 13:8. He is the same eternally, yesterday, today, and forever.  In that confidence we have hope.  But that knowledge does not remove the reality that we are not ‘battle-tested.’ 

I have a friend, a minister, who says, “I don’t want anyone with me in a battle that does not have a limp.”  He was referring to Jacob’s wrestling with God all night and God touching his hip.  I have been in natural war and spiritual war and know the value of those who have been ‘tested’ in the heat of battle.  It is comforting and encouraging to know that those with you in the fight will not desert you.  It is comforting to know that thorough their ‘battle testing’ and ‘battle hardening’ they are not overwhelmed by the moment but know how to fight through to the victorious objective.

I encounter people who believe they are ‘okay’ because they are ‘good people.’  One said, “I don’t hurt anybody, so I am okay.”  It takes more than just being considered a ‘good person’ to be in the Family of God, it takes ‘forgiveness’ through repentance.  It requires the ‘new birth’ which can only come through the Finished Work of Jesus and the application of His atoning blood to our sins.  It takes believing that He is and surrendering our entire beings to Him.  

I have whined when a problem came and lingered. Each time after a time of whining, the Holy Spirit convicts me.  It usually comes through an encounter with someone who is facing a more severe trial or a reminder of the plight of Christians in incredible evil areas of this world.  In America, too often, we have lived a life of “soft, unchallenging, and uninspired Christianity.”  We do not have to sneak around to share the Gospel of Jesus.  We don’t have to have church in the shadows and hide from the prying eyes of the authorities.  We have learned to live without being forced to ‘trust God’ for our existence.  We are not ‘battle-tested.’

When Israel was delivered from Egyptian bondage and came to the Red Sea, they saw the pursuing armies of Egypt.  They were terrified.  They had witnessed the miracles of God in their deliverance.  To their credit, when they saw the looming death and destruction coming. they cried to the LORD in their terror.  Thankfully, they had a man leading them that had spent 40 years learning to trust God and empty himself of the ways of man.  Moses said, “Fear not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which He will show you today…”  That would be enough, but he then prophesied, “The Egyptians you see today, you will see them no more.”  

If Jesus’ victory on the Cross was complete and He totally defeated the devil opening the door to salvation and restoration, then we need to trust Him.  If Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth and He has given that authority to us, then we need to live as though He is telling the truth.  We need to trust Him.  If Jesus is the same eternally, yesterday, today, and forever, we have no reason to fear. 

In the exploits of the heroes of the Bible, the result was the people developed a fear of God, that inspired faith, confidence, obedience, and courage.  It is my prayer that the LORD will ‘train our hands for war’ and help us to be those who ‘having done all to stand, keep standing.’  Our weapons are not natural and cannot be utilized using natural talents and abilities.  They are spiritual and the power and ability to employ them is by the Holy Spirit.

Christians, there is coming a time of darkness but we do not have to fear.  We are not yet ‘battle-tested’ but we can be filled with God’s Love and Spirit and live in complete confidence that He is, He does, and He will. 

God bless you and have a Great Day!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

WHAT DOES GOD WANT FOR MY LIFE? – (Conclusion)…


1 John 4:7-11 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  NASB

It is vital that we understand what Jesus did and Who He was and is. He was the first true man to walk this planet living God’s kind of love.  That is the reason that Religion became so angry with Him.  Watching how Religion reacts to Love is always fascinating if not infuriating and frustrating.

The political powers of that day could care less about Jesus. He was nothing to them.  He did not threaten them, but the ones who were threatened by Jesus was the Religious people.  The best that religion in that day could produce was the Pharisees.  Truthfully, they would fit in well in too many churches today.  They were the best of that day and were scandalized by Jesus.  They hated Him because of His Living God’s Love.

The Love of God is scandalous to religion because it loves the worst of people.  It loves bad people.  It loves people that religion and other humans have given up on.  I can say that because of the life and conduct of Jesus.  He sat, talked, and even had meals with prostitutes, tax collectors, and other sinners!  The religious crowd’s reaction was, “What is the world going to think?”  His first miracle, turning the water into wine was at a wedding feast.  What could He be thinking?  If He is the Messiah, He should be at a prayer meeting, not a wedding celebration.

Does that sound familiar?  We tend to draw circles around our group and say, “We are other than them.  They are less than we.  We are holy and they are sinners!”  The Pharisees would not even talk to Samaritans, because a Samaritan could never be saved.  Likewise, with tax collectors, prostitutes, etc. 

I find it fascinating that Jesus made His best friends among tax collectors.  He went into Samaria and talked in public with a Samaritan woman.  What could He be thinking?  He is not keeping up the image, how dare Him?  Religion is frequently disgusted with God’s Love.  It does not fit or follow their rules.  Religion is horrified by God’s Love.  It only knows how to love like a good human being.  It wants the best people in membership but Love, God’s Love destroys that.

Jesus was a horror to religion.  It was religion that crucified Him.  But little did they know that when they crucified Him, He was dying for them too.  They didn’t know it and could not say, “Thank You!”  That’s God’s Kind of Love.

Something I hope you see is that before Jesus died on the Cross, in order to take away sin, He said certain things.  In the weeks before He went to the Cross He said, “except a grain of wheat falls to the ground and die, it abides alone. But if it drops into the ground and dies, it brings forth much fruit.”  That’s what He did.

Let me offer this simple illustration for clarity and understanding.  We know what Jesus’ statement meant.  In farming, if you have only one grain of wheat and plant it, the Law of Harvest comes into play and it springs forth and produces many more than that single seed.  The fruit is exactly like the original, just multiplied.  Thus, Jesus was saying, “There is only one of Me.  No one has ever lived God’s Love before.  I’m going to fall into the ground and die.  If I don’t there will never be but one of Me.  But, if I do, then I will bring forth much fruit.”  There would be millions or billions like Him.  That is the Desire of God and what God wants for our lives to be manifestations of Jesus.

Jesus did not come just to forgive our sins and take us to heaven.  That is simply the handle on the door to the Kingdom.  He came to produce persons who Love like He Loved and Loves.  The Law of Harvest is that it brings forth after its kind and there are multitudes just like Him in the earth today.  He brought forth a Race of Lovers.  That’s why Jesus came and that is the Desire of God for us!

It is amazing that the disciples heard things like that from Jesus but did not comprehend what He meant.  At the Last Supper, they were still arguing about who would be the greatest in the kingdom.  They could heal the sick and work miracles, but they did not know how to Love each other.  Doesn’t that sound familiar in today’s world?

They were fascinated with Power.  But the Bible tells us that Love is the Greater Work.  Love, not Power is how all men know that we are the disciples of Jesus.  The devil can perform miracles, but He cannot love – We can! 

If we can Love as Jesus love, then we won’t have to worry about keeping the Law we will keep it naturally.  If the same Love that we see in Jesus is inside us we do not need a law that says, “Thou shalt not kill, we won’t kill.”  This Love not only does not kill, it lays down its life for its enemies.  We do not need a law that says, “Thou shalt not steal, we won’t steal.”  Because Love not only does not steal it does not want to steal.  Therefore, we will no longer need the Ten Commandments because we are people of Love.

I am convinced that when we manifest Jesus through God’s Love, the world will respond mightily.  But I am equally convinced that if we Love as God Loves religion will seek to kill us.  My prayer is, “Lord shed your love abroad in my heart by the Holy Spirit and help me Love as Jesus loves.”

What is God’s Purpose for Your Life – LOVE LIKE JESUS LOVES and the rest will take care of itself.  Have a great day!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

WHAT DOES GOD WANT FOR MY LIFE? – Part 4…


1 John 4:7-11 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  NASB

The Gospel or the Good News, what is that?  In many ways, the word “gospel” is a useless word in our modern language.  I say that because, by and large, most do not know what it really means.  Many think of it as being the first four books of the New Testament or The Gospels.  The word gospel in the 15th century meant, “the good, glad, merry, news that makes a man fairly leap for joy.” 

When we realize that God loves bad, messed up, rotten, selfish people and would include them in His family and make them His friends – That is GOOD, GLAD, MERRY NEWS that will make a heart leap for joy!  That’s the Gospel.

If the God of the Bible is the kind of God who will come to me and love me and I do not have to earn or deserve His Love that is incredible news and the best word to describe it is GRACE!  Grace means that God gives us that which we do not and cannot earn.  It is the opposite of what we deserved. That’s our God.  Because He “is” Love, He must deal with us in Grace.  Everything He is to us, people who do not deserve His Love or Mercy is Free and can never be earned.  It is GRACE and that’s the GOSPEL!

God gives, not based on what we have done.  It is not through something in us.  It is because He IS who the Bible says He IS.  The only thing that we can do is respond to His love and say, “thank you.”  When we do that, we discover that He means it and we can relax and rest in that reality and know “I’ve Got It!”  That is the Good, Glad, Merry News – THE GOSPEL!

God is Love and acts in Grace and my response must be in Faith.  It is not us trying to be better, we would never be good enough.  It is not our trying to do good.  It is Faith!  It is simply saying, “Thank You!”  When we do that a miracle takes place and we are ‘born again’. 

But what happens in this ‘rebirth?’  We are birthed into the Family of God.  What is the character of God’s Family?  It is LOVE!  Therefore, the Love that God is comes into us and we are new people – That’s the Gospel.  That’s the Good News!

To demonstrate just how much man needs this, God threw in an extra ingredient that has confused many people.  God put in the Law at Mt. Sinai and took it out at the Resurrection of Jesus.  He gave the Ten Commandments.  Well, it looks like ten, but I suggest it is truly only one.  Later in the Book of Leviticus, He boils it down to two, “Love the LORD with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself.”  That’s the nuts and bolts of it.  If we love our neighbor we won’t murder, steal, slander, etc.  Love handles all that.  The commandments are simply manifestations of God’s Love. 

You may manage the first nine without love but not the last one.  “Thou shalt not covet…”  Covet gets to the motive and it means that you do not even want to.  To fulfill that commandment, we have to find something that will make us ‘not want to.’  That’s Love!  When you love you will not want to hurt your neighbor.  You will want to do the opposite and bless them.  That’s where man has totally failed.

Consider Israel at Mt. Sinai and hopefully, this will become even more clear.  God sent Moses down the mountain to see if the people really understood what they were getting into in His covenant.  They insisted that they did and would do everything God directed.  Moses went back up the mountain and told God, “They understand.”  God sent him back three times, and in thirty days, they’d blown the whole thing.  They did not understand.

God gave the Law to show them and us just how much we need for Him to take over and produce Love in us.  He gave the commandments to illustrate the futility of trying to keep them.  Have you ever noticed that the more you try to keep them the worse you fare in that effort?  The Law stirs up sin.  The Law was never given as a way to salvation.  It was given to drive us into a state of despair and a sense of helplessness. 

We find ourselves steeped in sin and we see that the Law is pointing to Love.  We think in our hearts, “What a marvelous idea.  I wish I could do that.”  Man is forced to admit that a Society of Love is what we need, but he does not have it in his heart.  He wants the entire world to love but selfishly wants to continue in his selfishness.  Thus, man is plunged into despair. 

There is a solution and we will address it in the next devotional but until then, walk in the Love of God and let His love be shed abroad in your hearts by the Holy Spirit. 

Have a Great Day!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

WHAT DOES GOD WANT FOR MY LIFE? – Part 3…


1 John 4:7-11 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  NASB

Let’s get back to defining Love.  If God loves like we love what would happen?  He would come to us and would never find anyone who is “in His class.”  That would be impossible.  That would mean we are out of luck in having Him Love us.  If God were to love someone, not in His class, he would no longer be God.  That is a major dilemma.

God would not only not find anyone in His class, but He would find people that are disharmony with Him.  We do not jell with His holiness and love. We are selfish.  We like being that way and have no real intention of changing in our natural state.  We do not mesh with God, in our natural state.  There is nothing in us that God can respond to and cause Him to say, “That is the Best Person I know!” 

Therefore, if God loved as humans love, then we would all be finished.  There would be no hope.  Sadly, that’s where the religions of the world are.  That is the kind of God they serve.  Let me relate a story that a missionary shared that illustrates this powerfully.

He asked a tribal witch doctor, “If you were to preach to me, your faith and I were to come to you with a problem, how would you tell me to reach the Most High God?  I know that you believe there are many gods, but the Big One, the Most High, how could I reach Him?”  The witch doctor said, “That is a problem, because the Big One, the Most High God is not interested in you, because you are not good enough for Him.”  That’s the view of many religions in this world and sadly, some Christians live as if God is not interested in them.

We say it in a much more sophisticated manner, but it is said in churches all across this land.  We have been taught that we are not ‘good enough’ for God.  Therefore, He is not interested and we many feel that they have to work, labor, and struggle to become ‘good enough’. 

Once I understood the biblical definition of the Love of God, I immediately realized that our definition of human love is useless in describing God’s Love.  God’s Love is utterly other than our kind of love.  It is not even in the same family.  When the Bible says that “God is Love” it means that He does not reach out to His class.  No, He reaches down to EVERYONE!  Human love reaches up to those they count the most beautiful and the best.  Human love reaches out to they almost bend the knee in worship.  But God reaches down to people that are clearly unworthy of ever being loved by Him. 

That makes no sense but that is the truth of God’s Love!  If we say that God loves good people and makes them His friends that is not a revelation.  That is taught by virtually every religion in the world.  But in Christianity, we say, “God loves the bad, messed up people and makes them His friends.”  That is amazing!

It is almost beyond belief that the Holy God who is Love makes His best friends out of unholy, bad, messed up, rotten, and selfish people.  That is GOOD NEWS!  That is the Gospel, the Good News.

I need to discuss what the word Gospel means but will hold that for the next devotional. 

May the blessings of the LORD overtake you and enrich you on this wonderful day in Him!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

WHAT DOES GOD WANT FOR MY LIFE? – Part 2…


1 John 4:7-11 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  NASB

What is the Big Picture of the Will of God for our lives?  There is a Big Picture that is true for every believer.  The details may not be the same as to how it is worked out in our lives, but the overall Big Picture is the same.  So, what is the Big Picture?

The desire of God for His children arises out of Who He Is!  God is the Way. He IS and has a desire for us – “That we become a manifestation and a demonstration of Who He is.”  There is none more perfect than God and if He is perfect, there can be no higher call than to manifest or demonstrate Him before the world.  The Big Picture which is His will and design for every person is “That we manifest Who He is.  That we become demonstrations of Him to the entire world.”  Remember, Jesus said, “Go ye therefore to all the world.”

That raises another important question – Who Is God?  John told us that God is Love. That is the ultimate identifier of God.  That means that everything we know about God or will ever know about God is rooted in this truth. 

Let me explain it with the thought of God’s Almightiness.  We think of God as the ultimate Power, He is Almighty.  But remember, God does not ‘have’ power He ‘is” power.  God said, “Let there be light and there was light.”  God spoke things into existence.  That is the ultimate demonstration of Power and His Almightiness. But, imagine a God with that kind of power who is not love.  He would be a monster of monsters.  Love controls everything that we know about God. 

We think of God as Omniscient, knowing everything past, present, and future.  But imagine a God who knows us to that extent and does not even like us.  We are sometimes ashamed to confide in closest and most intimate friends some of the thoughts that pass through our heads.  Can you imagine a God that knows those thoughts even before we think them and does not love us?  That would bring such terror that suicide would be a normal thought.  Imagine a God with all we know about Him from Scripture and strip Him of Love – He would be an infinite monster!

When it comes to definitions, the Bible does not say: “God is Power.”  I am able to discover that He is through study, but the Bible does not specifically say that.  But when it comes to “Love”, it says it explicitly.  HE IS LOVE!  It is not something He has it is what He is.  Love is not something apart from God, HE IS LOVE!  Thank God He is.

That presents a problem for many in the Body of Christ today.  Why?  Because we do not know what Love is.  When we say, “God is Love” we use a word that is useless in truly understanding God.  We define God’s Love based on our definition and understanding of Human Love. 

What do we mean when we say, Love?  I urge you to walk carefully and think your answer through.  When we say that we often mean that we reach out to someone we consider “in our class.”  Don’t allow a false humility to arise, that is exactly what we do.  It is rare, very rare that someone has real love for another that is not perceived in their class. 

For example, in the old European economy, if a member of royalty falls in love with a commoner, they are fired.  When a king falls for a commoner, he loses his kingship.  So, when we fall in love, as humans, we tend to keep within our perceived status or class.  We tend to fall in love within our tribes.  We tend to keep unspoken boundaries.  We never acknowledge it or talk about it, but the evidence is there.

When we say, “I love this person we are saying this is a person who calls forth my highest admiration.”  When we see them, we admire them and have that Wow factor existing in our hearts and minds.  When we talk about that person, we view them as someone special and in a sense, there is an element of worship involved.  Therefore, when we Love someone it means that they answer to what we feel is beauty.  Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.  Beauty is something that happens inside our heads.  That’s how we understand love.

I hate to leave you dangling but will pause until the next devotional and discuss our interpretation and definition of love more deeply. 

Until then, have a great day in God!

0 CommentsLeave a comment

WHAT DOES GOD WANT FOR MY LIFE?


1 John 4:7-11 – “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”  NASB

What does God want for my life or want me to do in life is a question I hear frequently.  In our text, the focus is “Love.”  John tells us that love is from God and that everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  Then he says the same thing in the reverse order, everyone that does not love does not know God because God is Love!

There are two important things we need to consider in this passage.  Love is ‘from’ God.  The imagery I would like for you to consider is to seeing yourself standing before a Living Spring of water and seeing it burst forth from the earth.  John was standing in the presence of God and declared, “Love is from God!”  It literally pours out from Who He is!  Then, in the next verse, he anchored that reality by saying, “God is Love!”

We must understand that God does not have love, He is love!  I have water but I am not water.  I have money (not much) but I am not money.  I have knowledge but I am not knowledge.  It is out of Who God is that love flows.  The result of that flow of love is that we “know” God.  The apostle insists that if we claim that we have love, others know that because we love.  It is impossible to “know” God and not love.  That is not up for debate, it is an eternal fact.  We don’t have to pray about it, it is reality.

Therefore, if God is love, and love is from God, and I say that I know God, it is important to differentiate between “knowing about” and “knowing.”  This means that I “know” Him intimately and personally.  The word know means to penetrate.  If we say that we know God, we are saying God has penetrated us and now lives in us.  It is in that relationship and condition that we can truly love.  Thus, the mark or identifier of a Christian is LOVE!  Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, that you LOVE ONE ANOTHER!”

Now to the title question and the often, frustrating pursuit of many believers trying to discover the will of God for their lives.  I am amazed at how overly fascinated many become with discovering the will of God.  That is good and bad.  It is good that we want to know the will of God and bad that we make it almost a mystical thing.

In my years of Christian ministry, I observed the shock when people realize that the Will of God for their lives is often the obvious.  I had a person insist that simply could not be because they believed knowing the Will of God was a mystical experience.  They were convinced that God would never want them to do what they were most qualified for and the most comfortable doing.  They were convinced that God would want them to do something that was not easily discoverable.  Then, they would know it was the will of God, but the obvious, that could not be.

Somehow that view makes God weird and suggests that He is not our side.  One person said, “If I say, I don’t want to go there or do that, that is exactly what God will want me to do.”  Possibly, but I suggest that God is conditioning our hearts to want to do what He wants us to do.  Therefore, people spend an enormous amount of time trying to discover where God wants them to go, what He wants them to do, and how they can do it.  It sort of not seeing the forest because of the trees.  We make the trees so tall we cannot see the forest and enjoy its beauty and benefit.

We become overly concerned with the minute and bog down in the details of the discovery.  The reason is, we become so busy with seeking to know we do not see the obvious.  I contend that before God springs something on you, He always prepares your heart.  He causes you to want to and then asks, “Would you like to do this?”  That’s God.  He is not weird and certainly not sadistic.  He wants to lead the heart and I contend that if we follow our hearts, we will discover the Will of God.  He is always Leading our Hearts!

God walks us into it, and we do not have to be overly concerned with the minute details. We need to focus more on the Big Picture.  Therefore, the question is “What is the heart of God for my life or your life?  What is the desire of God for us?”

I want to address this more in the next devotional but until then, I say, go with God and He will go with you.  Have a great day in Him!

0 CommentsLeave a comment