The Freedom We Will Never Lose

Today is July 4^th, a day when we in America celebrate our hard-fought independence, giving us freedoms we otherwise would not have known. 

Our country was founded on great and godly principals by men who dared to fight for them.  Over two hundred years later, we still have a lot to celebrate.  We have (and sometimes take for granted) freedoms that other countries can only dream about. 

I still look on our soldiers and all they've accomplished with deep gratitude. I am still filled with pride when I stand and listen to the inspired lyrics of The Star-Spangled Banner. I am proud that we are a people still free to use our voices to speak out against injustice.

And I am still proud and overjoyed when I see immigrants who've worked hard to have the privilege to stand in ceremony and receive their citizenship.

I am still blessed beyond words to live in a country where I have the freedom to speak, walk, build, grow, do and be just about whatever I wish.  It’s not a perfect country, but the land we walk on is unique in its vision, birth and development.  And I believe it’s been blessed by God. 

But the full scope of our Founding Fathers’ vision is eroding.  As the government seeks to rule over our country more and more, facing the loss of certain freedoms can get downright depressing. 

The first amendment to the Constitution guarantees us, among other freedoms, the free exercise of religion.  And yet people are spending time in jail for hosting Bible studies in their home.  Kids are told they aren’t allowed to wear “religious” t-shirts or pray within the walls of schools.

And that’s just the beginning. 

That’s minor compared to the persecution Christians face in other countries. But the reality is we don’t know to what extent we will yet see persecution in this country.  We’ve strayed a long way since The Bill of Rights gave us those freedoms. 

But there is one joy we can be sure of.

No one can ever take the freedom we have in Jesus.  We may someday go to jail for speaking about it. For carrying a Bible. For gathering in His Name.  But our freedom will forever be imprinted on our hearts.

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

2 Corinthians 3:17

Those freedoms were hard-fought for, too.  They cost us nothing, but Jesus paid with His life in pain and suffering. 

No matter what happens to our Constitutional rights, in Christ we will forever be free.

Free from sin. Free from spiritual poverty. Free from condemnation. Free from eternal judgment.

Free to know God. Free to be loved and to love. Free to walk in the Spirit. Free to serve the Lord.

Free to live with Him forever. 

Faith in Action:

While you're out there celebrating at the grill with steaks and burgers and cake decorated to look like the American flag, let's celebrate by using our freedom and tell somebody about Jesus! Let's do it for believers in China and Laos and Iran and other countries where people are not free to openly talk about God.  Where men and women are imprisoned right now simply for speaking the gospel.  (You can read more about the persecuted church at Voice of the Martyrs.) 

And then tell me how it went!

And let’s pray for our country.  It is up to us, the Church, the body of Christ, to lift up our nation before the Lord.  We need His grace and His wisdom.  We need Him to open the spiritual eyes of every leader in this country. 

We need a revival. 

We need to seek our first love—Jesus Christ—in our own hearts first.  Then we need to take the joy of our salvation and fill our nation, one heart at a time, with the love of Christ.

God bless and Happy 4th of July!

Dorci

 

Even Better Than A British Lizard

I sat down this morning to write this devotion and I asked the Lord, as I always do, to show me what He wanted to say. What does He want you to know? He put a subject on my heart, and then the verses. I sat at the computer and started to type it out, but had to leave it shortly after to go run some errands. Somehow, I thought what I had written wasn’t quite right. As I later drove home thinking about how exactly to word this devotion, I thought, the Lord will show me.

Just a short while after getting home, the phone rang.

“Hello?”

On the other end was a cute, silly, far away sounding voice asking me, “Do you have any insurance quotes from the Bible?”

I immediately started giggling. “What?”

“Um, do you have any insurance quotes from the Bible?”

It was my friend, Julie. I laughed at her silly question and out of joy at hearing her voice.

And I smiled on the inside, knowing the Lord had just answered my prayer about what He wanted you to know. The verses are these:

“For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.’ And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute.

Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” (Hebrews 6:13-20)

This is our insurance: when God makes a promise, He keeps it.

Our hope is not in a new president, a new marriage, a new doctor, a new medicine, a new church, a new friend, or anything else. We need not flit here and there, tossed by the sands of promised change, the shadows of a false horizon, the waves of a destination upon which we can never quite land.

We can stand strong in any storm because we know that ours is a real hope that was given to us by God Himself, a God Who cannot lie or go back on His promises; a hope of many things, the ultimate of which is salvation through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

There is much in the news and in our personal lives that could easily throw us for a loop. But God wants you to know that if you continue holding onto the hope you’ve been given in Jesus Christ and no other, you won’t be disappointed.

Remembering Dad

Been thinking about my dad a lot more than usual lately. This time of the year is like that. One reason for that is because he was a veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces - Air Force to be exact.

Another reason is that May 27th is the 6th anniversary that he went home to be with the Lord. And the other is that May 22nd is the 6th anniversary that he received Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

When our then assistant pastor prayed with my dad to receive Christ, I had been a Christian myself for 13 years. And I prayed every bit of those 13 years for my Daddy’s spiritual eyes to be opened. We talked about God quite often actually. My dad was a thinker and he loved to think out loud with another person. We’d have long conversations on the phone, talking about this and that, and sometimes I’d find an open door and bring up Jesus. His answer at the end of all the thinking out loud and philosophizing, when I would ask him, “what about your relationship with Jesus?” would always be, “I’m trying.”

I’d do my best to tell him he didn’t have to try. That was the whole beauty of it. There’s nothing to do, you just believe. But for whatever reason, he just couldn’t. Maybe he didn’t feel worthy. Maybe he felt like he was such a bad person that God could never forgive him. But I knew that wasn’t true. Oh, he had done his share of “bad” things, just like we all have. But I knew that God’s love for him and His willingness and ability to forgive far exceeded anything that my dad could have ever done.

And so I kept praying. God had long before told me that it would be right before my dad’s death that he would accept Christ. And that’s exactly what happened. Five days before he died, there in the hospital room, God gave my dad the clarity of mind he hadn’t had in days to be able to hear Pastor Terell as he told him the gospel – that Jesus came to die for his sins so that he could be forgiven of anything and everything he had ever done and that he would have an eternal home in heaven living with his Savior forever.

And he believed.

And early on the morning of May 27th he entered into God’s presence and was finally free from the emotional and physical pain he had carried for so long.

Afterward I received many notes and cards from people who had known and loved my dad very much. And I began to find out that many other people had been praying for him, too. God was faithful to put people in his path throughout his life who had prayed for him. And God was faithful to answer those prayers.

My encouragement to you today is, if there’s someone in your life who you’ve been praying for, maybe for years, whether it’s for salvation or maybe there’s some bondage in their life that they just can’t seem to get free of, keep praying. Don’t ever give up until God says it’s time to give up.

My other encouragement to you is to show them Jesus. Love them as Jesus would love them. After my dad died I just kept thinking I wished I would have talked to him about Jesus a little less and showed him the love of Jesus a little more. He was a very private man, but I still wish I'd done more to show him how much he was loved.

But I know my dad is in heaven now, talking it up with Jesus and with Paul the apostle and no doubt with Thomas and Peter. He’s having the time of his life. And even in the midst of tears, that brings me unspeakable joy.

I love you Daddy and I’ll see you soon.

Thursday Thanks - Friends

This week I'm thankful for the wonderful friends I have, some of whom I had the privilege of spending the afternoon with earlier this week. Everything just seems better when you're surrounded by the love of friends. And knowing that we'll have eternity to laugh and worship the Lord together puts a smile on my face and gives me all kinds of peace and comfort.


Okay, now it's your turn....

The "Be-Attitudes" Part 8

The Persecuted

Last time we saw that as we seek to be a peacemaker by introducing Jesus Christ to people that God brings into our paths, we resemble our Heavenly Father who is the supreme peacemaker.

But as we do so, God's enemy will try to throw us curves to get us to either shut our mouths from speaking the gospel, or to try to ruin our witness any way he can. And we need to remember that he will use people to that end. Which brings us to the next “be-attitudes.”

“Blessed are they who have been persecuted for righteousness sake! For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven. Blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you, and shall say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for My sake.” Mat 5:10-11

From the time one of my sons was in kindergarten, he had a strong desire to tell his friends at school about Jesus. On his own, he took his bible to school and read it during his own personal reading time. And he would tell his friends that they could have Jesus, too, if they would just pray and ask Him to come into their hearts. And he did in fact pray with a few of his friends to accept Jesus.

And then a couple of years later we moved, he started going to a new school, and the bullying started. We entered into what were some of the most difficult several years we had.

One of the kids who taunted him and called him some horrible names lived in our neighborhood. This child pushed my son off the bus they took to school. Other kids on the bus would turn to him out of nowhere and curse at him. Another child walked up to him and slapped his face for no apparent reason. One student even went so far as to outrightly tease him for being a Christian. This went on for years. I pleaded with teachers and administration for help, but none ever came.

The bible tells us that “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world's rulers, of the darkness of this age, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

The persecution my son endured did not come from just one or two kids, but from many, and I believe to this day that the enemy was using those children to quiet my son from telling anyone else about Jesus and from praying with them. But we continued to pray for his friends and for his teachers.

Those were some dark days, but God’s Word tells us that when we suffer persecution for obeying our God and doing His will, we are blessed because we will have a home with the Lord forever. And in that blessed place “the wicked shall be no more; Indeed, you will look carefully for his place, But it shall be no more.” (Psalm 37:10) The enemy will never again come against us. We will live among the royalty of the Almighty and indeed, live as princes and princesses forever. We will feast at the table of the King of kings and we will know unceaseable joy.

And the wondrous thing will be, that because we endured in doing our Father’s will and fought to spread the gospel and make disciples in spite of opposition, we, along with my son, will be blessed to see those very souls whom we prayed for and prayed with to receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. What a joyous time it will be!

As Jesus sat speaking to the multitudes, He told them, and us, that as we admit our sins, as we humble ourselves, as we do God’s will, and even as we suffer persecution, we have reason to keep an attitude of joyfulness, because we will have a reward, which is Jesus Christ Himself.

Don't be surprised to see persecution increase as the time gets nearer to the return of our Savior. But don't let that deter you. They're only scare tactics. Stay in prayer for strength and wisdom from the Lord and keep your eyes on the prize as you persevere. Seeing souls brought into the kingdom of heaven is far more important than our discomfort. And remember, you will have reward for your faithfulness!

“Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for your reward in Heaven is great. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt loses its savor, with what shall it be salted? It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out and to be trodden underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under the grain-measure, but on a lampstand. And it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.” Matthew 5:13-16

First Things First

Well, here in Arizona we’re gearing up for Superbowl XLIII, and while I’m not really a football fan, who could not be a fan of Kurt Warner? He is a perfect example of how to live out Colossians 3:23: “whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not to men.”

God has given him the position of being a role model to thousands of people and he never seems to pass up a chance to give all the credit and glory to his Lord, Jesus Christ. He’s not a “closet Christian,” nor does he shy away into a more

acceptable form of “spiritualism” by using only the all-encompassing word “God.” He makes no bones that his Lord is Jesus Christ.

Kurt could have been content to live with the blessings that God has given him and just continue to play football. But he has used his position to do more than just play a game. In 2001 he started his charity, “First Things First,” (what he said to a reporter when he first gave God glory for his success) a community outreach where Kurt and his wife, Brenda, and others visit children in hospitals, partner with Special Olympics, serve in homeless shelters during the holidays, provide scholarships to high school and college age people who desire to serve on a missions trip, and a host of other outreaches. You can read about it on his website here.

We may not have the notoriety that Kurt does, but God has placed us where we are to give us the chance to be a godly example and a bold voice for the glory of Jesus, too. That may be in your home, in an office, on a construction site, in school and yep, don't forget your church.

God has gifted each of us as believers, and no matter how young or old or where we find ourselves in life, we can magnify the name of Jesus as we dare to get outside our comfort zones to touch the lives of others with prayer and through our humble, loving examples of Christ.

By tomorrow the game will be history, but our lives in Christ will continue. Will you live yours as Kurt has lived his, laying “up treasures in Heaven for yourselves, where neither moth nor rust corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”? (Matthew 6:20-21)

The "Be-Attitudes" Part 5

Merciful

Last time we saw that once we have obtained righteousness through Jesus Christ, we then live out that righteousness which inherently means loving God and loving others. That is, we choose to show a sacrificial form of love regardless of feelings or circumstance.

Most would reserve that type of sacrifice for those whom they deem to be deserving. But God, of course, has other ideas.

“Blessed are the merciful! For they shall obtain mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)

Mercy by its very nature is given to those who do not deserve it. And truthfully, none of us deserve it. We are sinners saved only by the grace of God. God loved us while we were still sinners by sending His own Son to die in our place. Jesus was the supreme example of sacrificial love. He was merciful. Now we can take the mercy that has been given to us and let it be poured out to those around us. So, how do we do that?

“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who despitefully use you. And to him who strikes you on the one cheek, also offer the other. And to him who takes away your garment, do not forbid your tunic also. Give to everyone who asks of you, and from him who takes away your goods, do not ask them again. And as you desire that men should do to you, you do also to them likewise.

For if you love those who love you, what thanks do you have? For sinners also love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what thanks do you have? For sinners also do the same. And if you lend to those of whom you hope to receive, what thanks do you have? For sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return. And your reward shall be great, and you shall be the sons of the Highest. For He is kind to the unthankful and to the evil. Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”
Luke 6:27-36

Those can be some very hard words to hear and even more difficult to live out. I think many times we read that and think, metaphorically, Christians should do that. Or we may even try to turn the meaning of those words into something a little bit more palatable. But they are what they are. And God means for us to live them out. When was the last time you showed love to someone you considered an enemy? Not our “western” type of “feeling” love, but God’s sacrificial, putting-actions-to-our-beliefs type of love.

When was the last time someone used you and you prayed for them? Or someone took something of yours and you didn’t become indignant and demand it back? Our knee-jerk reaction is usually to plead our rights. Again, I take you back to the cross.

Jesus could have claimed His right to lord over all of us, and indeed He is Lord and had that right. But He chose to waive that right for something He regarded as greater: purchasing our freedom from sin and redeeming our souls back from a path to hell solely for an intimate relationship with each and every one of us. He died so that we could live.

And as the Lord is our example, we, too, are to give up our rights. As Christians who have died to the flesh, there is no seeking a life that seems “fair.” There are no rights for a dead man or woman. If we have hidden our lives in Jesus Christ, then we will do as He did: show mercy. We will love the unloving. We will do good for those who hate us because of Jesus Christ. We will bless those who curse us. We will treat all persons as we, ourselves, would want to be treated - the Golden Rule.

But don’t mistake that for foolishness. As a perfect Father, God would never give something to someone that would harm him. And that can include things that would otherwise be good gifts, if someone is living rebelliously and would use the gift poorly.

Liken that to a parent showing wisdom in not giving a teenage son or daughter a car if the child has shown a careless or irresponsible attitude towards driving. A car in that case could be a fatal gift. In that situation, showing mercy would mean not giving a car until perhaps the teenager has grown up and grown more responsible.

Mercy is shown in many ways and we need to always be in prayer seeking God to give us wisdom about the best way to show mercy in every circumstance.

And God promises that as we show mercy to others, it will be turned around to us, and we will be shown that mercy. I don’t know exactly how that works in God’s economy, but I do know that in order for someone to show God’s mercy, that person has to remain abiding in the Vine. There is no strength, no wisdom, no sacrificial love given to others without the One Who has exampled it and Who imparts it to us so that we can turn around and impart it to others. And when a person spends that much time kneeling before their Savior, there is bound to be a heart full of love and repentance from their own sins. And a heart that is contrite is a heart that will receive the full measure of God’s mercy.

So fall at your Master’s feet and receive mercy once again. Then take that mercy and purpose to pour it out on others for a greater purpose than desiring a life that is "fair" or seeing that we ensure our rights: to show the love of God here on this earth. And that love carries with it blessings that will follow us into eternity, something our "rights" will not do. God's love can win hearts into the kingdom of God; it can show compassion to those who have walked away from their faith and see them come back; it can help others grow in their faith as they see that though they have faults or weaknesses or struggles, God loves them and they can be useful to the Lord as they are strengthened and encouraged in Him.

Experiencing joy now and treasures in heaven are better than rights anyway.

The "Be-Attitudes" Part 3

Meek

Last time we saw that those who mourned over their sin would be comforted as they drew near to the Lord. Now we will look at the hearts of those who kneel before God as they mourn.

There are no proud hearts at the foot of the cross.

We crawl there broken and contrite and begging for mercy. When we recognize the depth of our sin there is no room for conceit or ego. We are altogether humbled. Our confessed sin is nailed to the cross. Our hearts have been emptied of ourselves and now we have need for God to fill our hearts with Himself. And though we have nothing to offer and no right to ask anything of God, Jesus invites us to ask. He is now the beggar as He pleads, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!”

And so in our humble state, we receive God’s gift of forgiveness and ask for God’s grace to be poured out on us. And indeed it is.

“Blessed are the meek! For they shall inherit the earth.”

(Matt. 5:5)

It is there at the cross that we receive salvation – the greatest gift known to mankind. Our empty heart that has longed to be filled is filled with the Holy Spirit. And our lives are changed forever.

We were once destitute, but now we are heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. But what do we inherit?

“But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

(Titus 3:4-7)

We were once dead in our sins, but now we have been given life eternal – forever with God in a home prepared just for us. And one day all as we know it will be rolled up and there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And it will be ours.

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And the sea no longer is. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her Husband. And I heard a great voice out of Heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.”

(Rev. 21:1-3)

* * *

One of God’s great joys is to bless His children. He has planned blessings for us and He desires to pour out as many of those blessings as He can. And He is the God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills. There is nothing that exists that He does not own.

But a proud heart is so full of itself that it has no room for God. That is as true after salvation as it is before. Continued and unconfessed sin will keep us in bondage and a certain distance from God. If there is something in your life that you know God has repeatedly told you to get rid of, or something He has told you to do, stop running from Him. Whatever it is is not worth giving up the blessings of God.

If you will humble yourself and crawl again to the cross, not for salvation if you’ve already received it, but for repentance and forgiveness of your sin, God will be as faithful as always to forgive you. He longs and waits to forgive you and to bless you.

The "Be-Attitudes" Part 2

Mourn

As we look through the “blesseds,” we’re going to see a progression. Last time we saw that we first had to acknowledge that in spirit we are paupers before we would ever begin to look to God to pour out His riches of grace and mercy upon us.

When we do recognize our spiritual poverty, we see that we are poor because our sins have separated us from God. We have sinned against our Creator and have caused pain to come to Him and to those whom we love. We see a deep, dark chasm of sin all around us and on the other side is Jesus, nailed to a cross with those very sins. Every stabbing pain he feels is the sting of our own depraved acts. Lies we told, hatred we held toward another, bitterness we’ve harbored in our hearts, and other thoughts and words and deeds that we dare not speak – those are the trespasses which held Him there. And we fall down at His feet in utter grief. Our souls come undone before Him because we know that without Him we are destined to exist in the lost and lonely place across the chasm.

The Lord has mourned our sins since the cross. No, since the thought of the cross, which was forever ago. And He has waited through all time until that longed-for, precious moment when our spiritual eyes begin to come into focus, and we, too, begin to mourn over the sins we have committed and the pain we have caused.

“Blessed are they that mourn! For they shall be comforted.”
Matthew 5:4

This word for comforted in the Greek means, “to call near, that is, invite, invoke, beseech, call for.


When we are in this state of grief, the Lord promises to call out to us. He invites us to come to Him, across the dark chasm to join Him at the foot of the cross where you will grieve together. It is a place of death to be sure, but only in death can new life come.

* * *

Do we still mourn when we have sinned? Even once we have been saved and we know our sins have been forgiven, we can never forget that we are still imperfect creatures who sin, and that sin should still bring us to our knees in grief. And even moreso, knowing full well the high price that was paid for our sins on Calvary. And God still calls out to us to draw near to Him and to confess our sins to Him.

How many times have I fallen right back into that pit of despair, having sinned against my Lord? But time after time He calls out to me and I raise my hand up to Him and let Him draw me back out again.

The mistake that so many Christians make is failing to let God draw them back up and out of their pit of sin. We may weep over our sin, we may grieve over it, but how long do we choose to stay in the pit rather than leave the sin behind? How much time have we wasted in the pit when we could be living our lives in the light, free to run with joy and victory?

When God calls out to us, I hope we answer quickly and decisively. I hope we are anxious to leave the pit behind and walk and talk with Jesus again.

“Jehovah is near to the broken-hearted; and saves those who are of a contrite spirit.”
Psalm 34:18

The "Be-Attitudes" Part 1

Poor in Spirit

“And seeing the multitudes, He went up into a mountain. And when He had sat down, His disciples came to Him. And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying,

‘Blessed are the poor in spirit! For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.’”
(Matt. 5:1-3)

Blessed.

Jesus begins his infamous Sermon on the Mount by telling us nine times how we can be blessed. I don’t know about you, but I want to be blessed. I want my life on this earth (and even moreso my life after this life) to be one that is fully enriched with God’s blessings. In the Greek language, this word blessed translates as fortunate or happy.

Happy are the poor in spirit. Literally that means happy are those whose spirit begs.

Begs for what?

Remember the day you gave your life to Jesus? Remember the emptiness you felt the day before you made that decision?

You were as a beggar on the street - blind, dumb, lame, naked and destitute. You had nowhere else to turn. And then a rich Man came and offered you everything - your sight, your speech, strength, royal robes and a place in His kingdom.

Did you tell Him, “No, I’ll keep on begging, thank you very much”? The sad thing is, many do.

But perhaps you were one who saw, maybe for the first time, just how very poor you were without Him. And your spirit begged for a new life. And so you let Him lift you up out of your spiritual poverty and now you have the promise of a life in heaven with the King.

Happy are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.

Without acknowledging your poverty, you would not have eternal riches.

Happy also are those who continue to acknowledge their spiritual poverty apart from a walking, talking, working, breathing, loving, daily relationship with the King. Without Him, our spirits will return to a state of lacking, though we are King’s kids.

But with Him, we will know joy unceasing; peace in the midst of warring; glory in our suffering; grace and mercy where before there was only bitterness; and love that rises up in victory from the ashes of pain to triumph over all its enemies and live on forever.

Blessed.

(If you are one who has yet to give your life to Jesus Christ, but your spirit begs for that new life in Him where your sins are forgiven and eternity with Him is promised to you, please read Jesus, the Christ in the sidebar. And if you pray that prayer to receive Him as your Lord and Savior, let me know!)

Who is God? Part 4

The Rightness of God

The last attribute of God listed in Jeremiah 9:23-24 that we will now look at is His righteousness.

"but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight," says the Lord."
(Jeremiah 9:24)

God tells us in that verse that in this earth, in this world in which we live, in our lives, in each day and through each circumstance we face, He exercises righteousness. And what is righteousness? Simply, He is right.

All the time.

There is nothing that we face, no disappointment, no heartache, no darkness, that He is not, and was not prior to it, aware of it, in control of it and fully right for allowing it to happen.

I hear some gasps. I hear some of you say, “but…but you don’t know what I’ve been through!” Maybe I don’t. And yet I do. We all do in one way or another. We all have faced our dark times and wondered why. We’ve wondered where God was. Was He there at all? Does He know that I’m suffering? Doesn’t He see me?

Oh, yes. He sees you. But make no mistake, He doesn’t see you from afar. He is right next to you. In those moments when you feel most alone, the Lord is sitting with you, weeping with you, sharing in your pain.

It is fully within His power to end the trial at any moment. Or to even have never allowed it to happen at all. But sometimes, instead, He allows it to happen. And He sits with us.

Why?

The short of it: I don’t know. The specific reasons most times are on a need to know basis, and it seems that we just don’t need to know.

The long story to the question of why is a grand one. And we each have our own story. But the basic story line goes like this: it is of a righteous God pursuing one who is lost with a love and a fervor that is unmatched. He woos each of us until we are His children. And then the avenue has been opened for Him to speak to our hearts. And so He lovingly teaches us and takes us from immaturity to maturity, from childish and undisciplined to understanding and teachable and usable. He makes us fit to serve in the kingdom of God as we adopt our Father’s attributes of loving kindness, justice and righteousness.

And sometimes we are only quiet enough to hear Him speak to our hearts when we are in the valley.

Alone. Save One.

As you are on your journey with the Lord in this life and you face those hard times and you remember that God is a righteous God, don’t forget that He is not only righteous. He does not exercise that attribute independently from the others. They are always used in conjunction with one another. Along with His righteousness He also shows His lovingkindness and His judgment along with the rest of His eternally-faceted nature that is always good, always faithful and always purposeful and set on our best.

So. There we are. The very tip of beginning to understand Who our God is. We now have the rest of our lives, one day at a time, to try to get to know Him better, to love Him and to serve Him and to glory in our Lord. Will you use this life to glory in things that won’t last, or will you glory in the One Who was, and is, and is to come?

“For they who are according to the flesh mind the things of flesh, but they who are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace..”
(Romans 8:5-6)

“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days..."
(Deuteronomy 30:19b-20a)

"Jesus said to him, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.."
(John 14:6a)

I so pray that you choose Life.

Who Is God? Part 3

Here Comes the Judge

Okay, onward in our quest to know the true God.

The second attribute that God tells us about Himself in Jeremiah, chapter 9, is that He is a God of judgment. Because we live in a time of grace through the blood of Christ, many forget that there will still come a time when God will judge the works of believers in Christ. In the end, the unsaved will be judged to eternal damnation, and the works of the saved will be judged and either burned or rewarded.

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man’s work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames.” (1 Cor. 3:11-15)

We, who are in Christ, have been given a foundation for our lives, which is Jesus Christ Himself. And it is on the basis of His lordship, and the extent to which we acknowledge it as such, that we choose the materials with which we build upon the foundation of faith the service of good works. Will we build with the beauty of God’s will and strength which will be proved by the fire of judgment, or will we build according to our own will, our own desires and in our own strength, which in the end, will be burned?

So how do we know what constitutes a good work and a bad one?

“For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12)

Let us not be lulled by the commonplace occurrence of owning one, two, three or even more bibles and so forget that the bible is not just another book. It is the very word of God. He spoke it into existence and by His words we will be judged. (Not for salvation if we have received Christ, but the works that we do as Christians.) He has shown us His will in His word and it is up to us whether we are going to build with that perfect will, or if we are going to live apart from it. It is our choice: either the works that will last that are compared to gold, silver and costly stones, or the works that will be burned like wood, hay and straw.

Yes, by God’s grace and mercy we have received salvation through Christ. But we are not done! Now each day we must choose how we will build on the sure foundation of Christ. What does your spiritual structure look like? Will it stand in the fire? How much of it will be burned away? Praise God that He gives us all we need to build, through our service to Him, a legacy of glory to God that will last for eternity.

I find it interesting that the description given in Revelation of the new and eternal city of Jerusalem coming out of heaven is made of all costly stones, pearls and streets of gold.

Could it be?

Could it just be that those works which we build on the foundation of Christ, those godly works that are described as being as gold, silver and costly stones..could it be that those works we do in Christ which bring Him all glory and eternal praise are what make up the gates, the walls and the streets of the eternal city in which we will soon live?

“And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of Heaven from God, having the glory of God. And its light was like a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. And it had a great and high wall, with twelve gates. And on the gates were twelve angels, and having names inscribed, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel:

“From the east three gates, from the north three gates, from the south three gates, and from the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

And he who talked with me had a golden reed to measure the city and its gates and its wall. And the city lies four-square, and the length is as large as the breadth. And he measured the city with the reed, twelve thousand stadia. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured its wall, a hundred and forty-four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of an angel.

And the foundation of its wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass. And the foundations of the wall of the city had been adorned with every precious stone. The first foundation, jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprasus; the eleventh, hyacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls. Respectively, each one of the gates was one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, as transparent glass.

And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God Almighty is its temple, even the Lamb.”
Rev. 21:10-22

By His Blood

By His Blood
Full price was paid for my sin,
A debt no longer
For my sin is forgiven;

By His Blood
He’s redeemed my soul
In Him I am made
Perfect and whole;

By His Blood
His Spirit indwells me
And gives me the Power
To live victoriously;

By His Blood
I’ll live for eternity,
Singing “Glory to the Lamb
Who was slain for me!”

By Jesus’ Blood
And His alone
I am free
To go home;

Will you meet me there
In the presence of Love:
The One Who paid for you
By His Blood?


by Dorci Harris