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!

The Anointing of Jesus

Luke 4:16-21

Jesus came to the synagogue on the Sabbath day as did every good Jew. On this particular day, He is in His hometown of Nazareth, and He is asked to read aloud from the book of Isaiah. He turns to what we refer to as the 61st chapter and He reads from verses 1 and 2, excluding the last half of that last verse. By claiming that “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21), Jesus is claiming to be the Anointed One, or, the Christ.

Each thing that Jesus was anointed to do is so important in all of our lives. Notice the six things that He came to do:

1. “Preach the gospel to the poor” – The “gospel” is “good news” or “good tidings”, and it goes forth first to the poor. God sends the good news of His covenant to the poor first, for they are in need of some good news the most! Isn’t it awesome that the God of glory would bother to make the recipients of His New Covenant those whom the world has cast off?

2. “Heal the brokenhearted” – A greater pain than physical pain is the hurt of a broken heart. Millions have been abandoned, or lost a loved one, and their hearts are shattered, seemingly beyond repair. The anointing that is in Jesus will bind up the wounds and take all of your sorrows, making them His. “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4).

3. “Preach deliverance to the captives” – Jesus cannot make anyone go free, but He can offer freedom to anyone. Some remain slaves to their sins and their habits, in spite of the fact that Jesus has paid the price for their deliverance. Calvary unlocked the prison doors and man need only walk out by faith. Far too many remain enslaved in sin and are always “captives”.

4. “Recovering of sight to the blind” – Read Isaiah 61:1 carefully and you will notice that this one is not listed there. Jesus added this, and as author of the book He reserves that right. There was no record in the Old Testament of anyone ever being healed of blindness, but Jesus made it a staple of His ministry. More important than the physical healings is the fact that Jesus came to open spiritual eyes to the glorious light of the gospel of grace.

5. “To set at liberty them that are bruised” – Every person that is abused and hurt in any way not only has a broken heart but there is a bruising that occurs in their life that not even time can take away. We can easily become enslaved to these bruises, allowing past memories and events to cage us from living free. Jesus came to set us free from our past, and to take those bruises away.

6. “To preach the acceptable year of our Lord” – Where Jesus added something to the text earlier, here, He leaves something out. Isaiah writes that He will also preach the “day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:2). Jesus drops this portion because it does not reflect His earthly ministry, at least not yet. His first advent was the declaration that God was going to deal with mankind through His Son. The second advent of Christ will usher in the “day of vengeance”.

Whatever you need, the anointed Jesus has your answer. As the song says, Take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there. Be blessed today saint!

Don't Blame God

Job 1:9-12

The book of Job gives us an inside look at the throne room of God, prior to Jesus’ death at the cross. The first two chapters describe the sons of God and Satan appearing before the Lord, with Satan having just returned from “going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it” (1:7). The Lord asks Satan if he has considered Job, and Satan responds that Job is good because he is blessed, and that if the Lord would attack Job, he would turn on him. Notice that God doesn’t go after Job, but allows Satan to, telling him, “All that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand” (1:12). Later, God will allow Satan to physically harm Job, but not to kill him (2:6).

The Lord did not have to allow the reader to see these events transpire, but He obviously wants you to know that everything that is about to happen to Job will happen as a result of Satan’s attacks. Satan has challenged God’s ability to make a man righteous by faith, as Ezekiel will tell us that Job is (Ezekiel 14:14, 20). The entire book of Job is the playing out of this challenge, and Job passes to perfection, never once doing what Satan said that he would do, which was curse God to His face.

Look at how quickly those men blame God for things that He does not do. When fire falls from the sky and burns up the sheep and the servants of Job, only one man escapes to tell it as, “The fire of God is fallen from heaven” (Job 1:16). Why does he assume that it is the fire of God? Why do insurance companies call tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes, “Acts of God”? The scripture clearly shows that God gave Satan all power as it regarded Job (Job 1:12). To this day, a great trick of the enemy is to convince people that the things that he does are actually being done by God.

Job did not see the events of chapters one and two, but he refuses to believe that God is angry with him. His testimony is solid as he identifies the source of these problems, “God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked” (Job 16:11). He knows that it is an attack of Satan, not the righteous retribution of God, stating that these things were, “Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure” (Job 16:17).

The strength of Job’s character is in his faith in the virtue of God, and in a coming redeemer. He knows that he has trusted God, and he believes that God is faithful to that trust, stating, “My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high” (16:19). Then, in a look forward to the New Covenant, he pleads for what you and I have, “O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor!” (Job 16:21) Saint, you and I have this one to plead for us with God, and His name is Jesus (1 John 2:1).

God rewards this faith by giving Job a glimpse of his soon coming redeemer, and the blessed assurance that Job will meet Jesus in heaven:

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25, 26).

The believer should have confidence that whatever they are going through shall pass, and that their redeemer is their constant advocate before the Father. He lives, and you shall live with Him!

Require Nothing and Get Grace and Favor

Esther 2:15-17

There is no mention of God in the book of Esther, but that does not mean that His influence is not felt. The book centers on the title character, and her rise from obscurity to queen in the court of Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes). Her ascension to the throne provides relief for her people, the Jews, who have been scattered in this foreign land, and are under threat of death by a maniacal servant of the king named Haman.

When the king becomes infuriated by the insolence of his wife, the queen Vashti, he appoints officers to go to all 127 provinces in the kingdom and gather the fairest young virgins to be brought to his palace at Shushan, and placed under the custody of his chamberlain, the eunuch Hegai. Hegai is in charge of preparing the women with whatever they desire, in order to present them, one by one to the king. The king will then choose one of these women to replace Vashti as the new queen over all of the land.

When it was Esther’s turn to prepare for the king, she asked for nothing, but took whatever recommendations were given to her by Hegai, the king’s chamberlain. As chamberlain, Hegai was the keeper of the bedroom of the king, and he had a better knowledge than anyone as to what the king desired in a woman. When Esther asks for nothing but Hegai’s advice, she obtains, “favor in the sight of all of them that looked upon her” (2:15).

The king loved Esther above all of the other women, “and she obtained grace and favor in his sight” (verse 17). In both Hebrew and Greek, the definition for grace is “favor”. Paul uses that thought when he tells believers that they should reign in this life because they have received “abundance of grace” (Romans 5:17). The power to reign in life over all vice, sin and sickness is found in receiving the abundant grace of God in every area.

How does one receive that abundance of grace? I believe that the answer is found in how Esther prepared herself for her night with the king. Christ is our “king”, and we want to be well-pleasing to Him. When the Holy Spirit, who knows what is pleasing to Christ, begins to work in us, we are better served to allow Him full control. When we require nothing more than what the Holy Spirit wishes to bring out of us, we will be in a position to receive, and walk in, God’s abundant grace and favor.

When our flesh enters the picture, and we try to work things out with our carnal minds, we grow frustrated, and produce dead works (Romans 8:5-7; Galatians 5:19-21). When the Spirit does the work, the branch produces fruit, and we walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25).

Grace and favor are yours today, by the price paid by Jesus at the cross. You have the hand of God leading and guiding you, providing you with all good things. God is on your side, ready to fight your battles, so relax in His peace, let the Holy Spirit do the work and you do as Esther, put on the royal crown.

Far As the Curse Is Found

Nehemiah 10:28, 29

The great hymn writer Isaac Watts penned the words to “Joy to the World”, nearly 300 years ago. I do not know if he intended for it to be used primarily as a Christmas song, but I do know that it is full of theology. The third verse in particular, emphasizes a point that I believe should be brought to light often:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

With the arrival of Jesus and His subsequent death on the cross, we now have the power to “no more let sins and sorrows grow”, but we do still have thorns infesting the ground. However, the price paid by Christ with His precious blood has given us a guarantee that someday all of the curse against this earth will be lifted (Revelation 22:3), and that His blessings will truly flow, “Far as the curse is found”.

Man has had the knowledge of the curse on the ground, and the sorrow of sin, since the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, but he has not had the knowledge of the curse of the law forever. Until Moses gave the law, sin was not imputed (Romans 5:13), though it did exist. With the advent of the law, came the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20), and the oppressive weight of the curse of death.

Fourteen years after the return of Ezra to Jerusalem, Nehemiah led up a company of Israelites to restore the walls and civil authority. The book that bears his name is the record of those events, and its ninth chapter is the prayer of repentance by the people, while they observe the Feast of Tabernacles. The 10th chapter opens with the people and the priesthood signing a covenant, which they have written, basically, promising God that they will not sin again, and verse 29 describes what this covenant represented:

“They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes.”

The moment that Israel entered into this covenant, they identify it as a curse! This covenant is not a blessing; it is a curse, which is exactly what breaking the law brings. It is viewed as a curse because the people were confident in only one thing when they entered into it: they could not keep it.

For the believer under the New Covenant, we have the assurance that God has removed the curse of the law from us, because Jesus took the curse upon himself (Galatians 3:13). The Father did not cut covenant with you and I, because we are notorious for not keeping our end of the deal, so He cut the covenant with His Son (Galatians 3:16). Now, you and I have no fear of the curse when we fail because Jesus has taken the curse for us.

May His blessings flow for you today, “far as the curse is found”.

Stir Up The Gift

2 Timothy 1:6, 7

From time to time, it is necessary for us to “stir up” that which is inside of us. Paul tells Timothy to “stir up the gift of God” which is in him. This is the only usage of this phrase in the Greek in the entire New Testament, and it means “to rekindle anew” or “to enflame one’s mind or strength or zeal”. When Peter makes a similar statement in 2 Peter 3:1, he uses a different word in the Greek for “stir up”, meaning “to wake one’s mind”. Peter is saying “wake up”, while Paul is saying, “fire up”!

I believe that the gift or at least a portion of the gift, which Paul is speaking of in this text, is the gift of speaking with other tongues. I lean to this belief because it is the one gift of the gifts of the Spirit that the Bible specifically says can be used whenever you like (1 Corinthians 14:15), and it is the one that is used to build up the speaker (14:2).

The encouragement to use the gift is followed by, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). “For God…” shows us that the previous verse is linked to this one. Whatever the gift is inside of Timothy, it holds the answer that overcomes the spirit of fear. In that gift, is the power and love and sound mind that Paul says that we have received.

When you pray in tongues, you are communicating with God in your prayer language. You are praying in words that you do not know, and it is the Spirit in you that is making intercession (Romans 8:26). These prayers can be long or short, there are no rules that govern how you pray in your own prayer time, but they will always edify and build you up. The reason for that is found in verse 7.

God has not given us the spirit of fear, so any fear that we have cannot be from Him, but must be from the enemy. Instead, He has given us power, love and a sound mind. These three gifts from God are stirred within us every time that we “stir up the gift”.

God’s power begins to move in situations when we pray in the Spirit. That power enables us to do what we could not do on our own, independent of fear of failure. This power overcomes the enemy and glorifies the Father.

The love of God flows outward from us whenever we stir up the gift, for He teaches us to love in ways that we do not know. You cannot love by force, there must be something that motivates you or “turns you on” to love something or someone. Christ is that something and praying in the Spirit stirs His love up in you.

Finally, the sound mind is such a glorious promise, because the battlefield of the mind is where so many saints are losing. The phrase in the Greek actually means “self-control”. Many people have told me, “Pastor, I feel like I am losing control. I can’t even think straight.” This is an attack of the enemy meant to frighten and confuse. Use your prayer language to bring sanity back into your soul, and watch as your mind calms and begins to think on the things of the Spirit.
I pray God’s abundant blessings on you today as you walk in Him.

From a Harlot to a Grandma!

Joshua 2:1-24

The story of the conquest of Jericho would be incomplete without the salvation of Rahab the harlot. She lived on the town wall, strategically located to bring success in her line of work! It also provided a great stopping point for the spies that were sent in to access the strength of Jericho. We know how the story ends, with Rahab hanging a scarlet thread out of her window, and the army of Israel sparing her and her family. What we don’t think about often enough is that this woman was saved long before the thread came out the window.

Hebrews chapter 11 lists Rahab in the New Testament’s Hall of Fame of faith: “By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace” (Hebrews 11:31). Did you notice when she “perished not”? It was not when she obediently put the scarlet line in the window, but rather when she received the spies with peace. Her placement of the scarlet line was to save her physical life, and it was a testimony to all who would see that she had placed her faith in the army of God.

Rahab displayed her faith before the spies had even laid down on her roof, to hide from their pursuers: “I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you…as soon as we heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath” (Joshua 2:9, 12).

What a profession of faith she had. Her actions afterward were the sign of an inward change (James 2:25). It was her initial faith that brought the spies to stop in her house, as they could have stopped anywhere, but the Holy Spirit had found a household of faith. Notice how our Father’s provision covers everyone. The spies found safe shelter and the harlot found a new life and a new hope.

After her rescue from Jericho, we do not know what she does from day-to-day within the camp of the Israelites, but she obviously adopts their ways and becomes a part of their society, because we do see her again, this time as one of only 4 women listed in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:5). She becomes the matriarchal head of the line that produces Boaz, king David and eventually, the Lord Jesus.

Whatever your lot in life, remember that every moment is another chance to change it all. You may have ruined many things and burned many bridges, but God is not looking for scarlet lines of obedience, just open hearts of faith. Don’t get me wrong, the obedience will come, but let us walk in the faith of Jesus Christ first, and all of us can change from who we are and become known by who we become.

Go in His peace and prosperity, with the abundant favor and blessings of God upon you in Jesus’ name.

It's A Brand New Day

Genesis 1:1,2

Both Genesis and John start with, “in the beginning”. Genesis tells of God creating, while John tells us that the Word (Jesus) was present in that creation. Whatever the beginning might be, Christ is there. He said as much of himself, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending” (Revelation 1:8); and again, “…the first and the last” (Rev. 1:11).

As you begin a brand new year, let The Beginning have all of your heart. If you have never accepted Christ as the price paid for your sins, there is no better way to start this year, than to place your confidence in Jesus and His finished work at the cross. Just accept Him as Savior and believe He will save you.

In this New Year, many shallow resolutions will be made by people hoping to drop those extra holiday pounds, or write their first novel, etc. Nearly just as many of those resolutions will be broken in short order. People often have good intentions, but very little resolve to see these things through.

When Jesus walked the earth, He was the Word that “dwelt among us” (John 1:14). When our beginning is set and established in Christ, it causes us to behold His glory, “as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”. Allow Christ, who is grace and truth to establish you and to lead you into paths of righteousness all throughout this year.

Let your sorrows and cares of the previous year vanish with the turn of the calendar. Easier said than done, right? Notice that when Genesis 1:1 ends, the earth is in a chaotic state, but God is not satisfied to leave it there. The earth does not reform itself, but rather it sits and allows the Spirit of God to move on the face of the waters (vs. 2). The Hebrew word for “moved” in that verse is better translated “hovered”. His Holy Spirit loves to hover over your life and bring beauty out of chaos.

It is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32), and it is His New Year’s Resolution to you to provide the gift of righteousness and the abundance of grace.

Go in that knowledge, and abundant grace is yours today!

The Easy Yoke

Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus spoke these words to the Jewish people, who were students of the Law of Moses. Laden down with the burden of keeping the Law in its perfection, the people had grown weary and tired. The Law of God is holy and just and good (Romans 7:12), but man is none of those things, thus he becomes heavy-laden when he tries to live beneath its demands.

When you live beneath the demands of the law, sin will dominate you (Romans 6:14). Weariness ensues when you are always trying to live up to a standard that cannot be achieved through human effort. The Law was never given to be lived perfectly, for that is an impossible task. Instead, the Law was given to show man his sin, so that he would know his need for grace (Romans 5:20).

Some have tried to explain Law as being anything that you do to achieve righteousness, and while that definition is true; it is the weakest example of the Law. Paul described the Law as the 10 Commandments (2 Corinthians 3:7) and the ordinances written by hand (Colossians 2:14). Concentrating on everything that is Law is a form of telling you what to avoid and what to do. Within itself, that is a form of the Law! Let us concentrate on the grace and favor of God in order to be free from the dominion of sin. If we focus our attention on Jesus and His grace then we are finished with trying to figure out what is Law.

The Jews that Jesus spoke to are a type of the believer and the sinner who think that their works give them some standing with God. Believers are saved by grace, but many go on working the Law in order to achieve standing or goodness with God, though these things are unnecessary. Sinners do good works for the same reasons, hoping to earn heaven with their actions. Jesus came to set all of us free from our lifestyle of good works. The believer can rest from their deeds seeing as they are the righteousness of God in Christ; and sinners can be saved by accepting Jesus, whether they understand the Law or not.

When you lay down the yoke of the Law, Jesus gives you the yoke of His grace. While religion takes the yoke of sin and replaces it with the yoke of the Law (which unwittingly brings power back to the sin); Jesus takes off the yoke of the Law and replaces it with grace. We are not above grace, but under it, with Jesus protecting us from the cares of this life (Romans 6:14).

Christianity is a day-to-day learning experience of who Jesus is. Notice that Jesus tells us to “learn of me”, not “learn how to live”. When we learn of Jesus we are learning how to let Him live through us. Unfortunately, many of us are concentrating on how to live right, while Jesus in His mercy and grace wants to live His life through us. Learn of Him and His finished work; the price that He paid for your health, wholeness and salvation, and you will know how to live. True relationship will bring His righteousness out in your lifestyle, and you will never even think about it.

When your Christianity begins to feel hard and heavy, reevaluate your relationship with the Lord. Jesus said that the yoke of grace is “easy” and His burden is “light”. If you are told that Christianity is hard, that message is being presented to you by those who are still viewing their works as the basis for their blessings. You are free in Jesus and His lifestyle is easy and His burden is light. In Jesus, “find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29).

The Master Always Cares

Mark 4:38

When the disciples found themselves in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, during a terrible storm, they became afraid for their lives. In this fear, they went to Jesus, who was asleep in the back of the boat, and woke him. Several of the disciples were professional fisherman, so why wake up the carpenter? What should they have done?

Perhaps it is more important to find out what they ask Jesus when they wake Him up. “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” is their questioning Him as to whether or not He even loves them. Not much has changed today in our lives. During many of the storms of this life, we find ourselves wondering if God cares about us, or if He is even watching. Satan preys upon us with the thought that God does not care if we make it or not, and he even tries to convince us that it is God who is putting us through the storm in the first place.

The greatest insult that the disciples could have given against Jesus was to question whether or not He even cared. Consider the fact that Jesus did not wake up because of the rocking boat or the raging winds or driving rain. Instead, it was the cries of His disciples that woke Him from His slumber. Jesus has already told them, “Let us pass over unto the other side”, so they should have the assurance that they will end up on the other side regardless of the weather conditions. Yet, the storm seems more real that the Savior’s protection, so they panic and wake the Master.

Jesus rebukes the storm, which lets us know that it was not from God; else Christ would be fighting against the will of His Father by sending the storm away. When He had accomplished this, He asks the disciples two important questions: “Why are you so fearful?” and “How is it that you have no faith?”

How can they be so afraid while Jesus is in the boat? The answer is the same for us today; we look at the storm instead of trusting in our Savior. While we try all that we know to make it through the trials of life, Jesus is teaching us to rest in the midst of the storm. While running the race for Jesus, we must learn to rest while we live for God. Rest is not merely a vacation, relaxing on a beach somewhere, but it is taking our ease in Jesus, relaxed in His finished work.

How can they have no faith with Jesus in the boat? Jesus’ question about their faith is not to condemn them, but to cause them to take spiritual inventory in their own lives to find out how much they trust Him. When we exhibit faith, we are showing forth an attitude of “taking” from God. With much faith, we take much, like the centurion who said, “Speak the word and my servant will be healed”. Jesus called this “great faith” (Matthew 8:5-10). With little faith, we take very little, which is what the disciples have in the boat.

When you face the storms of life, turn to your Savior. Why waste one more moment focusing on a storm that you cannot remove when you could be resting next to Jesus? Resting in Christ is not as easy as it sounds because the storm will seem overwhelming, so make it your goal for this day and every day. Paul called it labor to enter into rest (Hebrews 4:11) because it will take your focus, so place your faith in Him today, and know that the Master always cares for you.

The Hole by the Door

Song of Solomon 5:3-6

Song of Solomon is a love letter between King Solomon and his wife and it is full of beautiful imagery and romance. It also jumps from character to character without warning in the dialogue, so you must read carefully to determine which one is speaking. The fifth chapter opens with the bridegroom speaking for one verse, and then suddenly changes to the bride from verses 2-8.

The bridegroom is a type of Christ while the bride is His church. When you read the book from this viewpoint, you see the passion and the love that is shared between Jesus and His church, and how much He truly loves and cares for us. We also see some problems with the love as given and received by the bride, but never by the groom; a telling scenario for us in the church today.
The bride is asleep, not in her heart but in her situation. Christians are not asleep in their hearts, but in their actions and in their lifestyles, they far too often are. To arouse us from our slumber, Jesus knocks on our hearts door, desperately desiring a relationship with us that is both intimate and personal. The bridegroom knocks, asking for the bride to open, even calling her, “my undefiled” (Song of Solomon 5:2). It is wonderful to know that Jesus sees a slumbering bride as undefiled.

The third verse shows the objections of the bride as she explains why she is not quick to rise and open the door. She has removed her coat and wonders how she can put it on and she has washed her feet and does not wish to defile them. Both objections are evidence of her lack of understanding of the finished work of Christ. Why has she removed her coat (robe of righteousness)? Apparently she views her righteousness as a work which she puts on and off, and why is she washing her own feet? Jesus is the one who washes His church by the water of the Word (Ephesians 5:26).

The groom “put in his hand by hole of the door” (verse 3). This ancient phrase harkens back to the architecture of that day and age. The modern keys that we use on door locks were not in use back then, but instead it was usually a piece of wood with pegs in it corresponding to small holes in a wooden bolt within, and was put through a hole in the door, drawing the bolt. The bride sees the hand of her lover come through the hole of the door, but He will not force His way in, so she rises and grabs the handle from the inside (verse 5) but is too late to catch him before he leaves. Notice how our Jesus shows us His nail-scarred hand to display to us His love, but will not use that same hand to force His will upon us?

In His message to the church at Laodicea, Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Have you ever wondered why Jesus is standing outside of the house, knocking on the door? His desire is for a personal relationship with us where we eat with Him and He eats with us. This fellowshipping is at the forefront of God’s heart, but oftentimes He must knock on our door just to get permission to enter.

Jesus will not force Himself into the house, just as the groom would put his hand in the hole in the door, but obviously did not have the key to the lock. Jesus wants to be invited in rather than come rushing in taking what He wants. True romance is only possible if both parties reciprocate the same feelings and emotions, and Jesus desires that true romance with all of us. If He is outside, won’t you open your heart to Him today?

He Bore it All

1 Peter 2:24

The death of Jesus at Calvary was more than the execution of a Jewish carpenter some 2000 years ago. By living a sinless life, and fulfilling every demand of the law, Jesus was incapable of dying as a result of His own sins, for He had none. As a perfect man, He offered His life in exchange for all who would put faith in Him, and in order to make the sacrifice proper, all of the sins and transgressions of the world were placed on Christ so that His death would not be for Himself, but for the whole world.

What happened at the cross was a great exchange: my sins for His righteousness. He knew no sin of His own, yet He bore my sins “in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness” (1 Peter 2:24). As awesome as that thought is, the apostle Paul took it even further.

While Peter explains that Jesus bore our sins by His sacrificial death, which killed our sin nature, allowing us to live righteously, Paul says that Jesus did even more than bear the sin, for the Father, “made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus was actually viewed as sin when He hung at Calvary, and it was for this reason that “it pleased the Lord to bruise him” (Isaiah 53:10).

The understanding of this is crucial if you wish to have knowledge as to your right standing with God. If Jesus bore your sins, then you bear His righteousness. That is great, but it denotes that you can take it off by your actions, thus bringing righteousness back into your hands instead of His. However, if Jesus was made to be sin, and we were made to be righteousness, that speaks to a position, not a possession. In that case, I am not simply wearing His righteousness (though we certainly are), but I am doing even more than that, as I AM HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS!

The only way that the believer could ever do as Peter said and “live unto righteousness” is if our sins and their consequences were gone. Nothing stands in the way to growth and development like the constant guilt and condemnation that is accompanied with our sins and failures. If that guilt and condemnation is done away with by the sacrifice of Jesus, then the sin is soon to follow, as we will live righteous only when we realize that He has borne our sins.

Paul confirmed this when he told the Corinthian church to “Awake to righteousness, and sin not” (1 Corinthians 15:34). The power to stop falling into sin and failure is to wake up to how righteous that Jesus is in us, knowing that He has took our sins into His body at the cross and then had that body split open by the judgment of God. If God has judged it once, then the results are a guarantee. That is why Peter closes the verse with, “by whose stripes ye were healed”. If our healing is spoken of in the past tense, our sins should be as well. Hallelujah!

The Anointing of Jesus

Luke 4:16-21

Jesus came to the synagogue on the Sabbath day as did every good Jew. On this particular day, He is in His hometown of Nazareth, and He is asked to read aloud from the book of Isaiah. He turns to what we refer to as the 61st chapter and He reads from verses 1 and 2, excluding the last half of that last verse. By claiming that “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (Luke 4:21), Jesus is claiming to be the Anointed One, or, the Christ.

Each thing that Jesus was anointed to do is so important in all of our lives. Notice the six things that He came to do:

1. “Preach the gospel to the poor” – The “gospel” is “good news” or “good tidings”, and it goes forth first to the poor. God sends the good news of His covenant to the poor first, for they are in need of some good news the most! Isn’t it awesome that the God of glory would bother to make the recipients of His New Covenant those whom the world has cast off?

2. “Heal the brokenhearted” – A greater pain than physical pain is the hurt of a broken heart. Millions have been abandoned, or lost a loved one, and their hearts are shattered, seemingly beyond repair. The anointing that is in Jesus will bind up the wounds and take all of your sorrows, making them His. “Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows” (Isaiah 53:4).

3. “Preach deliverance to the captives” – Jesus cannot make anyone go free, but He can offer freedom to anyone. Some remain slaves to their sins and their habits, in spite of the fact that Jesus has paid the price for their deliverance. Calvary unlocked the prison doors and man need only walk out by faith. Far too many remain enslaved in sin and are always “captives”.

4. “Recovering of sight to the blind” – Read Isaiah 61:1 carefully and you will notice that this one is not listed there. Jesus added this, and as author of the book He reserves that right. There was no record in the Old Testament of anyone ever being healed of blindness, but Jesus made it a staple of His ministry. More important than the physical healings is the fact that Jesus came to open spiritual eyes to the glorious light of the gospel of grace.

5. “To set at liberty them that are bruised” – Every person that is abused and hurt in any way not only has a broken heart but there is a bruising that occurs in their life that not even time can take away. We can easily become enslaved to these bruises, allowing past memories and events to cage us from living free. Jesus came to set us free from our past, and to take those bruises away.

6. “To preach the acceptable year of our Lord” – Where Jesus added something to the text earlier, here, He leaves something out. Isaiah writes that He will also preach the “day of vengeance of our God” (Isaiah 61:2). Jesus drops this portion because it does not reflect His earthly ministry, at least not yet. His first advent was the declaration that God was going to deal with mankind through His Son. The second advent of Christ will usher in the “day of vengeance”.

Whatever you need, the anointed Jesus has your answer. As the song says, Take your burdens to the Lord and leave them there. Be blessed today saint!

Don't Blame God

Job 1:9-12

The book of Job gives us an inside look at the throne room of God, prior to Jesus’ death at the cross. The first two chapters describe the sons of God and Satan appearing before the Lord, with Satan having just returned from “going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it” (1:7). The Lord asks Satan if he has considered Job, and Satan responds that Job is good because he is blessed, and that if the Lord would attack Job, he would turn on him. Notice that God doesn’t go after Job, but allows Satan to, telling him, “All that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand” (1:12). Later, God will allow Satan to physically harm Job, but not to kill him (2:6).

The Lord did not have to allow the reader to see these events transpire, but He obviously wants you to know that everything that is about to happen to Job will happen as a result of Satan’s attacks. Satan has challenged God’s ability to make a man righteous by faith, as Ezekiel will tell us that Job is (Ezekiel 14:14, 20). The entire book of Job is the playing out of this challenge, and Job passes to perfection, never once doing what Satan said that he would do, which was curse God to His face.

Look at how quickly those men blame God for things that He does not do. When fire falls from the sky and burns up the sheep and the servants of Job, only one man escapes to tell it as, “The fire of God is fallen from heaven” (Job 1:16). Why does he assume that it is the fire of God? Why do insurance companies call tornadoes, hurricanes and earthquakes, “Acts of God”? The scripture clearly shows that God gave Satan all power as it regarded Job (Job 1:12). To this day, a great trick of the enemy is to convince people that the things that he does are actually being done by God.

Job did not see the events of chapters one and two, but he refuses to believe that God is angry with him. His testimony is solid as he identifies the source of these problems, “God hath delivered me to the ungodly, and turned me over into the hands of the wicked” (Job 16:11). He knows that it is an attack of Satan, not the righteous retribution of God, stating that these things were, “Not for any injustice in mine hands: also my prayer is pure” (Job 16:17).

The strength of Job’s character is in his faith in the virtue of God, and in a coming redeemer. He knows that he has trusted God, and he believes that God is faithful to that trust, stating, “My witness is in heaven, and my record is on high” (16:19). Then, in a look forward to the New Covenant, he pleads for what you and I have, “O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleadeth for his neighbor!” (Job 16:21) Saint, you and I have this one to plead for us with God, and His name is Jesus (1 John 2:1).

God rewards this faith by giving Job a glimpse of his soon coming redeemer, and the blessed assurance that Job will meet Jesus in heaven:

“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God” (Job 19:25, 26).

The believer should have confidence that whatever they are going through shall pass, and that their redeemer is their constant advocate before the Father. He lives, and you shall live with Him!

Require Nothing and Get Grace and Favor

Esther 2:15-17

There is no mention of God in the book of Esther, but that does not mean that His influence is not felt. The book centers on the title character, and her rise from obscurity to queen in the court of Persian king Ahasuerus (Xerxes). Her ascension to the throne provides relief for her people, the Jews, who have been scattered in this foreign land, and are under threat of death by a maniacal servant of the king named Haman.

When the king becomes infuriated by the insolence of his wife, the queen Vashti, he appoints officers to go to all 127 provinces in the kingdom and gather the fairest young virgins to be brought to his palace at Shushan, and placed under the custody of his chamberlain, the eunuch Hegai. Hegai is in charge of preparing the women with whatever they desire, in order to present them, one by one to the king. The king will then choose one of these women to replace Vashti as the new queen over all of the land.

When it was Esther’s turn to prepare for the king, she asked for nothing, but took whatever recommendations were given to her by Hegai, the king’s chamberlain. As chamberlain, Hegai was the keeper of the bedroom of the king, and he had a better knowledge than anyone as to what the king desired in a woman. When Esther asks for nothing but Hegai’s advice, she obtains, “favor in the sight of all of them that looked upon her” (2:15).

The king loved Esther above all of the other women, “and she obtained grace and favor in his sight” (verse 17). In both Hebrew and Greek, the definition for grace is “favor”. Paul uses that thought when he tells believers that they should reign in this life because they have received “abundance of grace” (Romans 5:17). The power to reign in life over all vice, sin and sickness is found in receiving the abundant grace of God in every area.

How does one receive that abundance of grace? I believe that the answer is found in how Esther prepared herself for her night with the king. Christ is our “king”, and we want to be well-pleasing to Him. When the Holy Spirit, who knows what is pleasing to Christ, begins to work in us, we are better served to allow Him full control. When we require nothing more than what the Holy Spirit wishes to bring out of us, we will be in a position to receive, and walk in, God’s abundant grace and favor.

When our flesh enters the picture, and we try to work things out with our carnal minds, we grow frustrated, and produce dead works (Romans 8:5-7; Galatians 5:19-21). When the Spirit does the work, the branch produces fruit, and we walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-25).

Grace and favor are yours today, by the price paid by Jesus at the cross. You have the hand of God leading and guiding you, providing you with all good things. God is on your side, ready to fight your battles, so relax in His peace, let the Holy Spirit do the work and you do as Esther, put on the royal crown.

Far As the Curse Is Found

Nehemiah 10:28, 29

The great hymn writer Isaac Watts penned the words to “Joy to the World”, nearly 300 years ago. I do not know if he intended for it to be used primarily as a Christmas song, but I do know that it is full of theology. The third verse in particular, emphasizes a point that I believe should be brought to light often:

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

With the arrival of Jesus and His subsequent death on the cross, we now have the power to “no more let sins and sorrows grow”, but we do still have thorns infesting the ground. However, the price paid by Christ with His precious blood has given us a guarantee that someday all of the curse against this earth will be lifted (Revelation 22:3), and that His blessings will truly flow, “Far as the curse is found”.

Man has had the knowledge of the curse on the ground, and the sorrow of sin, since the fall of Adam in the Garden of Eden, but he has not had the knowledge of the curse of the law forever. Until Moses gave the law, sin was not imputed (Romans 5:13), though it did exist. With the advent of the law, came the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20), and the oppressive weight of the curse of death.

Fourteen years after the return of Ezra to Jerusalem, Nehemiah led up a company of Israelites to restore the walls and civil authority. The book that bears his name is the record of those events, and its ninth chapter is the prayer of repentance by the people, while they observe the Feast of Tabernacles. The 10th chapter opens with the people and the priesthood signing a covenant, which they have written, basically, promising God that they will not sin again, and verse 29 describes what this covenant represented:

“They clave to their brethren, their nobles, and entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in God’s law which was given by Moses the servant of God, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Lord our Lord, and his judgments and his statutes.”

The moment that Israel entered into this covenant, they identify it as a curse! This covenant is not a blessing; it is a curse, which is exactly what breaking the law brings. It is viewed as a curse because the people were confident in only one thing when they entered into it: they could not keep it.

For the believer under the New Covenant, we have the assurance that God has removed the curse of the law from us, because Jesus took the curse upon himself (Galatians 3:13). The Father did not cut covenant with you and I, because we are notorious for not keeping our end of the deal, so He cut the covenant with His Son (Galatians 3:16). Now, you and I have no fear of the curse when we fail because Jesus has taken the curse for us.

May His blessings flow for you today, “far as the curse is found”.

Stir Up The Gift

2 Timothy 1:6, 7

From time to time, it is necessary for us to “stir up” that which is inside of us. Paul tells Timothy to “stir up the gift of God” which is in him. This is the only usage of this phrase in the Greek in the entire New Testament, and it means “to rekindle anew” or “to enflame one’s mind or strength or zeal”. When Peter makes a similar statement in 2 Peter 3:1, he uses a different word in the Greek for “stir up”, meaning “to wake one’s mind”. Peter is saying “wake up”, while Paul is saying, “fire up”!

I believe that the gift or at least a portion of the gift, which Paul is speaking of in this text, is the gift of speaking with other tongues. I lean to this belief because it is the one gift of the gifts of the Spirit that the Bible specifically says can be used whenever you like (1 Corinthians 14:15), and it is the one that is used to build up the speaker (14:2).

The encouragement to use the gift is followed by, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). “For God…” shows us that the previous verse is linked to this one. Whatever the gift is inside of Timothy, it holds the answer that overcomes the spirit of fear. In that gift, is the power and love and sound mind that Paul says that we have received.

When you pray in tongues, you are communicating with God in your prayer language. You are praying in words that you do not know, and it is the Spirit in you that is making intercession (Romans 8:26). These prayers can be long or short, there are no rules that govern how you pray in your own prayer time, but they will always edify and build you up. The reason for that is found in verse 7.

God has not given us the spirit of fear, so any fear that we have cannot be from Him, but must be from the enemy. Instead, He has given us power, love and a sound mind. These three gifts from God are stirred within us every time that we “stir up the gift”.

God’s power begins to move in situations when we pray in the Spirit. That power enables us to do what we could not do on our own, independent of fear of failure. This power overcomes the enemy and glorifies the Father.

The love of God flows outward from us whenever we stir up the gift, for He teaches us to love in ways that we do not know. You cannot love by force, there must be something that motivates you or “turns you on” to love something or someone. Christ is that something and praying in the Spirit stirs His love up in you.

Finally, the sound mind is such a glorious promise, because the battlefield of the mind is where so many saints are losing. The phrase in the Greek actually means “self-control”. Many people have told me, “Pastor, I feel like I am losing control. I can’t even think straight.” This is an attack of the enemy meant to frighten and confuse. Use your prayer language to bring sanity back into your soul, and watch as your mind calms and begins to think on the things of the Spirit.
I pray God’s abundant blessings on you today as you walk in Him.

The Easy Yoke

Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus spoke these words to the Jewish people, who were students of the Law of Moses. Laden down with the burden of keeping the Law in its perfection, the people had grown weary and tired. The Law of God is holy and just and good (Romans 7:12), but man is none of those things, thus he becomes heavy-laden when he tries to live beneath its demands.

When you live beneath the demands of the law, sin will dominate you (Romans 6:14). Weariness ensues when you are always trying to live up to a standard that cannot be achieved through human effort. The Law was never given to be lived perfectly, for that is an impossible task. Instead, the Law was given to show man his sin, so that he would know his need for grace (Romans 5:20).

Some have tried to explain Law as being anything that you do to achieve righteousness, and while that definition is true; it is the weakest example of the Law. Paul described the Law as the 10 Commandments (2 Corinthians 3:7) and the ordinances written by hand (Colossians 2:14). Concentrating on everything that is Law is a form of telling you what to avoid and what to do. Within itself, that is a form of the Law! Let us concentrate on the grace and favor of God in order to be free from the dominion of sin. If we focus our attention on Jesus and His grace then we are finished with trying to figure out what is Law.

The Jews that Jesus spoke to are a type of the believer and the sinner who think that their works give them some standing with God. Believers are saved by grace, but many go on working the Law in order to achieve standing or goodness with God, though these things are unnecessary. Sinners do good works for the same reasons, hoping to earn heaven with their actions. Jesus came to set all of us free from our lifestyle of good works. The believer can rest from their deeds seeing as they are the righteousness of God in Christ; and sinners can be saved by accepting Jesus, whether they understand the Law or not.

When you lay down the yoke of the Law, Jesus gives you the yoke of His grace. While religion takes the yoke of sin and replaces it with the yoke of the Law (which unwittingly brings power back to the sin); Jesus takes off the yoke of the Law and replaces it with grace. We are not above grace, but under it, with Jesus protecting us from the cares of this life (Romans 6:14).

Christianity is a day-to-day learning experience of who Jesus is. Notice that Jesus tells us to “learn of me”, not “learn how to live”. When we learn of Jesus we are learning how to let Him live through us. Unfortunately, many of us are concentrating on how to live right, while Jesus in His mercy and grace wants to live His life through us. Learn of Him and His finished work; the price that He paid for your health, wholeness and salvation, and you will know how to live. True relationship will bring His righteousness out in your lifestyle, and you will never even think about it.

When your Christianity begins to feel hard and heavy, reevaluate your relationship with the Lord. Jesus said that the yoke of grace is “easy” and His burden is “light”. If you are told that Christianity is hard, that message is being presented to you by those who are still viewing their works as the basis for their blessings. You are free in Jesus and His lifestyle is easy and His burden is light. In Jesus, “find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29).

The Master Always Cares

Mark 4:38

When the disciples found themselves in the middle of the Sea of Galilee, during a terrible storm, they became afraid for their lives. In this fear, they went to Jesus, who was asleep in the back of the boat, and woke him. Several of the disciples were professional fisherman, so why wake up the carpenter? What should they have done?

Perhaps it is more important to find out what they ask Jesus when they wake Him up. “Master, carest thou not that we perish?” is their questioning Him as to whether or not He even loves them. Not much has changed today in our lives. During many of the storms of this life, we find ourselves wondering if God cares about us, or if He is even watching. Satan preys upon us with the thought that God does not care if we make it or not, and he even tries to convince us that it is God who is putting us through the storm in the first place.

The greatest insult that the disciples could have given against Jesus was to question whether or not He even cared. Consider the fact that Jesus did not wake up because of the rocking boat or the raging winds or driving rain. Instead, it was the cries of His disciples that woke Him from His slumber. Jesus has already told them, “Let us pass over unto the other side”, so they should have the assurance that they will end up on the other side regardless of the weather conditions. Yet, the storm seems more real that the Savior’s protection, so they panic and wake the Master.

Jesus rebukes the storm, which lets us know that it was not from God; else Christ would be fighting against the will of His Father by sending the storm away. When He had accomplished this, He asks the disciples two important questions: “Why are you so fearful?” and “How is it that you have no faith?”

How can they be so afraid while Jesus is in the boat? The answer is the same for us today; we look at the storm instead of trusting in our Savior. While we try all that we know to make it through the trials of life, Jesus is teaching us to rest in the midst of the storm. While running the race for Jesus, we must learn to rest while we live for God. Rest is not merely a vacation, relaxing on a beach somewhere, but it is taking our ease in Jesus, relaxed in His finished work.

How can they have no faith with Jesus in the boat? Jesus’ question about their faith is not to condemn them, but to cause them to take spiritual inventory in their own lives to find out how much they trust Him. When we exhibit faith, we are showing forth an attitude of “taking” from God. With much faith, we take much, like the centurion who said, “Speak the word and my servant will be healed”. Jesus called this “great faith” (Matthew 8:5-10). With little faith, we take very little, which is what the disciples have in the boat.

When you face the storms of life, turn to your Savior. Why waste one more moment focusing on a storm that you cannot remove when you could be resting next to Jesus? Resting in Christ is not as easy as it sounds because the storm will seem overwhelming, so make it your goal for this day and every day. Paul called it labor to enter into rest (Hebrews 4:11) because it will take your focus, so place your faith in Him today, and know that the Master always cares for you.

The Hole By the Door

Song of Solomon 5:3-6

Song of Solomon is a love letter between King Solomon and his wife and it is full of beautiful imagery and romance. It also jumps from character to character without warning in the dialogue, so you must read carefully to determine which one is speaking. The fifth chapter opens with the bridegroom speaking for one verse, and then suddenly changes to the bride from verses 2-8.

The bridegroom is a type of Christ while the bride is His church. When you read the book from this viewpoint, you see the passion and the love that is shared between Jesus and His church, and how much He truly loves and cares for us. We also see some problems with the love as given and received by the bride, but never by the groom; a telling scenario for us in the church today.
The bride is asleep, not in her heart but in her situation. Christians are not asleep in their hearts, but in their actions and in their lifestyles, they far too often are. To arouse us from our slumber, Jesus knocks on our hearts door, desperately desiring a relationship with us that is both intimate and personal. The bridegroom knocks, asking for the bride to open, even calling her, “my undefiled” (Song of Solomon 5:2). It is wonderful to know that Jesus sees a slumbering bride as undefiled.

The third verse shows the objections of the bride as sheep explains why she is not quick to rise and open the door. She has removed her coat and wonders how she can put it on and she has washed her feet and does not wish to defile them. Both objections are evidence of her lack of understanding of the finished work of Christ. Why has she removed her coat (robe of righteousness)? Apparently she views her righteousness as a work which she puts on and off, and why is she washing her own feet? Jesus is the one who washes His church by the water of the Word (Ephesians 5:26).

The groom “put in his hand by hole of the door” (verse 3). This ancient phrase harkens back to the architecture of that day and age. The modern keys that we use on door locks were not in use back then, but instead it was usually a piece of wood with pegs in it corresponding to small holes in a wooden bolt within, and was put through a hole in the door, drawing the bolt. The bride rises and grabs the handle from inside (verse 5) but is too late to catch him before he leaves.

In His message to the church at Laodicea, Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Have you ever wondered why Jesus is standing outside of the house, knocking on the door? His desire is for a personal relationship with us where we eat with Him and He eats with us. This fellowshipping is at the forefront of God’s heart, but oftentimes He must knock on our door just to get permission to enter.

Jesus will not force Himself into the house, just as the groom would put his hand in the hole in the door, but obviously did not have the key to the lock. Jesus wants to be invited in rather than come rushing in taking what He wants. True romance is only possible if both parties reciprocate the same feelings and emotions, and Jesus desires that true romance with all of us. If He is outside, won’t you open your heart to Him today?