Sit, Walk, Stand

Ephesians 2:4-6

Many times in our Christian walk, we speak of resting in the Lord as if it is something that we should do after we are completely exhausted from the cares of this life. It is made to sound as if we finally sit down and take our ease in Christ only after we have worked sufficiently for Him in one capacity or the other. The order usually goes something like this: Stand up for the Lord in front of the world and take the blows; then walk softly before God and stay on the straight and narrow; and finally, someday, when it is all said and done, we will sit together with Him in heaven. Paul paints quite a different picture.

The order of events, according to the Apostle Paul, is designed by the Holy Spirit, for nothing happens in the Word by chance. Paul shows us what I call the “2-4-6” method of Christian experience. Watch it unfold:

Sit – “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (2:6).

Walk – “I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (4:1).

Stand – “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (6:11).

We actually start out defeated and beaten somewhere on the road of life, and then Jesus “raised us up together” (2:6). This is a type of our salvation experience, where the Good Samaritan cares for us along life’s highway. The first thing that He does is sit us next to Jesus. The starting point for every believer is resting next to the Master. Only when we have learned to rest with Him in His finished work are we qualified to “walk worthy” (4:1).

The “walk” is now made easier because we are accustomed to being so close to Him in proximity. You need not fear that you are going to wander off of the “straight and narrow”. Even if you do go down into a valley of the shadow of death, your Shepherd will enter it with you, and He will not abandon you in the midst.

Once we have placed our daily walk in the Lord, we are ready to stand when the enemy begins his attack. Interestingly enough, there is no mention here of the believer fighting back. Some have preached sermons on spiritual warfare, calling for militant Christians to “attack the devil”. Paul tells the believer to “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might” (6:10), showing us that all of the battle belongs to the Lord and none of it belongs to us.

In Christ, He does the fighting and we get the victory. What a Savior! While we certainly wrestle (6:12), when it comes to the attack of the enemy, we simply stand there, while Christ takes care of us (6:13, 14). Consequently, the Holy Spirit is careful to let us know that we will stand in the “evil day”. Note that it is singular, for whatever bad comes our way, it is temporary. When God blesses the believer, it is always with “good days”, used in the plural, for they will last for all time (1 Peter 3:10).

The Faith of Christ

Galatians 2:16-20

We know that a man is not justified by doing the works of the law, for we can never do them all perfectly. How is a man justified? Paul says, “By the faith of Jesus Christ” (Galatians 2:16), but surely that is a misprint for it says, “the faith of Jesus Christ”, and certainly it should say, “faith in Jesus Christ”. Actually, if we read on, we find that Paul makes a distinction:

“Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)

Paul makes a distinction between the faith of Jesus Christ and faith in Jesus Christ. In Greek, which is the language that the New Testament was written in, there is no phrase for “of”, but there is a phrase for “in”. When you look at this text in Greek, the assumptions must be made for the usage of the word “of”, but there is a distinct Greek word “eis”, meaning “in or into”. It is the same phrase that Jesus used when He told the woman with the issue of blood to “go into peace” (Mark 5:34). Because the text shows where to place the English word “in”, the translators had to assume that in the other places it should be another word.

We take the authority away from this verse when we begin changing the words to suit our modern vernacular. Paul states that we are justified by the faith “of” Jesus Christ and then furthers it by stating that we have placed our faith “in” Jesus Christ. What Jesus did in sacrificing His life on the cross and taking His own blood to the Father in heaven was faith of the highest form. He believed that His sacrifice would be sufficient and He also believed that His Father would be so pleased with this sacrifice that He would raise His Son from the dead, which He did. Christ’s faithfulness is what causes all of us to be justified.

That certainly cannot stand alone, for we need to meet His faith with our faith in His finished work. Paul makes it clear in this verse that our believing in Jesus Christ is what makes us justified “by the faith of Christ”. Christ can have a mountain of faith but if I do not meet Him with my faith, I leave without His justification.

Paul said it this way in Romans, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1). It is our faith that brought the justification but it was Jesus’ faithfulness to the cross and its atoning work that brings us peace with God. In other words, without the faithfulness of Jesus, our faith means nothing.

Further, we do not continue to remain righteous based upon the volume or quantity of our faith on a day to day basis. Paul says that the life which we now live in the flesh we “live by the faith of the Son of God” (Galatians 2:20). I live this life, not due to my own faithfulness but due to His faithfulness. It is His faith that never waivers, while mine may shift from time to time. Thank God that Jesus is faithful!

Blinded Minds

2 Corinthians 4:3-6

Paul wished for the entire world to both see and have the gospel of Jesus Christ, as had been revealed to him. He calls himself an “able minister of the New Testament” (2 Corinthians 3:6), and then “seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully” (2 Corinthians 4:1, 2). His chief concern regarding this message of the New Covenant was that it not be handled in a wrong manner, but that it was open and honest before all.

He knew that the glorious gospel was and is life-changing. He also knew that the only way to stop the light of the gospel from penetrating into every area of darkness was if the enemy went to work blinding men from receiving it. “If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost” (2 Corinthians 4:3), Paul says, knowing that the good news is so good that it can never be hid from a saint, only from the unsaved.

Paul goes a step further with his description, stating that it is not only hid from the lost but that “the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not” (4:4). It is not their spiritual eyes that the enemy must blind, because they can’t really use them anyway, but it is their minds. A sinner can certainly use his or her mind to reason and theorize, so Paul identifies that Satan will attack this capability in the unbeliever to try and convince them against the good news of Jesus Christ.

Have you ever encountered someone who does not believe on Jesus and they give you a laundry list of reasons why they have no faith in God? They have intellectualized their unbelief and have left themselves no room for faith. In that instance, you are speaking to someone who has been blinded to the truth of the love of God and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Paul’s answer to this problem was to continue to shine the light. “For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord” (4:5), is Paul’s way of saying that there is no need to argue of your own intellect; simply preach Jesus Christ. When you meet someone who is an unbeliever and who wishes only to argue about whether or not God exists or how many days it took Him to create the earth, your only counter is to shower them with the love of God. In the face of all of their disputations, simply give them more of His love. The good news of Jesus can be boiled down to one simple fact: God loves you. If this principle is repeated and reinforced, it is the only truth that can penetrate the darkness of unbelief.

Even believers benefit by frequent and repeated exposure to this light. Paul said that this light gives “the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (4:6). We literally learn more of the glory of God as we see the face of Jesus day to day. Actually, we are changed into His very image as we learn more of His glory through the good news of Christ’s finished work (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Be changed into who He is by the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Go in peace!

Babes in Christ

1 Corinthians 3:1-4

Paul spent his ministry trying to elevate the believer into a knowledge of who they were in Christ. When he tells the Philippian church to, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Philippians 2:5, 6), he was prompting them to think of themselves as Jesus thought of Himself. It is a seemingly endless task to try and bring believers to this place, due to the conflicting reports that the enemy is sending into their minds.

When Paul dealt with the Corinthian church, he was dealing with a people who were saved in the midst of the most hedonistic city in the world. Within this church, Paul had to deal with incest (5:1), legal disputes (6:1), prostitution (6:16) and drunkenness (11:21), and all of this from the believers! When he refers to them, he does not call them sinners or backsliders, but rather he says that they are “carnal”, “babes in Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:1).

The word “carnal” in Greek means “fleshly” or “governed by the human nature”. Every believer wishes to be governed by the “divine nature” which Peter spoke that we have (2 Peter 1:4), but oftentimes we find ourselves doing some of the same things that we did when we were unbelievers. Paul not only called this carnal but also said, “are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” (verse 3).

Paul felt that when a believer lives with strife and divisions (or any other sin), he is walking beneath their status as children of God. Rather than being “spiritual”, they are being carnal (verse 1). He repeats the thought in Ephesians when he says, “Walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind” (Ephesians 4:17). For Paul to see believers living in the manner of sinners, it was not a warning that they were going to suddenly becomes sinners again, but that they were so spiritually immature that they could handle nothing more of the things of God than the milk.

He compares the carnal believer to a sinner, living after their human impulses; and to their development as babies, unable to swallow solid food. Many times in the church, we preachers must go back over the most elementary of foundations for believers because so many of them are unable to go much deeper into the word, due to a Christian life spent in carnality. They are not thinking like believers, thus they are not living like believers.

To experience spiritual growth, and live spiritual and not carnal, you must feed on the Lord Jesus Christ every day. This is more than just reading the Bible. Many people read their Bible and feed on the cold stone of the law, finding no hope in it. Feast on Christ and His finished work and let the living water and the daily bread feed your soul. Concentrate on what Christ did for you, taking your sin and giving you His righteousness. See yourself as forgiven and accepted, and as you begin to believe it, you will see it live out in your life.

You are not carnal, you are spiritual. Walk as mature saints not babes in Christ. Go in Him and grow in Him in Jesus’ lovely name.

Slander Against the Gospel of Grace

Romans 3:8

The Apostle Paul preached such radical grace that he felt it necessary to defend the message on more than one occasion in the book of Romans. He starts by stating his case in Romans 1:16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek”. People around him were trying to make Paul feel ashamed to minister a gospel that excluded works and placed the emphasis on faith alone.

Now watch as Paul mentions various arguments that he has heard against his message of pure grace:

“We be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say, ‘Let us do evil, that good may come?’” (Romans 3:8) Paul preached so much grace that people accused him of promoting evil lifestyles so that God’s grace could appear.

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1) Having just proclaimed that where sin abounds, grace does much more abound (Romans 5:20), Paul confronts the argument that he is preaching that we should go ahead and sin considering that God’s grace is greater.

“What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? God forbid” (Romans 6:15) Paul preaches so much of God’s grace as being different from God’s law that he is often accused of being soft on sin due to his heavy grace preaching.

“What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid.” (Romans 7:7) Having preached about the power of the law to incite sin, Paul is accused of preaching that the law is a bad thing. He refutes that with this argument, going on to state that the law is “holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12).

These arguments against Paul were obviously birthed by the fact that Paul preached a message of amazing grace. It could be said that if you have never posed at least one of the above questions regarding God’s grace, you have probably never heard the gospel of grace preached as the Apostle Paul preached it. When grace is preached with as much passion and intensity as Paul preached it, it sounds so great that your old “law-abiding” nature will fight against it.

One famous grace preacher once asked, “Why does no one accuse the modern preacher of preaching this kind of grace?” What a great question! Why are we not accused of preaching too much grace and goodness? If we are accused of it, we can rest assured that we are in good company as Paul has already faced these arguments.

As you bask in the glorious grace of God, silence the voices of slander against this wonderful message of God’s goodness. Some will try and bring you back beneath a law of works and performance, but rest in the knowledge that Jesus has paid for your righteousness through his finished work and that you have everything that He promised. That is radical grace, and it is yours!

Great Grace!

Acts 4:33, 34
What a description is used by the Holy Spirit to describe the grace of God upon the early church, “great grace was upon them all” (Acts 4:33). The Greek word for “great” is ‘megas’, from which we derive the English word “mega”. It denotes a largeness of volume and size. It is first used in the New Testament in Matthew 2:10 to describe how the Magi felt when they saw the shining star leading them to the home of the young child Jesus, “they rejoiced with exceeding great joy”.

Think of the excitement that must have been in the heart of the wise men as they found the young Jesus and the “great joy” that they must have known. Now, take that same excitement and “greatness” and apply it to the grace of God that is found on the church. In that perspective we can catch a glimpse of how wonderful the church viewed God’s grace in relation to the religious experiences that they had been raised to seek after.

This great grace follows a description of the power that was found in the church as well. We know that great and mighty miracles followed the disciples and the apostles of the early church, with many people being healed and even raised from the dead. What was the purpose of this great power that they had? The text tells us that the great power “gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus” (verse 33). Every miracle that was performed was further proof that Jesus was alive! His resurrection was the single most disputed thing about Christianity, for the Pharisees had fought from the very beginning to convince the populace that Jesus’ body was merely stolen, not that He had miraculously risen from the dead. When God used His church to perform mighty miracles, credence was being placed upon the fact that Jesus was alive and not dead. If Christ were dead then His church would be dead also, but if He is alive, then His power would still be felt.

This power is still available for the church today, and it is evident at different places around the world and at different times. I am not insinuating that someone will have such healing power that they will walk down the street and people will be healed just by being in their shadow, as was the case with the Apostle Peter (Acts 5:15), but I do believe that the presentation of the gospel of Jesus Christ will bring “signs and wonders”. When the apostles preached the “word of his grace”, He “granted signs and wonders to be done by their hands” (Acts 14:3).

Great grace will bring another great bi-product: “Neither was there any among them that lacked” (Acts 4:34). God’s abundant grace provides for all of the needs of His children. Because the Lord is our Shepherd, we shall not want (Psalms 23:1). Resting in His finished work and partaking in His abundant grace brings a fullness of all that we need in Christ, and in Him, we never lack.

Don’t be ashamed to call the grace of God, “great”! His grace is greater even than many of us have been led to believe. Accept it as a free gift and then watch how wonderful His grace is as it works in every area of your life.

Save the Best for Last

John 2:1-10

It has baffled many Bible scholars for years, why Jesus would perform as His first miracle, the changing of water into wine. It brought no healing to a broken body and no salvation to a lost soul. In fact, it didn’t even bring glory to Jesus at the time, as everyone at the marriage supper gave credit to the host for bringing the best wine out at the end, while not even acknowledging Jesus’ miracle (verse 10).

God first dealt with man with grace, demanding nothing of Abraham but faith, and that was counted to him for righteousness (Romans 4:3). Even when Abraham sinned in bringing Lot with him, or going in to Hagar to bear a child, or lied to Pharaoh about his wife, there is no evidence that God reprimanded or punished him. Grace and mercy was God’s original default position.

When Israel arrived in the wilderness between the Red Sea and the Promised Land, they informed God that they were well capable of doing whatever God demanded of them (Exodus 19:8), and in their self-righteousness God gave them the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Law. Of course no man can keep the Law, so humanity plunged into the wrath and judgment of God.

Then came Jesus, who lived perfection in every way, fulfilling all of the demands of the Law and who laid down His life as a sacrifice for the entire world. He took the full brunt of God’s wrath against sin and became sin for us so that we could become the righteousness of God in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21).

When Jesus turned the water to wine as His first miracle He was doing it as a metaphor for the message that He was to proclaim. As the giver of the law, Moses becomes synonymous with that Law (John 1:17), while Jesus is the bringer of grace. Moses touched the water in Egypt and it turned to blood (Exodus 7:20) which produced death. Jesus touched the water in Cana and it turned to wine which produced joy and merriment. Jesus is showing us that the introduction of the Law brought death and condemnation, while the introduction of God’s amazing grace brings life and peace.

God truly saved His best way for last. Grace is God’s final method of dealing with mankind. When you accept Christ by faith you return to the original promise that God made to Abraham which was not dependent upon His obedience but only y upon his faith (Galatians 3:29). This is not an admonition to be disobedient, for God’s grace truly teaches us how to live and when we accept His grace we will see His righteousness come out of us (Titus 2:11, 12).

Christ has filled you with His goodness, just like the water pots in the story were filled with water. Jesus has transformed who you used to be so that you can bring Him glory now through who you are in Christ. Let Him touch your soul today and bring greatness out in the mighty name of Jesus.

The Goodness of God

Luke 5:4-11

Children often pray, “God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food, Amen”. I love that prayer! It is so simple and elementary, and most adults abandon it in favor of longer, more detailed prayers, but in the simplicity of that children’s prayer is found such a wonderful truth about our God.

Somewhere along the way, as we grow older and mature, we cease to view God as “great” and “good”. We know that He is great, but life has thrown us enough curves that we begin to doubt whether or not He is always “greater” than our circumstances. We do not doubt that He is good but we have had enough bad things happen to us that it is hard to see that He is always “good” to us.

I believe that it is a trick of Satan to cause us to view God as less than good and great. While believing that God is a good God, we have a hard time seeing Him as doing well for us all of the time. Most of us limit God’s goodness to when we act good. If we do good things, then we believe that God will do good things for us in return. This concept of God’s goodness has God rewarding us for good behavior and punishing us for the bad. Paul said, “Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin” (Romans 4:8). If this promise only applies if we are obedient, then what is the point? Of course He won’t impute sin if we don’t commit it. What kind of promise is that? It is only “blessed” when we realize that God’s goodness is independent of our ability to earn it!

Paul said, “The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” (Romans 2:4). When God shows us blessings and goodness, we change our mind about who He is. Watch how the Lord deals with Peter in Luke 5, bringing Simon to his knees in repentance.

Despite Peter’s arguing that they had fished all night and caught nothing, he launches into the deep at the bequest of the Master. When he does this, he encloses a great multitude of fishes and the nets begin to break. This net-breaking blessing brings Peter to repentance, “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8) It was not necessary to tell Peter what a sinner that he was or to quote from the Ten Commandments, in order to produce repentance from Peter, but rather Jesus gave him an undeserved blessing.

The goodness of God does not come upon us by obedience. If we received only upon obedience, we would not be receiving of God’s grace, but rather we would be receiving of God’s debt. He would owe us goodness as payment for our living correctly. Paul said, “Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt” (Romans 4:4).

Finally, God is great because He is first good! When He shows forth His goodness to us, we change our minds about who He is and what He is. When we accept the goodness of God we cannot help but call Him great. Our children know Him as great because they first accept Him as good. See your Father as good to you and you will know your Father is great.

It is the Sinner Who Repents

Mark 2:17

Jesus came to call sinners to repentance (Mark 2:17). The Greek word for “repent” means “a change of mind” and that definition is universal throughout the New Testament. When the Word speaks of repentance it is talking about man changing the way he thinks or the way that he views a situation.

We often interpret “repentance” as an emotional experience. We think that someone has truly repented if they cry or feel bad, and we often accept their repentance if we see those emotional outbursts; and we reject it if they don’t “show repentance”.

As we have seen, the New Testament version of repentance is to change how you think. If you are a sinner then you are being called to accept Jesus Christ as your savior. You need to change your mind, which thinks that you are able to save yourself. Your mind is convinced that you are fine and that you do not need a Savior. If you are a sinner, your thinking about eternity and salvation is all wrong and you need to change your mind. In other words, you need to repent.

Saints should often repent as well, but not in the manner in which it is often preached and taught. Christians have no need of an emotional breakdown when they fail, characterized by lamenting and fasting, begging God for forgiveness. We are the righteousness of God in Christ, and when we fail, we do not cease to be the righteousness of God. However, many of us feel that we are failures and that we owe God something. Repent of this! Change your mind and realize that you are just as saved after you fail as you were before it. Change your mind about the fact that you are a son and not a slave and when your mind lines up with whom you are in Christ; your lifestyle is soon to follow.

Jesus stated that He came, “not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Mark 2:17). If Jesus specifically mentions that He is not calling the righteous to repent, why are we always calling on the righteous to repent? His call was to sinners, and He said it because the religious world was frustrated with His constant fellowshipping with the lost. Jesus did not become like the sinner in order to win the sinner, but He did present a different view of God to the sinner so that they would change their mind about who God was and how He thought of them.

Many sinners think that God is angry with them and that He is about to send them to hell at any moment. By conversing with and eating with sinners, Jesus was changing the perception that the sinner had of who God was. Jesus made God personable and loving, and sinners felt themselves opening up to the Son of God. The call of repentance came next, with sinners responding in droves because Jesus had convinced them that they were wrong about how the Father felt about them.

Consequently, this verse also shows us that Jesus is not against people going to the doctor if they are sick. Some say that visiting a physician is a lack of faith. If that were the case then Jesus would not have said that those who need a physician are the sick. While He is not advocating sickness or disease, He is using it as an example as to who needs His salvation power.

Jesus Fulfilled the Law

Matthew 5:17

Early in His famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus proclaims His purpose in coming to earth, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17). Christ makes it clear that He did not come to rip the Old Testament up; neither the writings of Moses nor any other prophet. Rather, Jesus came to fulfill that which the Law and the Prophets had left undone.

Paul asked if our faith has replaced the Law, and then concludes, “God forbid: yea, we establish the law” (Romans 3:31), showing us that our faith in Jesus Christ and His finished work brings the Law to completion in our lives. Since Jesus lived all of the demands of the Law and then died as a spotless sacrifice, you and I fulfill every demand of the Law, not by right-living, but by faith in the sacrificial work of Jesus Christ.

Paul said it like this, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight” (Romans 3:20). This means that by works, no one can be declared clean in the eyes of God. He went on to say, “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference” (Romans 3:21, 22). Now we have “righteousness without the law”, meaning that we are declared righteous without keeping the law. The only reason that this is possible is because Jesus completely fulfilled the demands of the Law on our behalf!

Notice that verse 21 states, “being witnessed by the law and the prophets”. The law and the prophets witnessed true righteousness in the flesh when Moses and Elijah showed up at the Mount Transfiguration. Moses is a type of the Law, while Elijah is representative of the Prophets. Both of these witnessed the Righteousness of God in the form of Jesus and both of these will minister the message of grace during the tribulation period (Revelation 11:4).

There was nothing wrong with the original Law of God. Paul stated, “Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” (Romans 7:12). The problem with the Law was that it demanded perfection but then provided no help in producing perfection. In fact, God did not give the Law to show man how to live, contrary to what is often preached. Paul said that “the law entered, that the offence might abound” (Romans 5:20). Law was given to show man his imperfection in light of God’s perfect standard. This was to stop the mouth and declare the whole world “guilty before God” (Romans 3:19).

By never breaking the Law, Jesus was a sinless man. He fulfilled every demand of the Law to perfection and then took all of our law-breaking into His own body. He died as the punishment for all of our sins, thus giving us His perfect life. The Great Exchange of Calvary was that He became our sin so that we might become the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). He has fulfilled it, thus, so have you!

He Is Knocking

Revelation 3:20

Following the messages to the seven churches of Asia, which are types of the seven church ages since Pentecost, Christ changes from addressing the churches directly to “any man” in verse 20. Until this point He has ministered directly to the church but now shows us that the last great push before the rapture of the church will be answered by individuals, if not the entire church.

For what cause is Christ standing outside of the heart’s door in this verse? What has caused the church to push the Master to the front porch of our lives instead of allowing Him to dwell freely in the living space of our heart? This final invitation is directed to the individuals within the church at Laodicea, and I believe that we are seeing this fulfillment even now.

In this final hour there is a mixture of covenants in the modern pulpit. The cold tablets of the Law are being preached with force in most sermons, teaching people to work for their righteousness and sanctification. If that was the only message being preached then perhaps some would grow so miserable beneath works that they would long for Christ. Unfortunately, there is just as much preaching on the grace of God along with the ministry of the Law. I say that it is unfortunate because this mixture says that all are saved by grace but then maintain their salvation by individual works of righteousness. This is often referred to as “balance” in many churches, but Christ calls it “mixture”.

He tells Laodicea that because they are “neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth” (Revelation 3:16). Faced with a message of the heat of God’s grace and the coldness of God’s law, the end result will be a lukewarm Christian message. It will be attractive to the sinner because of the grace of God offered freely, but it will quickly become a bondage to the one who is born again.

This combination forces the beautiful presence of Jesus to the front porch of the church, where He then knocks on the door of the church, seeking permission to come back inside. His invitation is extended to “any man”, denoting that in these last days there will be individuals within the modern church system of Laodicea who will answer the call of Jesus Christ and will open up to His wonderful New Covenant.

I see people opening up to the message of pure grace every single day. Individuals who have grown weary beneath the message of works and progressive sanctification are finding rest in the finished work of Jesus Christ. They are opening up to the simplicity of Jesus Christ and Him crucified and they are experiencing the wonder of supping with Him and He with them. This mutual relationship, in which they speak freely to Jesus and He ministers freely to them, has rejuvenated their Christian walk, and there are more and more rising up every day who say as Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel (good news) of Jesus Christ!” (Romans 1:16).

If you have mixed grace with law and are floundering beneath a sea of dead works, listen carefully for the knock of Jesus. He awaits perfect fellowship with you once again. Won’t you open the door today?

What If the Christian Fails to Confess

1 John 1:9

This verse marks the only time in the New Testament that we are told to confess our sins in order to receive forgiveness. Paul wrote 14 books of the New Testament, and was given the Covenant of God’s grace in face-to-face meetings with the Lord Jesus, and he never once mentions confession by the saint. Paul’s lone usage of “confess” as it regards salvation is found in Romans 10:9, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”. This confession is obviously for salvation and not the repeated confessing of sins that we commit.

John’s usage is not as a foundational principle for how believers deal with sin. If it were, then we would be judged responsible for all of our sins, every moment of every day. This would take the judgment for sins off of Jesus, and place it onto the believer. The load of this is more than any of us can bear.

Do you suppose that you can remember all of your faults? If you can, then you must literally remember ALL of them. Not one can be left out. Not only would you have to confess the sins that you committed, you would also have to seek forgiveness for the ones that you committed but do not know about. You would also be responsible for the sins of omission; the things you should have done but did not do. This is overwhelming!

Within context of chapter one, 1 John 1:9 is actually written to the sinner. In verse 3, John said that he was relating these things so “that ye also may have fellowship with us”. Then in verse 8, he tells the same unbelievers that if they deny that they have sin then they are operating under a self-deception and that they need to confess their sins and find forgiveness in Christ. When he wants to address how the believer deals with sin he introduces the phrase “my little children” (1 John 2:1), a term he never uses with the lost in chapter one.

Notice what John says to the believer: “My little children, these things write I unto to you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:1, 2). Here, John does not mention confessing the sins; only remember than Jesus is your attorney in the high court of heaven. He is the “propitiation” or “satisfaction” for all of our sins. God cannot be angry with sin, for He has been satisfied by the sin offering.

By informing us that all of our sins are forgiven, John is equipping us to “sin not”. Only he who knows that he is forgiven can have the peace and joy to live free from this world of sin. Sin comes natural to us, because we did it our whole lives. Even though we are free from the old nature that we had, we still know how to sin by habit, like tying our shoes without thinking about it. The knowledge that we are completely washed and forgiven is the very thing that Satan wishes to deny us. Grasp hold of that knowledge and watch sin vanish from your life.

If Paul intended for the believer to confess their sins in order to have them forgiven, wouldn’t it have been a good idea to remind us of this at least once in 14 books? He deals with Christians getting drunk on communion wine, committing incest, suing one another and sleeping with harlots (all in 1 Corinthians alone!) and yet he tells none of these to “confess your sins”. He simply reminds them of who they are in Christ and tells them to wake up to this fact.

John is telling us of a passionate relationship that ensues when we confess our failures to Jesus. I forgive my son for whatever wrong that he might commit, even if he never asks me to. I do this because he is mine, and I love him unconditionally. However, I love for him to say I am sorry because it gives me an opportunity to shower him with love. My forgiveness is not dependent on his confession, but the hug that comes to him is so much sweeter because of it.

When you fail and you know it, confess it to the Father. Don’t do it because you think He will send you to hell without it, but rather because you know that on the other side of that confession He sheds His love on you, and that is a wonderful feeling.

The Final Word

2 Peter 3:18

Much can be learned from the death bed of men and women. In those final words, we get a brief insight into what is most important to them in this life, before they pass into the next. Joan of Arc, before burning at the stake said, “Hold the cross high, so I may see it through the flames!” Edgar Allan Poe said, “Lord, help my poor soul”, and the so-called prophet Nostradamus went down with this prophecy, “Tomorrow, I shall no longer be here”.

We have all heard of the last sayings of Christ on the cross, but we know nothing of the last words of the great apostles of the early church. What might Paul or Peter or John have said in their final moments? This side of heaven, we may never know, but we do know the last thing that they wrote down as inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Peter says, “But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever. Amen.” (2 Peter 3:18) Peter’s final words are an encouragement to the reader to continue in the grace of Jesus Christ. “Grace” is on his mind at the end.

Paul’s final writing comes from a prison cell in Rome, where he writes to his young friend Timothy, “The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen.” (2 Timothy 4:22) Paul, just like Peter, brings us back to the Lord Jesus Christ and again prays grace on the reader. “Grace” is on his mind at the end.

John receives the Revelation of Jesus Christ and views many things that he is not even able to write down. After having seen these things, he begs Jesus to come quickly (Revelation 22:20). One would think that this would be a great place to close his final book, by begging for the return of Jesus, but John has one more thing to say, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.” (Revelation 22:21) Again, just like Peter and Paul before him, John brings us back to the Lord Jesus Christ and His wonderful gift of grace. “Grace” is on his mind at the end.

I ended each of the previous three paragraphs with the same sentence, "’Grace’ is on his mind at the end”. I did this to show you that of all that each of these great apostles could have said, it was another mention of God’s wonderful grace that came from their pen. We could spend hours showing what each man’s definition of grace was but without that kind of time, let’s just say that “grace” was the topic of their hearts, all of the time.

If dying words reveal the character of the individual, then we have an insight into what moved the pillars of the early church. It was not works righteousness or shows of emotion that turned their hearts, but it was the message of undeserved grace and favor. May it be our dying word as well.

The Chosen Generation

1 Peter 2:9, 10

Please don’t skip today’s devotion if you think that title denotes that this is aimed at youth! If you are a young person, read on; it will help you. If you are not young in years, just praise God that you are wise in spirit and read on also! “The Chosen Generation” is not a new title for the latest, trendiest youth group in America, but rather the title for the church of Jesus Christ, as given by the Apostle Peter.

The word ‘chosen’ is the Greek word ‘elektos’ from which we derive the English word, “election”. It is used by Peter to show that the church of Jesus Christ is no accident, but rather we were a pre-determined act of God from the foundation of the world. Even before Adam sinned, God saw the necessity of the cross.

Along with being chosen, we are also a ‘generation’ or a “race, or nation”. This Greek word is first used in the New Testament when Jesus shares the parable of the kingdom as a “net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind” (Matthew 13:47). The word ‘kind’ is the same as ‘generation’, so we see that we come from all over the world with different races, cultures and creeds, but we are all “chosen” through Christ’s blood.

Prior to the Old Covenant, the head of each family was considered the family priest (Genesis 8:20). When God gave the Old Covenant at Mt. Sinai, He promised that if Israel would obey Him perfectly, they would be a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6). They disobeyed severely, so the Lord took that priesthood and confined it to one family within Israel; the Aaronic priesthood in the tribe of Levi (Exodus 28:1). Now, with the giving of the New Covenant, all believers are referred to as “a royal priesthood” (1 Peter 2:9), and this priesthood is by birthright. As Aaron’s priesthood passed through bloodline to his sons, so does Christian priesthood pass upon us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

We are also a “holy nation” which has nothing to do with nationality or race. This nation is not recognized at the United Nations, and it has no flag or borders. The nation that we belong to is not of this world, though we belong to nations that are. It is called “holy”, not by works which we do but by the perfect work which He has done.

Don’t be offended by Peter’s usage of “peculiar people” in verse 9. It has nothing to do with ‘weird’, though I have met a few of those too! The Greek phrase that Peter uses is also used by the Apostle Paul when he says, “Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:14). The phrase “purchased possession” is the same as “peculiar” in Peter. The Apostle is telling us that we are not only chosen and priests and holy, but we have been purchased by God.

The purchase power of God is wrapped up in the blood of Jesus. Paul said, “And having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself” (Colossians 1:20). His blood is what purchased all of humanity. We are purchased, and thus, we are His “possession”. It should make it a bit easier to face the world today knowing that you are chosen as His very child. Walk like it!

Live For Today

James 4:13-15

The blood of Jesus Christ has freed us from two terrible vices: yesterday and tomorrow. Our yesterdays can hold us in guilt and regret. The guilt is over sins that we committed and mistakes that we made and the regret is for things that we could have and should have done, but we did not for one reason or the other. Our yesterdays loom large because they always scream, “What might have been!” Christ’s death removed all condemnation over yesterday, setting us free from this prison of guilt and regret (Romans 8:1).

The other terrible vice is tomorrow. Tomorrow has yet to come, so it holds limitless possibilities and potential for great error. Because the enemy always emphasizes our weaknesses, our tomorrow’s can paralyze us with fear and torment, scaring us away from taking chances today, for fear that we will ruin that tomorrow. Christ’s blood at Calvary was to assure us eternal life and the ever-cleansing power of forgiveness of sins. In Jesus there is no fear of tomorrow, for it is in His hands.

James warned, “Ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away” (James 4:14). This warning is to people who put off for tomorrow what they should take care of today, namely their eternal soul. So many people in this world are putting off thinking about eternity because they feel that they have all of the time in the world. We know that people die tragically every day, but we never actually think that it will be us. We all think that we will die old in our beds, with plenty of time to ponder our eternal destination. While some get this opportunity, all do not, and James reminds us that it will all be over very soon.

Living in the moment is allowing Jesus to take the reins of life and captain your vessel. Your past is checkered and spotted, but none of that matters in Christ, for He has removed the sin. Your future is uncertain in human terms but is all secure in the skillful hands of the Father. Rest where you are, for that is where He is!

I spent a portion of my life always wondering if there was something else. I dreamed of living somewhere else and doing something different. I was very insecure about who I was and always thinking that I could be better if I were someone else. Every passing moment of everyday is another chance to change everything, so I began to live by that thought. If I am unhappy with something, I cannot live in regret as to how I got there, and I can’t fear what tomorrow might hold, but I can do something today.

If you are unhappy with yourself; fix it. If you want more knowledge; get it. The possibilities are endless for you, because you are a child of the King. He has great things for you and He wants you to reign in this life through the finished work of His Son Jesus Christ. Stop living in the past and stop putting everything off until tomorrow. Start now and you are one day closer to being where you want to go.

His Goodness Will Hunt You Down

Psalms 23:6

The Psalmist is so confident that his Shepherd is good that he opens the final verse of the 23rd Psalm with “Surely goodness…” There is no doubt that goodness and mercy will come his way. When the sheep have the past experience of watching their shepherd protect them and bless them, they are confident that He will always do so.

It is important to note the word that the English uses in this verse, and how different that it is from the original Hebrew. David says that goodness and mercy “shall follow me all the days of my life”, but the word ‘follow’ is a bit misleading. The Hebrew word for ‘follow’ is ‘radaph’ which means, “To pursue, to run after, to chase” or literally, “to hunt you down”. It is first found in Genesis 14, when Abram finds that his nephew Lot has been kidnapped. Abram assembles his own army of 318 men and “pursued them unto Dan” (Genesis 14:14). The word ‘pursued’ is ‘radaph’.

Just as Abram hunted the kidnappers down and brought them to justice, the Holy Spirit is saying through the Psalmist that we can be assured that God’s goodness and mercy will hunt us down as well. This entire Psalm has been about the accompaniment of our Good Shepherd. If He leads, we follow. If we leave the path, He restores us. If we are hurt, He heals us. It even shows Him go with us into areas that He did not lead us. The finality is that as we follow the footprints of the Shepherd, His goodness and mercy follow close after us.

We do not have to look for the goodness and the mercy, for it will look for us. Many believers have become sidetracked and discouraged because they are always looking for goodness and blessings. They have actually turned Christianity into one big blessing, rather than the relationship that it is. Follow after blessings and you will always be on the chasing end. Follow after Jesus and the blessings will chase the Jesus that lives in you!

David found that dwelling in the house of the LORD for ever was the most blessed thing. He commented that he would rather be a “doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness” (Psalms 84:10). It was for this cause that he wanted to build the temple, but God deferred that honor to his son Solomon. David was a New Covenant thinker living in an Old Covenant world. You and I are the temple of the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 6:19), so we dwell in His house forever. This promise in Psalms 23:6 is ours everyday because of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Follow your shepherd today and fully expect that He is going to do the same to you with good things in your life and mercy in your spirit.

Provision for the Sheep

Psalms 23:5

Occasionally, the Bible shows us a side of God that is quite motherly. Jesus came from God’s bosom; a term we don’t often equate with fathers (John 1:18), and Jesus was referred to as “Lamb of God” (John 1:29), another ‘soft’ example. No matter how old we get, our mothers keep right on being ‘motherly’, and this verse in the Shepherd’s Psalm speaks volumes toward that fact.

Moms are always making sure that the kids have plenty to eat. My mother did it to me (and still does) and I watch as my wife does the same thing with our two kids. She not only will not allow them to skip a meal, she wants to make sure that they eat plenty at that meal, and every mother sends enough money with their child when they go out with someone else, “in case you get hungry”.

God prepares a table for the sheep, “in the presence of mine enemies” (Psalms 23:5). Only a parent’s love is more concerned with whether or not you eat than with the fact that your enemies are watching. God seems content with us just eating, as if He is assuring the believer, “You eat; I’ll take care of the enemies”.

Part of His provision for us in the presence of a world full of turmoil is His healing power. When the shepherd would settle the sheep down for the evening in a safe place, he would go around the flock and check each sheep for injuries. As he inspected each individual sheep, he could give special care to their needs, careful to apply the salve to whatever might need it. He also carried a horn of oil with him to anoint the sheep if necessary.

The anointing of the sheep has little to do with God smearing His Spirit on you for service or a sermon. There is certainly anointing attached to the doing of God’s work, but in this scripture it spoke of the shepherd applying oil to the face and head of the sheep in order to keep the flies off of them. The ‘fly’ in the Bible is most commonly a type of demonic spirits. The Greek rendering for Beelzebub is “lord of the flies”, and it was this pseudo-deity that Jesus was accused of being linked with (Matthew 12:24). When the Good Shepherd anoints us with His Spirit, it is to keep the demonic powers of lying and accusation from annoying us. Appeal to His Holy Spirit for relief from these pests.

Finally, the provision speaks of abundant grace and favor with the phrase, “my cup runneth over”. This is not a “just enough” blessing; this is a “too much” blessing! When the Shepherd provides for His own, He does so with as much as they will take. Paul said that we can receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. If we do, we shall “reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). Don’t receive “enough”, receive the cup running over.

Prepare for His provision today. He will feed you even as your enemies watch it happen. He will smear His comforting Holy Spirit on you, even as all of hell comes against you. He will pour out His goodness and favor until it spills over and affects those around you. He is your Good Shepherd; let Him be truly good today.

Peace in the Valley

Psalms 23:4

There is a change of direction in the 4th verse of the great Shepherd’s Psalm. Notice that in verse 2, “he maketh me…” and “he leadeth me…” Then in verse 3, “He leadeth me…” occurs again. In each instance, the Shepherd is leading and providing for the direction of His sheep. The Psalmist then says, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” (Psalms 23:4). In this verse there is no mention of the sheep being led, only that they walk through of their own free will. This is a type of all of us wandering off of the beaten path of righteousness (verse 3) and into the dark valleys of life.

There are three important things to note about this journey into the valley. First, we should remember that it is only a valley, and valleys do not go on forever. They are simply depressions between mountains, so there are brighter days to come. This valley also has a name, “the valley of the shadow of death”. It is not “Death Valley”, it is only death’s shadow that we will see while here. Only a small child or an animal would fear a shadow on a wall, thinking that it might be a dark individual chasing them, but a mature adult would not harbor such fear. We know that in order for there to be shadows, there must be light shining on the other side of an object. Based on the fact that Malachi calls Jesus the “Sun of Righteousness”, who do you suppose that light might be?

Second, David says, “I will fear no evil: for thou art with me”. David has no fear because he knows that shadows cannot hurt him. No matter what evil lurks in the valley, causing the shadows, David has confidence in the Shepherd, realizing that Jesus’ very presence will calm the storms of doubt and fear. You have not been given a spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7), so do not accept it! As the old song says, ‘There is nothing to fear when Jesus is near; I’m living in sunlight now’.

Finally, “thy rod and thy staff they comfort me”. The rod is used by the shepherd to attack the predators that lurk near the flock. The Hebrew word for ‘rod’ as used here is typically translated ‘scepter’ or even ‘tribe’. It denotes more than a mere stick of wood; it is symbolic of the authority of God and His covenant keeping ways. He protects the sheep with the rod of His Covenant, bound to care for us by the finished work of His Son Jesus Christ.

The staff has a crook at the end of it, used for pulling wayward sheep out of ditches and trenches. When we slip off of the path, the Shepherd will put the staff under our shoulders and pull us close to Him. The staff is also a symbol of the healing and restorative power of God. Elisha placed his staff on a dead child and the life came back to him (2 Kings 4:29-37). The staff of our Good Shepherd will bring life back to weary legs.

Even though the Shepherd does not lead us into the valley of the shadow of death, He will not merely wait on the other side for us to emerge either. If we go in, He will go in, though it may not be in His perfect plan for us. Remember, no matter what you are going through, He will go through it with you, even if the trouble is of our own making. Do not blame yourself; for there are valleys between mountains and while He may not lead you into it, He will always lead you out.

The Paths of Righteousness

Psalms 23:3

Our Shepherd is in the business of soul restoration. The only time that the Hebrew word ‘shuwb’ is translated as ‘restoreth’ in the Bible is here in verse 3; and it means “to return, to bring back and to refresh”. The ‘soul’ is what the Shepherd is refreshing, and this word is the same Hebrew word that is used at creation to describe the different “living creatures”. This word is all-encompassing, dealing with the life, the emotions and the passions of man.

The Psalmist is showing us that our Shepherd not only provides for our wants (verse 1) and our needs (verse 2), but that He also refreshes our body and our mind. The physical and emotional needs of His sheep are just as important to Him as the spiritual needs.

Sometimes we view God as caring only for things that affect our spirit man. We tend to see Him as concentrating entirely on our level of faith or whether or not goodness is coming from us, and this takes the personality out of God’s relationship with His creation. We are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14), and that does not exclude the physical and the emotional.

The colon that comes after the phrase “He restoreth my soul:” tells us that whatever comes next is precisely HOW He restores us. “He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalms 23:3).

In the Middle east, when a shepherd wants to take his flock to high ground it is often for safety and for green grass. The sheep are not built for traveling great distances, with their short legs and broad bodies. Trying to lead them up a steep incline is nearly impossible without being forced to carry most of them. To ease the journey up a mountain, the shepherds will lead the sheep, single-file along a pathway that wraps around the mountain. Though it takes a bit longer to get to the top, the progressive sloping and the smooth, worn dirt of the path make it easy for the sheep to arrive at the destination. The shepherds commonly refer to these paths as “the paths of righteousness”.

Jesus, our Great Shepherd, will lead us up these paths for the sake of His name. As we journey along life’s way, His righteousness will show forth through our lifestyles and our actions. While we are the ones arriving at the glorious destination, with our minds and bodies refreshed, He is getting the glory. Jesus preached as much in His Sermon on the Mount, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good woks and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16).

Don’t be discouraged or alarmed if you cover some of the same spiritual material on your journey to rest and green grass. We are going up and around the mountain, meaning that sometimes the view will be the same as it was a few months ago. Grace works slowly, but it works sure! Just keep following the path of His righteousness for He certainly knows where He is going.

You cannot lead your way to righteousness. Our efforts will always fall short of the mountain’s peak, but if we will allow Him to do the leading, our following will be simple and our soul will be restored.

Green Pastures and Still Waters

Psalms 23:2

Our Good Shepherd promises to provide for all of our needs in placing the sheep at rest in green pastures and leading us beside still waters. God has always desired to place His people in a place of rest, both now and forever. Look at His promise through the Prophet Ezekiel:

“I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away.” (Ezekiel 34:14-16)

“He maketh me to lie down in green pastures” shows that the sheep have been convinced that it is safe to lie down. Without a faithful shepherd, the sheep can never relax enough to lie down; for fear that the predator will take them. Jesus promises to give His life for the sheep if need be, so there is comfort in relaxing.

The Hebrew phrase here denotes ‘pastures of tender grass’, showing not only safety and security but ease of consumption. Our Lord loves to feed us, but He also loves to DO IT ALL! All we must do is take of the manna and eat it; there need be no effort on our part. See Jesus in the scriptures and do not grind His glory out of them. Some wrangle with passages until they have removed the loveliness of Jesus. Feast on His Word and it will fill your soul.

Another Hebrew phrase ‘waters of quietness’ is translated into English, “still waters”. Our Lord leads us to waters which we can easily drink from, without fear of being carried away on troubled waves. The ‘still waters’ are a type of the Holy Spirit, who Jesus calls the “Comforter”. He washes us over with gentle waves of love and forgiveness. Just as Jesus washed the dirt from the disciples’ feet, the Spirit in us speaks words of comfort into us to help our spirit to relax. The still water is an essential part of our dietary requirements, for as water is the life source to all living things, the Spirit is that life source to the believer.

Note the leadership of the shepherd in this verse. It is His job to find a place of rest for me and it is also His job to find fresh water. He has accomplished both in His Son at the cross. Christ hung His head and died so that I could find a place of rest with Him there. He gave His body and His blood so that I would always have to eat and drink. Our rest is in His rest and our food is in His body.

Look around today, and you will see your green pastures. They may come in segments; moments for you to revel in being His child. Listen for the gentle sounds of His still waters. They will refresh your soul. He placed them there just for you.

The Lord is My Shepherd

Psalms 23:1

When I was a kid I would often pretend to be a preacher. My father was a pastor so, as most boys do, I emulated his movements and his style. I used a clothes hamper for my pulpit and I opened my Bible and read a passage before shouting and yelling at a room full of imaginary people. I can’t tell you what all I preached or from what passages I read, but I do remember attempting to preach the 23rd Psalm once, and it has always stuck with me.

In my young mind I could not fathom why the writer of Psalms 23 would not want the Lord to be his shepherd. I was reading it as, “The Lord is my shepherd and I shall not want him”. I was making a simple mistake, assuming that the “shall not want” applied to the previous statement instead of coming as a result of it. Because the Lord is our shepherd, we never have a reason to want. What is so simple now caused me such confusion then. I am not sure why I remember that, but I do and I think I know now why I ever felt that way at all.

When you are a kid you never want for anything. That doesn’t mean that you never want anything, it just means that you never find yourself without the necessities of life. That is not universal of course, as there are children all over the world who want for the basic needs of life, but for the most part a kid need never think of how the rent is going to be paid or whether or not there will be dinner on the table at night.

If you never face the wolves you may not understand how important the shepherd is. When you have been provided for and taken care of, it is a little difficult to appreciate the power of that protection and provision. As we grow up we are forced to do for ourselves what our parents or guardians always did for us before. Having faced a few wolves, fallen off of a few paths and been stabbed by many thorns we find such rest and comfort in a good shepherd.

Jesus called Himself, “the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (John 10:11). He is so good because He gladly gave His life for all of us. The prayer of little children, “God is good, God is great” is an awesome testimony to who God is. God is good and He is great, and He shows us just how good and great when He shows us His finished work at Calvary.

David is the author of the 23rd Psalm and he knew a thing or two about being a good shepherd. He defended his father’s flock on the hillsides of Bethlehem, once killing a lion and another time stopping a bear that was trying to harm the sheep (1 Samuel 17:34-36). Actually, David said that both of these predators actually grabbed a sheep and David went and hunted the beast down, pulled the sheep from its mouth and then killed it. David was a good shepherd, but Jesus is even better. He will never even allow the lion and the bear to get to you!

Sheep need a shepherd because they are basically defenseless and totally dependent. Thank God that we have a shepherd who watches over our every move, always quick to defend us and who provides us with all things, so that we “shall not want”.

The Preventing God

Psalms 21:3

This verse takes on a new meaning when we can clear the hurdle that the word “prevent” causes. We see “prevent” in a negative light, not a positive one, which causes us to see God as keeping us from the “blessings of goodness”.

In Hebrew, the phrase is “qadam” and it means “to come before, to anticipate”. In other words, it is something good if God is “preventing” because it means that God knows what is coming before it gets here and if He is preventing with the blessings of goodness then He is bringing us good things before we even know that we need them!

It is now, and always has been, God’s heart to function in this ‘preventing’ manner. Like the Father, standing at the end of the lane, watching for the return of the Prodigal, antsy to kill the fatted calf, God is waiting to do great things in our life.

“And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear” (Isaiah 65:24).

This promise is a promise of victory before we even face the battle. When we rest in this sort of promise we have joy unspeakable and peace that passes all understanding. These emotions will spring not from our circumstances but from our knowledge of the Lord’s preventing love and goodness.

Notice that David not only mentions that God prevents with the blessings of goodness but that He also puts a crown of pure gold upon his head. The crown is a symbol of royalty and victory. So confident is David that God is going to make good things happen to him that he believes for the victor’s crown before the battle is waged.

David had this attitude when he faced the giant Goliath. He never claimed that he was going to kill Goliath with his superior sling-shot skills, but rather that the LORD was going to deliver the giant into David’s hand to prove that “the LORD saveth not with sword and spear:” (1 Samuel 17:47). David was bragging of the victory before it ever came because he knew that he served a covenant God.

Lay hold of this promise today that the Lord is going to “prevent” with blessings of goodness. Place your trust and confidence in His ability to provide the victory in the face of defeat and then prepare yourself for the miracle of God’s prevention.

Jesus Had to Rise

Psalms 16:10

This prayer of David is a Messianic prophecy, meaning that it is speaking of the Messiah, who we know to be Jesus. This prayer is being offered by David, but it is a double reference to how Jesus would be dealt with by His Father. From this verse we gather that Jesus descended into the heart of the earth sometime between His death on the cross and His resurrection. This place in the earth is referred to as hell, but not all of it is full of torture and flames.

Jesus spoke of hell as having two compartments. One side was a place of torment where unbelievers were confined to flames of woe. The other side was called Abraham’s bosom, and it was a place of rest and peace for the souls of those who had died in the faith. Jesus shares this information with us in His story of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31).

Psalm 16:10 says nothing of Jesus suffering in hell’s flames. The latter part of the verse says that the Lord will not allow His Holy One to see corruption, meaning that God would not allow Jesus’ body to lay in the grave long enough to rot. Both of these prophesies came to pass as Jesus resurrected after only three days in the tomb and the New Testament gives us insight into what Jesus was doing during His trip into hell.

The Apostle Paul spoke of every believer as having received grace “according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Ephesians 4:7). This categorizes grace as a free gift coming because of the work of Jesus, and that it was offered in a specific manner.

“Wherefore he saith, ‘When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.’” (Ephesians 4:8)

We see Jesus ascending to heaven and leading “captivity captive” before giving us the gift of grace, among other gifts. Then Paul explains who the captive are in the next verse:

“(Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)” (Ephesians 4:9, 10)

Christ’s arrival in heaven caused Him to “fill all things”. He arrived with a captive group of captives, which He got when He descended first into hell. In Abraham’s bosom were the souls of all that died in the faith prior to the cross. They were not allowed access to heaven because the blood of Jesus Christ had not yet taken away their sins. The blood of bulls and goats could only cover sins, but it would take the perfect sacrifice to remove them. Jesus took the captives, as well as His blood back to the tabernacle of heaven and offered it upon the mercy seat.

“But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.” (Hebrews 9:11, 12)

Christ did all of this and then rose from the dead. His resurrection was God’s stamp of approval on all that He had just accomplished. He had to raise, to show you and me that we can live also!

The Angry God is Angry No More

Psalms 7:11

The Puritan preacher Jonathan Edward’s once preached a sermon that has since become legendary, both in its title and in the stories of conviction that resulted from it. ‘Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God’ holds a place among the most famous services ever delivered. Legend has it that grown men clutched to the pillars that held up the balcony for fear that they were going to fall into the pits of hell when Edward’s gave his invitation. More romance has been added to the story as it is told of how Edward’s was so nervous that he held the written transcript of the sermon in front of his face and read it word for word, but the anointing on it was supposedly so powerful that it didn’t matter about the delivery.

I don’t know how much of the story is true, other than he actually preached the sermon. I do know that fear of an angry God has led countless people to an altar of repentance. It has also caused men and women to try and change their lives and their lifestyles. I am further sure however, that no sermon on the power of an angry God has ever empowered a single listener to live in a way that would assuage the anger of that God. No sermon on the wrath of God and the subsequent flames of hellfire and damnation can ever move or motivate a person to live righteously, as all of our righteousness’ are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6).

The great cosmic war between God and the sins of man has already been waged and has already been won. John the Baptist said of Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). In the sacrifice of the Lamb, Christ Jesus, the war with sin was won. It is for this cause that Jesus could hang His head and die after having declared, “It is finished” (John 19:30).

God was certainly angry at sin, beginning at Mt. Sinai and continuing onward to the cross. Isaiah said, “It pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin…He shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:10, 11). God was pleased to crucify His Son at Calvary because in sacrificing Jesus, He was satisfying His anger toward the sin of man. The suffering Savior truly satisfied the offended Father.

Read all Old Testament scripture within the context and timeframe that they were written. When the Psalmist wrote Psalms 7:11, God was dealing with man under the Old Covenant and His anger was mounting towards man’s disobedience. He was ready to “whet his sword” (Psalms 7:12) and use it against all of us, but then Jesus came and fulfilled all of the demands of the law and voluntarily laid down His life as the perfect sacrifice for the sin of the world. With His anger plunged into the heart of His Son, God was propitiated, or satisfied and we no longer have to see Him as “angry with the wicked every day” (7:11).

God is not mad at you. He is not even perturbed. When He looks at you He sees Jesus and He is well pleased. Live your life today as a Son, not a servant. The power to do righteous is found in knowing that you are righteous because of Jesus.

A New Covenant Miracle in an Old Covenant Story

2 Kings 2:19-22

The first miracle that Elisha performed, after the translation of his teacher Elijah into heaven in a chariot of fire, was to part the waters of the Jordan. His second miracle dealt with water as well; this time in healing it so that it would support crops. In many ways, Elijah is a type of John the Baptist, while Elisha is a type of Jesus. As Elijah went before Elisha, so did John before Jesus. As Elijah’s work brought glory to God, Elisha’s brought glory both to God and life to the people. The ministries of John and Jesus mirrored this example.

When Elisha comes to Jericho everything is good with the city and its citizens, but they have water that will not support the growth of crops, thus the farming industry is about to face a serious shortage. Elisha requests a “new cruse” or a ‘new pot’ with salt in it. He takes the new pot with salt in it to the spring of the waters and “cast the salt in there, and said, Thus saith the LORD, I have healed these waters; there shall not be from thence any more death or barren land” (2 Kings 2:21).

The “new cruse” is a type of the New Covenant, as proved by the statement of Jesus:

“No man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish. But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.” (Luke 5:37, 38)

The New Covenant cannot be placed within the bottle or the mentality of the Old Covenant. Actually, if you try to place the grace and mercy of the New Covenant within the law and works of the Old Covenant you will burst the Old while spilling the New. Man tries to ‘balance’ the two, but God just calls it ‘mixture’.

Stored within the “new cruse” of Elisha is “salt”. Christ calls the church the “salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13) and asks how the world can be salted if we have lost our flavor. While salt causes thirst, it also holds medicinal value. The application of salt brings healing, and Jesus’ inclusion of us as salt shows that there is healing within the message of God’s goodness and grace and we have a responsibility to share that with all of the Jericho’s that we encounter.

Nestled into this Old Covenant story is a beautiful New Covenant truth. When there is barrenness and death in our lives, the healing salts of the New Covenant will enter to bring healing and wholeness. Paul called the gospel of Jesus Christ “the power of God unto salvation” (Romans 1:16). Salvation is “soteria” in Greek, meaning “deliverance, preservation and wholeness”. The waters of our soul are restored by the finished work of Christ at the cross. He is our salt and the New Covenant is His “new cruse”.

Apply the goodness and grace of God to your situation today and watch the land of your soul flourish with His salvation.

Bringing Jesus’ Finished Work Back Into Focus

1 Kings 12:26-33

Jeroboam was a friend of King Solomon who was prophesied over that he would someday rule 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel because of the sin of the nation. God was planning on removing the throne from the family of David temporarily to give to Jeroboam. When Solomon found out about this he sought to kill the young man, so Jeroboam fled to Egypt where he remained until the death of Solomon (1 Kings 11:40).

Solomon’s son, Rehoboam took the throne upon the death of his father and he alienated the people by threatening them with forced labor. This sparked a rebellion which brought Jeroboam out of hiding and into the throne over 10 of the 12 tribes. Only Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to king Rehoboam.

Rehoboam assembled an army of 180,000 troops to attempt to forcibly take the other 10 tribes back, but God spoke to him and told him not to start a civil war. Rehoboam obeyed and this act of nationalism brought a sense of pride to the people that Jeroboam viewed as a great threat.

Jeroboam sensed that the renewed pride in Israel would cause them to return to the house of Solomon and overthrow him as their king. He recognized the power that was found in the people worshipping in Jerusalem when he said, “If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah” (1 Kings 12:27).

There was a sense of the power and the glory of God at the temple in Jerusalem. When you saw its beauty and its grandeur, you could not help but be overwhelmed. The sounds of the sacrificial lambs being offered; the smell of the flesh being consumed by the fire of God and the waving of incense by the ordained priests would cause you to recall the stories of Moses and Aaron and the glories of the house of David. Jeroboam knew that too much exposure to the presence of the Lord would cause Israel to leave him.

His plan involved making two golden calves and setting up altars to them. He placed one in Bethel and the other in Dan. The calves were not sins within themselves, but the people began to sacrifice to them and to worship them, thus sin was the result (1 Kings 12:30). He even copied the final Jewish feast day, the Feast of Tabernacles, which was held on October 15; he held his on November 15.

Jesus stood in the temple at Jerusalem on the final day of the Feast of Tabernacles and announced that if anyone was thirsty, they could come to him and drink the water of life freely (John 7:37, 38). Tabernacle’s was a feast that was both memorial and prophetic. It looked back on the redemption of Israel from Egyptian bondage and it looked forward to the dwelling of Israel as God’s chosen people over the whole earth. Removing this feast was a removal of the promise of God’s covenant. It was a dangerous breach against the “living water”.

Let nothing take your focus off of Jesus and His finished work. Satan will use this world to offer up other alternatives to your hope and your victory but only the powerful sacrificial work of Jesus at the cross provides your answer. Focus on what He has done for you, giving Him honor and glory for His miracle working power. The more you see His finished work, the more you bring Him back into focus, the more that it is finished in you!

God Honors Covenant

2 Samuel 9:1-13

Every time that David looked at his hand, he saw a large scar that covered his palm. This scar did not occur in the battlefield or as a result of an accident, but it was a self-inflicted wound. Years earlier, David had entered into a voluntary covenant partnership with his best friend Jonathan, and every glance at the scar reminded him of his end of the deal.

The ritual of cutting covenant involved the slaughter of several sacrificial animals, the pouring of their blood onto the ground and the passing of the two covenant parties between those pieces. The parties would also cut their hands and then clasp the hands together, causing a slight mixing of their blood together. This act was followed by a covenant meal in which both parties ate together and spoke of their terms of covenant.

Whatever had been agreed to in the covenant was binding for life. If one party was to break their end of the covenant, by passing through the dead pieces of animal they were symbolically saying, “May this happen to me”. Only the death of both parties could annul a covenant, not just the passing of one. As long as you lived, you saw the scar and you were reminded of your pact.

Following the death of Jonathan, David enquired if there were any remaining of the house of Saul (Jonathan’s father) that he may show kindness to “for Jonathan’s sake” (2 Samuel 9:1). There was one man, Mephibosheth; son of Saul who had went into hiding since David had ascended to the throne. Mephibosheth was “lame on his feet” (9:3), which meant that he could walk but not very well. This was due to an accident that occurred on the day that his father was killed in battle. At the age of 5, he was dropped by his nurse while trying to escape from the king’s palace. Fearing that David would slaughter all that were left of the house of Saul, she caused irreparable damage to the young boy. She did not know of the covenant between Jonathan and David. Much damage has been caused to our next generation in the church due to parents and pastors not understanding the covenant that has been cut between Jesus and His Father.

Just as David, (a type of God), showed kindness to Mephibosheth, (a type of you and I), for Jonathan’s sake (a type of Jesus), God does all that He does for you and I because of the death of His Son. We are forgiven because of the Covenant that Jesus entered into with His Father. God honors it, “for Christ’s sake” (Ephesians 4:32).

When David brought Mephibosheth into his house he told him that he was to eat at the king’s table for the rest of his life and that the king would always protect him. The way for David to honor his covenant with Jonathan was to provide for Mephibosheth with no pre-conditions. The way for Mephibosheth to honor David was to simply feed. His feet would be under David’s table forevermore, and he would not have to look at his crippled legs.

When we accept Christ by faith, we are honoring what He did at the cross. When God accepts us in our crippled state, He too is honoring what Jesus did at the cross. Jesus bears the nail scars in His hands as a constant reminder of Covenant to His Father. When the enemy comes to accuse you and me, our advocate need only hold up His hand to the Judge, who sees the scar and remembers the Covenant. Thank God for the blood!

Don't Peek Into the Ark

1 Samuel 6:19

The Philistine’s stole the Ark of the Covenant when Israel brought it out of Shiloh onto the battlefield to stop the invaders. It did not work, for Israel was under punishment of God for the filthy lifestyles and practices of the high priest Eli and his two sons Hophni and Phineas. The two sons were killed in the battle and Eli died when he fell and broke his neck upon hearing that the Ark was gone (1 Samuel 4:18).

With the Ark of God in their possession, the Philistines fell under a terrible curse with all of the men in whatever the Ark entered being struck with “emerods in their secret parts” (1 Samuel 5:9). These were terrible sores and are believed to have possibly been hemorrhoids. Other men were simply killed by the hand of God. It became clear to the Philistines that God wanted His Ark back!

To test and see whether or not the curse that was upon them was from God, they placed the Ark on a cart and yoked “two milch kine” to it (1 Samuel 6:7). These were two cows that had just calved, and it would take an act of God to force these cows to walk away from their calves. An act of God is exactly what they got as they watched in amazement as the two cows walked straight to the Jewish village of Bethshemesh, “lowing as they went” (1 Samuel 6:12).

When the Ark arrived in Bethshemesh, which means “house of the sun” in Hebrew, the men of the city lifted the lid off the Ark and looked inside. Perhaps they wanted to make sure that the Philistines had not taken anything, but whatever the reason, God killed 50,070 of them. Numbers chapter 4 had warned that no one was to touch the holy things of God, so the act of touching the surface of the Ark was bad enough, but to pear inside was to lift the mercy seat which was sprinkled with sacrificial blood. To see the contents of the Ark you had to move the blood out of the way, effectively ignoring the fact that a lamb had lost its life to keep what was covered hidden from view.

Hebrews 9:4 tells us that there were three items in the Ark: a golden pot of manna, Aaron’s rod that budded and the 10 Commandments. All three items were a result of man’s rebellion against God. The manna came when Israel complained about God’s provision. Aaron’s rod budded as a result of an insurrection that was against God’s priest, Aaron. The Ten Commandments were a result of Israel bragging that whatever God told them to do, they were capable of doing it (Exodus 19:8). God wanted all signs of man’s rebellion and sin to be covered by blood so that when He looks at them, all that He will see is the sacrifice.

God told Israel in the land of Egypt to mark the door posts and the door mantle with the blood of a spotless lamb and that when the angel of death came over to kill the firstborn of all of the land, the blood would cause him to “pass over you” (Exodus 12:13). The precious blood has always caused God to “pass over”. While the blood of bulls and of goats could not take the sin away (Hebrews 10:4), Jesus came for that very reason. Now that all of our sins are beneath the shed blood of Jesus, may we never lift the lid again! He does not see your sin, so why should you?

Changing Identities

Ruth 1:22; 2:2, 6, 21; 4:5, 10, 13

I reference a lot of verses from the little book of Ruth for this study, because I want to focus on how the Holy Spirit refers to this young girl. Ruth is a love story about a girl from the land of Moab, who marries a Jewish man while his family is living in her country because of a famine in their native land of Bethlehem. The man dies, along with his father and his brother, leaving his mother Naomi and his wife Ruth, and his sister-in-law Orpah.

When the famine is over in her homeland, the widow Naomi decides to return, leaving the idol-worshipping Moabites behind once and for all. Orpah decides to stay, but Ruth has obviously seen a difference in Naomi, and wishes to return to Judah with her. Naomi tries to talk her out of it because Ruth is a Gentile, from a nation that is well known for its brutality and death, and Naomi fears that Ruth will not be accepted in Judah. Undeterred, young Ruth makes an impassioned speech and follows Naomi home (Ruth 1:16, 17).

When they arrive, Ruth goes to work gleaning among the fields. This was a Jewish tradition that mandated all owners to leave the corners of their fields unharvested so that the stranger and the poor could have something to eat. Being a stranger, Ruth works hard and finds herself gleaning in the field of the wealthiest man in all the land, Boaz.

A near kinsman, Boaz has the right to marry Ruth, which he does. The book of Ruth is the story of their whirlwind romance and it contains so many beautiful references to the grace of God as displayed through the Christ character Boaz. However, it is the subtle reference to how Ruth is referred to that shows the greatest example of the New Covenant.

As long as they were in the land of Moab, the scripture refers to her only as ‘Ruth’ (chapter 1). When they return (1:22), she becomes ‘Ruth the Moabitess’. We see it again in chapter 2, verse 2 and then again as the ‘Moabitish damsel’ in verse 6. As if to remind the reader of her background, the scriptures keep peppering us with her ‘Moabitess’ title.

In the final chapter, when Boaz purchases the right to marry Ruth, he refers to her by her nationality twice (Ruth 4:5, 10). Then something happens upon his purchase of her. When he takes her as his own wife, the text tells us, “So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife” (Ruth 4:13). Suddenly, the Holy Spirit makes no reference to the fact that Ruth was a Moabitess. As Boaz is the Christ figure, and you and I are the idol-worship heathens from the land of the outcasts, the wedding of these two is the union of the sinner to Christ. We go from ‘lost’ to ‘found’ in the marriage ceremony of salvation, and He chooses to remember our sins and our iniquities no more (Hebrews 10:17). Our new husband will never mention where we came from again!

As a child of God, and as the bride of Christ, you should never be reminded of the sins that you have committed. Your heavenly husband will wash you clean with the water of His sweet words, and He will not bring guilt to you from your past. Do not accept the voice of condemnation. You may have been a Moabitess before you met Jesus, but you are one no longer.