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!

Mess With the Saint, You Mess With the Savior!

Acts 9:1-5

Saul was “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). His mission was to stop this new religion known as “The Way” by taking anyone captive who claimed Jesus as their Savior. This form of intimidation was sponsored by the church but was spawned by Satan to stop the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ.

In choosing Saul to do the dirty work, Satan had went after the most learned of the law teachers in all of Judaism. A Pharisee of Pharisees, Saul was everything that a law-abiding Jew strived through their efforts to be. It is of no little significance that God would choose to bring His message of grace and New Covenant through this one who had trusted in his efforts at keeping the Old Covenant his entire life. By choosing a vessel that was “spotless” in the eyes of the church, God brings credibility to the choice of Paul to be the one to preach pure, radical grace. If the first minister of God’s grace had been one who had sin issues and questionable lifestyle practices, then people would accuse him of preaching grace to cover his failures. This should be noted by us today as we minister and walk in the glorious grace of God.

As Saul (who would later begin to use his Greek name, “Paul”) travelled to Damascus to persecute the early church, he was met by a great light from heaven, which blinded him and stopped his journey. From the midst of the light, he heard the typical greeting of the Father when He speaks tenderly to someone close to His heart, “Saul, Saul” (verse 4). There is nothing as tender to us as the sound of our own name on someone’s lips that loves us. From the Father, it sounds so nice He says it twice! “Samuel, Samuel” (1 Samuel 3:10); “Martha, Martha” (Luke 10:41); “Simon, Simon” (Luke 22:31); “Jerusalem, Jerusalem” (Luke 13:34).

Jesus asks Saul, “Why do you persecute me?”, which must have seemed confusing to Saul, for he did not feel that he was persecuting anyone. Remember, Saul felt that he was doing God’s work in exterminating this new-found faith. Even if he felt that what he was doing was persecution, he surely would not have felt that it was against one individual but rather against the collection of individuals known as “The Way” (later to be referred to as Christians). To be asked, “why do you persecute me?” is to denote that one person is being attacked.

Shocked, Saul asks who is speaking to him, and the reply is, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest” (Acts 9:5). The persecution that Saul was breathing out was against the Christians, but Jesus claims that it was against Him personally. This humbles Paul and leads to his salvation, for he sees Jesus as the defender of the church and thus personally invested in the lives of His followers.

When Satan attacks a believer, he is essentially attacking Jesus Christ. This is a lost battle for Satan, for he was de-fanged at Calvary, but he continues to roar like a lion anyhow. You and I are no match for Satan on his terms, which will always be performance and works related, so we must rest in the finished work of Christ’s cross to find the victory that Jesus has already won. Allow all attacks by the enemy to lead you back to the resting place in Jesus, for if Satan is coming after you what he should find is Jesus. Praise God!

The Swine Over the Savior

Mark 5:1-20

Jesus’ arrival in the land of the Gadarenes was a momentous occasion for both the people of that land, and the disciples of Christ. The land was on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, in the northernmost region of Decapolis. This land was technically Israeli land, though on the wrong side of the Jordan River. Most of the tribes of Israel had chosen land on the west side of the river, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, but Reuben, Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh had chosen to dwell on the eastern side. This separation from their kinsmen led to a drifting from the principles of God, and in some cases, outright idolatry.

The first man that Jesus meets when He steps off of the boat is “a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs” (Mark 5:2, 3). He is demon possessed with 6,000 demons, knowledge we gain in verse 9 when he identifies himself as Legion (6,000 troops). He dwells among the dead for that is the only place that the powers of darkness feel comfortable.

Jesus casts the demons out of the man and sends them into a herd of 2,000 swine that is feeding on a nearby cliff, overlooking the sea. The moment that the demons enter the pigs, they overrun one another and rush headlong into the sea, drowning them. What an amazing sight to see, as this herd of swine goes madly into suicide. Having watched their herd kill themselves, the keepers of the herd run into the nearby city and tell the owners what has occurred.

The people of that land worshipped false gods, and rather than use a lamb or bullock as the children of Israel did, they used pigs as their animal of sacrifice. It is typical of Satan to use that which was abominable in the eyes of God to mock worship. The Jew was not to touch a pig, much less eat one, and the thought of using it as a sacrifice was the ultimate mockery. In casting the demons into the herd of swine, Jesus had destroyed the sacrificial crop of the city in one fell swoop. Not only had he set a man free from the power of darkness, He had rendered the worship of that darkness obsolete as well.

When people become attached to the forces of darkness in their lives, the presence of light and purity tends to frighten them (Mark 5:15). The people of the Gadarenes were faced with a choice; either accept the fact that this Jesus can do miracles without the power of darkness, or beg Him to leave them to their darkness. They pray that He will depart, for they preferred their false religion of darkness and pain to the truth of the light of the world. In essence, they preferred their swine to the Savior.

The ultimate rejection is when those who are in the dark are given light and they still prefer to dwell in darkness. Jesus said that condemnation is on those who love darkness rather than light. “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved” (John 3:20).

Jesus has come to the shores of your heart. Won’t you let Him bring light and peace and deliverance to the areas of your life that are touched by darkness? Don’t choose the swine of self-righteousness and effort when you have the Savior of the world at your side. Go in peace believer!

Mess With the Saint, You Mess With the Savior!

Acts 9:1-5

Saul was “breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord” (Acts 9:1). His mission was to stop this new religion known as “The Way” by taking anyone captive who claimed Jesus as their Savior. This form of intimidation was sponsored by the church but was spawned by Satan to stop the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ.

In choosing Saul to do the dirty work, Satan had went after the most learned of the law teachers in all of Judaism. A Pharisee of Pharisees, Saul was everything that a law-abiding Jew strived through their efforts to be. It is of no little significance that God would choose to bring His message of grace and New Covenant through this one who had trusted in his efforts at keeping the Old Covenant his entire life. By choosing a vessel that was “spotless” in the eyes of the church, God brings credibility to the choice of Paul to be the one to preach pure, radical grace. If the first minister of God’s grace had been one who had sin issues and questionable lifestyle practices, then people would accuse him of preaching grace to cover his failures. This should be noted by us today as we minister and walk in the glorious grace of God.

As Saul (who would later begin to use his Greek name, “Paul”) travelled to Damascus to persecute the early church, he was met by a great light from heaven, which blinded him and stopped his journey. From the midst of the light, he heard the typical greeting of the Father when He speaks tenderly to someone close to His heart, “Saul, Saul” (verse 4). There is nothing as tender to us as the sound of our own name on someone’s lips that loves us. From the Father, it sounds so nice He says it twice! “Samuel, Samuel” (1 Samuel 3:10); “Martha, Martha” (Luke 10:41); “Simon, Simon” (Luke 22:31); “Jerusalem, Jerusalem” (Luke 13:34).

Jesus asks Saul, “Why do you persecute me?”, which must have seemed confusing to Saul, for he did not feel that he was persecuting anyone. Remember, Saul felt that he was doing God’s work in exterminating this new-found faith. Even if he felt that what he was doing was persecution, he surely would not have felt that it was against one individual but rather against the collection of individuals known as “The Way” (later to be referred to as Christians). To be asked, “why do you persecute me?” is to denote that one person is being attacked.

Shocked, Saul asks who is speaking to him, and the reply is, “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest” (Acts 9:5). The persecution that Saul was breathing out was against the Christians, but Jesus claims that it was against Him personally. This humbles Paul and leads to his salvation, for he sees Jesus as the defender of the church and thus personally invested in the lives of His followers.

When Satan attacks a believer, he is essentially attacking Jesus Christ. This is a lost battle for Satan, for he was de-fanged at Calvary, but he continues to roar like a lion anyhow. You and I are no match for Satan on his terms, which will always be performance and works related, so we must rest in the finished work of Christ’s cross to find the victory that Jesus has already won. Allow all attacks by the enemy to lead you back to the resting place in Jesus, for if Satan is coming after you what he should find is Jesus. Praise God!

The Swine Over the Savior

Mark 5:1-20

Jesus’ arrival in the land of the Gadarenes was a momentous occasion for both the people of that land, and the disciples of Christ. The land was on the east side of the Sea of Galilee, in the northernmost region of Decapolis. This land was technically Israeli land, though on the wrong side of the Jordan River. Most of the tribes of Israel had chosen land on the west side of the river, bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, but Reuben, Gad and half of the tribe of Manasseh had chosen to dwell on the eastern side. This separation from their kinsmen led to a drifting from the principles of God, and in some cases, outright idolatry.

The first man that Jesus meets when He steps off of the boat is “a man with an unclean spirit, who had his dwelling among the tombs” (Mark 5:2, 3). He is demon possessed with 6,000 demons, knowledge we gain in verse 9 when he identifies himself as Legion (6,000 troops). He dwells among the dead for that is the only place that the powers of darkness feel comfortable.

Jesus casts the demons out of the man and sends them into a herd of 2,000 swine that is feeding on a nearby cliff, overlooking the sea. The moment that the demons enter the pigs, they overrun one another and rush headlong into the sea, drowning them. What an amazing sight to see, as this herd of swine goes madly into suicide. Having watched their herd kill themselves, the keepers of the herd run into the nearby city and tell the owners what has occurred.

The people of that land worshipped false gods, and rather than use a lamb or bullock as the children of Israel did, they used pigs as their animal of sacrifice. It is typical of Satan to use that which was abominable in the eyes of God to mock worship. The Jew was not to touch a pig, much less eat one, and the thought of using it as a sacrifice was the ultimately mockery. In casting the demons into the herd of swine, Jesus had destroyed the sacrificial crop of the city in one fell swoop. Not only had he set a man free from the power of darkness, He had rendered the worship of that darkness obsolete as well.

When people become attached to the forces of darkness in their lives, the presence of light and purity tends to frighten them (Mark 5:15). The people of the Gadarenes were faced with a choice; either accept the fact that this Jesus can do miracles without the power of darkness, or beg Him to leave them to their darkness. They pray that He will depart, for they preferred their false religion of darkness and pain to the truth of the light of the world. In essence, they preferred their swine to the Savior.

The ultimate rejection is when those who are in the dark are given light and they still prefer to dwell in darkness. Jesus said that condemnation is on those who love darkness rather than light. “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved” (John 3:20).

Jesus has come to the shores of your heart. Won’t you let Him bring light and peace and deliverance to the areas of your life that are touched by darkness? Don’t choose the swine of self-righteousness and effort when you have the Savior of the world at your side. Go in peace believer!

Grace Is Not a Doctrine; It Is a Person!

John 1:17

The grace of God is the great separation of Christianity from all other religions of the world. Religion, in general, requires the adherent to work hard and hope that they can earn a place in eternity. Followers of Christ do nothing to achieve eternal life, except believe and accept the price paid by Jesus. Only Christianity has God becoming man, to die for man, and then giving the world the gift of resurrected life. In a nutshell, this is the grace of God.

However, grace is not a doctrine, or a belief. It is not just a “thing”, which exists only in practice, like prayer or faith. Grace has been available for mankind from the very beginning, but it was not always accessible. Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8), but when Jesus came, grace found man.

John tells us that “the law was given by Moses”. This denotes distance, with the Law being cast down at man from Mount Sinai. “Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ”, tells us that Jesus brought us grace and truth. He did not cast it down like the Law from the mountain, but walked it to us, as He still does today. This is why you don’t find grace now, as Noah did, but rather grace finds you, for Jesus is always journeying your way.

There is no truth to be found on the side of the law, for grace and truth come together. Jesus told us that He is, “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). If Jesus is “truth”, and grace and truth are a package deal, then grace is not a doctrine, it is a person, and that person is Jesus. He is the embodiment of what the grace of God is and what that grace will accomplish.

Jesus loved people. He listened to their needs. He laughed with their children. He wept at their funerals. His hands of compassion would write words of freedom on the ground for a woman caught in the act of adultery, and feed 5,000 strangers with a miracle of multiplication. His love and mercy knew no boundary. He forgave a thief on the cross, who had previously mocked Him, and He cried out for His Father to forgive His murderers, for they knew not what they did. Jesus does not give grace; Jesus is grace.

When you accepted Christ as your Savior, He came into you with all grace and truth. You are growing into the knowledge of that grace and truth a bit more every day. Jesus told a group of new believers, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32). You may not be there yet, but with His grace working in you, that freedom is coming through the knowledge of His truth.

As you go about your day today, remember that Jesus is in you with grace and truth. He is not standing afar off, casting the Law at you, but He walks with you ministering His wonderful grace into every area of your life. Allow Him to do the work, while you take the blessings, and never fear that you are dwelling on grace, “too much”. If one can have too much grace, then one can have too much Jesus, and I have yet to meet that person. Go in His grace!

How Do You See Yourself?

Numbers 13:26-33

The twelve spies that reported back to Moses regarding the land of Canaan gave a mixed report. All twelve were awed by the fruits of the land (verse 23) and by the milk and honey (verse 27), but ten of the spies felt that the inhabitants of the land were far too strong, and the walls, much too fortified for Israel to take the land.

Based upon what they could see, their fears were certainly justified. Inhabiting the land were giants, and their size and strength intimidated the spies into changing the way they viewed their own selves. With giants in their sights, they saw themselves as “grasshoppers” and this attitude caused the giants to view them that way as well (verse 33).

You may view yourself as hopeless and helpless in the face of the giants of life. If that be the case, then you should know that your enemy will exploit this area of your thinking and keep you from hope, strength, goodness and will perpetuate defeat on a daily basis. The reason for this is that in those moments, we take our eyes off of the provision of Christ and put them on our own ability to do the right thing. What Jesus did at the cross was for us! This work was a finished work and His great love for us has made us “more than conquerors” (Romans 8:37). We are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10), and we have been made “the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). If this is who we are in Christ, then why would we view ourselves as anything less?

Make a decision today, to face the often overwhelming cares of this life in light of the finished work of the cross. You can either dwell on the size of the giants and begin to fear, or think of the size of the grapes and begin to rejoice! Be the grasshopper that can’t win or the warrior that cannot lose, and not because of your strength, but because of your Savior. This world can be “bread for us” (Numbers 14:9)

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!