Prodigal: I am a little unsure of where to go today?
Me: I know, but remember that the Lord is with you.
Prodigal: I think that is the key about today.
This is from the book Parenting: From Surviving to Thriving by Charles Swindoll
Divine punishment, on the other hand, is a very real product of sin; however, it does not come by way of natural consequences, but by supernatural wrath. It doesn’t come indirectly through the world, but directly from God Himself. The arrival of Jesus Christ on earth began a new era, an age of grace. When Christ died on the cross. He took our sins upon Himself and endured the wrath of God on our behalf. If you have accepted His gift of grace by believing in Him, you will never experience the wrath–the divine punishment–you deserve. In grace, Jesus took it all and left none for you. None.
If, however, you choose to trust in your own goodness or hope that your good deeds will somehow purify or counteract your bad behavior, if you reject His free gift, God’s wrath waits for you. When you die, or if the Lord should return before then, you will surely suffer divine punishment for your sins. But not before. Even though you continue to live in rebellion, the Lord uses the consequences of your sins and poor choices to teach you, all the while extending to you the offer of fellowship with Him.
God does not cause sin and He does not ordain evil. But He will use the sad results of sin and poor choices for His own purposes.
Clean your hearts and maintain that right relationship with the Father. Now is the time because decisions are needed to move forward.
Matthew 5:18
For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.
This is from the book Bold Love by Dr. Dan B. Allender & Dr. Tremper Longman III
Love is dependent on forgiveness. A formula can almost be structured from this concept. The extent to which someone truly loves will be positively correlated to the degree the person is stunned and silenced by the wonder that his huge debt has been canceled. Perhaps another way to say it is that gratitude for forgiveness is the foundation for other-centered love.
A hint may now be offered as to why grace is so demanding in its free offer–all that’s required in response is stunned silence and overwhelmed gratitude. A stunned and grateful heart is free to love because it has been captured with the hilarious paradox that we are unlovely but loved, and unable to love but free to try without condemnation. And all efforts to love are made lovely and useful by a great Lover who superintends all our bumbling efforts and turns the dross of mixed motives to the gold of eternal intentions.
It all starts at the cross. We hear that over and over again. When we want to be a better spouse, friend, relative, co-worker. We try and we fail. We beat our selves up for it. When what we really need is to begin at the cross instead of ourselves.
And walk in love, as Christ also loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor.
This is from the book The Vision of His Glory by Anne Graham Lotz
Years ago in a rural, Scottish village, the pastor of a small church was asked to resign. The ruling board of his congregation had evaluated the fruit of his ministry and could find nothing that seemed significant. No baptisms had been held the previous year, no conversions had been recorded, and only one response to a sermon could be remembered.
That single response had taken place one Sunday when the offering plate had been passed. A small boy had put the plate on the floor then stepped into it. When asked for an explanation, he had no money to give God, he wanted to give himself. He had been reprimanded for disturbing the order of worship, and the entire incident had been all but forgotten.
But the little boy did not forget he had given his life to God. While the church had considered his action disruptive and insignificant, God had accepted and honored it as being very significant.
The small boy who had stepped in the offering plate to give his life to God because he had nothing else to offer grew up and lived out his commitment. He became a great pioneer missionary-statesman used of God to change the course of individual lives, tribes, and nations in southern Africa. His name was Bobby Moffat. He was a man who overcame the smallness of his life by giving Himself totally to God, keeping his focus on Christ.
For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
This is from the book Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yahannan
One night while speaking at a church missionary conference, I was asked to meet privately with the church council to give my reaction to a new mission program they were considering. I already had preached and was very tired. I did not feel like sitting in a board meeting. The meeting, attended by 22 persons, began in the usual way, more like a corporate board meeting at IBM or General motors than a church board.
The presenter made an impressive, business-like proposal. The scheme involved shifting “third country nationals” from Asia to a mission field in Latin America. It was futuristic and sounded like a major leap in missions, but warning lights and bells were going off in my mind. To me it sounded like 19th century colonial missionary practice dressed in a different disguise.
The Lord spoke to me clearly: “Son, tonight you must speak to people who are so self-sufficient they’ve never asked Me about this plan. They think I’m helpless.”
When the chairman of the church council finally called on me to respond with my opinion of the proposal, I stood and read certain parts of Matthew 28:18-20: “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations….to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always….”
Then I closed my Bible and paused, looking each one in the eyes.
“If He is with you,” I said, “then you will represent Him–not just be like Him—but you will exercise His authority. Where is the power of God in this plan?”
I did not need to say much. The Holy Spirit anointed my words, and everyone seemed to understand.
“How often have you met for prayer?” I asked rhetorically. “How long since you have had an entire day of prayer to seek God’s mind about your mission strategy?” From their eyes it was easy to see they had prayed little about their mission budget, which was then in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The discussion went on until 1:30 in the morning, but a new sense of repentance in the room.
“Brother K.P. ” said the leader to me afterward, “you have destroyed everything we were trying to do tonight, but now we’re ready to wait on God for His plan.”
That kind of humility will bring the Church back into the center of God’s will and global plan. Churches today are not experiencing the power and anointing of God in their ministries because they do not have the humility to wait on Him. Because of that sin, the world remains largely unreached.
His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou has been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.
A test usually makes us feel vulnerable. We get weak. We begin to panic. We try to find safety in the familiar. We avoid taking risks. But tests of faith call for boldness. You may have heard it said that “God never gives us more than we can handle.” That’s absolutely wrong! He frequently challenges us to trust Him more by giving us far more than we can handle on our own. He wants us to turn to Him in desperation and ask for His assistance. He’s always willing to help, but He wants us to recognize our need and to want Him.
Ultimately, what kept me going through the difficult transition was trust. I knew God would not lead me someplace only to back off and let me self-destruct. I discovered that my determination to lean on Him and draw my strength from Him always paid off. He provided inner confidence and creative ideas that prove essential.
You have been in tough test before and God was always faithful. Do not focus on fear but on the joy that will come in the morning.
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
This is from the book Respectable Sins by Jerry Bridges
The apostle John wrote, “Sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). All sin, even sin that seems so minor in our eyes, is lawlessness. It is not just the breaking of a single command; it is a complete disregard for the law of God, a deliberate rejection of His moral will in favor of fulfilling one’s own desires. In our human values of civil laws, we draw a huge distinction between an otherwise “law-abiding citizen” who gets and occasional traffic ticket and a person who lives a “lawless” life in contempt and utter disregard for all laws. But the Bible does not seem to make that distinction. Rather, it simply says sin- that is, all sin without distinction–is lawlessness.
For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name’s sake: because it hath pleased the LORD to make you his people.
Prodigal: Yes, I thought this would be ideal for the devotion today.
Me: It think your right on target!
Ephesians 1:11-14
In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will. So that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Two different impression are made as we begin studying these verses before us. One unique aspect is that the Trinity is presented before us in scripture. Ephesians 1:11 starts with the Father. The Father is associated with Creation. Christ is mentioned in verse 12. He represents our Redeemer. The Holy Spirit is presented to us in verse 13, as the one who Sanctifies.
The trinity is firmly positioned between these verses yet flows together at the same time. We can see how they are unique, but function together. The trinity is presented here with different roles in our walk with the Lord. The Father represents our predestination, and His knowledge of us before we were born. He is present at the creation of the university and also our creation. Christ is our redeemer. His existence is our way to salvation and the truth. The Holy Spirit gives us a sealing that means we are marked as the Lord’s. It gives us access to eternity and also represents God’s promise to us. As we are sanctified on earth, the Holy Spirit will convict or give us peace. The conviction or peace we feel, guide our decisions, and behavior.
These scriptures clearly point out the trinity, but I believe it also is presenting to us our spiritual lives connected with time. Verses 11 and 12 explain how we were predestined by God. God choose us in the beginning, and we would become saved. Then we are led to the present with verse 13. This talks about how we have heard the truth, and accepted the gospel so that we are therefore saved and sealed with the Holy Spirit. We are now saved at the present time. The last verse tells us that we have an inheritance in the future. That inheritance will be given to us when we die. We will be allowed into heaven and present with the Lord. We are saved in the future from eternity without our Lord.
God may not be bound by time, but He knows that time is part of our lives. The scripture allows us to see the plan that God has for us that includes our birth, while we are living and finally our death. Our God has not forgotten us, at any point of time. The security that we have from our Lord can be seen in the different functions within the Trinity. We can trust a Creator who knew us from the beginning. There is confidence in the Redeemer whose gift means we have been forgiven. The Holy Spirit can be relied on to direct us today and every day of our future. Our security in these truths allows us confidence to walk with our Lord even when we still have questions about the Trinity or different times in our lives.
When we start a new year. We often only want to look toward the future. Especially if this last year has held hurt, challenges, frustrations, confusions and fear.
We are ready to get to the inheritance part. We want to put all this behind us. The Lord says there is wisdom in seeing the balance of it all together. We look at the past and see how we were predestined. God choose us, He stayed with us, when we went astray. That leading astray could have been months, years and decades, but because he chooses us, he did not leave us. The past no matter how messy can give us an opportunity to praise today. Let us not forget the past and therefore remember to praise.
The present is that we are sealed with the Holy Spirit because we have accepted Christ as our savior and the son of God. Right now, we have the spirit of the lord with us to teach us, guide us and show us direction and correction. We need guidance now, before the inheritance is here. We need the Lord’s guidance for our daily life.
Now our inheritance, is we have hope for the future. Our future is secure. We will not be separated from God. When we doubt about how good God is. We are reminded that God has planned an inheritance for us.
After planning the new year, how will your praise include the idea that you were predestined by God. How will your service this year include how you have been sealed with the holy spirit and is with you at all times. How will your prayer include that we have an inheritance that is guaranteed ours one day?
Dear Lord, help us to praise you for your love. A love that has not been bounded by time. Lord helps us to serve you by the guiding of the Holy Spirit. A service that is done together with you and is not in our own strength. Finally, Lord as we start a new year, we ask that even if prayers are not answered in our way, that we look beyond this year and focus on how eternity will be spent with you.
Praising God for choosing us, means that we did nothing to earn His love. This allows us to understand how deep His love for us. Praising is just allowing us to show how thankful we are for this love. Being sealed with the Holy Spirit means that any service we do in the name of the Lord will mean He is with us. If we rely on the Holy Spirit during service than He can prepare us and gives us the strength that is needed for His works. Praying with our inheritance in mind means that even if a prayer on earth is not answered in our way, we have an answered prayer to look forward too. We have eternity to spend with our Lord.
